Them bones....

[Lostgallifreyan]

In Finn's thread about thumbs on fretting hands here, Are you using your fretting hand thumb at all?, I saw posts that made me think about permanent adaptations in the fretting hand, but I saved my thought to put as a question here:

Has anyone's hand changed, permanently, as a result of playing the bass? I don't mean injury, but actual useful adaptation.

I ask because the span of my fretting hand is damn near 0.75 inches longer than the right, and I know that for the first forty years of my life this was not true. At one point, when running, I fell and fractured the left wrist slightly, and had to be careful (I'd already started to play the bass a few years earlier). What I'm not sure of is whether this change was a bit of luck for me, the resetting of bone growth extending the reach of a hand otherwise too small for a bass, or whether it would have happened anyway as a result of stretching my technique (literally) to manage. This change, whatever the cause, seems to have happened over the course of about 14 years. For the first 40 years my hands were similar in reach. There is no obvious change in shape, just the reach.

 

[mongo2]

In Finn's thread about thumbs on fretting hands here, Are you using your fretting hand thumb at all?, I saw posts that made me think about permanent adaptations in the fretting hand, but I saved my thought to put as a question here:

Has anyone's hand changed, permanently, as a result of playing the bass? I don't mean injury, but actual useful adaptation.

I ask because the span of my fretting hand is damn near 0.75 inches longer than the right, and I know that for the first forty years of my life this was not true. At one point, when running, I fell and fractured the left wrist slightly, and had to be careful (I'd already started to play the bass a few years earlier). What I'm not sure of is whether this change was a bit of luck for me, the resetting of bone growth extending the reach of a hand otherwise too small for a bass, or whether it would have happened anyway as a result of stretching my technique (literally) to manage. This change, whatever the cause, seems to have happened over the course of about 14 years. For the first 40 years my hands were similar in reach. There is no obvious change in shape, just the reach.

I have a similar extension of my fretting hand. With my thumb and index fingers lined up the middle, ring and littlefingers of my left hand spread about 1/2", 3/4" and 1" further respectively compared to the same fingers on my right hand. After over 50 years of playing I guess it adapted some.

I showed it to my PT when visiting for a shoulder issue and he said it was possible the playing facilitated the stretch over the years.

Since switching to short scales I find the extra reach of my fretting hand to be very handy (pardon the pun).

 

[Lostgallifreyan]

I have a similar extension of my fretting hand. With my thumb and index fingers lined up the middle, ring and littlefingers of my left hand spread about 1/2", 3/4" and 1" further respectively compared to the same fingers on my right hand. After over 50 years of playing I guess it adapted some.

Thanks for that, I thought this thread was dropping to the bottom without a ripple.

Interesting comment too. I lined up my fingers close, to see what had happened there. All about 1/4 of an inch longer, except the forefingers. Those are still equal. It looks as if for me the stretched span is the biggest change, so that may mean the wrist fracture was a mixed blessing, and turned out to be useful. (I was careful to play despite the early pain, because I always suspected I'd gain advantage that way, and lose any I already had if I failed to try.)

 

[mongo2]

I just tried something.

I never checked this before but I just did my brief before playing stretching exercise and found that the spread of my fretting hand compared to my right hand increased to about 1" for the middle and ring fingers, and little more than 1" for the little finger of my fretting hand. I guess there's something to be said for stretching before playing.

 

[tb-player]

Thumb-to-pinky, tip-to-tip, my LH is longer than my RH. May have always been that way or maybe I've evolved. Who knows?

 

[mongo2]

Thumb-to-pinky, tip-to-tip, my LH is longer than my RH. May have always been that way or maybe I've evolved. Who knows?

I'm still waiting for my left hand to evolve to grow a sixth finger. (Tip of the hat to "The Outer Limits")

 

[tb-player]

I'm still waiting for my left hand to evolve to grow a sixth finger. (Tip of the hat to "The Outer Limits")

Just be careful. All this talk of physical appendages growing as a result of playing bass could give some TB members the wrong idea and lead to some unorthodox (and unsanitary) 'techniques'.