One month off, how do I keep up my chops?

[Mycroft]

Since your fretting hand is out of commission, try really drilling down into the right hand to focus on slow and deliberate. Fingerpicking, flatpicking, crosspicking, hybridpicking. Take your pick.

[EZYPIKINS]

Bummer lowrider:

Sorry to hear about your situation.

Hope you can get back to it soon as possible.

[rabbuhl]

You can exercise your brain. Follow some courses at TrueFire or learn some new songs on YouTube. Just watching of course. Or work on songs you already know by singing and imagining you are playing the guitar. Or just take a month off. You will not lose your chops in just one month. Good luck!

[lowrider]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

Hi Lowrider, I'm with you. I also have Dupuytrens contracture and double trigger finger issues on my left (fretting hand) on both middle and ring finger with surgery now 25 months overdue due to serious backlogs of non critical surgery in the UK.

I am giving lessons four-five times a week and find that if I practice/play for 30-60 minutes before the lesson I can play well enough to guide and advise my clients.

I'd suggest that it is wise to keep playing through the trigger finger issues to keep the hand mobile - but not, of course to extreme pain or inflammation and learn to minimise pressure and maximise accuracy.

At all times take professional advice of course, but if you could, in the past, you should be able to do it again. Believe!

Silly, I'm sorry to see that you're having it worse than me. I had a cortisone injection on the trigger finger in November but it only helped for 2 days. I would have gotten back to the doctor sooner except for Covid. I finally felt comfortable going this week. I've been taking ibuprofen twice a day for the pain and stiffness. I tried naproxen yesterday morning and I still felt pretty good for my afternoon practice. That might help you.

I never really tried to sing until four years ago. With the guitar I now sing pretty well, good enough that a couple of the finger pickers at my jam group have asked me to sing their songs, but I still can't sing worth a lick without the guitar to keep me in tune. I'm going to all my songs, like I do now, learning to sing them without the guitar.

Thanks for all your help and ideas. I'll be able to keep working and maybe even make some progress. I'll be happy when it's all over.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by lowrider

Silly, I'm sorry to see that you're having it worse than me. I had a cortisone injection on the trigger finger in November but it only helped for 2 days. I would have gotten back to the doctor sooner except for Covid. I finally felt comfortable going this week. I've been taking ibuprofen twice a day for the pain and stiffness. I tried naproxen yesterday morning and I still felt pretty good for my afternoon practice. That might help you.

I never really tried to sing until four years ago. With the guitar I now sing pretty well, good enough that a couple of the finger pickers at my jam group have asked me to sing their songs, but I still can't sing worth a lick without the guitar to keep me in tune. I'm going to all my songs, like I do now, learning to sing them without the guitar.

Thanks for all your help and ideas. I'll be able to keep working and maybe even make some progress. I'll be happy when it's all over.

Hi, I won't comment on the Ibuprofen, apart from saying -better to under use it than over.

Your comment about being unable to sing without the guitar rings a bell with me, as I remember making a similar statement back in the early 2000s and then being chosen to act in a play in which inn one scene I had to walk across the stage (once a night and twice on Saturdays) singing acapella - I found that once I'd done it at rehearsals a few times, I was OK to sing to 800 people every performance.
Ya never know what you can do, until you have to!

[musicman1951]

A month off the guitar is not going to turn you into a non-player. It will probably take a couple of weeks to get back to impeccable technique and solid callouses. I would think the important goal would be to follow medical advice and heal well. Good luck with all of that.

[acoustigoat]

I recently had to pause my playing due to de Quervain's tenosynovitis in my left hand and can definitely empathize.

Do you do any fingerpicking?

I went back to Giuliani's Right Hand Studies. It kept my brain busy and my right hand in shape. In standard tuning the unfretted exercises don't sound so great, but in different open tunings they sound a bit more musical.

Best wishes for a speedy rehab.