Recovery: day 1

I've had 2 months off viola playing while recuperating from a shoulder injury - which has sucked. Totally sucked. I mean, I love my bassoon but the viola is the very core of my being and not being able to play (while watching other people play) is beyond upsetting. 

Musicians. Divas, right? Yes, we are. Now GIVE ME MORE SYMPATHY. I'm sad and I feel like I'm missing a limb. 

Having half term off with the kids seems like a good opportunity to slowly, slooooooowly start the recovery process. I set myself a timer for 15 minutes, and hit this book which was recommended on the Facebook Violists group (I will talk about that a lot, as it's a great resource):

Link here: https://www.simonfischeronline.com/store/p11/WARMING_UP_viola_edition.html

(not affiliated, just provided because it's useful)

And - oh my goodness, it was hard but useful! In that 15 minutes I got through the first section on left hand warm ups, which works on stretching out your hand and increasing flexibility. It seems that in common with many of my joints, I've lost a lot of stretch across my hands and so what would have been easy when I was younger was quite a workout. Holding down 4th finger on D string during the exercises provided a good challenge and a good stretch, and the exercises targeted at increasing hand stretch were tough - and VERY out of tune - but even in that short bit of time I felt progress.

15 minutes was definitely a wise maximum: towards the end I felt the muscles working and definitely started edging towards pain in my elbow (a new and recent manifestation of the shoulder injury), but it hasn't yet exacerbated my shoulder pain. All in all I'm declaring it a win.

I'd expected to start with studies today, but going back to these very basic exercises has been illuminating and far more challenging than I would have expected (check the arrogance).

Slow and steady, right? One day at a time.