Vulgano Brother

PowBob, welcome to TM! My experience with Reggae has been that it is not only a musical style, but, uhh, a lifestyle as well, and that lifestyle can lead to sinus problems among other things.

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PowBob

I'm with you on that, and of course that was my first reaction and thought on the matter as well, but I can now say fairly, that it isn't particularly applicable in this case. I tried to clarify that a bit in my original post. During my 2 weeks of being completely sick, I was doing absolutely nothing but sleeping, and then showing up for the gigs. The problem was exacerbated from these gigs, and extended my recovery time, it is now apparent.

I just found a web page that describes my problem, due to the position of the tongue during high notes, in which the air isn't getting channeled completely through the mouth, but some is escaping into the sinus cavity, causing the severe irritation I'm experiencing directly following a gig. I never had this problem as a younger player, and am somewhat mystified as to its presence now, perhaps age has something to do with it, or more realistically, perhaps the musculature inside the mouth/throat, is my limiting factor from the many years of layoff. The lip seems to be pretty good, but maybe the mouth and throat needs to get it's "chops" back too....

I've sent an email to the TPIN list, where Jeanne is rumored to be, in hopes that I can get some clearer answers. Here is the link I spoke of in this email, and it looks to be something from Jeannie herself...

Re:Uh, Oh!(but not Eeee)

trpt2345

I don't think trumpet playing is dangerous to your health. When is the last time you read in a newspaper of someone dying while playing the trumpet? (Getting shot while playing doesn't count). Probably more people in the audiences have died from listening to trumpets than from playing them. As a matter of fact you should be way more worried about sleeping; how many times have you heard of people dying in their sleep? Way more than dying while playing trumpet. So play as much as you want, but you might want to sleep a lot less. You could look it up.

Michael McLaughlin

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Rich Wetzel

LMAO!!!

Ya gotta love the humor in here, lol...

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Rich Wetzel
Bach Trumpet Artist and Clinician
"Rich Wetzel's Groovin Higher Jazz Orchestra"
www.richwetzel.com and www.myspace.com/groovinhigher

Majestic1

Here are some articles you might enjoy reading.

Trumpet playing and health problems

http://abel.hive.no/trompet/tpin/Playing_and_health.html

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Gottfried Reiche (1667-1734), Bach’s chief trumpeter at Leipsic, played to his sixty-eighth year, when he overtaxed himself at a torchlight concert and died in a seizure the next day. Though trumpet-playing was the proximate cause of his death, it did no more than pull the trigger (for he had high blood pressure). http://abel.hive.no/trumpet/bach/reiche/

Also from The Musical Times:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0027-4666(193406)75%3A1096%3C560%3AWAH%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0



Trumpet players 'risk stroke'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/948374.stm

At the University of Munster, in Germany. they identified five cases where people had suffered damage to blood vessels to the brain by playing the trumpet. This damage then led to the people having a stroke.
Dr. Evers - one of the researchers - highlighted a case of a 17-year-old who had suffered a number of "mini-strokes" whilst playing the trumpet. However, he then went on to say that in most of the cases studied the patients had had a predisposition to having a stroke.



Internationally renowned Canadian jazz pianist and trumpet player Oscar Peterson has died. The 82-year-old died at his Mississauga, Ont. home on Sunday from kidney failure and other complications following a stroke several years ago, sources have confirmed.
http://music.propeller.com/story/2007/12/24/canadian-jazz-legend-oscar-peterson-dies




Trumpet player’s head explodes trying to hit a high note
http://www.shout.net/~jmh/articles/explode.html



Rumor has it that trumpet player James Tuozzolo died Dec 31, 2000 on stage of a heart attack while performing a solo with the Greater Trenton Symphony Orchestra
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/onstage.asp



UNT expert: Musicians not tuned in to injuries
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-hearingloss_24ent.ART.State.Edition2.4375e3b.html

Professor, himself a trumpeter who toured with some of the country's great jazz trumpeters




Weightlifting 'link to eye risk'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5334116.stm
However, higher intraocular pressure has been reported during the Valsalva manoeuvre, in which air is forced against a closed windpipe and pressure increases in the chest.
This action occurs during coughing, vomiting, playing wind instruments - and sometimes weightlifting.
"Mr Wright said glaucoma had also been linked to trumpet playing, and to wearing neckties too tightly." AOL Journals: Magic Smoke


http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/2006/09/12/health-good-newsbad-news-plus-using-blockquotes/1632

Radio announcer, Paul Harvey, said that doctors at some college have completed a study of life-long trumpet players which indicates that blowing hard to reach for those high notes promotes glaucoma.”
Look under the section named “Eyes”
http://www.balloonhq.com/faq/health.html




Scientific American, March '97. It mentioned Valsalva, referring to making pressure inside your lungs. That pressure can burst the little alveoli where gas exchange occurs. It can force air out of the lungs into your body where it collects in bubbles under the skin.
Additionally stating bursting alveoli:
A human cardiopulmonary system model applied
to the analysis of the Valsalva maneuver
http://ajpheart.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/281/6/H2661.pdf

rowuk

Bottom line: if you do more than vegetate for a living, get regular checkups to include blood pressure.

For anyone interested, you can pick ANY other job and find ways to keep the medical profession employed. Majestic did forget to list the probability of fatal automobile accidents when driving to your gigs. Let's also not forget the dangers of flying either!

Practice hard and sensibly, take your audiences seriously, if you go, go with a smile knowing that you gave your best. Dying on the job could make you as famous as Gottfried Reiche.

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Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

trptchopdoc

For goodness' sake, get OUT of the BAD HABIT of PINCHING your lips....just close them enough to SEAL, bring the lips FORWARD, and TOWARD The rim of the mpc....Valsalvala Maneuver is NOT NECESSARY in efficient trumpet playing!

Take Care!
Jeanne

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Jeanne G Pocius
"The Chop Doc"
jgpocius@yahoo.com
Author of "Trumpeting by Nature
www.outskirtspress.com/jeannegpocius
Mizpah
http://abel.hive.no/oj/musikk/trompet/jeanne/

Eeviac

"doctors at 'some' college"?

Uhh.... OK

You know, a lot of people check out while on the toilet er, straining, like Elvis did.....

Luis M. Araya

For PowBob,

Are there many smokers at the clubs you play in?

I ask this because a friend of mine had to stop playing salsa gigs as a result of too many people smocking cigars in those places. and that infected his lungs.

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Vulgano Brother

If anyone would know of the Valsalva Maneuver's risks to musicians, it would be the American Federation of Musicians, whose job it is to promote healthy working conditions. I would check it out myself, but, uhh, I kinda got a little bit expelled.....

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