Custom Search

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Re: Thumb injury

Well, I'm happy to say that my thumb is back to being fully usable. Now I can go back to my slide practice.
I know it sounds pathetic, but not practicing for this long bums me out and makes me wish I had a 5-star healing factor. I've been listening to a fair bit of Harry Manx recently.
You should really check out the way this guy plays. I personally recommend "Live at the Glenn Gould Studio" and "Wise and Otherwise" as go-to albums. Also, if you don't already know about this guy, check out Ry Cooder. In particular, check out the theme song to a movie called "Paris Texas", which is very foreboding and atmospheric.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Protect your thumb!

Every once in a great while, you forget every scrap of common sense and you do something that hindsight screams you shouldn't have.
In my case, it was a matter of a little whittling gone horribly awry.
I did my college best to excavate a chunk of meat from the pad of my thumb with my too-sharp general-purpose knife. As soon as the shock wore off, and I'd mummified my thumb so thoroughly that I looked like the Elastoplast(tm) poster-boy, I realized just how important my right thumb was to my particular style of guitar playing.
In less specific instances, however, it occurs to me that arthritis can be just as debilitating to a player. For this reason, I'd suggest that if you're performing household or workplace jobs, use the best tool for the job, and avoid overuse of your thumbs.
They need to last you a lifetime.