My first saxophone was a soprano and I had trouble with my right

thumb. I solved it with two things that work together.

1) a neck strap. Yes, I know many people simply hold the soprano out

in front of themselves. Most people who do that, however, play for

generally shorter periods of time. For myself I found that a neck

strap allowed me to play for longer periods of time as the strap took

the weight of the horn and my right hand needed only to push the horn

out away from my body instead of also holding it up against gravity.

2) The other critical component was installing a Forza right hand

thumbrest on my soprano. This alone saved me from having to give up

saxophones in general. I also play tenor and have installed Forza's on

all my ten of my horns.

The great benefit to me of the Forza is that the designer, Ton

Kooiman, is the only engineer who correctly identified the ergonomic

problem and solved it. Namely, before the Forza, I was using the

common thumb hook which tends to force the thumb to be bent abnormally

backward into what I call the 'hitchhiker' position. This is okay for

very short periods, but any serious player who wants to spend time

with his horn may find as I did that when the thumb is in the

hitchhiker position and repeatedly stressed isometrically with the

tensioning and release and then re-tensioning of the tendon repeatedly

as your hand works the other fingers, one will likely develop

tendonitis. Similar to carpal tunnel of the wrist, the tendonitis in

the thumb was very very painful.

A neckstrap used in conjunction with a Forza totally solved the

problem for me. Everyone is different and some people don't encounter

the problem. Those that do, and that includes me, will find the Forza

a godsend.

Best regards,

Jason Schwager