Apologies if something similar has been asked before..
I came back to guitar about a year ago, after a decade layoff - during which time I broke the ring finger on my left hand. Despite going through 6 months worth of physio, I never managed to get full movement back into the finger. I can't close the left hand properly. The top knuckle joint on the ring finger works fine, but the other two joints don't let it fold back properly.
I've worked round it to a degree. I can rotate the wrist round far enough to let me three finger solo using the ring finger - but am finding it's just not possible to form chords that need the ring finger on the top three strings.
I've always been a casual (read: not very skilled) player. At this stage I've been contemplating taking a more structured set of lessons to up the skill level and play 'full songs' for a while now, but am really doubting whether that's viable.
Anybody any experience of working around this kind of restriction - or pointers on musical styles genres where you could pass yourself when certain chord shapes are just impossible for you ?
Comments
“Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQhTpgicdx4
I've often thought about Django, and wondered what I was complaining about - and yes, I did actually try left handed (for about 20 minutes once). Awful ..
I think the way forward (for me at least) is to stop worrying about full chords, and give up trying to copy other people's playing note for note. Been working on it the last while, and discovered there's more to capturing the 'musicality' of a piece than hitting every note just like the original. Nice to stop beating yourself up on things too
Can you manoeuvre the afflicted joint any further if you use your right hand to assist or is it up against a brick wall?
Do you think there'd maybe be merit in trying to bend the affected digit progressively with the other hand ?
Pushing slightly beyond the comfort zone with the right hand and attempting to hold the new found territory with the muscles in your left hand would appear to make sense. You'd want to steer clear of any actual pain although any after-effects felt the next day should be ok.
The last thing you want to do is make anything worse but gentle progressive examination should be fairly safe and may yield something.