Missing my guitar

[Lewis 0]

I mentioned in another thread, (or rather Tracy did), that I had a gardening accident the day before Tracy arrived here last in June. I caught the middle and ring finger of my left hand in the blades of electric hedge trimmers nearly severing them. The gloves I was wearing is what saved them. However I did 90% sever the tendons in my middle finger and completely severed the nerves in the same finger and shaved the nerve in my ring finger.

Several weeks later I am doing much better and am putting myself through rigourous physiotherapy. My fingers are getting there but I have lost all sensation in the tip of the middle finger and now have hyper sensitivity in the ring finger.

I used to play in a band but really only play for myself now although I do intend to get back into a band when I get to Nashville. Right now I feel a bit down when I look at my guitar. Not to be too obvious about singing my own praises but I am/was a bloody good guitarist. For those of you who know I play in the style of guitarists like Marty Friedman and Steve Vai. Having taken away my ability to play from myself is really getting me down. I have started to do excercises on the guitar but it hurts and I just cannot do what I used to.

I am still not back at work but that is imminent. Not really looking for sympathy because it was my own stupidity that caused the accident but I wondered if there were other musicians out there who found themselves removed from their instruments in any form, maybe re-location or finances, who empathise?

Sorry to hear that, I hope you keep up the therapy and won't be discouraged. That injury sounded pretty bad, it's fortunate you still have use of your hand. Blessings to you man, hope you heal quickly and get back to playing.

I play guitar also. I have also injured my fretting hand before but not as badly as you did. Mine was a small bone chip fracture near the top of my pinky caused by a football injury. I had also sprained the same finger years earlier in a wrestling match. It did take me a while to get back to playing again. At my old house I would go into the basement and take it a day at a time. At first, I could not get my pinky into position because the tendons were not quite healed but now it is pretty flexible. What worked for me was holding my hand in a frozen position on my acoustic at first to help with the arching and flexing the finger. Using the acoustic helped build back my strength. Moving to the electric was then much easier. Writing also helped, it allowed me to be creative when I was frustrated with my progress. I don't know much about hand therapy, but any type of flexing or stretching may be beneficial, depending on the progress of your injury. My style is probably not as complex and intricate as the style you mentioned, I play more in a primitive rock vein and mainly play my own material. Styles can always mutate according to the times and the player. My biggest problem right now is getting my SGs rehauled after the years of abuse with the band.

That's interesting you mentioned Nashville, that's where my buddy Jeff moved after our band ended.

Stay creative!

[ChasUK 0]

Chas, Wes is reminded of Rick Allen from Def Leppard when he lost his arm. Now there's a guy that was determined to keep drumming - I'm sure you know the story.

I myself can't play an instument nor sing. But there's plenty of music in our house, what with my son being a music major and my husband being an afficiando of blues. I remember when Zach got his braces - about 2 days after the 'installation' he put his horn to his lips and the sound that came out was dreadful. He was startled - I was devastated and terrified that I had hampered his ability to advance his skills for the length of the procedure. He had to 'relearn' his ambuchure. His private instructor said it could actually make him a better player as now he had to learn to 'move air' and not just rely on lip position. That ended up being very true - one can now easily pick him out in any emsemble because of the volume of sound he creates. Now that the braces are off, hopefully he can refine his technique a bit more and combine his strengthened lung function with finer ambuchure skills to create the high notes most people think a trombone cannot make!

Oh yes. I know the story. Poor guy crashed his car into a stone wall, went out through the sunroof and his seat belt took his arm off as he went. It was re-attached but infection meant it had to come off again. Simmons designed a custom electronic drum kit for him which allowed him to trigger sounds with his feet like the snare drum and he had to completely re-learn how to play. Truly an inspiration. Kudos to the band who insisted on waiting for him before finishing Hysteria.

I definately empathise with your boy. I already know that my fingers will not move the same way that they did before and not being able to feel with the tip of my middle finger means I have to actually look at where I put it to be sure of clean fretting with no muting or buzzing. It's going to be a slow process but I intend to get there. I also think it will improve my playing too. Learning the second time around means I can concentrate on the right things this time. I already know the pit falls to avoid.

[*Robert* 2]

When my parents came for the wedding they brought my electric. I had a 12 string acoustic too but I sold it for about $300 and when I moved I found a 12 string fender for $190. So I ended up having a better guitar and a bit of extra cash.

But for a few weeks I didn't have anything to play and it really sucked

Why didnt you use your Banjo?

ya know, you're gonna get

for comments like that........

just ignore it and it will go away

if that were only the case, huh...

[ChasUK 0]

Sorry to hear that, I hope you keep up the therapy and won't be discouraged. That injury sounded pretty bad, it's fortunate you still have use of your hand. Blessings to you man, hope you heal quickly and get back to playing.

I play guitar also. I have also injured my fretting hand before but not as badly as you did. Mine was a small bone chip fracture near the top of my pinky caused by a football injury. I had also sprained the same finger years earlier in a wrestling match. It did take me a while to get back to playing again. At my old house I would go into the basement and take it a day at a time. At first, I could not get my pinky into position because the tendons were not quite healed but now it is pretty flexible. What worked for me was holding my hand in a frozen position on my acoustic at first to help with the arching and flexing the finger. Using the acoustic helped build back my strength. Moving to the electric was then much easier. Writing also helped, it allowed me to be creative when I was frustrated with my progress. I don't know much about hand therapy, but any type of flexing or stretching may be beneficial, depending on the progress of your injury. My style is probably not as complex and intricate as the style you mentioned, I play more in a primitive rock vein and mainly play my own material. Styles can always mutate according to the times and the player. My biggest problem right now is getting my SGs rehauled after the years of abuse with the band.

That's interesting you mentioned Nashville, that's where my buddy Jeff moved after our band ended.

Stay creative!

Thanks man. I really appreciate it. I'm going through that tendon bit right now. Gotta take everything really slow to give the finger a chance to get where my brain is sending it. LOL

I'm also doing a lot of that flex/arch thing too, in fact the nurses were scolding me for trying everything too quick. I had to ease off in case I did lasting damage to the tendons. I'm not writing though, instead I'm re-teaching the fingers the muscle memory by doing simple chromatic exercises. It's that that's going to improve my playing in the long run I think. In the words of Yoda, I must unlearn what I have learned. The accident did all the "unlearning" for me. LOL

[*Robert* 2]

Hope you can get back to strumming that guitar soon!

[rebeccajo 14]

Is it not possible that you will regain some feeling in the tip of your middle finger?

This is probably NOTHING like what you are experiencing, but here goes.

A few years ago I decided to open a bag of lettuce with a knife rather than scissors - dumb. Score knife 1 - Becca 0 when I nearly sliced the tip off my left index finger. Blood was everywhere and I nearly passed out. Took two stitches only to re-attach it (it was hanging underneath my fingernail). As it healed there was no sensation for a good long time. And I type for a living. But it came back gradually.

There's still a weird sensation in the tip,years later. It's more sensitive actually than my right index finger tip. But it does work. I can type over 70 wpm no problem.

[ChasUK 0]

Hope you can get back to strumming that guitar soon!

Is it not possible that you will regain some feeling in the tip of your middle finger?

This is probably NOTHING like what you are experiencing, but here goes.

A few years ago I decided to open a bag of lettuce with a knife rather than scissors - dumb. Score knife 1 - Becca 0 when I nearly sliced the tip off my left index finger. Blood was everywhere and I nearly passed out. Took two stitches only to re-attach it (it was hanging underneath my fingernail). As it healed there was no sensation for a good long time. And I type for a living. But it came back gradually.

There's still a weird sensation in the tip,years later. It's more sensitive actually than my right index finger tip. But it does work. I can type over 70 wpm no problem.

They say it may come back,..... or it may not. Great huh? LOL

Because the blades were moving I had more than one cut on each finger. The nerve in that finger was completely severed in 2 places. Once across the finger print and once across the joint opposite the first knuckle. They re-attached the nerve at the joint but not at the finger print. If the feeling does come back they say it will be a long time because of the slow regeneration of nerves.

[addy 0]

I mentioned in another thread, (or rather Tracy did), that I had a gardening accident the day before Tracy arrived here last in June. I caught the middle and ring finger of my left hand in the blades of electric hedge trimmers nearly severing them. The gloves I was wearing is what saved them. However I did 90% sever the tendons in my middle finger and completely severed the nerves in the same finger and shaved the nerve in my ring finger.

Several weeks later I am doing much better and am putting myself through rigourous physiotherapy. My fingers are getting there but I have lost all sensation in the tip of the middle finger and now have hyper sensitivity in the ring finger.

I used to play in a band but really only play for myself now although I do intend to get back into a band when I get to Nashville. Right now I feel a bit down when I look at my guitar. Not to be too obvious about singing my own praises but I am/was a bloody good guitarist. For those of you who know I play in the style of guitarists like Marty Friedman and Steve Vai. Having taken away my ability to play from myself is really getting me down. I have started to do excercises on the guitar but it hurts and I just cannot do what I used to.

I am still not back at work but that is imminent. Not really looking for sympathy because it was my own stupidity that caused the accident but I wondered if there were other musicians out there who found themselves removed from their instruments in any form, maybe re-location or finances, who empathise?

You know, the same thing happened to my sweetheart Dan except he did it with an electric drill. I have to go easy with his right hand because it hurts his pinky finger if I am not careful and just grab him.

He's not the musician though. That would be me.

[JenT 0]

Hi Chas,

I forwarded the link to this thread to David.. he is also a musician and has offered the following as inspiration. (He doesn't post here...)

There is a German violinist called Reinhard Goebel who

unexplainedly suffered a paralysis affecting nerves in the two

middle fingers of his left hand,he relearnt the technique of

violin(swapping hands)he later abandoned his career as a 'solo'

violinist and became conductor and leader of Musica Antiqua Köln

(Cologne).

I have often been moved to tears by musical performances for

example by Little Jimmy Scott singing 'Don't take your Love Away

From Me',you felt as though he would die right there on stage if

she did.But I want to mention the great jazz woodwind/reed

player Roland Kirk.Blind(from birth I think) Rashaan Roland Kirk

could play all reed and wind instruments and all manner of

flutes and whistles hung round his neck so that he could find

them.It was really what he had to 'say' on the tenor saxophone

that made him a jazz great.A few saxophone players can play two

saxophones at once,Roland Kirk could play three.Later in his

life he suffered a stroke and lost the use of his right arm,his

tenor saxophone was modified to allow him to reach most of the

fingerings.I saw one of these later performances with one of my

first musical buddies who later went on to play for Van

Morrison.When Roland Kirk was helped to the microphone stand it

was poignant enough,when he started to play,well ,tears flowed.I

particularly remember a song written by him for his wife 'Now

Please Don't You Cry ,Beautiful Edith'

[I'm Gone 60]

Django Reinhardt was one of the first important jazz musicians to be born in Europe, and one of the most important jazz guitarists of all time.

At the age of 18 he was injured in a fire that ravaged the caravan he shared with Bella, his first wife. She made imitation flowers out of celluloid and paper for her living. Consequently, their home was full of this highly flammable material. Returning from a performance late one night, Django apparently knocked over a candle on his way to bed. While his family and neighbors were quick to pull him to safety, he received first- and second-degree burns over half his body. His right leg was paralyzed and his left hand was badly burnt. Doctors believed that he would never play guitar again and intended to amputate the leg. But he left the hospital after a short time and within a year could walk with use of a cane.

His brother Joseph Reinhardt, an accomplished guitarist in his own right, brought Django a new guitar. With painful rehabilatation and practice Django relearned his craft in a completely new way, even as his third and fourth fingers remained partially paralyzed. He was still able to use these two fingers for playing chords, but was unable to use them for playing solos.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Reinhardt

[Sister Fracas 5]

hmmm, off-topic, but did I miss that ChasUK changed his name to "Gone"...

did he not like that people didn't agree with his proposal for a forum for debate-type threads?