{"id":3082,"date":"2018-09-18T15:45:13","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T20:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/?p=3082"},"modified":"2018-09-19T11:51:36","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T16:51:36","slug":"repetitive-motion-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/repetitive-motion-injuries\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Amplification Impact Repetitive Motion Issues?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Repetitive

Repetitive Motion Injuries<\/p><\/div>\n

\nIntroduction
\nKen Donnell, a lifetime musician and master luthier, is the foremost authority on “close-mic” applications for stringed musical instruments. (The field of using “close-mics” involves placing miniature microphones directly on to, or inside of, an instrument for amplification or recording.)
Ken holds the original patents in this field of audio engineering, and continues to manage R&D at his company, Donnells-MiniFlex, in Greenville, California.\n<\/p>\n

\nRepetitive Motion Injuries
When too much of a good thing turns bad
\nby Ken Donnell
<\/strong><\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\nAll classical and flamenco guitarists know how too much repetitive practice can lead to problems of inflammation or stress in the wrist and forearms. Repetitive motion injuries are common with many occupations, and with musicians using a variety of instruments. But guitarists are especially vulnerable because they are always fighting to be heard above other instruments with a stronger acoustical volume (output). Classical and flamenco guitarists spend much of their playing time using maximum hand force just to produce enough volume “to be heard”, much less, “to be heard well”. And constant application of this extra hand force (stress) makes any repetitive motion that much more vulnerable to creating short, and long term injury.\n<\/p>\n

\nAge can also be a factor. Like many guitarists who are growing older, I have lost a lot of my hand strength, and now must use a much lower string height than when I was young. Lowering the strings means further reducing the acoustic output of the guitar. But fortunately, having high quality amplification options means that I can rely on this amplification to produce a volume level I once could accomplish just with my hands. Now I apply maximum hand strength only occasionally, for dynamics, and not merely “to be heard.”\n<\/p>\n

\nNow the need to avoid repetitive injury, and “to be heard well” can come together into a single solution. Recently available high quality amplification means that a guitarist can achieve high volume levels without over stressing the hands, while the natural acoustic qualities of the instrument can be projected to even larger audiences, and with everyone in the house hearing great natural sound quality.\n<\/p>\n

\nWise use of amplification can help classical and flamenco guitarists avoid the need to \u201ckill their hands\u201d merely “to be heard”. And wise use of amplification opens the doors for every classical and flamenco guitarist to move to that even higher level of “being heard well”, so that every person in the audience can be filled with the mesmerizing sound of a beautiful hand-made guitar being masterfully played, and well amplified. ( for more about “to be heard well” & 3 dimensional sound, please read amplification 101 at the2Mic.com<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction Ken Donnell, a lifetime musician and master luthier, is the foremost authority on “close-mic” applications for stringed musical instruments. (The field of using “close-mics” involves placing miniature microphones directly on to, or inside of, an instrument for amplification or recording.)Ken holds the original patents in this field of audio engineering, and continues to manage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guitar-tips-tricks"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3082"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3095,"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3082\/revisions\/3095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}