Tech: music versus the mouse

Subject: music versus the mouse
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 15 Jul 03 - 10:16 AM

Just thought I'd share some discoveries here. First, using a computer mouse is hard on your body. I read in a book on stress injuries that using a mouse for as little as six hours a week can cause problems.

I've been having trouble with my right elbow. (Been to the doctor and got good advice.) I suspected that my mouse, which is a long reach away, was part of the problem, but I couldn't figure out what to do about it.

Then I had a brilliant idea, simply brilliant. Emptied out the top drawer of the little desk at my right side, turned it upside down, put it back, and set the mouse on top of it, closer to me. Ta da! (Good thing it's a cheap desk without any hardware underneath the drawers.)

But then my wrist scraped the rough edge of the drawer. I needed to raise the mouse pad to prevent that, so I put a stack of paper, custom-sized to raise the mouse just the right height, underneath the mouse pad. Next I will put the paper in an envelope to stabilize it.
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It is a good thing to minimize use of a mouse. I've gone into Accessibility in Windows and set it so that I can press keys such as Alt+F one at a time. When I want to open, print, or save a file, my left hand simply skips across the keyboard, (alt F O, for example) giving my right hand a rest.

Now the recent discovery:

in Noteworthy, one of the most mouse-ridden activities is changing the length of notes. I found it so tiresome to move the mouse to the note lengths in the tool bar above the music. I've figured out that i can use the numeric key pad to change notes. Press the + key to make the next note longer, the - to make it shorter, and the period to add or remove a dot. It's faster and it gives your hand a rest from the mouse.

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Jul 03 - 11:56 AM

Good tips, thanks, esp. for Noteworthy. I got rid of my mouse about two years ago and went to an ergonomic (sp) trackball, which is easier on my wrist and elbow, but I still use a gel pad for my wrist and I have to remind myself to take my hand off of the trackball and remember to flex my fingers or I think my hand would freeze in that position!**bg**

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 15 Jul 03 - 12:15 PM

I use the mouse as little as possible in Noteworthy. Still, it's as easy to press 2 or 3 or 4 as it is to press + or -. It's a pain, thogh, when you're entering alternate quarter and eighth notes, say, and you have to kep switching the size, or els enetr them all the same then go back and change them later. I don't think learning to play a keyboard is a good option!

Steve

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 15 Jul 03 - 01:02 PM

About the only thing I use a mouse for in Noteworthy is highlighting when I need to make a correction or selection. (unless I'm entering grace notes)

My right hand positions the cursor with the keypad and hits the enter key - the left selects note length etc.

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: M.Ted
Date: 15 Jul 03 - 02:00 PM

It isn't the mouse that causes the problems, it is the way that you hold the mouse--you need to work with it your fingers when you play the guitar. It is really the same sort of a problem that people get when their hands cramp on barre chords--you need to change the way you hold it til the pain goes away--

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Jul 03 - 06:17 PM

I post on this subject now & then. (I do agree that the above suggestions about working within Noteworthy are very good)

two things I do to cope otherwise:

First, I 'mostly' use Opera browser for regular surfing. Properly used, it allows almost everything to be done with Opera keyboard shortcuts.

second, when I need extra help, I use Mouse Tool ...a lovely little thing which clicks the mouse FOR you, using rules you set. Takes a bit of getting used to, but really works! (well, katlaughing isn't so sure...*grin*)

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 03:51 AM

You can get more wrist-friendly mice. Julie B has one at work that looks like a gaming joystick: it doesn't "wiggle" though; the underneath is like a conventional mouse, and it slides about in a mouse-like manner, while you hold it in a normal and comfortable kind of grip. The buttons are (I think) under your finger(s) and thumb.

Steve

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 10:52 AM

Thanks for the further suggestions. There is a page under "Accessibility" which allows one to substitute keystrokes for the mouse, but I'm not ready to give up the mouse completely, just to limit its use.

Steve Parkes: I'm going to try your suggestion of using 2,3 and 4. You said it's a pain to change for alternate notes. Have you tried entering all the long notes, then going back and inserting the short ones in-between? It saves time, unless the song gets too complicated and you start losing your place.

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: Blackcatter
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 06:53 PM

Gee,

You can tell I've lived in Orlando too long - I thought this was going to be a discussion of music vs The Mouse (Disney). Plenty of issues to go into sometime.

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 09:48 PM

Disney, Disney...I've heard that name somewhere. Are you referring to Doris Miles Disney, the not-too-famous author of whodunits?

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 03:35 AM

And Orlando was the marmalade cat, wasn't he?

Leeneia, thanks: I'll give your method a go, but it might be doomed ecause I can only enter the tune if I "sing" the notes in my head as I'm going along; it sounds like something off I'm sorry I haven't a clue!

Steve

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 09:05 AM

Blackcatter - that was my initial reaction as well -

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: GUEST,KB
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 09:16 AM

Thanks for that Leenia - I've made the changes on my works machine & am looking forward to resting the wrist a bit.

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 11:06 AM

Or you could consider this (very alternative, IMO) therapy!

Steve

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: Blackcatter
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 12:29 PM

Oh well

Actually Disney doesn't use many folk musicians. Whenever they try to go "authentic" with traditional music they tend to create it in their own image.

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 12:53 PM

bingo!

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 03:31 PM

Re: Or you could consider this (very alternative, IMO) therapy!

No thanks, Steve. Turning my top drawer upside-down and setting the mouse on it is faster, cheaper and safer than botox. Sorry!

(Not that I think you were serious about trying botox.)

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 03:17 AM

I wasn't! I'llbe stiff enough when I'm dead, without having it while I'm alive, thank you very much!

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: cyder_drinker
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 04:05 AM

Since I been using a graphics tablet, my poor little mouse has been gathering dust, and the pain in my finger and wrist joints is fast becoming a distant memory.

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 05:10 AM

I've got one too, CD, but I usually use the mouse for non-graphic stuff, because the "right-click" is a bit hit-and-miss. But it should certainly help because of the more natural wrist and finger angles.

Steve

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 11:52 AM

I've never heard of a graphics tablet. Would you describe it? I did a little looking on the net, but as usual, the sellers assume I know all about the product already.

Duh!

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 11:09 AM

The graphics tablet usually plugs into a USB port and gives you a flat surface that you can "write" on, with a mating stylus that looks something like an ordinary pencil. The cursor on the screen follows any movement of the stylus, just as it would follow a conventional mouse. You move the stylus much as you would move a mouse; but for drawing, the stylus "feels" much more like using a pencil or brush.

Many of the newer ones are "wireless," using an infrared light to send messages back and forth to the computer. This allows you to put the tablet just about anywhere, and to move it around - within limits.

There is some variation with respect to whether the stylus has buttons for your "mouse clicks" or uses a "press-down" for the clicks. Some of the better ones are pressure sensitive and can be set so that in a drawing program pressure changes the line width.

Graphics tablets have been used a lot with high-end drafting (CAD/CAM) and "artist" programs for years, but are becoming popular for the "Palm" and "Ultralights" where the "buttons" are too small to be useful. Some makers attempt to offer tablet/pad-stylus interfaces that let the 'computer' read your handwriting (written on the tablet) and [theoretically] turn it into text. If you're interested in a "real" tablet for your desktop, you may have some difficulty separating the good ones from the "toys" made for the Palm devices.

Without any recommendation, a couple of fairly decent ones that I turned up in a quicky search:

Hyper Pen

Intuos2

Intuos2 Mini

The descriptions won't really tell you much about how they work, but at least they show pretty good pictures of what typical ones might look like. (All 3 of these are from the same seller: NOT a recommendation, since I don't know this seller. They just came up first.)

John

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 03:41 AM

Or these. Mine is the little one, about A5 size, but adequate for everyday use. I'm not giving it an unqualified thumbs up: I got from the shopping channel, mainly because it came with PaintShop Pro v7; one of the bigger ones would have been even better.

Steve

Subject: RE: music versus the mouse
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 04:31 PM

Thanks for the explanation. Apparently it is a cyberpieceofpaper. Nice for graphics, I'm sure, but probably not that helpful in noting music.

I have refined the upside-down drawer further by putting a second mouse pad under the first to keep my wrist from scraping the edge of the drawer. The pads are not congruent.