This morning I am super tired because I needed to crash early last night but made the fatal mistake of picking up my bass for the first time in a while. Which led to learning a new riff, which I then had to try on my other bass. Whoops, I had left it detuned and cranked into a backbow months ago to fix the neck; time to check on it anyway. Set it up again, neck seems much better, happy now, jam on the riff for a bit, and notice oh shit I have to get up in five hours.
Still a bunch of technical things with my fretting hand mostly. I’m still figuring out the proper fingerings for what I’m playing to make my work a bit easier. I did learn My Own Summer by Deftones though.
I’m not in a band, I don’t have anyone to jam with so I’m just playing for myself. Sometimes that isn’t enough to keep me going because I don’t really see the growth. I know I’m better than I was but without a positive feedback outside my own head, I tend to lose steam.
I’m in a similar situation as you. One way I see my growth is I go back and pick up a song I found difficult a while ago and try it, and generally it’s easy now. Or I pick up a song I looked at and thought that was too difficult, and now if I look it’s like, I can do that.
When I started I thought the song a week thing looked difficult, getting a song down in 7 days was asking a lot. Now it seems quite doable.
Progress sneaks up on you. Affirmation though, make recordings and post it here and we’ll let you know. Well, here in the appropriate thread
This is exactly what the 50 Song Challenge and Post Your Covers threads are all about.
We all post here not to ‘show off’ but to get feedback on our progress.
Prior to my first video here, I NEVER recorded myself or videoed myself on bass.
I decided to start, and I (and many others here) can tell you that the feedback you get from the folks here is extremely helpful and motivating.
Don’t know how to go about recording yourself?
We have you ‘covered’ there too…
The braces off, however, very stiff and lots of pain. Physical therapy for a number of weeks and still have to take it easy. I still have to wear the brace doing heavy, lifting type things or yardwork, etc. Playing bass or saxophone is still a bit out there, not quite yet. Diagnosis was basically overuse.
My doctor, a big deal, hand specialist in New York City, said he’s seeing more and more and more overuse injuries. He said, for some reason people think they need to be doing some thing all the time now, and their hands just can’t…. Well… Handle it.
On a computer all day, add in your phone, add in your instrument, can lead to trouble.
Be careful out there, people, take care of those hands!
By the way, this was done using voice to text to save my hand the trouble.
Well, that didn’t last. Day 2 no brace and agonizing pain started when doing laundry. WTF? Back to the doc and either I had two issues or was mis-diagnosed. MRI #2 in the cards to see if ganglion cysts are the issue (more likely). Last brace for supposed torn ligament was actually making things worse it seems.
Oh, man, what a drag - “wrong” diagnoses (and treatments) are an absolute buzzkill - you’d thought you knew what to do and had a time horizon, and then it’s all back to square one
Keep it until Halloween and turn it into a sci-fi gizmo/costume (Stargate SG-1 perhaps )
Yes, but it hurts. The mouse this morning was actually the last straw that made me decide to go back to the doctor. Lots of pain, but I can use it enough to get through the next couple weeks. I’m sure when I injured my hand a few years ago, I did start using my left hand for the mouse, which was quite interesting, but doable.
Something in my gut told me the original diagnosis was wrong, but I’m no doctor. I just felt like it wasn’t the right answer, guess I was right after all this diagnosis makes much more sense based on the pain I’m feeling and having something similar in my foot years ago I just be happy with the real diagnosis and a path forward, and a planter never have to go through this again would be nice.
Damn John that is brutal! So sorry you’re struggling with an injury. I tore my shoulder labrum playing baseball when I was 18, and boy do you realize how much you take your body for granted when you can’t use part of it. Hoping you can get the hand trouble sorted out and get back to doing the things you enjoy!
Have you ever thought of playing bass with your feet?
Hand injuries just suck. I’m 30 years in to a software engineering career and count myself very fortunate I have avoided RSI’s. I have given myself hand injuries like them before and they are no bueno at all.
I too an having arm issues. For months. My left arm is having issues, wrist, forearm, shoulder. I have seen a doctor and will be having therapy. If there is an opening, which there may not be.
But it is quite painful to play bass and has been. Short scales are okay though I have discovered. Which is why I have picked up a few. I can play them.
In the meantime my beloved long scales are not getting anytime and I may start selling some. Which is almost more painful but they deserve play time too.
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