COVID, long COVID and (especially blues) harmonica practice
How we are affected and what we can do about it
I am writing this because of the nature of this particular beast. If post acute chronic syndromes are still marked by more questions than answers in the scientific community, we know even less about long COVID - one of the conditions in this mysterious class. It’s frustrating, it can be scary, and it definitely impacts the person’s whole life.
This text is about post acute chronic syndromes, their debilitating symptoms and how they may affect harmonica practice, except for respiratory issues, which may be co-morbidities in long COVID. Patients with respiratory symptoms can benefit from practicing the harmonica.
The comments here are addressed to the members of the Facebook group “Modern Blues Harmonica”.
Right now, there are probably approximately 3,750 people in this group struggling with long COVID.
This is how I came up with this figure: we are approximately 50,000. I am using USA public health statistics. It is estimated that half of the US population was infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and 35% tested positive. It is also estimated that 7.5% of US adults are living with long COVID. If we apply that to our group, we come up with 3,750, which might be a conservative number considering the fact that this population probably has a higher proportion of older adults.
That’s a lot of people in different stages of their harmonica journey.
Many post acute syndromes, and long COVID is one of them, are polysymptomatic, have changing symptomatology and are overall hard to understand. They are also incurable. Symptoms shared by most of them include: fatigue, impaired cognition (aka “brain fog”), short term memory issues, pain, and immune imbalances (hyper immunity, auto-immunity, hyper-inflammatory responses, etc). More and more, scholars are agreeing on the similarity between long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis (aka “chronic fatigue syndrome”).
All these things affect harmonica practice. Some days are worse than others, and during flare-ups it can be too hard to practice. By “too hard” I mean feeling very weak, dizzy, lightheaded and possibly experiencing vertigo and blurred vision.
It sucks. It sucks big time. It sucks because it affects motor performance and cognitive agility, both of which suck during flare-ups.
Here are some takeaways from the medical literature, where there is nothing about harmonica playing and long COVID (other than the benefits to respiratory health), of course:
Physical exertion is tricky: too little is bad, but forcing exertion beyond an unknown limit can cause more harm than good. That limit is entirely individual. If one is practicing, say, 3h-4h/day, it might be impossible to keep it at that level, especially during flare-ups, although fatigue fluctuates. Again, tricky: one may recover that practice frequency and intensity, but forcing it during a flare-up can be impossible. And depressing;
Mental confusion can be quite intense and there is not much one can do, except keep detailed notes about plans - daily, weekly, monthly, etc. That includes one’s practice.
Neuro-inflammation doesn’t just cause joint pain, which it does, for sure. It also affects how we process sensory input. Lots of things can happen to one’s musical experience (including the uncomfortable sense of unfamiliarity);
Pain can be blinding - practicing a wind instrument with blinding pain is not only improductive but pretty horrible. Not a good idea to associate harmonica playing with that experience;
For those used to planning and organizing their practice, the challenge is to avoid getting too frustrated with the inability to complete a practice plan for the day. I have no idea how it impacts public performance, but I suspect it impacts a lot. During a performance, the musician might play less continuously than in their practice, where they are alone, but the stage experience is very intense. For patients struggling with post acute viral syndromes, every stressor adds up.
Many authors have argued in favor of breaking up practice into several smaller chunks of time with the instrument. With long COVID, that might actually be the only way to do it. The problem is that this also creates a difficult demand for the patient: concentration is affected and keeping track of things requires more effort. Time management can be a struggle as well.
Bottom line is that it sucks and we can’t pretend it doesn’t. On a brighter side, although these syndromes are incurable, specific functions can be recovered (at least partially so). There is also remission in many cases, and we have not a clue as to why some recover while others never do. So yes, it’s possible to go back to practicing several hours/day and feeling energized while improvising. But one should be prepared for the flare-ups.
The reason I stressed how impactful this condition is for blues harmonica players is the proportion of inhaled sounds the player produces. Inhaled note runs that were effortless before can become challenging.
PS - Unfortunately, I have that since 2020. Some symptoms change over time, but overall, it’s hard to say whether it is getting worse, better, or just following its kaleidoscopic, hyper-inflammatory nature, and screwing up all inter-organ cross-talk in the body. Accepting disability is tough. I haven’t, not yet. That’s why I monitor the scientific literature about that on a daily basis and write a few reports here and there.