Looks Like I Have to Use a Pick For a While

[OldStrummer]

I'm not sure what happened, but I went out today for a walk in the relatively pleasant weather (sunny, 45?F). At some point during the walk I felt "unbalanced" (I can't really describe the feeling) as if I were stooping over. Standing straight and walking only worked briefly, as I found myself stooping, as if letting gravity pull me forward. About four miles into the walk, I stopped to rest, which is unusual for me. Then, about 1/4 mile from home I was coming down an incline which had some snow and ice still, and all of a sudden I felt myself picking up speed, and I couldn't slow down. Well, I slowed down when I went down. I picked myself up and made it the rest of the way home, where I took off my mud-and-blood spattered clothes, took a shower and applied some bandages (left knee, right hand).

The index finger of my right (plucking/strumming) hand had some skin torn off, so I now have a bandage wrapping it. A couple of small abrasions, but nothing serious. Still, there's something going on internally that I can't figure out. My resting heart rate is about 20bpm faster than usual, and I'm feeling a bit of vertigo.

But I just spent about ten minutes playing with a pick. God, I hate picks. But with my torn up finger the way it is, I guess I'm going to have to get more comfortable with a pick for a while.

[Bill Moore]

Glad you came out with only minor injuries! Saturday a friend's leg gave out, did a face plant, and cracked his pelvis, still in the hospital of course, going to visit him again in a while.

[OldStrummer]

Glad you came out with only minor injuries! Saturday a friend's leg gave out, did a face plant, and cracked his pelvis, still in the hospital of course, going to visit him again in a while.

Ouch! I'm sorry to hear about your friend. I will give myself a small pat on the back, as I've taken spills before as a runner and cyclist, so I know not to to try break a fall with outstretched arms, but rather roll with it, so the damage was minimal.

I must have also wrenched my back a little because when I went to bed last night I couldn't find a comfortable position. As always, it seems the middle of the night is when a smoke detector battery decides to start chirping! So, I got up, took a couple of ibuprofen (I rarely take medications) and closed the door to the room where the noise was coming from and finally got to sleep. Oddly enough, the chirping stopped some time during the night, but I'm on notice, and will be climbing a ladder -- gingerly -- today to change the battery.

[Offshore Angler]

Dude, just superglue it and go play the gig! Learning to play wounded is part of being a musician.

[OldStrummer]

Dude, just superglue it and go play the gig! Learning to play wounded is part of being a musician.

A paid musician, you mean.

[Tele-Bob]

Jimmy Page broke a finger while on tour with Led Zep and spent a couple days in the hotel room re-learning all the songs with his 3 remaining fingers. Now, that's rock n' roll.

In a similar incident, I was rushing to complete a pedal board for someone days before a concert we were headlining at an event hosting several thousand people.
I accidentally drilled a hole into the middle finger on my left hand and was sure that I wouldn't be able to play. Then I ran across the article about Jimmy Page. I was so inspired by it that I not only finished the work on the pedal board, but went to work learning all of our original songs using only 3 fingers on my left hand, in 3 days.
Not only was the show a big success, but I nearly incited a riot when our performances was interrupted after only 8 minutes. The old guy running the festival thought the symphony should start playing before the fireworks went off. I shut his mic down and yelled to the crowd that the symphony was just another copy band and starting chanting "I call bullshit!" BULL-SHIT, BULL-SHIT, BULL SHIT and the crowd joined in rushing the stage as we chummed the audience with free t-shirts and causing the cops to run over and restore order.

Oddly enough, they asked us to play the festival again the following year.

A little electrical tape and crazy glue can be VERY rock n' roll!

[OldStrummer]

If it makes you feel any better (it does me!) I have been playing without using my punctured finger and everything sounds just the same. Not better, but the same.



(Django burns fingers, Les Paul ruins an elbow, Jerry Garcia's brother cuts off a finger. And I'm complaining???)

[jrgtr42]

I'm kinda in the same boat. I don't usually play guitar fingerstyle, though I do sometimes when I just pick it up for a fewseconds here and there. I do play bass mainly fingers though, and I've been playing a bit more of that lately.
But the other day I was cleaning off the kiddo's skates after hockey practice and sliced my right hand index finger across the pad - not on the edge of the blade; on a little chip raised up near the boot. it doesn't hurt or anything, but it makes it that I can't play fingerstyle for the time. either because of the band-aid or if I'm not using one, it's like a little flap of sorts.