JohnG
Full Member
Posts: 193
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Post by JohnG on Mar 16, 2014 11:10:12 GMT -6
You're on the right track - lighten up your touch and slow down.
Something that will help you to lighten up is to pick very lightly. This is easier to do. Your fretting hand will more easily follow your dominant picking hand and you'll find you can finger the strings with a lighter touch.
Also, playing faster will often cause you to tighten up and press harder. Slow down and take careful note of how it feels to play lightly. Keep at that and be in no hurry to pick up the tempo.
Don't take chances with your hands - tendons, thumb and all. "Stop before it hurts," my old orthopedic doc told me. If need be, take time of to allow it to heal. If it doesn't go away, I'd recommend seeing a doctor.
I hope that helps.
JG
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Post by grampalerxst on Mar 17, 2014 10:35:13 GMT -6
Thanks, John (and everyone).
I've opted for now to give my left hand a complete rest from the guitar. As I've "examined" this more, it's a peculiar bio-mechanics thing I have going on. I've noticed certain flexations of my pinky, and to a lesser extent index finger can give my thumb a mild twinge. In paying more attention I've noticed it's more centered in the thumb than the wrist below the thumb.
So, in the meantime I'm working up a right hand-only regimen to keep myself moving forward, working on picking rhythm patters, arpeggio and string-skipping drills, and some different strumming patterns. Not as fun as music, for sure, but they're all aspects of playing where I would like to increase my skill. Lemonade out of lemons, and all that.
Hopefully it'll clear up on its own.
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Post by bigfab on Mar 18, 2014 8:27:40 GMT -6
Hi,
Sorry to hear about your thumb. I was wondering. Can we really (and efficiently) work out of the right hand only? Don't we lose anything in synchronization between the 2 hands that would make working only right hand useless in the long run? If we can efficiently work the right hand technique with no left hand, this is hope for when one can get injured like you just have.
Cheers,
Big Fab
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Post by bluesbruce on Mar 18, 2014 8:40:07 GMT -6
Grampa,
Sounds like maybe it's time to learn some open tunings and put a slide on that left hand...
Bruce
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Post by grampalerxst on Mar 18, 2014 15:15:04 GMT -6
Hi, Sorry to hear about your thumb. I was wondering. Can we really (and efficiently) work out of the right hand only? Don't we lose anything in synchronization between the 2 hands that would make working only right hand useless in the long run? If we can efficiently work the right hand technique with no left hand, this is hope for when one can get injured like you just have. Cheers, Big Fab The way I look at it is that anything I can't do with my right hand by itself, I probably can't do with my right hand while I'm also using my left hand. I don't believe it's ideal, but I think it can be of some benefit relative to the alternative of not playing anything at all. More so with classical guitar than electric, I have seen hand-isolating exercises to develop finger picking skill for the right hand and legato skills for the left hand. In general, I believe the most efficient and effective is to work both hands together, for obvious reasons.
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Post by grampalerxst on Mar 18, 2014 15:16:42 GMT -6
Grampa, Sounds like maybe it's time to learn some open tunings and put a slide on that left hand... Bruce That's an idea!
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Post by grampalerxst on Mar 22, 2014 4:27:59 GMT -6
Okay, so this week is easy. In a nutshell I haven't done anything. I opted against doing some RH-only stuff because, knowing myself, I couldn't sit there with the guitar and resist the temptation to start using my left hand. The good news is that I've figured out that the original source of the trouble/injury is not guitar playing.
I'll pick up the guitar and have a test run with it tomorrow, then hopefully returning to my daily routine.
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Post by bluesbruce on Mar 22, 2014 9:25:16 GMT -6
That's good news! Glad to hear your hand is doing better.
Bruce : )
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Post by Phil on Mar 22, 2014 15:45:22 GMT -6
Okay, so this week is easy. In a nutshell I haven't done anything. I opted against doing some RH-only stuff because, knowing myself, I couldn't sit there with the guitar and resist the temptation to start using my left hand. The good news is that I've figured out that the original source of the trouble/injury is not guitar playing. I'll pick up the guitar and have a test run with it tomorrow, then hopefully returning to my daily routine. Keep us posted. Glad to hear that the guitar playing wasn't the source of your problem. A week off every now and then is probably a good thing. I'll be away from home for a couple of weeks in May and won't have a guitar around. It will probably do me good to take a little time off. I have to be careful not to let a short lay-off turn into a long one. That's when I start doing the 2 steps forward and 3 steps back dance. I think I mentioned that I started a practice log after you talked about yours. Nothing fancy - just an old fashion composition book. I jot down what I did, how much time I spent and what I should do during the next practice session. I logged in almost 9 hrs. of practice time over the 5 days that I practiced. My goal is to get in a minimum of 4 hrs. per week. So, I'm doing well in that regard. I've been working on "9th Chord Blues". I thought it would be much easier than it sounds and looks like on paper. I'm hoping to have it down pat this coming week. I worked some more on measures 11 & 12 of "Getting Funky" which is still giving me problems. I also have been working on a finger style Piedmont Blues study. Piedmont Blues is also known as Ragtime Blues (at least I think they are the same thing). It's most notable feature is a steady alternating bass line. I'm doing it using a thumb pick. I started on "More Minor Blues" yesterday and made a big mistake. I have arthritis in the base of my left thumb which makes playing full barre chords almost impossible because of the pain. I usually try to find alternative voicings or other work arounds to find a suitable substitute, but yesterday I tried to tough it out and play the full barre chords which are part of the study. Today the joint is on fire, so I'm going to take it easy for a couple of days. Note to self - stay away from stuff that is painful. I've really been neglecting BRYCU and need to include that at least twice a week. I plan to slow down and spend more time on each study. There's a lot of good information in each lesson that I tend to gloss over in my desire to get straight to the good stuff. Phil
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Post by grampalerxst on Mar 24, 2014 11:46:14 GMT -6
I played for about an hour yesterday in two 30-minute blocks, morning and evening. Pretty unremarkable. I kept it mostly RH-centric, but not entirely. LH was still a little stiff, but feels mostly okay today (I did 25 minutes this morning as well. Will see how well I hold up. Hate to hear about the arthritis, I can't imagine playing with no barre chords!
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Post by Phil on Mar 24, 2014 15:57:56 GMT -6
... Hate to hear about the arthritis, I can't imagine playing with no barre chords! Actually, the biggest drawback is not being able to take advantage of the economy of effort when changing certain chords and doing runs where you barre with the index finger and play the run with the other fingers. Because I have small hands, it's the position I have to have my thumb in behind the neck when I barre which causes the problem. My hands are so small that I can't even do the Hendrix type thumb over the 6th string, so I have to make do with what I'm capable of doing or take up the harmonica. I really did consider that option, and have not totally discounted it if things get worse. A few months ago I ran across a guy who gives on-line lessons and he says he rarely plays full barre chords, he tends to play chords with 3 or 4 strings. He doesn't have any physical problem playing full barre chords - he simply prefers the sound of 3-4 string chords. Says they sound "cleaner" to him. Needless to say, I instantly gravitated to that guy. For you kids who are fans of uncovering logical fallacies, that's called confirmation bias. In addition to the above, I have a limited range of motion in my left middle finger due to severing the tendon when I was 5 years old. It had to be tied which shortened the range at the extremes. However, I have no problem in fingering single notes. It causes minor problems in fingering certain chords, but I've learned to work around it. I'm not seeking any sympathy here or expect to be cut any slack on the recorded studies I upload. On the contrary, I hope this inspires people who may have some kind of problem with their hands to carry on and find a way to work around their problem. Remember, the legendary jazz guitarist, Django Rheinhardt, only had 2 fully functional fingers on his fretting hand. Phil
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Post by grampalerxst on Mar 24, 2014 17:48:24 GMT -6
Truth be told, I rarely play full 5 or 6-string barre chords. In part that has to do with my love of distortion where having a major third in a chord can cause some nasty overtones, so I'll use the barre shapes but often just play the bottom 2-3 strings to get the power chord, so the barre itself doesn't have to go down with any force. My hands are on the moderate side as well and for anything like a barre chord I have to revert to the "classical position" (thumb behind neck). Some years ago I spent a year or two learning classical, so am pretty comfortable with my thumb back there so long as I'm not trying to bend strings. I dislike using a barre playing single notes--just something I've never been comfortable with, even in classical pieces. My biggest hand problem is that they behave like teenagers. I say, "Ring finger, third string, fourth fret, on the double!" and I wind up with my middle finger dramatically flinging itself on the fourth string third fret and giving me a surly look, or any one of a million variations on that! I would complain more about my left hand woes but I realized it is actually an old Crossfit injury come back to life, and my rule is that if I was dumb enough to do Crossfit over the age of 45, then I got what's coming to me
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Post by Phil on Mar 25, 2014 6:46:46 GMT -6
My biggest hand problem is that they behave like teenagers. I say, "Ring finger, third string, fourth fret, on the double!" and I wind up with my middle finger dramatically flinging itself on the fourth string third fret and giving me a surly look, or any one of a million variations on that! Those damn strings do have a mind of their own. Mine like to go right between 2 adjacent strings and deaden both of them. This is actually quite helpful, because I can hit the wrong string and get the exact same sound as if I had hit the right string. Phil
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Post by grampalerxst on Mar 31, 2014 6:15:58 GMT -6
So, I missed my update this weekend. I'm still ramping up from my off week. I had about 4.5 hours practice time last week, which is below what I'd like to get each week. Still not physically 100%, seems like something I'm just going to have to live with for the present. Spring chores interfered some as well. I'm hoping that by the end of next weekend to have a recorded snapshot of BRYCU study 3 and BYCU study 3 (True Blue). Tomorrow I start lesson 4 in both books. As always, after a month on the same material, I'm looking forward to the change.
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Post by bluesbruce on Mar 31, 2014 18:37:12 GMT -6
Good to hear you're getting back at it! Looking forward to your recording, too. It is always fun to move on to new challenges, and that is what helps you improve.
Bruce
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Post by Phil on Apr 3, 2014 15:31:20 GMT -6
So, I missed my update this weekend. I'm still ramping up from my off week. I had about 4.5 hours practice time last week, which is below what I'd like to get each week. Still not physically 100%, seems like something I'm just going to have to live with for the present. Spring chores interfered some as well. I'm hoping that by the end of next weekend to have a recorded snapshot of BRYCU study 3 and BYCU study 3 (True Blue). Tomorrow I start lesson 4 in both books. As always, after a month on the same material, I'm looking forward to the change. I was waiting for your update. Glad to hear your hand is getting better. I only got in 3 days of practice for a total of 4 hrs last week. I pretty much got "9th Chords Blues" and "More Minor Blues" down, though I haven't recorded them yet. I also started dabbling with "Major Blues" (Lesson 14) on Sunday. Yesterday and today I just noodled around playing with my amp and a Ditto Looper pedal that I bought 2 months ago but never got around to trying it out. It's pretty neat, but I have to get back to serious practice tomorrow. Every now and then you need just play around otherwise this starts to feel like work. Phil
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Post by bluesbruce on Apr 3, 2014 17:10:53 GMT -6
Amen and +1 to that! Bruce
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Post by bluesbruce on Apr 3, 2014 17:12:34 GMT -6
Oops! My quote didn't work - that's in response to "every now and then you just need to play around otherwise this starts to feel like work."
Bruce
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