Finger soreness

[guitar66]

Hi :

I participated in a 4 man jam session a few weeks ago. I played longer than I usually do, about 6 hours with 3 short breaks. I had no blisters, but the fingers tips felt heavy and tired at the end. The next day I made the mistake of playing a regular 2 hour practice session, and a blister formed on the third finger, beneath the callous, with the skin cracking near the nail. I took a few days off and when I came back I was playing better than ever, but the skin cracked again during the session. I am now in a repeating loop - every time I practice the skin cracks and the soreness returns. The logical thing would be to to suck it up and stop practicing until it heals, but I would hate to give up the practice habit (addiction). I know there are other things I can work on which won't burden the 3rd finger, (light finger touching, picking, etc.) but by the end of the practice session I end up returning to the blues - string bending, long slides, fast runs - I know, weak willed....

Has this happened to anyone before, and if so, what did you do to heal it? How much time did you have to take off? This reminds me of a running injury - amped up, yet unable to move....

[johnlink]

You obviously know what you need to do and what you must not do in order to let your finger heal. I would suggest that if you want to actually play the guitar before the finger is healed, that you do so but without fretting with the finger that is healing. Find out what you can do using only fingers 1, 2, and 4.

[guitar66]

That is a good idea, John, it did not occur to me to try playing without finger 3 - when it finally heals having the extra finger will seem like a blessing Onwards....