ACHING HAND

Does anyone ever get aching in the tissue around their thumb after playing for a while. I have been getting it a lot lately. Also the main joint in my forefinger hurts when I bend it. I do hope it;'s not Arthritis. I'm only 40 and I don't want to give up playing now after 30 years.

Anyone had the same kind of symptoms

I'm glad I'm not the only person who gets the 'back of the hand' thing.....I was starting to thnik I was a bit weird.......

According to an article in a recent issue of the BMJ, tendinitis shouldn't last any longer than a couple of weeks. Anything that lasts any longer is most probably tendon damage and should be seen to by a pro.

No, it'll get worse with more exercise.

You need to cut right down and then build up slowly, making sure your hands are warmed up properly. If you feel any pain while playing, stop and take a break.

I need to preach here for a moment.

My wrist, hand, and forearm problems (aching finger joints, a mild annoyance; bouts of tendonitis, a major annoyance; feelings like sparklers going off in the ends of the fingers, occasional loss of fine control in the fingers, extremely sore wrists with restricted motion, inner forearms too tender to touch) used to force me to completely stop playing, and typing at regular intervals. I would typically have to lay off almost completely for at least one week in every five, and I didn't type (or practice) anything like as much at this point of my life anyway.

This seems to have been completely caused by poor typing habits. For those who don't know, you should make sure than your typing position leaves the wrist as close to straight as possible, and the forearms as close to horizontal as practical.

I now have a more supportive chair (so I don't slouch), set at a height where the bottom of my elbows are a little higher than the top of the keys, and I 'float' my hands; only the fingers touch the keyboard. The line from elbow along the forearm to the knuckle is almost completely straight and horizontal. I touch-type, so I also use a split-layout ergonimic keyboard (I like the MS Natural; some people prefer others), to avoid 'splaying' my hands so the my fingers are pointing straight ahead with the wrists angled in.

Since making these changes, I have almost no joint stiffness, absolutely no carpal tunnel-type problems, and the only time I've had any muscle soreness in this area is after a day where I spent four hours working on 'Tumeni Notes' (constant alternate 16th-note triplet arpeggios, with no chord held for longer than one beat).
http://www.jwz.org/gruntle/wrists.html

If you have any of these problems, you really really need to get it sorted out before you have _permanent_ damage. I was very very lucky; I have full function as long as I'm careful (not typing for long periods on non-ergonomic keyboards, using good posture). Some people never regain the normal use of their hands.

Also: mice, in and of themselves, are not evil. Going back and forth between mouse and keyboard is a good way to screw yourself up. If you have a task that needs both typing and mouse use, _learn the keyboard shortcuts_.

*breathe*

Seriously, folks. A new keyboard (and possibly chair) and a week or two of thinking hard about your posture until it becomes automatic, and you can avoid crippling yourself.

Here endeth the lecture.

- rfb

There are mice with more than one button?

Seriously folks, all that ergonimic research way back when seems to be paying off in my experience - the simple Apple one-button optical mouse is the most hand-friendly I've ever used.

Rev. Andy

Did you figure this out by yourself, or seek medical help when things got bad?

As I've mentioned on #ukmg, I know where my computer/practice techniques are bad, and I know what to do about them. The difference is that I'm now trying harder and harder to develop the determination to practise what I preach.

adrian

PS: Great post, Rick... everyone should follow the JWZ link (and the link he provides to the Typing Injury FAQ)

If some people are excerting too much force while playing, maybe a decent setup might help, ven going down a string guage. Just a thought

Only on those weird computers some people use <g>

For a while, I did wonder whether my recent hand/elbow-aches were caused by the smallness of my Apple Pro (compared to the non-optical mouse I used on my old Umax) causing me to tense my hand to grip it. I'm convinced now, though, that if there is a problem with my mousage, it's more to do with resting my arm on the desk and using my fingers or wrist to provide all the movement.

Why don't you get an optical mouse and ignore the wheels (Or take it's wheels off. You can always prop it up on bricks when you're not using it?)?

I get first-finger, first-joint pain occasionally. I'm not sure it isn't arthritis, but it seems to go if I rest it. I'd go with the advice for using as little pressure as possible and only grip/squeeze in sync with your strumming hand, unless you need the chord to sustain. Make sure you use the boney corner of your barre finger, rather than the fleshy notchy flat underside, where some strings fall under a notch, so the whole barre gets more compensatory pressure.

Some hybrid and Travis picking lines do need to be held longer than the average chord-and-strum line, but you can still sometimes transfer the barre finger pressure to the strings which are currently sounding (or 'pulse' the grip with the rhythm like the original strum situation), which eases the overall load and also gives that finger some excercise in-situ, which is better than trying to maintain a capo like grip through the whole sequence. The other tip is to actually use a capo if it's convenient for at least the chord nearest the nut.

There are some styles which don't have much 'resting time' at all, so apart from the capo, not playing too many of that type of number in a sequence, investigate tuning to a chord, which can sometimes allow any or all fingers to barre, resting the first finger.