Guitarist Injuries & Continuing to Practice While Recovering

Guitarist Injuries & Continuing to Practice While Recovering Video Transcript

Dave Dougherty: - All right, welcome to this week's lesson with BGO. You got Dave here. 

Chris Becknell: - Chris here. 

Dave Dougherty: - All right. We're doing a little bit of a different format just because we wanted to talk about injuries and different things that you can do. If any of you are subscribed to the newsletter, you would have seen earlier this year that Chris and I both had got injured and were unable to play for a little bit. I'm still recovering. 

Exactly. And, you know, for this week's newsletter, I'm going to do a little bit more talking about the injury thing just because it hit me researching different things that, you know, part of the guitar journey is learning all the things and being excited to play your favorite song or learn how to solo and just get familiar with the instrument. 

But, you know, as you stick with it, and as you move forward into these new things, you know, we have day lives, too, like, especially with some of the, you know, some of my older students, you have work, you have kid responsibilities, like, you know, you're probably going to get hurt eventually. So let's talk about different approaches like what to do when that happens. 

And, you know, I should say just from the get-go that, you know, neither one of us are medical professionals. So, if you have an injury, by all means, talk to your doctor and figure out what's right for your situation. 

But we're just going to talk about, you know, our situations and what has worked for us. So Chris, why don't you walk through what happened to you? Was it February? 

Chris Becknell: - Oh, yeah, probably early March, the start of March. 

Dave Dougherty: - Okay. 

Chris Becknell: - Start of March, I burnt my thumb and just making food in the kitchen and grabbed a hot pot and my thumb just slipped over and just a third-degree burn on my thumb here. And just recovering from that was painful because I'm resting my thumb often on the bottom string of a guitar while I'm playing. 

So playing with a bandaged-up thumb, it just felt uncomfortable and it just hurt to flex it. Also couldn't shoot tutorial videos because I couldn't do close-ups on my right hand with a gigantic bandage on my thumb. So that was the big drag for BGO content in trying to, you know, continue offering helpful advice for students in the online community is, you know, just having this gigantic bandage around my thumb is that healed up. 

But I considered I got off lucky, you know, I didn't lose my thumb. And more importantly, at least from a playing perspective, and this is a total acoustic guy talking, I didn't bust my thumbnail. That's important. So, the thumbnail stayed intact for, you know, picking classical and picking steel string acoustic, and even picking on the electric a little bit. 

But it just was, you know, kind of unwieldy and it hurt. But I think, you know, one of the common injuries many guitarists have suffered over their life and working professionals, especially in this day and age, is problems of the wrist, problems of the forearm, hands, you know, things that are related to tendonitis and carpal tunnel. 

They're major issues for guitar players. And I thought it'd be fun to just open up here with a couple of the exercises that I go through before I play, before I practice every day, too, you know. And it doesn't matter what time of day you're practicing, you need to be attentive to doing some warm-ups. And these, you know, again, I'm not a medical professional, but these are things that I've found to be helpful. I haven't had a lot of playing-related injuries in my life, thankfully. 

And not any major ones to be honest. I've had a couple of bouts with, you know, some wrist pain, but nothing that's full-on carpal tunnel and nothing that's full-on tendinitis. But before I, you know, start practicing every day, before I get the guitar on me or in my lap, you know, it's just practicing this idea of sitting tall and keeping my shoulders straight. 

And then just, you know, it seems funny, but you're in your practice space and, you know, it's all for you. It's just letting your arms hang down and just wobbling them back and forth and kind of just getting that blood flow to the fingertips and keeping everything loose and limber. And I'm not doing a lot of head rolls or anything like that. 

But it's all just kind of focused on arm and shoulder relaxation, just keeping my spine straight, you know, and about how when I go to play and I'm bringing my hands up in a really relaxed way. And, you know, just that little bit of prep work and it warms up the fingers and warms up the hands. Then there are different right-hand and left-hand warm-up ideas. 

If your finger picking, if you're playing classical guitar or fingerstyle acoustic, there's a whole myriad amount of right-hand arpeggios you can do on the guitar, to, you know, get your right hand warmed up. And then there's a whole lot of just kind of silent left-hand exercises you can do, and we've got videos on these things. But just warming up both hands and then launching into your practice session. 

Same way, you wouldn't come out of 20-degree weather into the gym and just start bench pressing, you know. You got to warm up a little bit, right? The amount of... 

Dave Dougherty: - I would always tell my students, you know, it's like, these are little muscles, right? So when you go to workout, you know, you stretch your big ones, like, you should be thinking of, you know, keeping everything because, you know, it's all attached. 

Chris Becknell: - We're micro athletes. As musicians, you really have to view yourself, you are a micro athlete. You know, you're doing an intense amount of focus on a small scale, but with a lot of intensity. So the intensity is no joke that it takes to play an instrument of any kind. It's micro athletics. So treat it as such. 

Dave Dougherty: - There was, God, was it 10, 12 years ago? I think there was some study or maybe I can dig it up. Otherwise, it's a good anecdote, and, you know, whatever, it's a good story. But there was some medical researcher that was like, let's take the stats of, like, a drummer, like, you know, professional concert drummer. And so he got the readings of the heart rate and the whatever and then went to basketball players. 

He said, like, you know, "Hey, would you want to be a musician? Would you want to do that?" And they were like, "Oh, yeah, absolutely." Like, okay, well, here, check out these. Here's what your day is you have to, you know, get up really early to get to the next show, you have to load in all of your stuff, you have to be there to do this, that, and the other, then you have to play and when you're playing, here's what your heart rates doing, here's what your body's doing. 

Here are all the, you know, sort of medical stats, then you have to break everything down. And you know, you go to bed and maybe get like five hours of sleep. And these are the working conditions, there's smoke, there's light, there's heat, there's whatever. And when they were shown, you know, those sort of health things, they're like, "Oh, no, I can't do that. There's no way I would put my body through that." 

Chris Becknell: - That's great. 

Dave Dougherty: - So maybe I can dig that up. 

Chris Becknell: - Put a link down in the comments or something. 

Dave Dougherty: - I'll try to find that. But that story has always stuck with me in terms of that micro-athlete idea because it's true. Jumping around on a hot stage is no joke. 

Chris Becknell: - No. No, they've moved to LED lights and the stage isn't quite as hot as it used to be in the past. It's still work. 

Dave Dougherty: - When you pack 200 people in any kind of space, it's going to warm up. But, I think, you know, for me, you know, I put my fist down on the ground in order to transition from standing to laying, and my wrist gave out. And so, my hand curled underneath and all my body weight landed right here. 

And, you know, went to the doc and they're like, you know, good news, bad news. Good news, nothing's broken. I'm like, "Okay, cool." And they're like, "Bad news, sprains take longer to heal." So I think I'm six weeks in. And just last night, I finally attempted to play a little and I can tell you straight away that the dexterity is just gone. 

I'm going to have to build it back up. And especially with my middle fingers, there's something with that tendon that I'm just going to have to build up again. But, you know, when it happened, and this was one of the reasons, you know, to talk about it was, you know, when you are faced with this, it doesn't mean that you just have to put down the guitar. 

You can choose to do that, we wouldn't recommend it because we like playing, but you can go and focus on other things as part of your practice routine. For me, because I don't do a lot of fingerpicking and I'm kind of chipping away at that thing, you know, as I can, I started doing some finger independence things based on videos that Chris has done for BGO. 

So I knew where to find them. And, you know, started doing some of that stuff. But then I also went back to some more of the music theory things just to go into tonal stuff or, you know, re-familiarize myself with modes which, you know, for somebody at the stage that, you know, you and I are that's definitely an option. 

But you know, for somebody who hasn't memorized, you know, note positions that might be something to work on, you know, or just committing to memory the scale formulas of a minor pentatonic is a, you know, one, three, four, five, you know, and just having those in your head so that when you go to apply them elsewhere, you can, you know, easily grab those things. 

That's definitely valid practice in my book. I tell, you know, my private students that, you know, that is a valid practice. So is exploring new music, that kind of music appreciation piece, like if you've never listened to country, go listen to country. If you've never explored, you know, reggaeton, spend a week with that and just see if any of that resonates with you and, you know, analyze the drum parts or, you know, whatever else. 

Chris Becknell: - I think that you know, the universal thing I tell every student, no matter the age, is you cannot listen too much. You absolutely cannot listen to too much guitar music. It's not possible. 

Dave Dougherty: - Well, and there's just so much difference. You know, like, I've been getting into more of the regional, like, world stuff over the last couple of years just to see, you know, okay, flamenco, what is that? I'm totally unfamiliar with that. How do I discover some of that? You know, do you go more traditional? Or do you go more with the synthy new stuff? All of it's cool. 

Chris Becknell: - There's just a wide world of guitar styles out there. And the accessibility of being able to reach out to knowledgeable people through the internet and get recommendations on who next to listen to you. And the algorithms and many of the music listening programs out there, doesn't matter what you're subscribing to or what you're using, what platform you're using, the algorithms keep getting better and better as far as recommending, you know, pretty good quality suggestions for artists you have never heard of and haven't met, and maybe never would have discovered otherwise, now that we don't have a record shop on the corner in every town for kids to kind of gather at and discover stuff. 

The, you know, the internet and our phone apps are really the new frontiers for music discovery. So, I mean, that's a whole other conversation, but you cannot listen too much. You just can't. I think, you know, as we're talking about injuries, the big things are, we never injure everything all at once. 

You know, it's pretty rare that somebody, like, breaks both their arms. It's pretty rare that somebody has, you know, both legs broken. So what do you do when, you know, you're just trying to get some bit of practice in when you're injured? And if your right hand's injured, you know, you can think about doing left-hand chord shapes. You know, there are a lot of things you can do with the teacher to just simply work on what we call chord blocks. 

You know, in guitar playing, there's the setup of playing notes individually, and then also playing chord shapes all at once, which require multiple fingers moving together and kind of landing at the same time. And if you're injured in your right hand, this is a great chance to, you know, just practice doing some of those chord blocks and work on some theory, like you were talking about. 

You know, with the assistance of a teacher, you can start exploring these movable shapes. You know, the guitar is such a geometric instrument. I always tell people that, you know, when you're connecting with the fretboard, you're really thinking in shapes. You know, as you play fast and at a virtuosic speed, you're not thinking, oh, I'm playing a G, a D, and a B. 

You're just thinking of this one-two shape that kind of looks like a little off-center triangle, you know. And then when we go to this, I'm not thinking now oh, I'm playing a G, E, and a C. I'm thinking I'm playing this kind of L shape. You know, my brain and my hands are really thinking geometrically. 

And if you're injured in your right hand, it's a great chance to just practice going back and forth between some of these shapes and understanding how those are connected on the guitar as you have the time to focus on it while you're waiting for your right hand to recover. And likewise, if your left hand is injured, your right hand has just a number of things that it can do as far as arpeggios, planted arpeggios. 

You know different rolls. There are a lot of things you can do. Just with the right-hand dexterity-wise, if you're picking with your fingers and if you're picking with a plectrum, you can tune the guitar to an open tuning. You should have thought ahead and tuned this to like an open G or an open D or something. 

But, you know, then it sounds like music and you're just working on, you know, intricate picking patterns. And you can also play any electric guitar solo. This is a big thing in the classical world. We talk about playing an entire piece with just our right hand. We're not injured, but we'll study a score and we'll play the entire piece just with the right hand.

And there are left-hand notes that, you know, create a more musical interest and variety there. But being able to work through a piece, and even if that's all you do over your injury period is just one piece and really getting the right hand down, I promise, you're never going to forget that piece. 

That's going to suddenly become you know, a lifer piece for you. You're going to remember the fingerings for that piece more concretely than a lot of the other pieces that you play by just jumping into hands together. So that division of handwork, you know, is something worth pursuing even when you're not injured. But if you are injured, it can be a really great chance to connect with a skill set that's going to serve you outside of the injury as well. 

So that's the silver lining even though no one likes pain, no one wants to be injured, but, you know, at least go with that. 

Dave Dougherty: - And I think the one thing to shout out too is…when I was younger, I definitely poo-pooed the whole, like, ergonomic discussion, sort of, you know, you're a teenager and you think you're invincible. But there was a period in college when, you know, I had piano classes and guitar classes, and then, you know, writing and staying up and doing all these things where my posture was bad enough that my shoulder got locked up and it affected all the muscles down to this hand. 

Like, I couldn't use his hand. I could balance a cup of coffee on my palm. And that was it. And it was because the shoulder muscles were, like, so tight, that it was affecting everything else. So after that, you know, to your point, keeping, you know, keeping your shoulders square and relaxed, especially now when, you know, almost everybody has some sort of job with a computer, you know, making sure that your posture throughout the day is good can really go a long way in preventing, you know, a lot of these overuse injuries because, to your point, I've been lucky enough not to have the carpal tunnel or any of that tendinitis stuff. 

It's all just been the bumps and bruises and, you know, that kind of stuff. 

Chris Becknell: - You know, to segue about into that point about ergonomics and bullet that with the issues of body awareness and strength training, too get overlooked and a little bit of resistance training in your life will go a long way in preventing injury. 

You know, a lot of our injuries are overuse and misuse injuries. And if you're doing some physical activity exercises in a healthy way, you know, and preferably with the guidance of a qualified coach, resistance training can help you play longer and healthier, you know, into your golden years. 

Two of one of the best things I ever did was start doing some personal training work with a personal trainer who really understood what an artist needs, you know, that I was going for strength and endurance over just simply bulking up and just training me appropriately to build some just general body strength that has translated into being able to practice longer, and without fatigue and pain for many more years than I thought. 

And a lot of people, you know, when they dive into music, especially if they're pursuing a degree or taking it to a high level, all we're doing is music, and then we're not thinking about the holistic need of our body to exercise, to move. You know, your body is meant to move. And even though parts of your body are moving while you're playing an instrument, you know, we need to get our whole bodies moving and keep ourselves healthy. 

So that kind of overall fitness plug, you know, we're not going to dwell on it and be like, go exercise do this, this, and this. You know you got to figure out how you enjoy moving but just get your body moving and get healthy. 

Dave Dougherty: - One end to that point, I do think, at least in my experience through playing live and jamming with other people and doing performances…The only, you know, the only musicians that actually think holistically I think, you know, again, broad brushes here, are singers, just because they are the instrument. 

You can't really have, you know, greasy burgers and half a pack of cigarettes a day if you're going to be a legit singer. Like, I mean, there are some who just have freakish genetics, but, you know, for the rest of us, you have what you earn, right? So, something to think about. 

Chris Becknell: - There's a system of study in the music world, particularly the classical music world and the performing arts world of theater, and it's a method called The Alexander Technique. And I'm not a certified Alexander teacher, but I've done Alexander lessons. And Alexander was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, you know, a century before and he lost his voice while trying to give a performance of a Shakespeare work. 

He just completely lost his voice. And he realized he was kind of cranking his neck and bending his spine in a way that over time trying to project his voice with this, what he calls body, he calls misuse, he lost his voice. And he needed to retrain his body to be more relaxed and aware of what it was doing. And then he got his voice back. 

And he developed this method of body awareness. And I love that term because it just really sticks that body awareness. Once you start thinking about these things, that habit of thinking about them builds and, you know, feel your toes in your shoes right now or feel your toes on the ground. Suddenly, you're feeling your toes, right? You weren't 30 seconds ago or even paying attention to that. 

And our daily existence is filled with that. We sit with our legs crossed, which is horrible for our legs and our hips, and our spine. Yet it can become comfortable. And this idea as we've grown through life since being children, we misuse our bodies and it becomes comfortable that, you know, the slouching, for many people, feels so comfortable that when they have to sit in a more erect position here with the spine straight, it's uncomfortable, you know, and they start slowly moving back towards that slouching position. 

And that's what we would call misuse. And you don't have to necessarily go and get Alexander lessons though. It's really beneficial if you're a performing professional, or, you know, in an upper level of playing. But just that idea of paying attention to your ergonomics and your posture is huge and will pay dividends for years. 

You know, it's that kind of principle of just saving a little bit adds up and a little bit of attention to this adds up as you go. 

Dave Dougherty: - Well, what's interesting is, like, a lot of the metal guys that I like to listen to, they're really big into weightlifting. You know, like, guys like Petrucci and Zakk Wylde. But then you also have, was it I think the lead singer, Matt Heafy of Trivium, he's super into mixed martial arts. So he does that kind of training just to stay limber with his singing and his guitar playing and whatever else. And to your point, find what you like to do for whatever your movement is. 

Chris Becknell: - That can be walking. It can just be walking. It can be cycling or paddling... 

Dave Dougherty: - So I guess, you know, with this one, we just wanted to make sure that, you know, we call it out because it is part of the journey, right? It's not just, you know, some flowers and sunshine with, you know, playing guitar. I mean, there are ups and downs for sure. 

- I will say, you know, one of my big things I get on is this body-centered position of holding the guitar, and I have no problem just saying it outright. I think, you know, the ideas of holding your guitar on your right leg like this with the neck relatively, you know, horizontal and parallel to the floor, is terrible. 

It's just terrible ergonomics. And, you know, it can look cool. But it's awful for your body. It's awful for so many things going on. And I have no problem being completely in the camp that says it's just not acceptable for long-term playing. You will have an injury. And what you need to do is strap up. 

You need to get that guitar in a heart-centered position here, and we got a whole posture video on it. But classical guitar players, we center ourselves like this from the beginning, which encourages the straight back and ergonomic hold of the instrument. When you're playing an electric guitar, it's going to happen the same way. These things are so heavy that if you're not playing with the strap, you know, they're going to weigh you down. 

I mean, just everything about me is contorted in this position. It's out of the view here, but on my right leg, if I have the strap and can center it, my arms are free. My shoulders are straight. The guitar's in a really nicely centered position, my left hand is free to float up through the entire neck. I had a friend and colleague who injured himself by falling off his roof and he just shattered his arm and his right arm was stuck like this. 

And he had previously played, you know, off of his right leg and he was a really competent player and, you know, excellent guitar player. And just watching me play using a footstool as a classical guitarist, which I don't always use for lower back reasons. But, you know, with many beginners we use a footstool. And that's in our posture video too, but you set it up under one foot. 

And he was able to put his electric guitar in this kind of centered position while sitting. And his cast could just fit right over the guitar and he could practice. But there was no way, with his broken arm, you could get his arm back over to where it was comfortable. Body misuse, again, comfortable over here and playing. 

So I mean, this was just impossible for him for the duration of his broken arm. And by switching to this centered position, he later felt more relaxed and was able to play through that injury, you know, with his arm in a cast, and still just use a plectrum and play. So there's always an option, and you can seek out a guitar teacher and their advice on how to approach your injury and still get some stuff done. 

You know, you can still make some progress in your musical journey, despite your injury, whatever it might be. 

Dave Dougherty: - I know one of the things for me during this six-week piece was I had been toying around with, you know, some tone ideas. Like, what's my setup going to be? That's been a path I've been, you know, kind of seriously on for the last couple of years. So I started experimenting with wet-dry-wet, you know, for the delay sounds and stuff. And because all of that's learning. 

Learning what pedals you like, learning what amps you like, all that takes time. And so if you, you know, if you can't play, you could definitely hit an open string and hear how it comes through the system. And then, you know, fine-tune things, you know, that way. So there's, you know, a lot of different options. Just because you are injured for a little bit doesn't mean you have to stop the journey at all. You just chase some other thing that you're interested in. 

So, thank you all for listening, and for watching. Like, subscribe, and share on YouTube. Massive thank you to anybody who's checked out our Patreon page or signed up for the woodshed newsletter. We'll put links below in the description. 

So by all means ask any questions. Earlier we shot a student question video. We have a lot of fun with those. So please send any of your questions in so that we can do that. And we will see you next week with a new lesson. So take care. 

Chris Becknell: - Excellent.