I’ve been playing guitar for over 25 years. Last year, I found out that I have osteoarthritis in the finger joints of my left (fretting) hand. I’m writing about it to help other guitarists out there who are struggling with the same problem and are having trouble figuring out what’s wrong (as I was) & how to live with it.
Last January, I started out practicing guitar full throttle. I set goals to learn a bunch of new fingerstyle tunes and to start arranging & writing. I originally started this blog as a way to share my progress & tunes. But a few months into the new regimen, the finger joints on my left hand (fretting hand) stopped cooperating. They’d stiffen up, especially upon waking in the morning. Playing guitar only made the problem worse. I stopped playing for a while, thinking that I’d simply rushed into practicing too much and needed to back off & ease into it. But the symptoms persisted. As a guitarist, the first things you think about are carpal tunnel syndrome & tendonitis, but the symptoms didn’t match. I scoured the Web and even researched warm-up hand stretches, hoping to find that my normal routine was incorrect or inadequate. Nothing.