palm muscle tight enflamed and pertruding

[Mr.Bassist]

Hey there please help im worried that I may cause injury.....I was playing root 5 back and forth for a full song and by the end i looked at my left hand the large muscle below the pinky was pertruding out the side tight and enflamed no joint pain at all just warmth and tighness . Do I just need to develope this muscle is it natural for this to happen to new players like myself or is it in my technique .

[Eric Hochberg]

Protruding muscle? Sounds like you should see a Dr. On the rest, it's like athletics, whenever we do an activity we're not used to doing, it can stress us out at first if you do too much too fast. Play the bass too long when you're not used to it and you'll probably have sore muscles, skin, etc. Your body needs to adapt and develop over time, slowly, through reasonable practice and playing time. Over do it and you get pain and other symptoms. Also, make sure your instrument isn't fighting you too much, get a good setup.

[Feral Feline]

What ehochberg said, especially about "your body needs to adapt and develop over time".

I bumped up my practice regimen for a gig and that caused my right forearm muscles to tighten up, which in turn put massive stress on those muscles' attachment point at the elbow (ie, tennis elbow anyone?).

Saw a myotherapist which helped TREMENDOUSLY, and also went for acupuncture which also helped. It's still sore, I've eased up practice, but still have gigs to do so it's taking a lonnngggg time to get better.

If you ignore the warning signs, you'll only do irreversible long-term damage. So listen to your body and back off when necessary.

FF

[MT Spaces]

Originally Posted by Mr.Bassist

... i looked at my left hand the large muscle below the pinky was pertruding out the side tight and enflamed .... is it natural for this to happen to new players like myself or is it in my technique .

Sorry F'Queers ... I believe this dick-weed is a troll .... Sorry if I'm wrong.

Just in case .... Bassist .... Assuming you are right-handed and "frettin" with yer whacking-off left ....

I see no reason why yer "big muscle" below yer pinky would be inflamed. I play a lot of bass (with Bad Form) ... Never had a problem with what you describe. But lots of problems with big thumb muscle and fore-arm muscles.

HEY ... Mr. Bassist ... Go over to Rock'ASS'Billy bass website and ask them the Same Question. They will ream yer'butt worse than me (in a friendly-kinda-way) and maybe even answer yer question (if your Question Is For Real ) !

[Bass]

Originally Posted by Bob Knebel

Sorry F'Queers ... I believe this dick-weed is a troll .... Sorry if I'm wrong...

Had a few too many Bob?

I think Mr. Bassist's story is plausible. New to bass, weak "pinky muscle", and root-fifth for a whole song!

Mr. Bassist, you are supposed to let the weight of your arm do the work instead of squeezing the neck with your hand. Also, use your ring finger to help hold the string down - two fingers are stronger than one.

[Paul Warburton]

Here's his other thread.......

Urgent Please Help

[Eric Hochberg]

Originally Posted by Paul Warburton

Here's his other thread.......

Urgent Please Help

Is this one of your quotes, Paul, "Help me jesus"?

[MT Spaces]

Originally Posted by Bass

Had a few too many Bob? ....

Nope Death-Face Bass ....... I'm out. Do you deliver ??

Originally Posted by Bass

.... I think Mr. Bassist's story is plausible. New to bass, weak "pinky muscle", and root-fifth for a whole song!

Mr. Bassist, you are supposed to let the weight of your arm do the work instead of squeezing the neck with your hand. Also, use your ring finger to help hold the string down - two fingers are stronger than one.

Thanks Pal ..... Now that you straightened me out .... It is Plausible . And you gave some fine advice. Explain to Mr. Bassist that he can also get the fifth right next to the root .... There are ways to never use the Pinky. I did that when my lefty got sprained but I don't recommend not learning to use the Pinky when it is a healthy finger.

[Paul Warburton]

Originally Posted by ehochberg

Is this one of your quotes, Paul, "Help me jesus"?

My line is at the bottom of this guys posts, Eric.
I try to reserve it for when somebody posts a picture of a beautiful old bass........

Alexi David GIGSPAM, Fat Cat, NYC

[Eric Hochberg]

Originally Posted by Paul Warburton

My line is at the bottom of this guys posts, Eric.
I try to reserve it for when somebody posts a picture of a beautiful old bass........

Alexi David GIGSPAM, Fat Cat, NYC

LOL, LOL, LOL, LOL!!!!!

[Mr.Bassist]

Great advice I have been using the ring and pinky together to fret the 5th and sometimes i will substitute in open notes.
Still working on using the weight of my arm to do some of the work of fretting the strings .

[Paul Warburton]

How do you fret on an instrument that doesn't have frets? Or are you not playing a DB?

[Bass]

Originally Posted by Bob Knebel

...Explain to Mr. Bassist that he can also get the fifth right next to the root...

Good thought Bob. I use the fifth right next to the root waaay more than the one I have to reach for with my pinky. Too bad it doesn't work on the E-string (the E is my favorite string).

Mr. Bassist, have a look at this diagram:



E is the root and B is the fifth (of course). The dotted lines represent imaginary frets (I put those in for Paul Warburtons benefit). With your index finger on the E, you can play the fifth with either your pinky or your index finger!

Mr. Bassist, using the weight of your arm rather than squeezing the fingerboard is a bit of a trick. But you'll get the hang of it. You should be able to stop notes without even touching the back of the neck with your thumb. Try it! Remove your thumb from the neck, and let the weight of your arm pull your hand into the fingerboard, maybe even pull with your shoulder if you have to in order to get a feel for it. This will save your hand muscles in the long run.

Does anyone else find it funny the Paul Warburton is paying close attention to a thread about inflamed palm muscles? If anyone knows about inflamed palm muscles it's PW.

[Paul Warburton]

Originally Posted by Bass

(I put those in for Paul Warburtons benefit). With your index finger your index finger!

That's what she said, last night.

Originally Posted by Bass

Does anyone else find it funny the Paul Warburton is paying close attention to a thread about inflamed palm muscles? If anyone knows about inflamed palm muscles it's PW.

I do know about inflamed muscles, mine is that way but it ain't anywhere near my palm.

[sloasdaylight]

Except E to B down is a 4th, not a 5th. I don't know much about how rockabilly is played or how it's notated, but moving down to the B from the E is moving down a forth, not a 5th. It gives you the same note, but a different interval and different sound.

[hdiddy]

Originally Posted by Paul Warburton

I do know about inflamed muscles, mine is that way but it ain't anywhere near my palm.

Cept' when you're "off to the bathroom".

[Bass]

Originally Posted by sloasdaylight

Except E to B down is a 4th, not a 5th... but moving down to the B from the E is moving down a forth, not a 5th. It gives you the same note, but a different interval and different sound.

HA HA HAAAAAA!

You are wrong, in yo' face! [poking finger close to nose with each syllable]

Originally Posted by sloasdaylight

I don't know much about how rockabilly is played or how it's notated

That's for sure!

[sloasdaylight]

Please enlighten me then so that others can learn from my ignorance.

I was under the impression that when descending from E to B, you wind up with the P4 interval, whereas when you ascend from E to B you wind up with the P5 interval, which are different intervals and result in a different sound. If this is somehow mistaken and you wind up with a P5 regardless of which direction you go, and still wind up with E to B, then please enlighten me.

[Bass]

Originally Posted by sloasdaylight

Please enlighten me then so that others can learn from my ignorance...

Certainly. You are confusing "intervals" with Nashville nomenclature.

Originally Posted by Bass

...E is the root and B is the fifth (of course)...

Each note in a scale is given a number. In the above diagram, E is the root (1) and B is the fifth (5). B is the "fifth" regardless of where it appears on the fingerboard.

What does this have to do with inflamed muscles? We want Mr. Bassist to be comfortable playing the "fifth" with either his pinky or his index finger - without worrying that "index fifth" is an interval of four.

Alternating bass lines are very standard in rockabilly music. This is also commonly known as root-five, country-five or root-fifth.

You can learn more about rockabilly bass by reading this lesson.

[sloasdaylight]

Ah gotcha, thanks for that, sorry for my ignorance on that.