right arm pain?

Whistle
1

Hello all. I have been experiencing a pain in my right top forearm, about mid point between the wrist and elbow joint. I feel this after about 5 minutes of playing my high D whistle. Has anyone experienced this pain before and is there anything to help this? Thanks.

2

How long have you been playing? Some discomfort when adjusting to a new instrument isn’t unheard of. Try changing how you are holding the whistle and make sure you aren’t clenching your arm.

3

your probably holding you arm to tight or in a funny position, play in front of a mirror to see, or make sure that your arms are relaxed

4

Hard to tell without looking at your hand position. Can you post a few photos?

No, you shouldn’t be experiencing arm pain after 5 minutes. Or even 5 hours (well, maybe).

Do you mean to say that you don’t experience pain when playing whistles other than the high D?

Make sure you’re not “death-gripping” the whistle. Use just enough thumb pressure to keep the whistle from slipping, firm but not tight. If your hands are very dry, moisten your thumbs and/or fingertips slightly - I blow on them as if fogging a mirror - before positioning your hands.

Try this positioning exercise I described in a previous thread:

Good luck!

5

I had a neck injury that impinged the nerve root of the C6 vertebra. When I let muscle tension develop in my neck and shoulders I get localized pain in the area you described.

Maybe you are carrying tension and need to relax the muscles in your neck and shoulders. Do you do a lot of typing? A micro wave heat pad does the trick for me. Good luck, Cyril.

6

Thanks everyone. It would be a tad hard for me to post pics at this time, sorry. However, I am holding the whistle as you describe and I aim at holding with just enough pressure so to not drop the whistle. Yes, I do alot of typing/computer work. I was thinking that maybe playing the whistle with a bit of carpal might be going on here. Does anyone play with CTS with any success? Maybe a wrist brace may help?

7

I’ve had this problem.

A: I went to the gym to strengthen my arms
B: Do exercises to stretch the tendons (before playing and randomly during the day)
C: Slow down or quit when it hurts
D: Release the death grip. Relax the arms like rubber when you play (this gets easier with time).
E: Use those icy lotions from the drug store, or the one with capsain, Capzasin™
F: Hold your arms more horizontal then vertical…get the elbows out a bit.