destroying my poor little pinky

[richardjones89]

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

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?

[Mark Perry]

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...

[ric1312]

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.

[LowE]

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.

[Jim Carr]

Originally Posted by LowE

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

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