:bawl: help me on a little dilemma! whenever i play bass i wake up the next morning with my little finger sort of locked in its joint. i bend it by the knuckle and it doesnt bend totally smooth, it feels like theres something physically stopping it, like a bone :confused:

but im not sure what it is thats causing it. ill put it down to poor technique since whenever i play on the G string i do lie my pinky flat and roll it at an angle when i want to play something four frets away from my first finger. but i bend it normally for the rest of the strings. is this a bad way of playing if its causing my finger to lock? and should i change the way i use it for the bottom string?

Someone more knowledgeable than me will answer i'm sure. But i'd reccomend playing 1 finger per fret down on the first four frets VERY slowly, keeping a carefull eye on your technique.
Good luck, better advice will follow...

It sounds like you are stretching just for the sake of stretching. If the stretch isn't comfortable move your hand a bit. If I'm reading your post correctly you are rolling over and playing a bit on the side of your pinky. That is bad for the joint.

Stretching out the tendons and then putting pressure on them is no good.

Even though I can stretch 4 frets from the first position. I usually cover 1-3 and 4-6 with the index finger on 1 and the pinky on 3. Just more comfortable.

Technically speaking you would want to play with 1 finger per fret, but if the hands aren't big enough to do it naturally, and you practice like that a lot, all you'll do it cause yourself joint pain and things like you are experiencing now.

No pain, no gain does not apply to bass.

What you may have is called "trigger finger".

It's caused by a little knot on the tendon that catches on the "pulley' in your finger joint.

This is caused by overuse, age, etc. It's very common once you hit 40.

I had it in my little finger two years ago and had an operation to fix it. Now it's fine but I'm careful.

Go see a hand surgeon for a diagnosis.

Unfortunately, if it is trigger finger it does not get better by itself.

The doctor may also suggest a cortisone shot.

If it only does this after playing bass you might want to quit using the little finger and avoid a costly operation.

My total bill, including hospital, general anesthesia (they put you under), surgeon, etc. was close to $10,000!

Good luck. Get it checked out before you make it worse.

...Go see a hand surgeon for a diagnosis...

Stop playing. See your MD at once and get a referal to a specialist. :hmm: