Cars affect your guitar playing

Banditman

Or to clarify, slamming a car door shut on your left hand has a sudden impact (no pun intended) on your ability to play. After two weeks I don't know what's worse: the hand itself or the itch of not being able to play.

On a serious note, it's funny (I sure as hell didn't think it was funny, though my friends thought it was hilarious) how an un-funny incident can reveal something about your playing. In my case I've realised that I've been fretting notes way too hard. As in Boston Strangler grip on the neck. Ironically, putting my left hand out of action for a bit has woken me up to a bad technique issue. Tips for sorting that one out will be gratefully accepted.

So,

Who else has (~~done something stupid)~~ had an unforseen incident that shed light on improving their playing?

And no, I was stone cold sober at the time.

Chocklit_Thunda

Well if the doctor put that metal finger brace on for you, at least you'd have a makeshift slide! ? or you could use it for barre chords! ?

As for myself my bad technique caused to rip a chunk of skin from my middle finger.... Sliding barre chords up and down the neck at extreme speeds seems to generate a lot of heat and friction which in turn burnt/sliced my finger....

As for playing technique my guitar sensei once told me that the proper way to hold the neck is to have the neck resting against the heel of your palm and keep your thumb parallel to the neck pointing to the headstock (he said some folk don't even let their thumb contact the neck...) and all the applied pressure comes from your fingers and the heel of your hand is just a brace.... Try it out when your hand gets better and see how it goes?

Chabenda

An extremely unpleasant experience! Also a great opportunity to tune to G and get the slide out! Not much else that you can do! Remembering the pain whilst you're practicing will also give you the mojo required for that authentic blues sound.

BTW - Playing the "Blues" is a term coined by the first guitar player who ever slammed his hand in the door of his Model T. It was all about the colour of his finger nail! ?

costafonix

Chabenda wrote:
BTW - Playing the "Blues" is a term coined by the first guitar player who ever slammed his hand in the door of his Model T. It was all about the colour of his finger nail! ?

:roflmao:

Cleric

A year and a half ago I had an accident at home and cut off the front half of the thumb on my pick-hand. Had it re-attached through surgery, but was afraid I'd never play again.

Lots of physical therapy later and I'm playing just as well as I ever have and barely notice it. Still a bit tight from time to time, and I have to warm up before playing a gig or band practice, but otherwise no issues.

FruitarGeek

Not as dramatic as your guys stories, but I realised I have been holding my pic 'incorrectly' which was causing strain on my index finger, making it move rather unnaturally sideways (which it is not designed to do). Now I use all my fingers to support the index so no sideways action ?

Banditman

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: As for playing technique my guitar sensei once told me that the proper way to hold the neck is to have the neck resting against the heel of your palm and keep your thumb parallel to the neck pointing to the headstock (he said some folk don't even let their thumb contact the neck...) and all the applied pressure comes from your fingers and the heel of your hand is just a brace.... Try it out when your hand gets better and see how it goes?

Thanks for the heads-up. That's actually what I do - probably instinctively thanks to years of violin playing. I think I'm just putting too much pressure down on the strings at times, which can cause fatigue in the muscles and also inhibits moving more freely and quickly in scales etc. Think I just need to relax a little and keep things more flexible.

All appreciated.

DaFiz

Fresh rear tyre and brakes on my Yamaha, and then going in too hot on Clarence Drive, I stomped on the rear brake like a right idjut and she locked up and went into a slide.
I release the pressure and she politely "tossed" me over the high side. For six months my pinkie could not press a string on my guitar.
The absolute horror of this will haunt me for days to come... It's OK to lose your leg if you have to but hey, look after that left pinkie... :'(

Chabenda

Yup. not just cars! I had a wrestling match with some bare 380v power lines once. That made the ring finger on my right hand nearly fall off and took chunks out of my left thumb and (as two 11 yr old twin female German guitar students referred to it) my 'Shtinky' finger.

My younger brother slamming a Ford 250 door on what's left of my left thumb also left lasting memories.

A mistake whilst fitting a Nissan UD clutch assembly took the tip of my 'schtinky' finger on my right hand. I had to play at a beer fest that night and there was no way of stopping the bleeding. My Lake Placid Blue L-series was covered in red 'highlights'.

The last unpleasant one that comes to mind was being bitten on my left index finger by a burrowing adder whilst grovelling around in the bottom of my wardrobe about two years ago. That was a real bugger. it kept swelling and itched like hell. Eventually the skin split. Unpleasant!

I can see myself playing more and more slide guitar as time goes by!

tiller

Injury can happen at any time. I usually give a rest my hands, head and body. I just put away my guitar for a week or two and rest. Once i had an injury. I had overplayed my hand and it was out for about a month. Your hands also need to rest periodically. If you do the practice on daily basis then resting after each 3 - 4 months is good approach.