pain in my hand

[SkullofDarkness]

Greetings to you all! I will be brief, i have been playing for some years now and next month is my bands first big show with a national act so it is something i do not want to mess up. This brings me to my question, sometimes when i am in the middle of a song the wrist of the hand i am plucking the strings with begins to hurt (kinda like a cramp) this in effect makes it rather difficult to use two of my three fingers to pluck and reduces the speed. Of course and like a 30 sec rest i am just fine. I noticed it happens both when i am standing or sitting, after i spent some time doing a fast line on a lower string like E or B, and i believe more commonly with this one five string bass that i use. If anyone has any idea what this could be, i would appreciate it

[stabbicus]

Do you anchor your thumb on your pickup? Or, do you use the floating thumb technique? How high is your bass?

[SkullofDarkness]

i anchor it on my pickup

[middy]

Don't bend your wrist. Get your elbow up so your wrist is pretty straight.

[SkullofDarkness]

ok will do and while i am here i might as well ask, what would finger weights do for me? would they increase speed or stamina, any fun stuff like that

[MysticMichael]

Originally Posted by SkullofDarkness

ok will do and while i am here i might as well ask, what would finger weights do for me? would they increase speed or stamina, any fun stuff like that

You don't need to screw around with stuff like that. Cramping in the wrist or the hand is evidence of stress, usually caused by bad technique. So you need to decrease your stress - not increase it. If you play an instrument with high action, consider lowering it. If you tend to play with a heavy hand, consider lightening your touch.

Basically, anything you can do to take the unnecessary physical labor out of playing is likely to be to your benefit. And it could help prevent the development of more serious, chronic problems (i.e. carpal tunnel syndrome) later on...

MM

[SkullofDarkness]

then that i shall do thanks people

[stabbicus]

You mentioned using a five string bass, so why not try to learn the floating thumb technique. It helped me out a great deal as far as lightening my touch and cleaning up my technique on my fiver.