got the stitches out from my finger...still can't play yet

driving me crazy! cut the top 1/4 inch off of my left ring finger last tuesday at work...it looks like the stitches saved the pad...so much for the callouses! have tried 3 finger playing...quit annoying! maybe a slide!

no workman's comp. it's my restaurant! as for a slide, i don't think i am coordinated or know the fretboard well enough!

I cut my thumb and index finger on my fretting hand last year with a tale saw, lucky I didn't cut them off. I used super glue on a cloth bandage to make a fake callus until it healed. It was right in line with where my finger pressed on the strings. When I played my guitar the steel strings would cut in the wound. The super glue and tape let me play a few gigs within 10 days of the mishap.

I feel your pain Dave! I did the same thing with a craft knife about 18 months ago. Couldn't play a thing for 3 weeks (much to the relief of the rest of the family!!!) while I was learning the first steps of Uke playing. Fortunately my finger healed nicely, I hope yours does too.

I smashed the tip of my left hand ring finger...a falling oak beam, my table saw table, my finger between the two. Doc said it looked like a smashed grape, but allowed as he was a mandolin and banjo player and that he'd fix it like it was his own. A year and a half later I don't even think about it, but it took months and months for the nerve regeneration to take hold.

thesillydave said:

driving me crazy! cut the top 1/4 inch off of my left ring finger last tuesday at work...it looks like the stitches saved the pad...so much for the callouses! have tried 3 finger playing...quit annoying! maybe a slide!

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Aloha Dave,
I used to cook...I know the feeling...stinging and sensitive....yeah several accident throughout the years with kitchen knives...all healed.. only my broken baby finger on my fret hand from playing basketball in high school..didn't fix it and it's bent...so I get a hard time mute freting with it...thought of breaking it again and straightening it but it been decades..

Yikes!!!

Hope you get back to uke playing normality soon!

thanks for the thoughts! so in my recovery time, i am trying to get down the triple strum...patterning it after wininboy, he has a nice tutorial on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyxSed6yb2Q&feature=channel_video_title

though, it'll take awhile to strum like him!

good as time as any to learn to play lefty!

Nickie said:

(don't worry, us gals ring fingers tend to be shorter than the pointer, and it's okay)

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I never noticed that before, but you're right! Are guys' ring fingers usually proportionately longer than women's?

Some years ago I managed to sever the tendons at the base of my LH pinky trying to put a soup can lid back in the can for recycling. I had surgery, wore a cast for weeks, and went thru several months of therapy (occupational as opposed to physical). The doctor and therapist both said I did remarkably well on the recovery (just wish they hadn't kept adding the "for someone your age" bit) but I still lost some extension on that finger so it's effectively ~1/4" shorter than my RH pinky.

The therapist did tell me that musicians were always her best patients, because they were the most motivated to regain the use of their hands to be able to play.

I was just ecstatic to be able to play guitar again, even with some limitations in my LH stretch. I guess one reason I love the uke so much is that the usual stretches are generally easier than on guitar.