Over practicing? Painful knuckle joints

marxski

So I’ve been working really hard on improving my technique in the last few months as I’m due to rehearse with a session drummer for 8 x 3hr sessions starting mid august then tracking drums and guitar on approx 10 songs at the beginning of October over two days.

I’m starting to experience pain in the knuckle joints in my first fretting finger and also little finger (which I broke at the joint when I was pushed over in a street robbery around 12 years ago).

My finger joints nearest the finger nails have always been rigid - they don’t ‘bend back’ like some guitarists can - I had a friend who had hyper flexible knuckle joints so doing an A major shaped barre chord and holding down 3 parallel stings was a doddle…. He could just flatten his finger and his knuckle would bend backwards to create the shape. Not so with me! 

Any advice ? Gut instinct tells me to 1) rest 2) work around certain chord shapes my more rigid joint anatomy don’t allow.

fretmeister

Could be arthritis or tendon damage too.

Does it get better with an anti-inflam?

Roland

Rest, and re-assess your technique. This year I’ve had a bout of arthritis in my little finger, during which I didn’t practice, reserving my playing for rehearsals and gigs. Anti inflammatorys haven’t worked. The solution has been to change when and how I use the finger. 

marxski

Thanks both - resting is helping. Ibuprofen helps also. Agree I need to watch my technique - mostly caused by a tricky action on an acoustic I think. Acoustic has gone off for some TLC at J Kinkead.