Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic Subject: Numb Finger Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 09:15:00 GMT Hi all, Over the last couple of weeks the joint on my left index finger has been rubbing against the neck a lot due to playing a tune I've been learning over and over and over again. (It's the joint where my finger meets my palm.) I now notice that the left side of my finger is half numb from the tip all the way down. It doesn't hurt at all, though, and it bends fine. Has anyone else experienced this? Is it an occupational hazard, a bit like callouses? Or is my finger about to develop gangrene and drop off? ================== Compression on a branch from the median nerve is probably the problem. It suggests that you should shift your playing position a little to avoid this. > Has anyone else experienced this? Is it an occupational hazard, a bit > like callouses? No. Or is my finger about to develop gangrene and drop > off? No. If it were to develop it would probably just mean loss of sensation, with no motor nerve problems in the main. I have had no sensation in my right hand thumb, index and middle fingers (other than a dull feeling from the pain receptors) for about 4 years. I haven't found it makes the slightest difference to finger-picking. On the other hand there is no reason for you to let this progress. Just change your hand position a little. ================== I've developed roughly the same malady over the last month or so, though it is not numbness, per se. A slight amount of discomfort, and what the physician called "trigger finger". He suggested changing my posture and how I hold the guitar. Raising the neck slightly seems to help. That, and massive doses of Ibuprofen and ice baths for the hand. Get well soon. ================== sive doses of >Ibuprofen and ice baths for the hand. Get well soon. Thank you - and I hope your finger is improving now. Luckily I've had no pain at all - Mort reckons it may be pressure on a nerve, so I'm going to change my hand position. I'll try to give some proper thought to my posture too - It's definitely a bit sloppy. Sometimes when I've played a lot I get a burning sensation in my left shoulder! In fact, sometimes I think I'm beginning to fall apart completely ;-) ================== Shirley, I went through a period of about six months of this kind of problem. Basically, I was focussing on what I was trying to do, and ignoring how I was doing it. I'm sure there are plenty of answers, but the one that worked for me was a book called "The Art of Practicing - A Guide To Making Music From The Heart", by Madeline Bruser (ISBN 0-517-70822-1). (I found a recommendation for it here on rmmga last summer.) Though it contains a lot of other useful ideas, the thing that really worked for me was a simple series of stretching exercises that takes about 3 or 4 minutes a day. With that, and fairly close attention to my kinesthetic senses -- helped a lot my watching myself in a mirror while I'm playing -- I find I can play 7 or 8 hours a day without hurting myself. Now if I only had 7 or 8 hours a day to play.... ================== Thought I'd add my two cents on your numb finger problem. I know _exactly_ what you are talking about. I have had no numbness, but I have developed a callous in precisely the same spot you are describing. Hits the side of nut on a B7 chord, right? This caused me some discomfort in the early going because I burned myself fairly severely in that area nine months ago and had some rather tender scar tissue there, when I took up the guitar last July. Anyway...I'm no expert and this may be off base, but I have reached the conclusion that pressure in this area is indicative of a shortcoming in hand position and that I need to correct it. I see the problem in two areas: a) the side of the finger is resting against the fretboard and has a tendency to touch the high-E string, causing that dental-drill buzz that only the E string can make b) the side of the finger is supporting the neck, which makes it more difficult to finger chords properly and change chord positions smoothly. As I have sought to change my hand position, I've stumbled across two things that might help. First, check your overall posture and the balance of your guitar. Ideally, you should be able to take both hands off the guitar completely and not have it move. The left hand most definitely should NOT have to support the neck at all. As I adjusted the postion of the guitar for better balance, the left hand position improved automatically. Second. As an exercise, try playing some chords with your thumb completely off the back of the neck. This one is interesting. I couldn't come close to doing it at all a couple months ago. Now, I can play most chords cleanly without zero assistance from the thumb. I take this as a sign that my hand is developing. It will most definitely force your fingers and hand up off the fretboard. You can't do it and touch the neck with your numb spot. As a side benefit, this excercise is very beneficial in reducing the overall fretting pressure. Do this for a minute and two and you instantly see that it doesn't take much pressure to fret a chord. I do this warm-up as a matter of habit when I switch from the acoustic to the electric (which is highly intolerant of heavy-handed fretting). ================== As I understand it, numbness in the fingers may indicate interference with nerves ... and possibly a sign of future nerve damage. I have been playing guitar for almost 40 years. Numbness has occasionally happened. When it does, I check my hand position, try to find what is causing the numbness.Sometimes in learning some new piece or some new hand position, I tend to grip too hard. Relaxing my grip is something I try to be always aware of now-I like to use the minimum force required for a hand position. Usually, a slight change will solve the problem. But pay attention to it. If changing hand position or grip doesnt change it, it could be a warning sign of nerve damage coming. Sometimes, after a couple of hours of playing, my fret hand's finger tips will tingle , or numb slightly. That's when I put down the guitar, and do some listening for a while. I have been careful ever since an incident at a bluegrass festival.After a swim in a cold water lake, a friend of mine (who was a monster flatpicker) showed me his fretting hand's fingers. They were blue! ...He ended up a few months later, having surgery to relieve carpel tunnel syndrome... ================== Shirley, I've had the same thing happen, fairly regularly. I'm a "new beginner", starting up again after many years of other non-musical activity (sleeping, drinking beer, watching tv, drinking beer, etc.) It seems to happen most often when I spend a long time working on a fairly specific passage - like lots of finger work with one finger. And usually during longer-than-normal practice sessions, like a weekend where I can spend a longer time playing. If I go to some other piece, or stop for twenty minutes to participate in some other non-musical activity (see above), it generally goes away. And the more I've played, the longer it takes to "go numb". My read on it is that this is a "developmental exercise", and that by the time I get "good", my endurance will be high enough that this will not happen, unless, of course, my non-musical activity (see above) has also increased to such a level that either 1) my whole body is numb or 2) I no longer care and it's time for a serious nap.. I don't think this is a terminal case, ala carpal tunnel syndrome. But what do I know - I'm just starting out!