Finger Pain

[dtaylor]

I have a question for long-term players: have you ever experienced pain in your fretting fingers from over-playing?

I'm not talking about building calluses (or maybe I am), I've been playing virtually everyday for 3 years and have a healthy pad of dead cells covering each finger, the pain I'm experiencing developed well after I lost feeling in the tips of my fingers.

It's an excruciating pain in the very tip of my index finger when I push the tip into the pad of my thumb for example, or put and direct pressure on it on any surface, not just when fretting strings.

I stopped playing for a week to see if it went away, but it didn't, and now I'm just playing through the pain.

So have any life-long players gone through this?

Dean

[sbutler]

Well Dean, the finger that I use the most is my index finger. And thats the one that I ran through a table saw. So Nope, it doesn't feel anything. Thats good and bad, because Its taken me several years to be able to place it somewhere without looking at it. So no, I don't feel your pain. At least not in my fingers. Sorry.

Scott

[Music Junkie]

Dean:

From time to time, if I play for extended amounts of time, I get what feels like a deep bruise or something at the tip of one or two fingers. It usually lasts a day or two and then goes away. I wondered if others had this too.....

Jason

[dtaylor]

That's a good way of describing it Jason, it came on when I upped my practice playing time too.

[daryl]

Hmmmm.....sounds strange....

I mean, when I play a LOT I definitely experience pain, and then after a couple of days it usually goes away. If you're still feeling pain after a week of not playing, that can't be good.....if it stays that way, you better see a doctor?!

Must be a bummer for you since you obviously love to play the guitar.... ....

[thereshopeyet]

Hello Dean

I have quite hard thick callouses at the tips of my fingers.... well for me they are..... real guitarists would hardly notice them.
I've heard some folk put super glue on their finger tips.... not sure if that's true?

My finger tips unfortunately have grooves in them which can interfere with the way the string lies across my finger.
The string can sometime click into the slot..... annoying.
Sometimes if the groove is too much I use sand paper to rub it the tips of my fingers.
The can be sensitive for a couple of days if I sand them down.

Generally I don't get finger tip pain.
If I practice the same tune over and over constantly going over the same chords
I have had the string begin to feel as if they are cutting the tips like cheese wire
If I get that feeling, I stop practice for the day and do something lightly the following day.

I have heard some folk can have wrist problems.
I put a splint thing on my wrist if it's giving me trouble.
When it's really bad.... splint and rest.... is the only cure for me.

I've read that wrist pain cans how at the finger tips.
Best see your doctor.... it could be a sign of old age too... wear and tear... :dry:

My computer mouse causes me more repetitive pain than the guitar !
Very annoying too.

Sorry to hear you are suffering Dean.
I hope you get it sorted!

Dermot

[tacticaltal]

Dean, You may want to see a Dr about this; sounds scary. I did a bit of Google searches, and there's quite a lot about this available online. It ranges from simple beginner's problems, onward. I don't know if it will help, but you might find some clues.

Ironically, I found a session with Neil speaking about this, though it's more geared to beginner's problems I think.