Cold!
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- This topic has 7 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 1 month ago by
Tom Quayle.
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Hey guys, here in my country is starting to get really cold, how about where you live? The temperature from this time of the year makes my practice a living hell š My fingers are all frozen and tense and sometimes i just dont want to play because of this. Does this also happen to you? š
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Hey FretDancer69,
I live in the Northwest suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts – USA, and it’s just starting to get a little chilly here but not too bad! I actually love the Fall weather as it’s about 50-60F during the day then 25-40F overnight! One thing I’d like to remind you (and EVERYONE else out here in IG-land regardless of climate!) Warm-up & Stretch BEFORE playing guitar!!! This is very-important but oft-overlooked! Injuries can and do occur, and they are usually preventable and caused by improper or non-existent stretching & warming-up! :rolleyes:
If you think I’m exaggerating this topic, just inquire about it’s importance to our fearless leader here at Infinite Guitar: Sean Conklin. Several years ago, Sean developed such a severe case of tendonitis, that he essentially had to STOP PLAYING GUITAR for about a YEAR – DOCTORS ORDERS!!! Imagine that? I think I’d have a nervous breakdown! š®
Anyways, needless-to-say, Sean takes his stretching and warm-ups very seriously! Sean has also provided an EXCELLENT tutorial which explains a couple of simple stretches. Do yourself a favor, and incorporate these stretches into a mandatory pre-guitarl routine! DO NOT allow yourself to play a single-note until you stretch! These stretches only take a couple of minutes at most! š
Peace! š
~Bill Meehan~
@billmeedog 5334 wrote:
Hey FretDancer69,
I live in the Northwest suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts – USA, and it’s just starting to get a little chilly here but not too bad! I actually love the Fall weather as it’s about 50-60F during the day then 25-40F overnight! One thing I’d like to remind you (and EVERYONE else out here in IG-land regardless of climate!) Warm-up & Stretch BEFORE playing guitar!!! This is very-important but oft-overlooked! Injuries can and do occur, and they are usually preventable and caused by improper or non-existent stretching & warming-up! :rolleyes:
If you think I’m exaggerating this topic, just inquire about it’s importance to our fearless leader here at Infinite Guitar: Sean Conklin. Several years ago, Sean developed such a severe case of tendonitis, that he essentially had to STOP PLAYING GUITAR for about a YEAR – DOCTORS ORDERS!!! Imagine that? I think I’d have a nervous breakdown! š®
Anyways, needless-to-say, Sean takes his stretching and warm-ups very seriously! Sean has also provided an EXCELLENT tutorial which explains a couple of simple stretches. Do yourself a favor, and incorporate these stretches into a mandatory pre-guitarl routine! DO NOT allow yourself to play a single-note until you stretch! These stretches only take a couple of minutes at most! š
Peace! š
~Bill Meehan~
Thanks man, I have been in Boston before and yeah, its really cold!!!. Thanks for the advice, ill be sure to stretch everytime i play, i wouldnt want to stop playing for a year, wow that would be really depressing š .
A question for Sean, during the time you couldnt play guitar, did you ever thought about just stop playing once and for all or were you constantly waiting for that day to play again??
Also, what did you do in that year? related to music.
My guess is that Sean had mixed feeling about this. So would I.
I actually have another problem, I was helping a friend ‘o my stepdad (yeah it is as strange as it sounds) with moving to another place. There was craploads of heavy stuff to carry and now my muscles feel sore and I can’t do the stretching exercises without feeling heavy tension below my wrist. Scary, huh? I’ll take it easy with guitar for now.
I have a big problem with this. I find, in general, my playing is much better in the summer than in the winter. I hate having cold hands and it’s been really old over here in the UK recently. I remember doing an outside gig in winter a couple of years ago playing Chick Corea Elektric Band tunes like King Cockroach. It’s the second worst gig I’ve ever done! (I’ll leave the story about the worst gig till another time!) It generally takes me about an hour longer to warm up to my optimal technique during the winter than in the summer, primarily due to the fact that most of my technique is in my left hand.
It’s very frustrating but there’s very little I can do about it except warm up properly.
One thing I do before gigs I got from the pianist Bill Evans. He used to put his hands in a basin of warm (not hot!) water before warming up to open up the blood vessels and get blood flowing again. This seems to help me and I also do it before teaching.
As far as muscle problems go, I think you have to know when to stop. A great deal of self discipline is required to NOT play if you’ve hurt yourself. Wait till your injury feels as healed as possible before playing again or you’ll end up not playing for a lot longer!
I hope you’re okay Marcin – I did the same kind of thing helping my brother move his enormous sofa! Take it easy!
Tom
@Tom Quayle 5361 wrote:
One thing I do before gigs I got from the pianist Bill Evans. He used to put his hands in a basin of warm (not hot!) water before warming up to open up the blood vessels and get blood flowing again. This seems to help me and I also do it before teaching.
I remember reading some similar advice from a David Mead book a while ago. It’s something Joe Satriani did as well I believe.
I’d love to do this myself but how do you keep you callouses from going soft though, do you wear rubber golves?
The weather is starting to get colder here. I love cold weather!! Not as much inside my house though of course. I like it nice and warm in the house while it’s nice and cold outside. I’m just a fall/winter person I guess.
Like you all mentioned I also find it very difficult to play when it’s cold. You guys should all get small portable heaters! I think portable heaters are great for guitarists during cold seasons. When you practice, just have it blowing in your direction and it helps you warm up very quickly. Also, like Tom mentioned, it’s great to run your hands in warm water for a little while to get the blood flowing.
@FretDancer69 5345 wrote:
A question for Sean, during the time you couldnt play guitar, did you ever thought about just stop playing once and for all or were you constantly waiting for that day to play again??
Also, what did you do in that year? related to music.
It honestly had entered my mind that I wouldn’t really play again, but as time went on and my fingers started healing, I knew it was just temporary. During that year I actually began taking drums pretty seriously. I had to be involved with music somehow or I’d go insane! š It was really hard taking so much time off from guitar, but I’m also glad that I used that time to be productive studying drumming.
@Mandz 5366 wrote:
I remember reading some similar advice from a David Mead book a while ago. It’s something Joe Satriani did as well I believe.
I’d love to do this myself but how do you keep you callouses from going soft though, do you wear rubber golves?
It’s a weird one this. The callouses on my fingers are ridiculously hard due to the sheer amount of playing I do. Because I teach so much I’m playing for at least 6 hours a day and my finger tips are like a stone on the end. Totally smooth and very hard. It takes a long time for them to go soft.
This has also caused some problems too as my fingers are so smooth that they can sometimes slip off the string during a legato run. Infact in my last tutorial I had to do a few takes on some of the runs because my fingers literally slipped off the string mid flow! I wonder if anyone else has this problem. It’s worse in the winter because the cold weather hardens my callouses even more.
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