"ARCHIVED TOPIC: I Beat Focal Dystonia... I think!"

https://www.banjohangout.org/archive/157366

Tongue-in-cheek, I wonder how they determine whether or not a banjo player is "normal"?  

Less tongue-in-cheek, research requires people to participate. If you are able, please do so. Normal would probably refer to an average player with no known neurological problems.

I’m almost tempted to make the drive. May be my only chance to ever be payed to play my banjo!!!
Slammer!!!

tom adams had to go through this is why he had to quit banjo for a long while.. he could still play but couldn't know for sure if his middle finger would hit the string... so he laid it down for a while and played guitar... while on guitar he perfected his 2 finger style and went back at it with springfield exit.
i had talked to him about it in 2012 when i was having trouble,,, but turns out mine was just some arthritis slowing me down

Hey, $25 is more than I've made at some gigs playing the banjo... 

well its a 168 mile round trip at 17 miles to the gallon in my truck that works out to about 10 gallons at 3.54 per gal.. so $35.00 in gas vs $25 in pay. they are plenty of pickers around durham.....
but its a worthy effort to study

As a Duke alumnus, this is really tempting... The 25$ doesn't cover the roundtrip from Europe, unfortunately.

I do pay the patients in my clinical research way better than this, though.

I  wonder if any banjo players were ever paid to not play.

Focal Dystonia, they say, is a half physical and 90% mental problem….. 

seriously, though, Craig Korth, a fine Canadian banjo player has it and had to quit playing - he'd get near the banjo and his hand would just curl up stiff into a claw.  
Another musician is classical guitarist David Leisner who worked his way back to playing after about 7 years of pain-staking slow practice, re-organizing his mind as to how his fingers would move. 
 

Here's Korth's interview with Fretboard Journal  https://youtu.be/uVDZH1zcC8o?si=YJ95bLpvGKnxUDXW