Arthritis and Strings..

l enjoyed your video. :)

I play concert size, and though I don't have your pain issue, I did injure all my fingers. so have some permanent damage from that. Lower tension strings help, and being very particular about the ukulele neck helps, (width, thickness, set-up, and so on.)

Favorite strings for comfort AND sound: Living Water and Uke Logic. But it sounds like you might not like that type of string?

You might need to take a break from playing for a bit, but if it's just your fretting hand that is a problem, you could still work on right hand technique while letting your left hand heal, (reverse that if you're playing left handed. :D )

The site you linked to was a good reminder that warm up exercises are important. And that we should pay attention to how much pressure we're using. I need those reminders.

You can try tuning down a little bit. If you're not playing with others, it doesn't matter if you tune down 1/2 step, 1/4 step, or whatever works for you. That will give you less string tension.

It may take some experimenting to find what helps you, but hopefully, you'll be back to playing without pain soon.
 
Thanks! I am not quoting you because I was having trouble posting earlier, so thought I'd try this way. Thank you for the help. I ordered some D'Addario nylon strings. We'll see how that goes. :) And yes, I'll try tuning down--good tip!

CMouse
 
Joyful Uke said:
l enjoyed your video. :)

I play concert size, and though I don't have your pain issue, I did injure all my fingers. so have some permanent damage from that. Lower tension strings help, and being very particular about the ukulele neck helps, (width, thickness, set-up, and so on.)

Favorite strings for comfort AND sound: Living Water and Uke Logic. But it sounds like you might not like that type of string?

You might need to take a break from playing for a bit, but if it's just your fretting hand that is a problem, you could still work on right hand technique while letting your left hand heal, (reverse that if you're playing left handed. :D )

The site you linked to was a good reminder that warm up exercises are important. And that we should pay attention to how much pressure we're using. I need those reminders.

You can try tuning down a little bit. If you're not playing with others, it doesn't matter if you tune down 1/2 step, 1/4 step, or whatever works for you. That will give you less string tension.

It may take some experimenting to find what helps you, but hopefully, you'll be back to playing without pain soon.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I'm glad you liked the video. :) I've ordered a set of Living Water and Uke Logic. I'll see how I feel about them. :)

Yes, I think I'm going to have to take a longer-than-I-want-to break. :-/ When I get back to playing, I definitely want to practice using as little pressure as possible. And tuning down!

Thanks for all the tips!

CMouse
 
Yeah, I have arthritis in my hands, and X-Rays show that both my thumb joints (where they attach to the hand) are totally deteriorated. Frankly, I don't know how it is that they are still usable. My arthritis makes playing difficult, particularly in my left (chording) hand. I cope by taking Advil or Aleve and rubbing various CBD products into the effected areas. I'm not sure if its the CBD or just the rubbing that helps. But, I get by, and I only have to quit playing every half hour or so for five to ten minutes, and then I'm good to go again. It's a small price to pay for the pleasure I get from playing my Ukuleles!
 
VegasGeorge said:
Yeah, I have arthritis in my hands, and X-Rays show that both my thumb joints (where they attach to the hand) are totally deteriorated. Frankly, I don't know how it is that they are still usable. My arthritis makes playing difficult, particularly in my left (chording) hand. I cope by taking Advil or Aleve and rubbing various CBD products into the effected areas. I'm not sure if its the CBD or just the rubbing that helps. But, I get by, and I only have to quit playing every half hour or so for five to ten minutes, and then I'm good to go again. It's a small price to pay for the pleasure I get from playing my Ukuleles!
Click to expand...

Ouch! But it's your hands! LOL!

CMouse
 
Most of my tenors have Living Waters Low-G and High-g strings. If they don't work for you, try Fremont BlackLine medium strings. They are very bendy. I have them on two of my tenors.

I turn 70 next month. I have had exactly the same problem with my fingertips. Literally felt as though I had bruised the bone. (Thanks for the link to that article. Nice to have my suspicions confirmed.) Nylon strings do that to my fingers and, surprisingly, Martin Fluorocarbon 600 are like cheese cutters to me. I had to force myself to pay attention to how hard I was fretting. I had to ease up and not push the string into the fretboard, but only use as much pressure as required to get a clean chord or note. It takes practice to do that. But you can get there pretty quickly if you pay attention to that aspect of your playing. (I still forget sometimes.)

Look at where you are placing your fingers in the fret. Too close to the wire? In the middle of the fret? Are you arching your fingers? Are your fingertips parallel with the string?

Some ukes are more difficult to fret than others. If you haven't had a good setup done on your uke(s) you should. Lowering the action can really help make fretting easier and gentler on your fingers. You might sacrifice some volume, but it's worth it. The type of fret wires can also make a difference. Low, rounded frets I find particularly difficult to use. But it's probably not worth re-fretting your instrument due to the cost. It's something to think about when you buy a uke.

Don't ignore the pain. You can damage your fingers if you keep playing with the pain. It's one thing to have tender skin as you build up callouses, but quite another to have shooting pain, numbness, or deep pain in the bone.

Ease up.
 
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The arthritis in my left hand has caused my fingers to be bent. Index and pinky fingers bend outward so certain chords requiring fingers to be close together don’t work so well. I have to use alternate chord fingerings. No pain though thankfully.
 
Kenn2018 said:
If you haven't had a good setup done on your uke(s) you should. Lowering the action can really help make fretting easier and gentler on your fingers. You might sacrifice some volume, but it's worth it.
Click to expand...

Kenn had a lot of good stuff to say but the above point has been going through my mind for a few days now with regard to this thread. CM very probably has had good set-ups done, but it is worth checking.

It is also worth searching through this thread on lighter tension strings and picking up the chart / data in ed1’s response : https://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?151065-Lighter-tension-carbon-strings/page2
http://ed1.cc/Ukulele/StringTension/

I should have done but had not realised that stiffness in strings is down to both tension in the string and the string’s own flexibility.

I’m a fan of Martin 600’s but when I moved across to Fluorocarbon from Nylgut my fingers needed to toughen up more, that’s my distant recollection and prompted by Ken’s comment. I’ve tried Fremont BL mediums and they were fine enough but M600’s have worked better for me, the Fremont Clears might be worth checking out ‘cause IIRC they are light gauge and well priced. I’ve not used Nylon much but have had intonation problems with too light gauge nylon strings (usually the C string goes sharp up the neck but is fine when tensioned to D), and of course the right but heavier gauge string would be more highly tensioned.
 
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Kenn2018 said:
Most of my tenors have Living Waters Low-G and High-g strings. If they don't work for you, try Fremont BlackLine medium strings. They are very bendy. I have them on two of my tenors.

I turn 70 next month. I have had exactly the same problem with my fingertips. Literally felt as though I had bruised the bone. (Thanks for the link to that article. Nice to have my suspicions confirmed.) Nylon strings do that to my fingers and, surprisingly, Martin Fluorocarbon 600 are like cheese cutters to me. I had to force myself to pay attention to how hard I was fretting. I had to ease up and not push the string into the fretboard, but only use as much pressure as required to get a clean chord or note. It takes practice to do that. But you can get there pretty quickly if you pay attention to that aspect of your playing. (I still forget sometimes.)

Look at where you are placing your fingers in the fret. Too close to the wire? In the middle of the fret? Are you arching your fingers? Are your fingertips parallel with the string?

Some ukes are more difficult to fret than others. If you haven't had a good setup done on your uke(s) you should. Lowering the action can really help make fretting easier and gentler on your fingers. You might sacrifice some volume, but it's worth it. The type of fret wires can also make a difference. Low, rounded frets I find particularly difficult to use. But it's probably not worth re-fretting your instrument due to the cost. It's something to think about when you buy a uke.

Don't ignore the pain. You can damage your fingers if you keep playing with the pain. It's one thing to have tender skin as you build up callouses, but quite another to have shooting pain, numbness, or deep pain in the bone.

Ease up.
Click to expand...

Thank you for all the tips. The problem is probably the ABS fret boards on the Flight Travel ukuleles I got this year + Super Nylgut strings. I was having to press too hard. There are no fret wires on these ukes, just molded frets. Going to double check the Enyas I have too. Also: I need to forget looking at what online teachers say: I was playing on the VERY tips of my fingers, which turns out to be a bad idea (at least for me). Also was told to PRACTICE every day. Not a good idea either.

So I plan on putting a capo at the first fret on many of my ukes (since I do NOT plan on trying to file down notches on an ABS nut) then tune back down to gCEA. And also trying Living Water and Fremont Blacklines. And practice pressing only just enough to get my chords.

I feel nervous even getting back on horse, so to speak.

CMouse
 
socal16 said:
The arthritis in my left hand has caused my fingers to be bent. Index and pinky fingers bend outward so certain chords requiring fingers to be close together don’t work so well. I have to use alternate chord fingerings. No pain though thankfully.
Click to expand...

Eeep! But at least no pain. :)

CMouse
 
Graham Greenbag said:
Kenn had a lot of good stuff to say but the above point has been going through my mind for a few days now with regard to this thread. CM very probably has had good set-ups done, but it is worth checking.

It is also worth searching through this thread on lighter tension strings and picking up the chart / data in ed1’s response : https://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?151065-Lighter-tension-carbon-strings/page2
http://ed1.cc/Ukulele/StringTension/

I should have done but had not realised that stiffness in strings is down to both tension in the string and the string’s own flexibility.

I’m a fan of Martin 600’s but when I moved across to Fluorocarbon from Nylgut my fingers needed to toughen up more, that’s my distant recollection and prompted by Ken’s comment. I’ve tried Fremont BL mediums and they were fine enough but M600’s have worked better for me, the Fremont Clears might be worth checking out ‘cause IIRC they are light gauge and well priced. I’ve not used Nylon much but have had intonation problems with too light gauge nylon strings (usually the C string goes sharp up the neck but is fine when tensioned to D), and of course the right but heavier gauge string would be more highly tensioned.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Yes, all my older ukes have all been set up and adjusted for me by WhenDogsSing (who is no longer in my town). Most of my newer ukes cannot be setup because of ABS fretboards.And then there are the new Super Nylgut strings (not around when I was playing 8 years ago), that seem harder and stiffer. So here is what I said in another post:

The problem is probably the ABS fret boards on the Flight Travel ukuleles I got this year + Super Nylgut strings. I was having to press too hard. There are no fret wires on these ukes, just molded frets. Going to double check the Enyas I have too. Also: I need to forget looking at what online teachers say: I was playing on the VERY tips of my fingers, which turns out to be a bad idea (at least for me). Also was told to PRACTICE every day. Not a good idea either.

So I plan on putting a capo at the first fret on many of my ukes (since I do NOT plan on trying to file down notches on an ABS nut) then tune back down to gCEA. And also trying Living Water and Fremont Blacklines. And practice pressing only just enough to get my chords.

I feel nervous even getting back on horse, so to speak.

CMouse
 
There you have it then CM, it’s a case of what are you doing now that you didn’t do in the past? I’d leave the moulded fretboard instruments alone and pick up old favourites that you’ve previously used without issue. Compare several of them for comfort, observe their differences and answers will start coming to you - please share them. It will take quite a period of playing for your finger tips to toughen up again, until then perhaps just play for a few minutes here and there through the day. Good luck.
 
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Oh, my old uncle Arthur, he is a pain along with tendonitis from over working my hands handling bricks. A few years back I was learning to play guitar, in my early 70's at the time. But I could not due to pain and swollen l.h. thumb. I turned down doctors advise of surgery and started having physical therapy on a weekly basis. I quit guitar and came to ukulele about 4 years ago. I can play tenor and baritone with very little pain and now I am playing a Guitalele too. At present time I have Martin M630 strings on my baritone. On guitalele I have Aquila 96C strings. On my tenor I have Aquila strings, new nylgut high G. On all of my instruments I drop the tuning two half steps, sometimes 3 to 5 half steps down. That makes it much easier on the fingers. So far at 83 I still play with very little pain, mostly just a light ache. Every once in a while I try guitar again, but sadly that only causes real pain. I don't know the answer to arthritis, tendonitis, strains, etc. I only know that therapy helps a lot and dropping the tuning seem to help even more. Just keep playing and enjoying it as much as possible. Good luck to all and keep smiling.
 
With all this talk of Tuning down it occurs to me that someone could buy sets intended for D Tuning and tune them to C instead. Now a little bit of caution here ‘cause some strings need a bit of tension to intonate well.

Anyway New Nylgut is popular and their 33U set is for Soprano D Tuning. https://aquilacorde.com/en/shop/modern-instrument-string-sets/ukulele-banjouke-en/new-nylgut-ukulele. If you have Nylgut strings already then check how far the gCEA strings can be detuned and what the diameters are, that’ll give you a feel for what the D set is likely to do when tuned to C.
 
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Graham Greenbag said:
There you have it then CM, it’s a case of what are you doing now that you didn’t do in the past? I’d leave the moulded fretboard instruments alone and pick up old favourites that you’ve previously used without issue. Compare several of them for comfort, observe their differences and answers will start coming to you - please share them. It will take quite a period of playing for your finger tips to toughen up again, until then perhaps just play for a few minutes here and there through the day. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much! I think I'm beginning to realize I never used fluorocarbons before. I think they are baaaad for me!
 
johnnysmash said:
Oh, my old uncle Arthur, he is a pain along with tendonitis from over working my hands handling bricks. A few years back I was learning to play guitar, in my early 70's at the time. But I could not due to pain and swollen l.h. thumb. I turned down doctors advise of surgery and started having physical therapy on a weekly basis. I quit guitar and came to ukulele about 4 years ago. I can play tenor and baritone with very little pain and now I am playing a Guitalele too. At present time I have Martin M630 strings on my baritone. On guitalele I have Aquila 96C strings. On my tenor I have Aquila strings, new nylgut high G. On all of my instruments I drop the tuning two half steps, sometimes 3 to 5 half steps down. That makes it much easier on the fingers. So far at 83 I still play with very little pain, mostly just a light ache. Every once in a while I try guitar again, but sadly that only causes real pain. I don't know the answer to arthritis, tendonitis, strains, etc. I only know that therapy helps a lot and dropping the tuning seem to help even more. Just keep playing and enjoying it as much as possible. Good luck to all and keep smiling.
Click to expand...
Thank you for this! I may go back to my older Nylguts. I hate the Super Nylguts--stiff and hard! And I've bought some Martin M600s for the soprano, but also am going to try the Martin polygut strings.
 
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