Well, I’ve gone and injured myself through over enthusiastic playing.
Oops
My middle finger now has trigger finger
The band had me learning a fair few songs with 8th notes at 140bpm+ and some at about 100bpm with lots of 16th note bursts (bloody Sunday Bloody Sunday!). When practising, I have a nasty habit of getting too excited and digging into hard. also, that finger was getting a bit stiff the day after practice sessions and I foolishly payed no attention.
Oops.
Now the doc says I need to take 7-14 days off and have loads of tendon exercises to do.
Learn from me! Listen to your fingers! Don’t dig in too hard - just turn the amp up
Luckily, I don’t mind using a pick but it isn’t the right sound for every song…
As someone who has two fingers with it currently and two fingers that were surgically fixed, good luck with the exercises. Neither those of cortisone injections worked for me. I found the exercises interesting as they were repetitive motions, which is the cause of trigger finger, repetitive motion injury. Anyway, I still play as much as I want, doesn’t get worse or better either way.
Driving is fine - I think I’ve caught the problem before it has got too bad. I’ll follow my physio’s instructions to get it back to normal then have to review my plucking technique and length of practice sessions etc when I go back to normal
I have bad enough arthritis in my middle finger that the dr said I should move to a pick primarily. The injections have helped a lot, but I’m concerned the repetitive motion will continue to make it worse. I’m hoping I don’t have a joint replacement in my future.
I’ve been experimenting with picks and I’m finding that pick choice can be different for each song. I’ve alsoo found that a felt pick is pretty close to a finger pluck. At least to my ears.
Here’s hoping Josh doesn’t read this, as I’m focusing on picking instead of plucking now
I think I’ve got things under control now. It still feels pretty stiff in the morning but loosens up quickly. One big thing I’ve done is moved to a lighter string gauge. I’m on 40-95 and 125 for the low B. I used to have the usual 45-100/125 medium gauge. It’s amazing how much easier it feels to play for such a small change. I was a bit worried I’d get a thinner tone (especially a floppy low B) but no such problem. When amped up and in the mix with the rest of the band, nobody can tell the difference in tone and I’m probably playing better as a result of feeling better on the lighter strings! Win!
