I'm sure Johnathan won't mind my mentioning that he has similar issues right now. I think Chakra balancing,
Alexander technique etc-balancing the whole body-may help. My angle is of an occasional piano player,
more and more a report/ proposal / general writer, and sometime trombonist (Gustav Holst took up the trombone on Doctor's advice to cure his Neuritis). The balance of the instrument on the shouldersis a big design issue still.
I remember \finding 'The Art Of Touch' by a victorian piano pedagogue (forgotten his name for now) where he talks about exercising the whole arm by practicing with a wooden spoon or somesuch before going to the keyboard.
Presumably Victorian damp was an issue in this too-plus ca change!

I'm trying to remember the exercise and the author....ah yes,it was Tobias Matthay 'The Art of touch'. Lost the book
unfortunately, but I'll do some research if you like t-p. I think the spoon was to put some weight on the muscles
gripping it while flexing the wrists and upper arm in an arc. He was trying to focus on particular muscles but i can't remember which. I think the book was reprinted and may be quoted from in some other keyboard technique books? I'd reccomend a Chakra/ Hot Stones massage for your legs and the rest of you if you can find a practicioner
where you are. Good luck, and don't worry too much-youre a survivor!

t-p,

You've got me there, I can usually work out what you're trying to say but I can't figure out what a dehumidifier is doing to you.

Ah, just as I post I see, defeated 

You are always too defeatist on here t-p, please cheer up and thank the world for the talent that you have

I nearly bought a clarinet in C today. I had been told that a lady had one to sell, second-hand. She and I knew that it had originally been bought new for £700. When I asked how much she wanted for it she said that she wanted to go away and do some research to find its true worth. I thought that it's not like it's a special violin worth many thousands. It's only a student model and the £700 price gives a fair indication of its value now. Clarinets don't improve with age. I had been prepared to buy it there and then but she said she'd get back to me. Don't expect me to wait by the phone, I thought.

Almost certainly B flat, I'd say, and models that had originally cost about £300. Special plastic clarinets in C were made for children, being a bit smaller and lighter, and perhaps they still are but this was a conventional clarinet. I play in an amateur orchestra and it's surprising how often the C is written for and I thought it would be nice not to have to play it on the B flat transposing at sight, as most other clarinettists do. The pieces that call for the C that I've been involved in recently are Schubert's 9th symphony, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, Smetana's Vltava and Schubert's Octet.

Similar but different. It means having to play one note higher than written. It's interesting that you mention treble and tenor recorders because the fingering on a clarinet is like a treble for the low notes and a tenor for the high ones.

I should think it's much harder than that John. I can switch from treble to tenor quite easily whereas transposing at sight must be really quite a challenge. I really struggled if I played emergency viola as a child when one was required in a string quartet (just playing for fun I hasten to add). As I'd only learned the violin, I was working out the notes and fingerings as I went along...I still don't understand why viola clef had to be invented with the middle line being C - how my poor brain ached with the effort! Our Youth Orchestra was so short of violas I was persuaded to play in that so I did improve a bit through necessity and I did enjoy the rich dark sound of the viola compared to my squawks on the violin.