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Arthritic joints and keywork

Author: Henry
Date: 2004-03-19 16:07

Since I started private lessons about a year ago, I have made considerable progress. However, I'm just becoming aware of a problem that may well be caused by my arthritic left index finger. The upper joint is somewhat swollen and the top lid of the finger is slightly curved away from the thumb. As a result, when I properly close the E/B tone hole with this finger, it tends to touch the bottom of the throat A key and occasionally causes it to slightly open. This, of course, causes a sqeak when, say, going down from a high D to a high B. My question is: Could this be alleviated by bending the throat A key slightly to the right (looking from above), or by filing away some of the A key? The A key is so small that I wonder whether bending that key would be feasible. Also, bending that key may negatively affect other things. I assume that I'm not alone with problems like this, and I wonder whether any of you have any ideas how to cope with this (short of surgical procedures). By the way, the left index finger is not the only arthritic finger I have but it seems to be the most damaging one).
I'll be grateful for any suggestions!

Henry

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