Maybe I can break into a little jammin' on 'The knee bone's connected to the leg bone"

I'll report back here if anyone is interested in the outcome.


Thanks Blister,

K

Hahaha. I hope it works out well, please report back!

Joking aside - as that really cracked me up - I hope they will discover the cause and help you get through with things quickly!

Since this Topic was posted I decided to go into my Doctor to talk about it. He referred me to a Hand Therapist and now, after a few weeks of going there, I am doing exercises every day which are strengthening my hands but I'm afraid the damage has already been done to my small finger on the left hand, as it continues to hurt. No heat pads, no ice packs, and no other things have changed the damage that has been done. All I can hope for is that time will heal the problem.

I have a call in to my Hand Therapist about a popping sensation when I try to do pinch exercises with the thumb opposing the small finger. This does not seem good and I don't know if I should continue the exercises for this small finger because of this new awareness of a problem.

Ick, I just want to play the guitar, but this has been some roadblock.

This post has been edited by Ken Nielsen: Oct 22 2013, 05:01 PM

Hi Ken, I'm so sorry of hearing this. I hope that you evolve goodd and finally could heal this problem. Try to follow all doctors instructions and exercises, and don't play guitar if it hurts. I wish you all the best mate.

This post has been edited by Gabriel Leopardi: Oct 22 2013, 05:09 PM

Make sure to tell your health providers every single detail and share every concern with them. When new things come up, make sure they all know about it. They may need to give you additional treatment.

I feel your pain. I was self injured for 6 months and couldn't play. It was like being dead in a way. Wait, scratch that, I've been dead and this was worse. Not playing was like torture. I"ve always been compelled to practice and when I can't I get really stressed and agitated. Just hate it. I hope it's not that bad for you. One thing that helped was actually writing guitar riffs in my head and tabbing them out on paper.

Todd

I'm glad you posted an update Ken. But I would be concerned if after a month therapy hasn't seemed to help, that maybe it's time to see the doctor again, if the therapist can't give a valid explanation of the persistent pain. And if the Doc isn't a hand specialist, maybe that could be looked into.

It has to be terribly frustrating not to be able to play your guitar but maybe you could focus on theory, scales, memorizing notes on the fretboard, etc.

I hope my twisted humor didn't come across as insensitive, as that was not my intent.

Twisted humor is a good thing in light of injury preventing playing guitar. I'm staying on top of this and will either, find a solution, achieve a healed hand over time, or, give up guitar for a while and let the hand have a complete break. I know that doctors can only do so much. I'll follow this through to any reasonable solution and am prepared to 'face the music' on whatever the outcome is.

Hey Ken! Stay strong mate As the guys suggested - it's a good time to work on your theoretical knowledge and also, you could start arranging and writing, by using your computer and music software. You will have a A LOT to learn even without the guitar in your hands and once you can go back to it, you will have a tremendous arsenal of knowledge to use

I would think also that hand injury, proper posture while playing, warnings to others to not force play through pain, would be an area of discussion and even warning for newcomers to playing. It may not be needed by everyone, but it seems that proper warm-ups and awareness of the issues would be crucial to everyone who wants to get serious about playing guitar. The hard part about this subject is that you feel good when you don't need it, so it's an easy area of problem to fall into.

I'll be sure to follow up here if new information or changes come about. It's everyone's hope that we can put these things behind us, so the best news we could share is the 'after' part where we emerge restored to good health without pain. I'm still believing that at some point that will happen.

This post has been edited by Ken Nielsen: Oct 23 2013, 04:38 PM

Alright, please keep us posted regarding your progress and let me know if you would like to work together on your theoretical knowledge

I have cancelled all future therapy sessions as I am having pain from the exercises now. It also doesn't make sense to me to do exercises when you have an injury. I will be my own doctor in this instance now and prescribe complete rest with some playing that is not painful. I'm interested in theory and would like to study all of the modes and gain more familiarity with the notes and relative place in the scale that I am playing. It would be good to have mastery over this area. I will take great care and play what is only not painful. I believe this will heal over time with a careful proceeding ahead.

Rest is a good idea Try some very light stretching as long as it's not painful. No matter what you are doing, if it hurts, stop.

I watched your video Ken first of all I have had suffered from tendonitis before, it flares up and it takes 6 months to completely go away. I would`nt worry too much but take a break.

Your posture on the video is terrible and if I play sitting down in a computer chair it makes my had go numb because I move my elbow either up or over to avoid the arm.

If I play sitting down its on a higher stool with no arms and foot rails but 99.8% of the time I practice standing up and that has really helped my tendonitis and arm issues.

There also is the factor of playing a guitar that is not comfortable with too large of strings.

Thin necks just kill my wrists I like a medium to fat neck, my Les Paul is as big as they made them.

Playing in pain sometimes is part of the deal but it`s a good indicator that it`s either your posture, the guitar neck, or the size of strings that is bothering you.


I play fairly large strings on a fat neck but I don`t have to fight it at all, it`s effortless fretting, to be able to play hard you have to work out on a comfortable guitar.

Good luck to you

Thanks for every post, and especially from those who have the experience of playing and realizing pain. Tendonitis is probably what I am suffering from. My problem with posture in my video is also bad due to the fact that I was making a video and was only trying to put my hand playing position in front of the camera. I normally sit up straight and have the neck strap on. It was really hand position that I was trying to show, but you are right, for this video I was slouched and not using a good sitting position.

I think I've been through it for medical attention on this issue and I do understand the value in stretching exercise before playing. I have a routine that I can use which follows the exercises given to me by my Dr. the Hand Therapist and I will use those, at least the one's that did not hurt. They also gave me a large, appropriately selected for consistency for my hand, wad of silly putty or something very similar, to squeeze and use for exercises also. This was worth the price of admission just for the fun of playing with that stuff. Anyway, I digress. I will be resting, taking appropriate amounts of playing that I can work with, and also studying theory and modes.

Bottom line, it is not unusual for some people to have hand problems if they have tendonitis and it is now my job to work with it and live with it as best I can.


All is well that ends well.

Ken

Hello Ken I will be happy to assist with the theory, so to begin with, please take a look over the notes in the threads bellow - we will start here and after reading, I would be curious to hear your thoughts so we can take it from there

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=48699
https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=47641

I appreciate your willingness to help me Cosmin, I've already taken nine years of formal violin lessons, can play in all keys and also studied keyboard formally with lots of theory training, so I have some background in that. I've been to maybe a second year level of theory studies but beyond that I realized that it was turning into a complex subject like advanced calculus and I just do not have an interest or mind to follow it into that depth. What I do want to know is where I am at with the guitar in constructing scales and modes. This will take practice also as seeing it on paper and knowing where it is on the guitar by feel are two different levels of understanding. I would prefer to learn on the guitar first and then be able to write it down on paper.

This post has been edited by Ken Nielsen: Nov 6 2013, 05:07 PM

Hey Ken! I understand so, the guitar is involved somehow in this procedure anyway... is there any way you can play at all these days, or you have to stay completely away from the instrument?

I'm picking up the guitar on occasion and using just the first three fingers on my left hand. The fourth finger is the one that gives a shock of pain if I use it in any more than the slightest touch. This is fine because there is much in playing and practicing that only needs the slightest touch as all I am looking for is the training at this point. I can get into stronger playing when my hand is healed. I have memorized the notes for the fifth and sixth guitar strings at this point and can play aeolian, Ionian and Dorian mode pentatonic scales in any key. I must say that what I am finding out about the guitar at this point is that it is a very cool instrument.

This post has been edited by Ken Nielsen: Nov 7 2013, 11:23 PM

I see, I see This is still good and we can work things out! Here's what I have in mind: Since you wish to exercise with modes why not start with working your ears combined with theoretical knowledge in a practical context

Ionian Mode

1) Harmonize the C major scale using major and minor chords and the diminished one

2) Sing the F and B notes against each of the chords when you play them and listen to their sounds - can you reproduce the correct pitch?

This is great ear training and you will make sure to be able to deploy the characteristic scale degrees of this mode in the context of any chord derived by harmonizing the mode - priceless for improvising and composing lines, in my opinion