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2. Describing the problem
For as long as I could remember, I had a horrible pain in my back after I practiced. This meant that I could not smile after even one hour of practicing or playing viola. The pain was there every day and was worse after each performance, especially when I had to play solo. It seems strange to me now that at that time I never thought where this pain was coming from; I just took it for granted and tried to cure it with massage and hot water bottles.
I don't know why it never occurred to me that there could be a solution for the pain. When you see that a player stays in one position for hours and hours, you realize that this is an amazing feat. I knew that my problems weren't unique because I heard a lot of colleagues complaining about the same kind of things. On the other hand, I thought that something was not normal with my playing so I seized the opportunity to become part of this research.
Technically, I had some trouble reaching the c string with my 4 th finger. Also, the viola was too far to the side and I couldn't reach the tip of the bow easily.
When people saw me playing, everybody said I looked relaxed and free. But at the same time they noticed that I leaned very far forward when playing which made me look like I wanted to run away all the time.
Another thing that I used to do was bite during playing, especially during performances. After an exam I wasn't able to eat anything but soup for a whole day.
