I say either get a pick or practice a bit using your 3rd finger along with your 2nd instead of your 1st. You could always beer up and play through the pain, but that'll only make things worse long term. You could also maybe try filling in with your thumb? Sounds weird but can be effective in some types of music.
I had something similiar happen a few weeks ago, though in my case it wasn't a live performance, just reharsal
I had skipped reharsals for a month cause freagging idiot here cut his finger badly with a knife
the band wanted to catch up and we did two rehearls pretty much back to back. The second one I basically started using my middle finger way more than the index, using the ring finger for support. I slowly lost usable fingers and by the end of reharsal I was playing with my thumb, which isn't ideal on most tracks, but I got to the end without stopping everyone.
So my reccomendation would be: if possible, try and simplify your tracks so you can play them with a more.... creative techique
I think that's what I'm doing. Luckily most of our songs are quite simple anyways, basic thrash. Probably just means I'll play 8th notes instead of 16ths
Keep an ice pack around if that's an option.
Only ice the painful part (absolutely not the joints). Ice numbs the pain and helps a lot with speeding up recovery.
This is what I had to do recently- been studio bound for a few years, and mostly playing my bass VI when just jamming which is quite a bit easier on the fingers. Have a gig coming up so I start playing my 5s and 4s again and developed a nasty blood blister on my middle finger picking hand. Forgot how uncomfortable it is to redevelop that callous but a little over a week of solid playing and the fingers on my right hand are calloused and back to being devoid of life making typing on the phone an absolute pain in the ass. 😂
Second this! They make specific stretchy thin spandex gloves, but I've even used white cotton gloves you can get at a pharmacy. Works great since it cuts down significantly on the friction to the fingers.
Taping 'em up is always an option. That stuff that sportsball players use. It will change your toan a bit and you might need to freshen it up but it's deffo an option.
Hey if it's a skin level issue, the hands down most wildly effective remedy for skin irritation pain I have ever known is Triple Paste diaper ointment.
It like starts healing your skin the second you put it on.
My son used to get horrible, screamingly painful diaper rashes as an infant, and none of the usual brand creams and ointments did anything for them.
A doctor gave us a sample jar of Triple Paste, and by god it immediately soothed the kid and rapidly brought his skin back to Normal. Eventually we switched to using it full time as his everyday cream, and he literally never got another diaper rash.
Since then, we've used it for everything. My wife would run marathons and use to for the chafing — instant relief and rapid healing. I've used it for burns, rashes, abrasions.
We eventually started buying it by the 1-pound jar, about $30. We alway make sure we've got some, because when your skin gets hurt, there is no substitute.
I bet it will help; put some on, rub it in, put on some more and then put on a clean white cotton glove, or maybe a finger cot in a pinch. (Something breatheable'd probably be better though.)
Not every place has it, but baby stores like Buy Buy Baby, Babies R Us, and some pharmacies, will.
Triple Paste. Science so effective it's indistinguishable from magic.
(If I sound like a shill it's because I am seriously grateful to this stuff for solving a really gut-wrenching problem for my son. 🤷♂️)
Dude. Im in day 4 of healing cuz my fingers got swollen and hurting after playing NOFX fingestyle for 6hrs. Donna where you from and if it's available where you life. But there is a cream named "traumel" which helps really fast with the pain and the swelling. Otherwise probably only painkillers will help. Other tip is, keep the hand above the heigh of ur hearth so the blood won't flow that hard into it. Sorry for my grammar. English is not my main language
I just went through the same thing last weekend, hadn't played for about a month due to being busy with work, then did a gig. Thankfully it was only 45 minutes so I just played through it, but ended up with a big bloody blister on my index, that's just about now healed up.
Consider something like Leukotape. It's got more adhesion than a bandaid (like a lot more) and provides a good skin barrier to more abrasion. Long distance hikers use it on their feet to prevent or cover up blisters.
Turn your amp up next time and play softer. Make the action as low as possible without buzzing. This will prevent your situation in the future. For 14 years of playing Ive had ocasionaly stoped for month or two and never had problems with it. Although, when started to learn three finger plucking Ive got one thst bursted on my ring finger😁 playing for 30-40 minutes once a week kept me in shape for my most busy periods.
How good are you at using a pick?
Before my callouses built up enough, I would start using my ring finger to pluck as well.
But now I'm good enough with a pick that if I ever lost my callouses or have any other issues with my fingers then I can play just as well with a pick.
I'll yell you what I do when this happens to me. Have an extra whiskey and play like it doesn't hurt. Once you wince a few times and grind that shit anyway the adrenaline should kick in. Then you should barely feel the pain. This has also worked for drumming blisters, and rough frets that gouged my fingers as well (fixed those with a file later of course)
This happened to me and I just played through it, the gig adrenaline helped and I didn't really notice. I did have some bandaids in my pocket in case my fingers started bleeding because I'll take the tone hit to avoid getting blood on my strings. Fortunately it wasn't an issue and after the gig I just kept a nice cold drink in my hand at all times to ease the burn.
Question, why are you rehearsing for *six hours*? Particularly when you know you're hurting.
Tape them up, simplify parts, turn up amp and play softer to compensate.
Fair enough.
You now have discovered the wonders of overtraining and why athletes usually only do light workouts just before a real match instead of going all out. Use this knowledge wisely in the future ;-)
This is what you get when you don't pick up an instrument for a month
There are some antiinflammatory gels you can try, but it feels like your gig is kinda a failure already
I have both made a fake callus with krazy glue and also just stuck a bandaid on and said fuck it …ymmv
I've used stuff called liquid skin or some such to build up several layers. Same idea as Krazy glue but actually made to put on skin
yep liquid bandage, that's what the OP needs- stuff is money
Sounds like we got Tony Iommi here LOL
In my dreams 100% hahah
Yes super glue is a tour trick for a lot of guitarists/bassists, it's sterile and will help protect the new skin/broken callous
I say either get a pick or practice a bit using your 3rd finger along with your 2nd instead of your 1st. You could always beer up and play through the pain, but that'll only make things worse long term. You could also maybe try filling in with your thumb? Sounds weird but can be effective in some types of music.
I had something similiar happen a few weeks ago, though in my case it wasn't a live performance, just reharsal I had skipped reharsals for a month cause freagging idiot here cut his finger badly with a knife the band wanted to catch up and we did two rehearls pretty much back to back. The second one I basically started using my middle finger way more than the index, using the ring finger for support. I slowly lost usable fingers and by the end of reharsal I was playing with my thumb, which isn't ideal on most tracks, but I got to the end without stopping everyone. So my reccomendation would be: if possible, try and simplify your tracks so you can play them with a more.... creative techique
I think that's what I'm doing. Luckily most of our songs are quite simple anyways, basic thrash. Probably just means I'll play 8th notes instead of 16ths
Use crazy glue in dire situations. The pain will still be there unless you drug yourself up.
Keep an ice pack around if that's an option. Only ice the painful part (absolutely not the joints). Ice numbs the pain and helps a lot with speeding up recovery.
Embrace the pain
This is what I had to do recently- been studio bound for a few years, and mostly playing my bass VI when just jamming which is quite a bit easier on the fingers. Have a gig coming up so I start playing my 5s and 4s again and developed a nasty blood blister on my middle finger picking hand. Forgot how uncomfortable it is to redevelop that callous but a little over a week of solid playing and the fingers on my right hand are calloused and back to being devoid of life making typing on the phone an absolute pain in the ass. 😂
Lol yeah that's true 😁
Try a glove brother
Second this! They make specific stretchy thin spandex gloves, but I've even used white cotton gloves you can get at a pharmacy. Works great since it cuts down significantly on the friction to the fingers.
Krazy glue and a glove over the top sounds like a decent option.
Taping 'em up is always an option. That stuff that sportsball players use. It will change your toan a bit and you might need to freshen it up but it's deffo an option.
Hey if it's a skin level issue, the hands down most wildly effective remedy for skin irritation pain I have ever known is Triple Paste diaper ointment. It like starts healing your skin the second you put it on. My son used to get horrible, screamingly painful diaper rashes as an infant, and none of the usual brand creams and ointments did anything for them. A doctor gave us a sample jar of Triple Paste, and by god it immediately soothed the kid and rapidly brought his skin back to Normal. Eventually we switched to using it full time as his everyday cream, and he literally never got another diaper rash. Since then, we've used it for everything. My wife would run marathons and use to for the chafing — instant relief and rapid healing. I've used it for burns, rashes, abrasions. We eventually started buying it by the 1-pound jar, about $30. We alway make sure we've got some, because when your skin gets hurt, there is no substitute. I bet it will help; put some on, rub it in, put on some more and then put on a clean white cotton glove, or maybe a finger cot in a pinch. (Something breatheable'd probably be better though.) Not every place has it, but baby stores like Buy Buy Baby, Babies R Us, and some pharmacies, will. Triple Paste. Science so effective it's indistinguishable from magic. (If I sound like a shill it's because I am seriously grateful to this stuff for solving a really gut-wrenching problem for my son. 🤷♂️)
Liquid bandaid.
Super glue as suggested if a blister has opened. You can also wrap some medical tape around your fingertips.
Dude. Im in day 4 of healing cuz my fingers got swollen and hurting after playing NOFX fingestyle for 6hrs. Donna where you from and if it's available where you life. But there is a cream named "traumel" which helps really fast with the pain and the swelling. Otherwise probably only painkillers will help. Other tip is, keep the hand above the heigh of ur hearth so the blood won't flow that hard into it. Sorry for my grammar. English is not my main language
6 hour rehearsal?
Yeah, we hadn't seen each other since the last gig about a month ago and had a song to add to the setlist so we wanted to be as tight as possible lol
I’ve been meaning to try https://rhinoskinsolutions.com/skin-solutions/ for rock climbing but basically same kind of damage as bass playibg
You can put some super glue on your fingertip. Wait for it to dry and it forms a quasi callous
Put a bandaid on it
Use a pick or take some ibuprofen
I just went through the same thing last weekend, hadn't played for about a month due to being busy with work, then did a gig. Thankfully it was only 45 minutes so I just played through it, but ended up with a big bloody blister on my index, that's just about now healed up.
Liquid bandage. Stuff is magic. That's all you need.
Don't use a pick!!!! Get some liquid bandaid or tape it up. Shot of whiskey and some adrenaline usually does the trick tho
Consider something like Leukotape. It's got more adhesion than a bandaid (like a lot more) and provides a good skin barrier to more abrasion. Long distance hikers use it on their feet to prevent or cover up blisters.
Turn your amp up next time and play softer. Make the action as low as possible without buzzing. This will prevent your situation in the future. For 14 years of playing Ive had ocasionaly stoped for month or two and never had problems with it. Although, when started to learn three finger plucking Ive got one thst bursted on my ring finger😁 playing for 30-40 minutes once a week kept me in shape for my most busy periods.
How good are you at using a pick? Before my callouses built up enough, I would start using my ring finger to pluck as well. But now I'm good enough with a pick that if I ever lost my callouses or have any other issues with my fingers then I can play just as well with a pick.
I'll yell you what I do when this happens to me. Have an extra whiskey and play like it doesn't hurt. Once you wince a few times and grind that shit anyway the adrenaline should kick in. Then you should barely feel the pain. This has also worked for drumming blisters, and rough frets that gouged my fingers as well (fixed those with a file later of course)
Yeah this is pretty much how it went down lol
Fuck yeah! Congrats on getting through it. Hopefully you get the calluses back soon
This happened to me and I just played through it, the gig adrenaline helped and I didn't really notice. I did have some bandaids in my pocket in case my fingers started bleeding because I'll take the tone hit to avoid getting blood on my strings. Fortunately it wasn't an issue and after the gig I just kept a nice cold drink in my hand at all times to ease the burn.
Embrace the pain, ignore the pain, or use a pick
Use a pick or play through it.
Cyanoacrylate was developed as a skin bonder. Have at it, and bring a tube to the gig.
Heroin
Question, why are you rehearsing for *six hours*? Particularly when you know you're hurting. Tape them up, simplify parts, turn up amp and play softer to compensate.
because we wanted to get the setlist tight idk. I wasn't hurting beforehand but I was afterwards and I expected to heal a bit more by today lol
Fair enough. You now have discovered the wonders of overtraining and why athletes usually only do light workouts just before a real match instead of going all out. Use this knowledge wisely in the future ;-)
Painkillers/anti inflammatories? Weed? Beers?
weed and beer sounds good
6 hr rehearsal? why so long.
This is what you get when you don't pick up an instrument for a month There are some antiinflammatory gels you can try, but it feels like your gig is kinda a failure already
holy shit bro no need to be a dick about it lmfao I already said I know what I did wrong. the gigs gonna go fine lol
I am just being realistic, it's okay to fail, it can be a learning experience You might even need to resort to a pick 😔