Category: Focal Dystonia
Nora Krohn on Focal Dystonia: Practising for Stable, Safe Playing
Nora Krohn explains three key areas of effective exercise in recovery from musician's focal dystonia: understanding the physical skills, using repetition correctly, and recognizing discomfort as a signal to change technique.
Nora Krohn on Focal Dystonia: What Physical Logic Is and Why It Matters for Recovery
Nora Krohn explains the concept of physical logic and shows how observing common movements in everyday life can fundamentally help in recovery from musician's focal dystonia.
Nora Krohn on Focal Dystonia: Why Old Repertoire Can Be Dangerous during Recovery
The old repertoire contains the ingrained Route A movement patterns that the brain created before the onset of focal dystonia. Nora Krohn explains why old songs can activate dysfunctional mechanisms and how learning a whole new repertoire allows you to build healthy Route B movement strategies based on the logic of normal everyday movement. The new repertoire provides a "clean canvas" on which the musician can create new neural pathways free of old mistakes and learn to play in a completely different, healthy way.
Nora Krohn on Focal Dystonia: Distinguishing the Structure of the Body from the Instrument
Nora Krohn explains how the ability to distinguish one's own body from the structure of a musical instrument plays a crucial role in recovery from focal dystonia. It shows how dystonia often disrupts the perception of the boundaries between hand and instrument, why "structural confusion" occurs, and how accurate proprioception can be restored through sensory experiments, working with both hands, conscious touch, and correcting mislearned patterns. She emphasizes that returning to the body's true anatomy is key to healthy and pain-free playing.
Nora Krohn on Focal Dystonia: The Importance of Precise Language
Nora Krohn explains why precise and objective language is a key tool in recovery from focal dystonia. It shows how concepts such as "forearm rotation", "falling up" or "resting down" help direct the brain to find and fix the right movement patterns. She points out that without clear definitions, musicians easily get lost in their subjective perception and stop reliably distinguishing correct movement from incorrect substitutions.
Nora Krohn on Focal Dystonia: How to Use a Mirror during Recovery
Nora Krohn explains why an ordinary mirror is one of the most effective tools in the recovery process from focal dystonia. It shows how the mirror reveals hidden movement patterns that we are not able to perceive correctly and how it can help in correcting the left and right hand. It also describes the use of non-traditional viewpoints, video footage and the possibility of so-called mirror therapy in restoring correct movement patterns.
Nora Krohn on Focal Dystonia: Mindfulness as a Key Part of Recovery
Nora Krohn explains how mindfulness can fundamentally support recovery from focal dystonia. It describes how conscious presence, working with attention and observing one's own body can affect the quality of movement and the overall course of healing.
Nora Krohn on Focal Dystonia: What Natural Playing Means and Why It Matters for Recovery
Nora Krohn explains what "natural playing" really means and why this principle is essential in recovery from focal dystonia. It shows the differences between the physical logic of everyday movements and the often illogical habits that musicians develop over years of training. It offers concrete examples of natural movement principles such as "walking hand and arm" or finger, hand and forearm alignment, and shows how these can be transferred to string playing.
Nora Krohn on Focal Dystonia: Moving Too Fast
Nora Krohn explains why it's so dangerous to rush recovery from focal dystonia, how brain overload prevents movement patterns from changing, and why slowly building a stable "Route B" is the key to full recovery.
Nora Krohn on Focal Dystonia: Why Progress Can Be Difficult to Recognise
The article summarizes why it is so difficult to perceive real progress in recovery from focal dystonia and offers practical steps to overcome this problem.