I have received over recent years a number of questions concerning finger disabilities, where a formerly-working finger becomes uncoordinated and stops working as well as it had. This can be a heartbreaking change for a committed musician, as the letters below indicate. While I wish I had a fully satisfying answer for these musicians, I can only offer a few bits of advice and some possible ways of addressing the problem.

I offer these letters partly to let people know they are not alone, and that even one of the best banjo pickers ever, Tom Adams, has had to face this problem, which in his case was diagnosed as focal dystonia.

More information about FD.

Dee,

So sorry to hear of this problem. It certainly reminds me of what one of the banjo greats, Tom Adams, contracted a few years ago, called focal dystonia. His index finger became erratic, to the point that he has chosen to play only two-finger style in public. This was a serious loss for the banjo world (Tom quit his illustrious lifetime career as a full time player, and got a "straight job" for the first time in his life), and of course a cruel blow to Tom himself, though he does do some public playing still.

I can't tell you details on this, but I have a friend who got focal dystonia and unlike Tom, managed to beat it with a sustained effort over a long period, and maintain his successful career performing mostly on fingerpicked guitar. If you've not heard of focal dystonia, I guess the thing to do would be to "google" it and check it out as thoroughly as you can, to see if that may be the problem. If you have already done that and feel stymied, I would be willing to put you in touch with Joe, who is a nice guy and would try to be helpful. But I'd say first thing would be to explore the available literature to see if f.d. matches your symptoms. The condition is apparently pretty obscure, so it wouldn't shock me if three doctors hadn't heard of it. Also, the problem for both Tom and Joe was I think limited to the index finger, so maybe that means it's something else. Just guessing here, obviously.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help. I wish you the very best with this problem. You know, we all lose our abilities at some point or another, especially thanks to just aging. Saying goodbye to abilities (and people) you've been attached to for a long time seems to be one of the hardest parts of life. But we all have to do it; it's inevitable -- some sooner than others. I humbly offer you the suggestion that you might find solace in all the time you were able to play in a much more satisfactory way, if in fact you no longer can do that. Undeniably, there is still a lot you *can* do, and I hope that if nothing can be done about your condition, there is a great future for you doing something from that set of things that you still can do well and with pleasure.

I wish I could offer you more than these words, but that's my best for now.

Pete Wernick

Jim,

I'm very sorry to hear of the trouble you're having. Without seeing you actually playing, and working with you in person, it's hard to get a good grasp of the problem. Is the tripping with the index finger a new thing, or a characteristic of your playing for a while?

If it's a new thing, then it sounds like something more in the neurological category. It might be good to see a neurologist, and show him the problem by taking your banjo with you.

Before you consider actually abandoning hope of playing banjo, I'd hope you would consider styles of keeping rhythm that don't require three fingers. Simple strumming can be very appealing with an in-tune, nice sounding banjo playing behind singing. True, this is not the dream of a bluegrass banjo player, but for many, the simple sound of a nicely strummed banjo is far better than not playing music at all.

There are a lot of handicapped people that find ways of playing music that are immensely satisfying, to both the player and to listeners. They usually involve accompanying singing, so if you do sing a bit, that could be a very positive route to consider. If you don't sing much, but would like to, I assure you that is a very learnable skill (there's an article on learning to sing in tune, on my web site).

Without hearing you and working with you in person, I don't know what else to offer. I'm sorry I can't give you a simple and sure-fire solution, much as I would like to. I wish you the best of luck in finding a way to keep going on the banjo!

Pete Wernick