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Neccessity is the Mother of Invention


zombywoof

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Back in December I somehow managed to traumatize my right hand. The sucker was swollen up like a balloon, knuckles hurting like all get out, and the tips of my fingers feeling like they were covered in paper cuts. At one point I took to using the bandana I have wrapped around my right wrist since the 1960s to wrap my hand to cushion my knuckles to avoid accidentally even brushing them against something. My hand has gotten better over time except for my stinking ring finger. While I did not use it as much as others, I cannot touch a string without paying for it. Rather than not use the finger at all, which is hard to do unless I am concentrating on my playing, I started wearing a fingerpick on just that finger. Strangest thing though as I got used to it I started using the finger for more and different things such as to play upswept chords. I have been finding I am kind of liking it. If nothing else it beats the rationalization I have been using as my hands have aged that the notes you don't play are as important as those you do.

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Like it or not, we have to adapt as we get older. I have trouble maintaining a good grip on a pick, so I'm going to try stickier picks--or go back to finger-picking.

The older you get-the better you were.

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That bandana you bought in the 60’s was money well spent !

They don’t make em like that anymore

 

Hey, while I have gone through a bunch of bandanas up into the 90s I did still have the shirt I had worn to Woodstock. It was a military surplus khaki thing with the sleeves cut off. Somehow it just kept showing up in a box that went along with me on my numerous moves. I ended up giving it to a friend's son who was doing some hippie day thing in high school. I also kept hold of a pair of leather pants that I had traded a machete for. Those went to my thin as a rail (which I no longer was) bass player nephew.

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Hey, while I have gone through a bunch of bandanas up into the 90s I did still have the shirt I had worn to Woodstock. It was a military surplus khaki thing with the sleeves cut off. Somehow it just kept showing up in a box that went along with me on my numerous moves. I ended up giving it to a friend's son who was doing some hippie day thing in high school. I also kept hold of a pair of leather pants that I had traded a machete for. Those went to my thin as a rail (which I no longer was) bass player nephew.

 

 

Ain’t no way I’m putting on another mans leather trousers

 

 

Edit : might wear Jim’s

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Ain’t no way I’m putting on another mans leather trousers

 

 

Edit : might wear Jim’s

 

 

Eewww! You know those have been in bad places. (But they probably did have a bit of a magic touch.)

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Eewww! You know those have been in bad places. (But they probably did have a bit of a magic touch.)

 

Never did take those pants into be cleaned while I wore them. Did spray them with a homemade concoction of olive oil, white vinegar and a few drops of some nice smelling essential oil now and then though. But lest you think I have not been housebroken, I did have the britches professionally cleaned before I gave them to my nephew. He said they felt like a second skin.

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Never did take those pants into be cleaned while I wore them. Did spray them with a homemade concoction of olive oil, white vinegar and a few drops of some nice smelling essential oil now and then though. But lest you think I have not been housebroken, I did have the britches professionally cleaned before I gave them to my nephew. He said they felt like a second skin.

 

 

It wasn't your pants I was worried about. It was "Jim's"--presumably Jim Morrison's famous leather pants. I'm not quite sure about BBG now...

 

I once knew a girl who wore tight black leather pants. I saw a couple of years ago that she wrote a book about having smoked pot every day for 50 years, with no obvious ill effects. I'm not so sure about that, either, but she did manage to finish her PhD. Maybe that's not saying much...

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It is amazing what can bring guitar'ing to a grinding halt!

 

 

Last year, I kept getting these little nicks and cuts on my right hand thumb bass string picker no 1 - cut really small but right across my exact spot I play with. Of course, your thumb is in all kinds of things and these little cuts were often getting infected. And they hurt when playing, so I had 2 fat bandaids and a thumbpick for a week or so last year.

 

Glad not to be playing a gig really, because the 'show must go on' but boy, we would have the blues face.

 

The cause of it all is a bloody nuisance mystery _ I thought it must be a guitar string end or the case latch or...who knows what..?

 

But then, one night I notice a little cut on my index finger, similar to the other and I am fairly, I say fairly, sure it was from opening a supermarket type packet of meat with the little tab for you to pull it open...with thumb! Now it has dawned on my that when the meat and packet are fresh, they are fine...but when the plastic is frozen, a chemical reaction could be happening and making the tab plastic brittle and hard and...cut-worthy :unsure:

 

And I have another cut thumb this week! And the position of my thumbpick rubs on the same spot![crying]

 

Currently playing some kind of flamenco inspired flailing with the middle finger strummer - thumb having a rest...

 

 

BluesKing777.

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It is amazing what can bring guitar'ing to a grinding halt!

 

 

etc.etc

 

And I have another cut thumb this week! And the position of my thumbpick rubs on the same spot![crying]

 

Currently playing some kind of flamenco inspired flailing with the middle finger strummer - thumb having a rest...

 

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

It is easier to play it to you than tell you.

 

Here is my Plan B with my thumb and index finger resting, playing Not Fade Away with my middle and ring finger. Sounds fantastic! Sometimes Plan B is better than Plan A! (I should have turned vocals up a tad...but you know...

 

 

 

https://soundcloud.com/bk7-3/fade-lse1-td77b

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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It is amazing what can bring guitar'ing to a grinding halt!

 

 

 

That was my original point before we got off on the virtues (or lack thereof) of wearing leather pants. It can be a hard realization that age has come. When I was a young 'un, I was fast and so quickly got tagged as a lead player. I was never comfortable with that as I really more enjoyed the interplay of two guitars rather than be labeled with a specific job. But it came to be expected of me so I played the role. Now I can see the day coming where I am playing only bottle neck using my right thumb. But it is better than the alternative which is to put the guitar away.

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I've avoided thinking about the aging process in general, and specifically as it affects my playing. Hence, my earlier Lederhosen - Jeopardy comment.

Since I can no longer physically do some things I use to - playing has become increasingly more important to me.

I use to finger pick reasonably well, but now, find strumming an easier path to take. The lesser of two evils!

Unfortunately, I inherited some type of minor hand 'tremor' from my mother and that can get in the way as well. So Travis picking is out of the question.

As she use to say, and I never appreciated it until I hit 60 - "Growing old is not for the feint of heart."

I remember wistfully, when my sons realized one day, beaming, that they could beat me in arm wrestling.

NowI see them, in their 40s, getting smoked when they (serious swimmers) compete with my tadpole teenage grandsons in the pool.

Now I am starting to realize, one of my last 'legacies' will be to show my 4 children how to accept getting old with some modicum of dignity.

ZMBYWF, I hope your hand slowly (well, quickly) returns to it's previous, pre-traumatized levels.

2 days ago I slashed 2 fingers on my right hand with a cardboard box 'paper cut. Took awhile to get it to stop bleeding.

I have engrained in my mind to protect my left hand when I'm working on things - because I knows if I screw that up - I'll have to get a keyboard or a kazoo. G'Luck.

 

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I have never been much of a strummer - more of a pincher. I do, however, take solace in the knowledge that Rev. Gary Davis used only his thumb and first finger which does not even seem possible considering the master that he was.

 

Its a good job we have videos of him playing, because I would never have believed the 'one finger' tale otherwise.

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