Ageing fingers need straightening and exercising

Low-G

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The pleasures of retirement: you have more time to play your uke, but the ageing fingers are less willing to co-operate.

I have just noticed the first signs: on my left hand, the middle and ring finger tips seem to have a magnetic attraction for each other when I curl them to stop a note on the fingerboard. (I wonder what's coming next.)

I thought it likely that other members of this forum, especially those not in their first youth, had found a good way of keeping their fingers mobile. I would be very grateful for any tips.

Cheers, Harry
 
Any exercise that moves them individually will help.

Place hands on a table palms down, lift each finger individually, just the pinky, then just the ring finger, then the middle, etc.

Also learning to play a tin whistle will gets them moving individually, they can be bought for a couple of £'s, (£4~£7 depending on key)
 
Thanks, Keith, some good ideas there. It had never occurred to me to get the old tin whistle out. (Happy memories of my Dad playing British Grenadiers and When Johnny Comes Marching Home on his.)
I'll have a blow today.
Harry
 
Exercises are fine to keep things limber, but don't delay a trip to your doc to see what's going on. I had some hand issues, which I ignored for a year, chaulking it up to old age and arthritis. After seeing the doc and some tests, it ends up I have a medium to serious case of carpal tunnel in both hands, with trigger finger too. It's a wonder I can still play at all. Thankfully all can be fixed via simple surgery, but I wish I had done so a year ago.
 
+1 for using a whistle/flute/recorder as an alternative therapy for a stiffening fretting hand.

One advantage can be that a lot of arrangements for these instruments are in "easy" keys on the ukulele, so you can record your own backing rhythm track and play along with yourself ;)

Enjoy :music:
 
Mine do the same thing. On a lot of chords my fingers aren't at 90 degrees to the fretboard, the index and pinky especially end up like at 45 degrees to the board. Part of it may be the amount of reach I need to play a lot of chords, but I think it's just my fingers. The movement's fine. I just play around it the best I can.
 
Thank you guys for your comments. Good of you to take the trouble.
Something to bring up at next medical.
At least it gives me an excuse for my pretty indifferent performance.
Back to plodding along.
Harry
 
My grandmother used to say that doing all her laundry by hand (she never owned a washing machine) kept her arthritic fingers supple. Something to do with the exercise in hot water if I recall. It won't be long until I'll be looking for such a fix myself; the hips are already giving the odd twinge. Maybe I should take up grape-treading.
 
A friend of mine, now in her late-50's started doing Yoga and Tai Chi when she started to see the first signs of arthritis and other mobility issues in her early 40's...

After taking classes and going to various groups for about a year, she began to reap the benefits and has not complained to me about any aches, pains or similar mobility problems since.

She has told me numerous times that she feels the Yoga and Tai Chi had saved her from a walker or wheelchair or being on high doses of prescription medicines (with various side-effects), and I too have been considering following her path soon as well.

I am not sure how these exercises would specifically help with hand problems, but if they improve blood flow and oxygen saturation all over one's body, I would hope that they can benefit the extremities as well.
 
Dear Jim and Joe
Many thanks for your helpful comments.
I may not mention the laundry idea to my wife, but I will have a go in hot water when chained to the kitchen sink.
As regards Tai Chi: we bought a DVD of Tai Chi for the (well) over 50s for Christmas, so we'll have to see how it goes. Fingers crossed (ouch!)
No real probs with the fingers yet, but I can see the direction of travel.
All best wishes
Harry
 
Thanks for this Nickie.
Have just had a quick look: looks nice and easy to understand, but not quite so easy to do perfectly.
I'll have a play through now, especially the middle-finger ring-finger exercise.
Best wishes
Harry
 
Do you mean it literally - "Aged fingers need straightening"? If your fingers will not straighten out (curling inwards), it could be a common condition called Dupuytren's Contracture. I had it in my left hand, in my early 70s, and it became so severe that I could not get my hand into a glove, and could not operate the clutch lever of my motorcycle.

Following my doctor's advice I had an operation to release the affected tendons, and the result was a complete success. That was eight years ago.

This condition is an inherited trait (some blame the Vikings!) and no amount of exercise or manipulation can cure it. If in doubt, see your doctor.

John Colter.
 
Thank you for your reply, John.
I don't think I have this problem, but it is a useful post to have for others who might be sufferers. What you describe is what a colleague of mine suffered from: his hand was in a permanent grip shape. I'm glad that it worked for you.
For me, it's much more trivial. I can splay my fingers out with in line with the palm no trouble ... but, when I bring them round into the correct shape for fingering a chord on the uke, the two middle fingers converge and almost overlap at the tip. This makes a chord like Fmaj7 on the uke (a 2-4-3-1 shape, where the numbers = fingers = strings) a real stinker to fret. The third finger wants to come down on the 2nd fret rather than the first.
It's one of those things that seem too trivial to bother the poor old GP with.
And then I think of what Django did with two-and-a-half fingers
Best wishes
Harry
 
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