Terry opens with a brief solo that demonstrates the fluid technique still available to him despite focal dystonia.
First Symptoms
Terry demonstrates the loss of control between his third and fourth fingers and recalls first noticing the problem while practicing Shawn Lane patterns at Berklee.
Berklee Shred Culture
The intensely competitive guitar environment at late-eighties Berklee, where performances were scrutinized and technique became both a status symbol and an obsession.
Marathon Practice
Terry describes eight- to fifteen-hour practice days built around Gary Moore, Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Steve Morse, and Michael Angelo Batio exercises, including competitive practice marathons with friends.
Guitar And Berklee
From discovering Black Sabbath, Van Halen, and Randy Rhoads to choosing Berklee, studying professional music, and navigating a jazz-oriented program with few rock instructors.
Progression Of Dystonia
How the initial finger-control problem gradually worsened as Terry responded by practicing harder, particularly targeting the third and fourth fingers that were already becoming unreliable.
Diagnosis
Terry recounts being evaluated at a performing-arts clinic, initially receiving a nerve diagnosis, and later being identified as having focal dystonia by specialists in New York.
Continuing To Play
Faced with uncertain testing and treatment, Terry chooses to navigate around the condition, drawing on his technical reserves to continue teaching, recording, and performing.
Retraining And Switching Hands
Terry investigates a large-muscle retraining method, considers relearning guitar left-handed, and discusses Billy McLaughlin’s successful return to performance after switching hands.
The Dystonia Community
Terry describes connecting with other affected musicians and considers why focal dystonia appears in different fingers and different hands depending on the instrument and task.
Treatment Questions
The artistic benefits that emerged from adaptation, along with unresolved questions about insurance, neurological testing, EMG, acupuncture, and the lack of a predictable treatment.
Technique Adaptations
Terry demonstrates how he recorded and performed by physically assisting the affected finger, substituting the first three fingers, shifting the hand, and redesigning familiar scale and arpeggio fingerings.
Practice And Risk
Terry reflects on four-hour practice blocks, the absence of clear safe-practice limits, possible treatments, and the combination of repetition, speed, duration, and predisposition associated with dystonia.
Tapping And String Control
Terry shows how tapping, fret wraps, altered muting, legato strength, and hammer-ons from nowhere help replace fretting-hand functions lost to the condition.
Outro
Terry closes with a brief improvised picking performance.
