In the last couple years, I’ve developed a problem with the ulnar nerve in my left arm. I’ve realized that the way I hold the flute is exacerbating things, so I’ve been trying to adjust the way I hold the flute. In particular, I had been playing with a bit of a bend in my left wrist, so I am trying to figure out a position where I can keep it in a more neutral position, while still being able to hold the flute in a comfortable way.
Since I never had a formal teacher, I didn’t put a whole lot of thought into how I held the flute until I had this injury. Now that I am trying to fix things, I find that achieving the neutral hand position comes at the expense of movement in my left hand, which makes ornaments and other bits of playing more difficult. I realize that some of this is just building up the strength for the new posture, but I want to make sure that whatever new approach I pick will make sense in the long term and isn’t just another set of bad habits.
I was curious if anyone could point me to good resources online or whether you’ve ever gotten good advice about how to hold the flute?
Hi, Brendan! After years of going back and forth and observing lots of people I made the decision to play “flat-handed” for the left-hand mobility reason, and indeed it makes such a big difference, at least for me.
Unfortunately, I have carpal tunnel syndrome, so I’ve done a fair amount of messing around to make this work. The trick seems to be keeping the wrists as straight as you can; I find things go better and hurt less when I keep that in mind. It sounds kind of New Agey, but when I think of keeping my left elbow up (as if suspended from a wee string like a marionette’s) I can feel the stress drain right out of my wrist. I feel a bit like a primadonna but it does seem to help, at least for the first hour or two until my bicep collapses from exhaustion …
The other thing I’ve noticed making a difference is the placement of my left thumb. b/c I have knots on both thumbs from years of Boehm playing (they make it hard to balance the flute; doesn’t exactly simplify covering the back D on my pipe chanter efficiently, either), I tend to have my thumb along the back of the flute as opposed to under it. BUT this can aggravate my wrist and forearm pain, especially when playing too hard. What I would LIKE to do, and what seems to feel best and least stressful, is to put my thumb under the flute and let the flute just float there (damned knots).
The players I’ve watched who seem most successful over the long haul can balance the flute ON their thumbs more, with the thumb as a crutch under the flute, and then play fairly flat-wristed. It does wonders for the resonance of your tone, too, I’ve found.
Brendan, does you flute have a two-piece center section? If not, look into getting one for the flexibility it provides. If so, experiment with turning the LH section out and playing with straighter fingers. I concur that the straight wrist is crucial for avoiding ulnar problems. Good luck,
You don’t say so I assume you’re using a traditional hold.
If that is true, you might try switching to a piper’s grip. I did that last fall and it has really helped having my wrist straight. The speed of the left hand fingers is also much faster. I try to keep a straight elbow to wrist to knuckles line, and the fingers are also straight. All the bend is at the knuckle.
Lewis
I had a similar issue and ran it by a friend who teaches the Alexander technique. It looks like over time my right hand had been getting closer to my chest. I had been compensating a bit by letting my left elbow get further from my chest and the combination put my left wrist at a more awkward angle. She had me keep my left elbow close to my chest and concentrate on keeping my right hand well in front of me. She also had me make sure my right hand didn’t drop too low.
So far this has worked for me. I offer no guarantees except that your mileage will likely vary. I could be worth taking a look at your position and seeing if any of the above applies to you.
I started off on flute with a slight ulnar nerve problem. Found advice on left hand in various places (a lot on C&F). One thing that slowly dawned on me is that options for comfortably getting left hand finger joints to the right place involve a whole string of joints and muscles right the way round my back to the right hand (don’t have a body section joint but I guess that would complete the loop), with a branch going down to the lips. Also that much of the awkwardness when trying different hand positions was due to a need to build up coordination within a different ‘geometry’ rather than lack of strength. And that D flutes are all roughly the same size but people are not, so a big YMMV element in posture. And that a heavy flute may give a tendency to ram flute into chin and lips (as per Denny’s post) to stop it sliding down and that can make wrist hurt.
Thanks to everyone for the helpful suggestions. I’ll definitely keep playing around with different positions and see how it goes.
To answer a couple of the questions, I do play with a ‘traditional’ grip, although I think I may give the ‘piper’ grip a go and see how it works, although I want to make sure I can still use the Bb key. Right now, I’m playing a loaned Olwell Pratten (thanks John), but should have a flute coming from Bryan Byrne in the next couple weeks. Before that I was playing another Olwell.
Rob, I was just curious in terms of turning the left hand section outward, do you have any problems working the G# and Long F keys?
I find that with the classical grip, many of the folks I see playing have the first finger joint (the one that acts as the pivot point) too close to the L1 hole, and thus they bend their wrist back. To keep the wrist as straight as possible one has to have the first joint closer to the head joint. That has the happy side effects of straightening the wrist and making the fingers less curled, and in making the G# (and long F) more accessible.
I’m more of a pressing gently on the lower lip.
No…wrong visual.
I hold the flute in place with my bottom lip.
I try to keep my left elbow down and my wrist fairly straight.
I try not to move my wrists. (visualize elbow to first joint of index finger as non-moving)
The position of the right hand can have a lot to do with it.
If you’re playing a Pratten body style you are kinda limited to messing with your right thumb.
Start with just the headjoint. Find where you need it to be.
Adjust the left hand so that the holes are mostly up and the hand is where it wants to be.
If you have a tendon between your hands mess with it…it will affect the hold and the comfort of the right hand.
The balance of the flute is more important than the weight.
Alas, I couldn’t (until I got Josh’s super-fabulous flute with RH touch Bb key) without shifting my grip back to “normal hold.” Wasn’t so bad in most cases since we don’t go too far beyond C as a fun alternate key around here (only one box player, an hour away), though Arthur Darley’s always got a bit wacky. IIRC, I found a workaround for it.
Cool! I love Bryan’s flutes (I love Bryan)! I played his own flute for a good while one night and found it lighter and thinner, more like my Murray. Is that still the case? The reason I’m asking is that the lighter narrower flutes do seem less stressful on my left forearm. As lovely and perfect and well-balanced as this Nicholson is, I still find my Murray even easier to play. Funny, since we’re probably talking a few millimeters and milligrams, but there it is.
I’m not Rob, but no problem here. (I rotate all the parts around variously; it seems like changing position even a little can help, especially over a long session or gig). And of course, if my forearms start that old familiar burning anyway, I figure it’s a good time to play a couple on the tinwhistle or switch to pipes for a bit.
From day one I’ve used the “flat handed” hold with my left hand. The full weight of the flute rests on my left thumb, which is directly under the flute. I can’t understand how people play with their whole left hand twisted into a knot under the flute. I sure can’t play that way. Incidentally, although I’ve had problems with pain in my right hand (mainly because I rely so much on R4 to steady things), I’ve never experienced a twinge in my left. It’s my rock.
I suffered from a left-arm ulnar nerve problem for several years and saw a number of physicians. This is principally an elbow problem, just to be sure we’re talking about the same thing. That is, the nerve is pinched in the channel in the elbow. I have some suggestions.
If you haven’t done it already, find a physical therapist who specializes in this problem. Probably that is going to be a hand therapist. A good one is very good. They aren’t all good.
As you probably are aware, leaning your elbows on hard surfaces makes things worse.
Review your whole life for anything you may be doing that contributes to this problem. For instance, I’ve shifted largely to voice activated software.
As much as possible, keep your arms straight. important. When you sleep keep your arms straight. If necessary, you can create a splint made of a towel to put around your elbow when you sleep. But any activity that bends the arm significantly is something you should be aware of. For instance, I stopped playing whistles for a while. I tried to find ways to talk on the telephone without bending my arm. And so on.
I played low pitched flutes for a while instead of D flutes so that my left arm would be more extended, including a C-flute and a Bb flute.
Personally I doubt that the left-hand position is implicated in your difficulty, but I may well be wrong and anyway there is nothing the matter with somewhat straightening out the left-wrist. Plenty of other problems can arise if you don’t. In this regard, I found that most anything I have done to straighten out the left wrist, short of shifting to Piper’s grip, made it harder for me to reach the G hole. There are some D flutes I can’t play this way, namely those with a considerable left-hand stretch. I’m all right with the olwell Pratten. The Bryan Byrne is a comfortable flute; I agree with Cathy that the Murray is even more comfortable. So you should be able to straighten your wrist more with the Byrne.
Not really. I’m on the long F pretty often, and it’s not an issue. On my Olwell I have a turned touch, with the tip pointing towards me, but even that wasn’t necessary. I’ve also taken to venting the G# with my ring finger as I cover the G hole, but again that’s not really necessary.
I used to have tendon trouble with L3 when I used the (correct) classical grip and had to keep the left wrist bent back at a severe angle just to reach that hole - and consequently had a left wrist problem also. After many years of this I successfully moved to a piper’s type grip but using the pads of the fingers (so not the usual piper’s grip) - and with the left thumb under and slightly offset to the outside. I had tried to switch many times before but had always found it too painful - couldn’t manage the stretch between L1 and L3 and had always come to the conclusion that it would be even worse for my hand. Finally I solved this by doing a simple stretch exercise over a period of months which opened up my ability to stretch L1 to L3 using the pipers grip, covering the holes with the pads of the fingers.
This grip completely straightens my left wrist and I no longer have any left hand/wrist problem at all and I keep the left elbow straight down and slightly out from the body. I still use the classical grip too but only for short periods.
I don’t know what the simple stretch above is called though I’m sure it has come up on the board before. It just consists of placing L1 on a piece of rubberised foam at the edge of a table, gripping L3 with the right hand and pulling down (as far as maximum discomfort but not pain) and counting up to 50…or at least 25 anyway, depending on time available. I still do this stretch every day and I also do it for the right hand, having found it to be so good for the left.
As regards “mashing the flute into the lower lip”, I didn’t realise I was tending to do this until I finally questioned the callous on my L1 finger, just above the knuckle where the flute is held inwards in the classical grip. Using some form of pipers grip, you don’t get a callous anywhere but you can still be “mashing” it into the lip and creating unnecessary tension in the hand/arm…
