Tikva wrote:
If that means strongly disadvising some nickel allergic person from actually acquiring a nickel whistle by providing correct facts to go with it, then I am definately guilty.
These areas do get pretty grey sometimes, but in the cases directly related to instruments and the playing of them, there's leeway, especially if discussion and advice are sensible. Example:
Q. My hand hurts when playing my bass G flute.
A1. Have you tried changing your grip?
A2. You may have to give up playing such a large flute.
A3. Be sure to massage and stretch your hands.
We ask that people refrain from
diagnosing or
prescribing. Still, in the case of, say, contact allergies (something I know a bit about myself firsthand), if there's a large enough base of encounter with this sort of thing, tentative diagnoses are rather unavoidable; but there's a difference between "sounds like you may have this", and "you have this". But the best recourse is to recommend A) see a physician, or B) stop doing whatever's causing you trouble, or C) both.
Sometime back I mentioned my newly developed blackwood allergy, growing a soul patch out of necessity, and later getting a sterling silver lip inset on my blackwood flute to forestall further inflammation (I was unwilling to go with any other less allergenic wood, but I was able to get rid of that gawdawful soul patch
), and when you look at it, that's just a case of practical measures that can be recommended in good faith. Now if I said that I self-medicated with a handful of over-the-counter anti-inflammatories every day and I thought I was cured and everyone should do it, that would be irresponsible.
Providing facts is in itself neutral, and, arguably, helpful. It should just be left at that. If that leads to suggesting the above B, no problem. That's within parameters. I'd say the same thing, to be honest.
This sort of thing just takes a bit of common sense, is all.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
