Here’s an interesting story.
The other day I was getting out all my old guitar books and magazines and organising them.
I came across the story of Steve Vai and his bizarre guitar playing injury.
Steve Vai, if you don’t know, is a virtuoso guitarist.
His playing is unreal, and although to be honest, I’m not massively into the virtuoso stuff, I do enjoy the occasional Vai guitar piece.
Anyway, so how did he get his injury?
…By holding a chord for too long.
Vai sat there for 20 minutes “meditating on a chord” and enjoying it and developed trigger finger for his troubles.
This is what he said:
“And I had to kind of hold this chord really for a long time – I was meditating on it. And I knew it was a hard position, and I just kept sitting there and playing it and playing and playing, and 20 minutes later, I’d kind of come out, and I [felt pain in my hand].
Ouch!
Side note: This is the same guy who screwed up his shoulder once, couldn’t use the picking hand and wrote a one-handed song purely using the fretting hand.
Anyway, injuries and damage aren’t all that uncommon and can sometimes put a musician out of action for months, years or can even end careers.
Yes, we all get carried away, want to play more, enjoy things more, and sometimes push a little harder physically than we should.
There’s a ton of stories about rock stars having all sorts of injuries or issues that are likely guitar related. Keef has arthritis, Pete Townshend has tinnitus, Rick Parfitt from Status Quo had problems caused by bad posture, etc.
I’ve injured myself in the past (but thankfully not for a long time).
So, the moral, be careful, protect your joints and tendons, and prioritise good technique.
Do this and the fun of guitar playing will last for longer.
For more help with the techniques and the fun stuff, check this out…
Find out more about the Fingerstyle 101 Video Course
This is the last email I will send about this.
At 12 PM tonight (EST time), this course will go back up to full price of $81 and the bonus will no longer be available.
Plus, when you order this week, you will also get the bonus on how to get started playing in the vintage Travis picking style of Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, and Tommy Emmanuel.
Happy fingerpicking!
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of great tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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