Recently a Ventriloquist who has become a dear friend sent us an email and was explaining the she was having problems with her recently acquired soft puppet. She has spent many years working with hard puppets and has just in the last few days gotten her first soft puppet.
She went on to explain that her hand was getting very tired and that she was just not sure about the required dexterity for being able to use her new soft puppet. She loves the puppet and looks great with it, but she is troubled by the way it makes her hand feel.
We explained to her that this is a common problem. Whether you are making the transition from hard figures to soft or whether you are brand new to vent and beginning to work with soft, many people go through a period where they wonder if this is right for them.
We explained it in terms of learning to play the guitar. Nobody (or very few) can just sit down and pick up a guitar and play like a concert. Each thing that we learn to do in life has a slightly (or vastly) different set of muscles that must be used in concert with each other to be able to gain mastery over that endeavor. Each thing that we do requires a general type of dexterity to be developed in order to become good at it.
In the same way, we explained to this lady friend of ours, just keep doing what you are doing. The correct set of muscles will in short order go through the conditioning process and then you (or she) will wonder what the big deal ever was because you will be playing your puppet (or guitar) like it was an extension of your hand.
Until next time,
Steve and JET