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Today I decided to pick back up my clarinet after a two year total hiatus due to exams. However, after about 10-15 minutes of play, when I put my clarinet down and relaxed my right hand, my thumb began twitching involuntarily and has continued to do so for about 20 minutes on and off depending on what I'm doing, it's even making typing a little more difficult. I tried to find a cause on the Internet, but all I could find was information on musical dystonia in other fingers, and even then it doesn't really line up with what my thumb is doing.

I'd like to add that I'm double jointed, so when I rest the clarinet on my thumb, it curls upwards rather than resting straight. I already have an existing issue with cracking my joints, most likely due to instrument playing combined with being double jointed, but the twitching thumb is rather disturbing and I don't know what to do to alleviate the twitching.

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  • This sounds like the kind of thing you should ask a professional physical therapist about. Googling your symptoms and attempting a self-diagnosis is almost never a good thing...
    – Johannes
    Sep 6, 2016 at 19:09
  • I agree, but it's just so out of the blue. I never had this when I played the clarinet two years ago, so it's not something coming back to haunt me Sep 6, 2016 at 20:27

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This is the thumb that takes the weight of the clarinet? You've "caught a nerve" (I'm sure there's a long medical name for this.) Find a way to rest the hook on a slightly different part of the thumb. Concentrate on relaxing. Don't inflate this into a big problem. Nobody's going to die.

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  • It has calmed down today, so it was definitely temporary, thanks for easing some of the distress. Sep 7, 2016 at 18:23

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