Cami Shaskin

Violin Blog


About


This blog is about all things violin. It is meant to educate, inspire, and provide resources for parents, teachers, and students. The author takes full responsibility for the viewpoints expressed here. In instances where she quotes ideas from others, she pledges to cite her sources as fully, responsibly, and accurately as possible. Topics will include book reviews, technique tips, entertaining anecdotes, quotes, jokes, educational findings, instrument care suggestions, violin in the news, repertoire lists, etc.

Cami J. Shaskin graduated with her master's degree in Music Education in 2008. Violin has always been her primary instrument, since beginning private lessons at age five. See camishaskinviolin.com/info for her music résumé, or click on Spotlights for historical recordings. Cami has enjoyed an array of experiences in writing, from penning award-winning articles as a journalism staff writer in high school, tutoring peers at BYU's Writing Center, earning a Writing Fellows scholarship and a minor in Language and Computers, and later becoming a published author. She recently picked up web programming as a hobby, earning a certificate in Web Programming and Development from the local community college. This blog has been a collaborative effort between her and her husband, who is a Web Developer by profession. Together, they designed and coded this blog and its original content "from scratch."

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2021
    Jan
        16 - Welcome to My Blog
        23 - Violin Teaching Kits
        30 - The Power of Inspiration
    Feb
        06 - Valuable Techniques
        07 - From the Top
        13 - In Honor of Valentine's Day
        20 - Violin Jokes
        28 - Beginning Orchestra Teaching
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        06 - Singing in Orchestra
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        27 - Unique Case Uses
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        02 - Favorite Music Quotes
        10 - All About Tone
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        02 - Believing Teachers?
        15 - Violin in Art & Architecture
        23 - A Solo Repertoire List
        29 - Our Quartet
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        20 - Theft and Other Lessons
        26 - Violin Bridge Tips
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        04 - Music During Covid
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        12 - Being There
    Oct
        16 - Sight Reading Tips
    Nov
        05 - Why It's the Frog
    Dec
        20 - Bach on the Brain
        30 - Impact for Life
2022
    Jan
        23 - Tendonitis Helps
    Feb
        21 - An Old Performance
    Mar
        23 - Cars3 & Coaching
    Apr
        28 - Buying a Violin for Dummies
        29 - Preferred Brands
    May
        27 - Love: A Calling
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        20 - Gratitude for Idaho Shop
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        19 - Violinist Interviews Books
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        08 - Music Opens Doors
        23 - Top Classical Tunes for Violin
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        11 - 100 Days of Listening
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        27 - Useful Analogies
    Dec
        28 - A Humorous Anecdote
2023
    Jan
        14 - Favorite Concertos & Sonatas
    Feb
        15 - Our Commonality
    Mar
        10 - Extras
        18 - Autopilot
    Apr
    May
    Jun
        06 - Motivation
        07 - Starting Lessons Again
    Jul
        08 - A Tale of Three Cloths
    Aug
        26 - The Ink
    Sep
        23 - Raw and Real Recital Reactions
    Oct
        18 - In Honor of Halloween
    Nov
        26 - Music Copyright
    Dec
        13 - Memes: Fun Facebook Finds
2024
    Jan
        15 - Fame and Fortune
    Feb
        05 - Details and the Big Picture
    Mar
        14 - Intermission
    Apr
        18 - A Day in the Life
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        02 - Oops!
    Jun
        14 - A Science or an Art?
    Jul
        15 - A Difficult Post
    Aug
        01 - Character Transference
    Sep
        20 - Anxiety Interview
    Oct
        02 - Sounds of Italy
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Posts


Tendonitis Helps
23 Jan 2022
Here are some helps I've discovered as I've recently dealt with tendonitis for the first time. If you do these things when this condition comes to you, you'll probably be back to playing in no time!

1) Be sure to get a correct diagnosis. While the treatment for carpal tunnel and tendonitis is mostly very similar, you don't want to go through carpal tunnel surgery if it isn't actually going to help you, and tendonitis gets misdiagnosed as carpal tunnel a LOT; the National Institute of Health claims about 80% of the time (see article) . . . . Doing a little bit of online research will show you that carpal tunnel mostly affects the first three fingers, and the part of the hand below them, and involves numbness and tingling.

2) Realize that not all overuse injuries musicians face are brought on by playing their instrument! You don't have to feel unnecessary angst about that. My injury came about because of gardening and playing Tetris, not playing the violin. Even if you got your injury from being a musician, it's probably just because someone taught you to play that way. They probably didn't know themselves to monitor their tension and take adequate precautions. That being said, once you have it, you have to be careful when playing music, all the same, so it doesn't aggravate your condition. If you haven't experienced tendonitis and you want to be able to prevent it, be careful in any new activity, even lifting your children! Don't assume you'll always be immune. There are risk factors, like being female, being a mom of young children, or being between the ages of 30 and 50 . . . factors you have no control over once you meet them. Even having certain illnesses like diabetes makes you at higher risk for developing tendonitis.

3) Wearing a brace really helps! Enough said. You shouldn't need it for more than a week or two in most cases, wearing it 8-10 hours per day/night. I've even seen players play the violin with a brace on.

4) Other treatments that help may include:
  • rest
  • proper pain medication such as ibuprofen
  • ice for 20 minutes, 4 times/day
  • Epsom salt baths
  • getting a massage from a licensed therapist who knows how to work with injuries
  • stretching, which lengthens out the affected muscles, as instructed by a doctor
  • medicated cream sold over-the-counter
  • don't compensate with your non-dominant hand too much or you may fatigue that one . . .
Ask a doctor when in doubt.

5) Even if you start to feel better relatively soon, recognize healing does take time. Resume regular activities gradually, a little more gradually than you feel inclined.

6) Be patient with yourself and don't expect this condition to go away completely or forever. Expect recurring flare-ups, but try not to be discouraged by them. I talked with a professional studio musician who has dealt with this issue since she was a teenager. She says she plays as often as she wants, often up to 40 hours/week, and then lets her massage therapist and chiropractor fix any damage done.

7) However, the best advice I got, long before this condition attacked me, was, if you're playing your instrument and you start to experience any pain, stop immediately! Don't resume playing until the problem is resolved.

There you have it: Tendonitis for Instrumental Musicians 101. Don't get discouraged! Treatment is effective when handled correctly. Happy trails!

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