What is Musician's Dystonia?
(Don't make this too complicated)
Dystonia is a neurological motor control disorder. It is involuntary and uncontrollable, causing sustained or intermittent muscle contractions and spasms. Dystonia is worsened by voluntary action and associated with overflow muscle activity. It can affect anywhere from a single body site to large parts of the body.
Oof, that's a lot. Let's break that down.
Musician's Dystonia is a neurological disorder that affects a musician's ability to control their movements during performance. It causes uncontrollable muscle contractions and/or tremors. The most well-known types of dystonia are hand dystonia and embouchure dystonia. It is task-specific, meaning it commonly only happens during playing; sometimes only during certain types of musical situations (high playing, low playing, soft playing, etc).
Dystonia is a neurological motor control disorder. A neurological disorder is any disorder that affects the nervous system. In the case of dystonia, it is a disorder that affects motor function (how you move your body).
It is involuntary and uncontrollable. While dystonia can sometimes seem like it should be a simple issue to control, since it stems from a dysfunction of the brain's wiring it is not something that can be directly changed. For instance, what could be simpler than blowing out air? And yet, when I had dystonia, some days it felt like I had no control over it at all. Embouchure and hand dystonia cause the muscles to either tense up in ways that prevent normal playing, or for the embouchure muscles to tremor and shake. Shaking is easily identified by a steady quiver in a musician's tone.
It causes sustained or intermittent muscle contractions and spasms. Embouchure and hand dystonia cause the muscles to either tense up in ways that prevent normal playing, or for the embouchure muscles to tremor and shake. Shaking is easily identified by a steady quiver in a musician's tone.
It can be task-specific and is associated with overflow muscle activity. The term "dystonia" covers a wide range of different symptoms. Musician's dystonia is what's called a task-specific dystonia, meaning it is triggered by performing a single task; in our case, playing an instrument. It is sometimes even specific to a certain aspect of playing, such as high range or large leaps, etc. Dystonic muscle contractions cause instances of high muscle activity that are greater than is common or needed.
It can affect anywhere from a single body site to large parts of the body.