VALDOSTA — Shaun Hopper’s fingers didn’t want to play guitar.

For a professional musician known for his fluent style of finger-picking and a musician who loved playing so much that he once practiced guitar in hotel bathrooms while his fellow bandmates slept or partied after shows, the growing tension in his right hand and fingers was frightening.

“It was one of the most terrifying things in my entire life,” said Hopper who is scheduled to play a show Friday evening at the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts. “Here was something I loved and here was a possibility that I couldn’t do it any more.”

The diagnosis was dystonia, a neurological condition where muscles contract.

For Hopper, the diagnosis was part of a vicious circle.

He said he had dystonia because he practiced and played guitar too much too often.

He practiced so often because he loves playing guitar.

Dystonia threatened to end his playing career.

He’s played guitar professionally since leaving South Georgia more than a dozen years ago. He’s performed in 32 states. He’s worked with the likes of B.B. King. He’s been sponsored by a guitar company. He’s composed original music and recorded CDs. He’s played for halls holding thousands of people but still plays for small audiences. He calls Clearwater, Fla., home now and he just finished playing 10 shows in seven days at Key West. 

Dystonia threatened that career. The condition has ended the careers of other guitarists, Hopper said, adding he knows of one guitar player who taught himself how to play left-handed to overcome it.

Hopper had to reprogram how he played. Meditation helped, he said. Meditation has helped him redefine and organize other aspects of his life.

It allows him to breathe, he said. “To stop and smell the roses,” he said. Meditation, breathing, relieves the tension in his hand, he said. He can play guitar, he said.

“I’ve come to appreciate my own breath. My own life and friendships,” he said.

And the more he realized other aspects of his life, the better his music became.

As a finger-picker, he played guitar fast. He machine-gunned through songs. He recalled something he read about how if an orchestra rushed through a symphony fast enough it would just be the first and last notes.

People need room to breathe. So does music.

“Take care of the human first and the music will take care of itself,” Hopper said.

He also adjusted his playing style. He taught himself to play lead guitar.

He met musical partner Jay Klein, a great singer and musician, Hopper said.

Their abilities complement one another, he said. They have regularly performed as a duo for more than a year.

And they will both play Friday evening at the Turner Center, with Valdosta musician Joe Smothers opening the show.

“As strange as it sounds, I’m grateful for having the neurological disorder,” Hopper said. “It has changed my life in positive ways.”

SHOWTIME

Shaun Hopper and Jay Klein, with opening performance by Joe Smothers.

When: 8 p.m. Friday, May 17.

Where: Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts, 527 N. Patterson St.

Tickets, more information: Visit turnercenter.org, or call (229) 247-2787.

NOTE: This story was modified to reflect the proper day of the show near the end of the story.