Fretting.

[Misery89]

I played piano before bass so just naturally used all four. First see a doctor to see if there is a physical reason your pinky locks up. If not, find a good teacher and figure out how to fix your technique, that’s not normal to have your finger lock up.

Both hands aswell which tells me it isn’t just bass related I had the issue long before I played

 

[lfmn16]

Both hands aswell which tells me it isn’t just bass related I had the issue long before I played

The fix may be as simple as physical therapy, but you need a diagnosis.

 

[Misery89]

The fix may be as simple as physical therapy, but you need a diagnosis.

Heres to hoping!

Will look into that ASAP

 

[DrThumpenstein]

My little finger will lock in my day to day life but the only other activity I use it for is gaming and even then it’s annoying but I can use it.

if google is to be believed I think it’s trigger finger, which is only fixed by surgery

Actually, that’s a bit of a misconception. Trigger fingers can respond very well to hand therapy and usually respond well to injection of a small amount of Cortisone-type medication inside the tendon sheath. Full disclosure, I am a sports medicine physician and do these at least once or twice a week on patients. We use ultrasound, to make sure that it gets into the tendon sheath, we use plenty of Novacaine, it’s really not painful if done right and works most of the time. I only have to send one or two folks a year for a surgical release. That is a fairly easy surgery if it truly is a trigger finger.

And while I’m a doctor, I’m not your doctor and can’t substitute for one on here. Even though I didn’t see anything that looked like locking on your videos, that doesn’t rule out a true trigger finger. Tendon problems are not terribly uncommon in younger people who play musical instruments or do a lot of gaming.

Regardless of whether you actually have a trigger finger, a lot of the advice hear about technique will be helpful going forward. Good luck getting this sorted out!

 

[Misery89]

Actually, that’s a bit of a misconception. Trigger fingers can respond very well to hand therapy and usually respond well to injection of a small amount of Cortisone-type medication inside the tendon sheath. Full disclosure, I am a sports medicine physician and do these at least once or twice a week on patients. We use ultrasound, to make sure that it gets into the tendon sheath, we use plenty of Novacaine, it’s really not painful if done right and works most of the time. I only have to send one or two folks a year for a surgical release. That is a fairly easy surgery if it truly is a trigger finger.

And while I’m a doctor, I’m not your doctor and can’t substitute for one on here. Even though I didn’t see anything that looked like locking on your videos, that doesn’t rule out a true trigger finger. Tendon problems are not terribly uncommon in younger people who play musical instruments or do a lot of gaming.

Regardless of whether you actually have a trigger finger, a lot of the advice hear about technique will be helpful going forward. Good luck getting this sorted out!

Thanks for the input, I have googled more and seen different exercise etc and I’m sure it is trigger finger.

https://youtube.com/shorts/rlJSCbI-NPw?feature=share

you can see how bad it actually is, either way calling doctor tomorrow hoping for a referral.
Thanks.

 

[SteveCS]

...
i can play using all four fingers and simpler stuff I seem to, when it comes to any sort of runs moving around the fret board I seem to tuck my fingers, I have already started trying to address it but keeping my fingers normal seems near on impossible at the moment.
...

You've probably heard it before, but if your playing starts to fall apart as tempo or complexity (or both) increase then you haven't really assimilated the bacis techniques to begin with, and are probably not practicing good techniques when playing the simple or slow stuff.
The point of drilling these exercises through hundreds of repetitions at slow tempo to train the muscles to consistently do the right thing. Every aspect of the hand-shape and hand movements has to be 'grooved' slowly before tempo is added. 'Grooved' in this context is not about timing and feel of the music - it's a technical approach used in sports such as tennis, golf or squash:
SERIOUS SQUASH: Repetition, Repetition, Repetition