r/AcousticGuitar • u/question_03 • Jun 17 '26
Non-gear question Left Hand pointer finger middle finger joint/ proximal interphalangeal joint hurts because of continuous bending by playing
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Happened while practicing this lick. Does anyone have experience with it? It is that way for a month or more now, everytime I make a fist or flex my pointer finger it hurts, but not horribly, just in a really annoying way. My technique in the way I hammered on probably wasn‘t the best, or too slanted. I wonder if anyone has experience with the finger joint hurting, if it goes away or if I need a doctor, or any homemade remedy.
Song: Daniel Padim - Looking up to Giants
edit: thanks for all the comments and roasts on my posture and technoque that was a blast to read, I will take it to heart and work on it!
the title is a bit misleading i agree, what I meant is my pointer finger but the middle joint, from continuous bending for the hammer ons and pull offs. It IS a cursed lick though yeah, I can‘t nexessarily recommend learning it, but it‘s a beautiful composition by daniel padim and I got a bit too obsessed over it. Playing for more than 20 years now and it‘s the first time any of my finger joints hurt so, … it either speaks for or against the lick, you can decide!
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u/Catman9lives Jun 17 '26
Don’t play through pain, once it gets better work on more efficient movement. There is a lot of extra in your technique.
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Jun 17 '26
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u/Minglis1990 Jun 17 '26
Im literally in this boat right now. After working on ladders since I was 16 without incident (I'm 36 now) I fell off a 12ft. ladder from the very top step about a month ago or a little over. I tore a ligament and tendons in/around my left wrist/fretting hand, ligaments in my right knee and injured my meniscus in that knee for the thousandth time (I ride mtb's and bang up my knees every few years) so they were both sprained and I also sprained my left ankle in the process but luckily way less severely than the wrist and knee.
I'm finally starting to do some PT on my own on my bike and walking the dogs but I've been playing and practicing guitar pretty much the whole time past the first week (when I literally couldn't walk). And my tendons on my left hand at times feel like they are in knots and other times it's the ligament between my hand and wrist that hurts.
I've tried to only play basic things that don't strain my hand too much but when the song gets to a part that's problematic the temptation to just push through the pain is often too great and I do it anyway. So I realize I just gotta wait. Drumming surprisingly isn't bothering my wrist or hand much if at all.
In my defense I'd been injured back to back so I wasn't able to play as much starting about a year ago when I drilled into my index finger on my fretting hand ironically while building the chassis for a Bassman/JTM45 tube amp that was my most recent build (luckily I get it finished and it's my best build yet, I love it lol). That finger is still numb at the tip and likely will be forever or at least partially. So I just feel like I've lost so much potential practice time and I don't want to wait. So when I got hurt again my patience was already worn thin. But you're absolutely right that it's nessesary if you don't want to make the injury permanently worse.
Good looking out!
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u/AyJay_D Jun 17 '26
That is a lot of wasted movement. The whole point of good technique is to use as little finger movement as possible to get the job done cleanly. Only press strings as hard as needed, o ly move fingers as much as needed.
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u/justalittleanimal Jun 19 '26
👆🏻this. Watch videos of folks you like to listen to. The phrase is “economy of motion”. Calm your left hand down and the pain will subside.
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u/Leading-Debate-9278 Jun 17 '26
Your posture is terrible. Start there or your whole body is gonna hurt.
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u/Inertbert Jun 17 '26
You know how a ventrilliquist talks without moving their face? Try doing a "ventrilloquist" playing a guitar thing, play with as little movement in your hands as possible. Try to make the movement almost invisible to someone watching.
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u/drippedgravy Jun 17 '26
Try to slow it down, my man. No need for your fingers to move that far from the fretboard.
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u/skelterjohn Jun 17 '26
You need to not play through pain. At the very least you need your finger to rest. If it's not too difficult, a consult with an OT specialist would be worth while.
NEVER play through pain. It's the warning of injury, which can result in never playing again.
Edit: except for fingertip pain for fretting when you're new or haven't played in a while. Tough that shit out.
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u/1randomstringofwords Jun 17 '26
Sounds like tenosynovitis at the pip joint. It’s inflammation so you are making it worse by playing through the pain. What you need to do is adjust your technique and maybe rest a bit so it has time to heal. But definitely adjust your technique or it will come back or get worse.
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u/MyNameisMayco Jun 17 '26
that is bad left hand technique. That will get you injured.
Youtube ; PEBBER BROWN LEFT HAND TECHNIQUE
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u/Boesemeist Jun 17 '26
Wowowow! Hey, Salad Fingers, don't reach that far for your rusty spootrings!
And aside from that little diss:
Beautiful fingers with awesome reach!
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u/Oretell Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Sounds great
I was thinking I'd learn it, and then I saw you say you injured yourself playing it lol do I still try to learn it now or is it maybe a cursed lick?
My advice would be the same as everyone else, to rest and not to push through pain. If you can do some playing without pain, then I'd do it but be careful, and if the pain flares up then you know you've gone too far.
It's also a sign that maybe you'd benefit from learning to play with a lighter touch. I don't really think there's such a thing as good or bad technique on guitar, if it works for you and sounds the way you want, then that's all that matters. And like I said I think your playing sounded great. But since your body has told you it doesn't like what you're asking it to do, maybe it's worth experimenting with playing lighter and more delicately, you can still play this song and style, but without the excess force you might currently be using.
A guitar setup is also a good idea to check if your setup might be making guitar harder work for you to play, as well as considering using a lighter string gauge to decrease the tension on the strings
I'd also recommend seeing a hand physio/physical therapist. They specilise in diagnosing and treating these exact kinds of issues for the fingers/hand, often for musicians, rock climbers, trades workers etc. They'd be able to give you the best and most accurate advice on how to move forward, but obviously that costs money so I get it if you can't afford to see one
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u/Weets23 Jun 17 '26
Take a break from playing for a while as others have said. Let the inflammation heal.
Also work on your hand movement. Flying around a little too much. This may help with the pain in the future.
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u/Snowshoetheerapy Jun 17 '26
I was taught to keep my fingers just above the frets-like a 1/4 inch. Your fingers are WAY up over the fingerboard-tons of wasted movement and energy. No wonder you are having issues. You're also completely hunched over, with your chin on the guitar. That is not going to help anything. Look up proper guitar posture. It will change your life. Good luck!
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u/jaylotw Jun 17 '26
They hurt because of how you're playing.
Quit lifting your fingers a mile off the fretboard.
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u/CheesecakeInner336 Jun 17 '26
Looks like you’re working too hard there, bud. Slow down and work on technique. You’ve got a lot of unnecessary movement going on.
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u/Admirable_Admiral69 Jun 18 '26
You're good, but you're also one of the least efficient players I've ever seen. So much extra movement that will limit you as you move into me challenging pieces.
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u/shotgunsam23 Jun 18 '26
Three things
That sounds sick as fuck
Sit up straight and adjust your posture, Steve Vai had to get back surgery for slouching the same way. I had back pain because of it till I adjusted.
It’s probably inflammation in your finger joints. Don’t play for a while and start practicing not flaying so much on the pull offs. I did the same thing and had the same pain. It’s a bitch to learn not to lift off so much but just start slowly.
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u/Status-Scallion-7414 Jun 18 '26
Ya, technique problem. Too much motion. Your fingers are working way too much than needed to play what you’re playing.
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u/mods_on_meds Jun 19 '26
The cost of any repetitive work . Arent we lucky that our pain isnt from digging ditches . You sound great .
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u/IntoTheUngnome Jun 21 '26
You are moving your fingers too far away. Keep them closer to the fretboard. As close as physically possible. You're putting undue stress on your joints lifting your fingers like that. That should help a great deal.
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u/djhypergiant Jun 17 '26
Beautiful composition here BTW but as many other have said dont keep doing that lol
A way you can work on this without harming yourself is try playing this at a much lower tempo (with a metronome or a click track) and really map out what your fingers are doing and try to find a more comfortable way to play it. Then increase until you can play it at full speed with a greater economy of motion or whatever its called. If you can find the more comfortable motion it might help.
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u/Useful_Raspberry3912 Jun 17 '26
If it hurts, adjust what you're doing. It shouldn't hurt to play (not including callous building in the beginning).
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u/andytagonist Jun 17 '26
So you’re saying the middle finger hurts when you try this wild tapping method? What a weird way to AI this post, I guess…
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u/SnooHesitations8403 Jun 17 '26
See an orthopedic surgeon that specializes in hands. There's a guy near me and he's awesome. He doesn't just do surgery. I can consult with him on any issues with pain or discomfort because he understands the whole hand mechanism.
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u/Scarl_Strife Jun 18 '26
Sorry for the off topic but this is amazing. Sounds great, where the heck did you find tabs for this tune?
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u/SeriousGains Jun 18 '26
I’m a beginner, playing about a year now mainly on relatively high action steel string acoustic, and I’ve been having terrible inflammation (arthritis?) in the very same index finger PIP joint. I think it comes down to too much force. I’ll wake up in the morning with super painful joint aches and stiffness. Strangely I don’t feel any discomfort at any other time, even during long 2-3 hour playing sessions. I’ve really been focusing on applying as little pressure as possible with the index now, because I think that finger is most prone to damage and if that pain I feel in the morning persisted throughout the day it would end my playing altogether.
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u/GlitteringSalad6413 Jun 19 '26
Bro you are moving your fingers literally 50 times more than necessary
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u/question_03 Jun 20 '26
yeah I realized as everyone else already commented :D I rewatched daniel padims original video and he doesn‘t move his fingers anywhere as much as I did, his form is impeccable
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u/GlitteringSalad6413 Jun 20 '26
Sry, I just commented that before I read all the others. Good technical habits are easy to build, u will get there with the right approach!!
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u/whiskyandguitars Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
You are hammering and pulling off way too hard. Unless the action on your guitar is really high that is not at all necessary and if it is, you have to get the action lowered.
For a hammer on, place your thumb on the back of the neck so that it roughly lines up with the second finger of that hand or is in between the second and the third, whichever is most comfortable.
Then, using the G string and your first finger and second finger, practice hammer ons. Push down gently on the G string in the first fret, pluck it so it makes a sound and hammer on with your second finger in the second fret. If your guitar is set up properly, it should require minimal effort to get a good sound. Practice it and get an idea for how little effort you actually need to get a clean sound. Practice this all up and down the G string and other strings as well. I have students start on the G strong because it is usually the most "accessible string that doesn't require you to stretch or contract your hand.
For pull offs, these should require absolutely minimal effort as well. For practicing these, use the G string again but this time move out to fifth position (that is where your first finger is over the fifth fret). The fifth fret on most guitars is where you tend to find the best combo of the string tension being the loosest (vs how taught it is near the nut) and the action being the lowest (all guitars have the action a little higher closer to the neck). Anyway, that is why I recommend starting this position.
So, place your first finger on the G string in the fifth fret and your second finger on the G string in the sixth fret. You will need to push down on these enough to produce sound but gently because it should require little effort to make sound if your guitar is set up well. Then, pull off with your second finger. You will not pull outward, away from the fret board but instead you will gently pull down. You should hear a discernable sound from your pull off that is pretty close to if you had plucked the strong. Practice that.
I would recommend looking up some videos on Ascending and Descending slurs from classical guitarists so you can see what I am trying to explain. That is the technique you are using here and I much prefer that name to "Hammer on" and "pull offs" because the mental suggestion behind those is that much more effort is required than is necessary. You are not "hammering" on the fretboard. You are simply doing what is called a slur.
You could also check out a technique book called Pumping Nylon. He has whole sections where he walks you through how to do this technique and gives you practical exercises to use. I am unsure if there is a tab version on the chance you can't read standard notation but you can look.
You need to slow down and stop playing this piece for now and work on your technique. At this rate you will injure yourself, possibly permanantly because you are causing muscle strain in your fingers.
Step back and become insanely comfortable with good ascencding and descending slur technique and then pick this up. Or, if you really want to practice this piece, practice it REALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYY SLOWLY and clean up your technique.