Suddenly developed hard hands half way through a gig

[harleyfrank]

It's most frustrating. All was going really well, I was getting the right sound....mostly In my case, it's never really 100% right, just mostly right)... Then suddenly my hands decided they'd had enough and the fingers went into slow motion and I couldn't even hit the right strings half the time. Best I can describe is "hard Hands". Like someone who's never played an instrument before and is clinging to it like it's a life raft.

I kept telling the fingers to move you bar stewards, but they were just like lead.

Then, panic sets in, as I realised I was making a pigs ear of the breaks in the tune/song and confidence just went flying out the window from then on for pretty much the rest of the gig.

I was suffering from a stinking cold at the time, so I'm putting down to, maybe, the lurgy was setting in, but I'm not sure if I'm just using that as a excuse to justify bad technique or just downright incompetence.

Worst of it was that it started on a tune I know really well anyway.

Does anyone else get that happen? Is it a mental thing or a physical thing?

Very frustrating, whatever it is. And embarrassing. No one in the band said anything, but I'm sure they all heard it as much as I did. All I could do was apologize after the gig.

Frank

[jshane]

Did it persist? Can you play fine now?

[harleyfrank]

Did it persist? Can you play fine now?

As well as I usually can.... That's not saying much anyway, but yeah back to standard clumsiness rather than extra added clumsiness...

[UsuallyPickin]

Over gripping .... trying too hard ... stress ... the hand got tired ... not to mention oxygen ... you have to remember to breathe as you play.... all the above lead to clumsy hand syndrome......there is probably some proper term for it... .. some kind of muscle fatigue.... relax ..stretch / warm up before a gig.... take your playing in stride both the wins and the losses... try not to over think it... Pretty much everybody goes through this at one point or another ..... If there is a persistant neurological problem it will show up in practice as well as gigs ..... Luck... R/

[jshane]

UsuallyPickin is probably right---

-- it would be worth noting any patterns to its repeating (if it does) in order to try and eliminate any cause(s)

[Jim Ferguson]

Heh Frank..........don't "fret"........(sorry for the pun)..................but that has happened to me as well play ing at open mice & other public venues.......I attribute it to nerves..........as I have gotten better with my playing I haven't had a problem with it. I still am an average player at best but I am more confident in what I know & also I can improvise better now & that allows me to keep on track most of the time. Keep at it.
Peace,

[William Smith]

Just be watchful of its happenings. Did you cramp/pain in your hands? I've had cramps in my hand before where my fingers will lock up kinda like a Charlie horse, the left thumb would cramp in toward my fretting pinky and hurt. I'd just try and stretch it out. I think in my case its medical because I'm on a bunch of pharmaceutical junk for some health problems and my system gets depleted of potassium.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Frank - If you get the chance,rest your hands for a few days & don't pick. One thing that i've found to be very beneficial for a few years now, is to do what my Physio.told me to do after i'd had minor hand surgery - soak your hands in hot water,as hot so as to be comfortable.Get a facecloth,soak it in the water & wring it out as hard as you can several times. This 'tension & relaxation' helps greatly to free your hand tendons up (i suffer from mild tendonitis in both hands) & it's amazing how 'free'd up' your fingers feel afterwards,
Ivan

[wsugai]

Propanolol might help.

[Tobin]

This "hard hands" thing happens to me occasionally if I try to play too much, too fast, without having warmed up first. It happened to me last night, in fact, during a jam at a friend's house. Part of it may have been that I hadn't had anything to eat all day, and had spent most of the day with my left hand holding pieces of brass that I was polishing. So my fingers were likely just telling me that they had had enough. Often, when it happens, I feel an intense muscle burn in my forearm as my fingers start to slow down and lose their dexterity in the middle of a tune.

Usually if I'm driving somewhere to play, I'll do finger stretches and warmup exercises in my car while I'm driving. Mainly just flexing and stretching out my fingers individually, as well as clamping my hand closed and then opening it up rapidly. It does seem to help me avoid problems with my hand slowing down and locking up when playing.

[Toni Schula]

I also know this frustrating phenomenon.

I associate it with playing too fast and especially with playing too loud. Always in live situations or at least with other people watching. Once the fretting hand starts the gorilla grip and once the picking hand becomes stiff and - as you say - even half time becomes impossible it is VERY hard to get back to normal.

That said, my approach to not let this happen (or at least to try to) is to play very soft and try to be as relaxed as possible.

Avoiding to play too fast often is impossible. If the band already started to play much faster on stage than during rehearsal, what can you do? Killing them immediately is not an option as the audience might be intimidated. So play soft, possibly missing this or that note while the audience can hardly hear you and might believe you are a genius because they can't hear the mistakes neither, might be a live saver...

Then on the other side you might not hear yourself when playing too soft. So how can you play then? We acoustic mandolinists need thoughtful support of our band mates then.

Another thing that helps me is practise. I dedicate a big amount of practise time on relaxed right hand technique. E.g. this one: http://youtu.be/WycCmb-F41o

It takes 10 000 hours of practise to become a world class expert in any field including making music. - Daniel Levitin in his book "This is your brain on music"
So take your time - Bauzl in this post ;-)

But don't forget to have fun and enjoy your picking!

[JonZ]

If it is a stress thing, regularly imagine yourself performing calmly in the stressful situation. You can do this both while you are practicing and not practicing.

I also like to imagine the audience in their underwear. It doesn't reduce stress, but it's fun.

[Patrick Bouldin]

I also know this frustrating phenomenon.

I associate it with playing too fast and especially with playing too loud. Always in live situations or at least with other people watching. Once the fretting hand starts the gorilla grip and once the picking hand becomes stiff and - as you say - even half time becomes impossible it is VERY hard to get back to normal.

That said, my approach to not let this happen (or at least to try to) is to play very soft and try to be as relaxed as possible.

Avoiding to play too fast often is impossible. If the band already started to play much faster on stage than during rehearsal, what can you do? Killing them immediately is not an option as the audience might be intimidated. So play soft, possibly missing this or that note while the audience can hardly hear you and might believe you are a genius because they can't hear the mistakes neither, might be a live saver...

Then on the other side you might not hear yourself when playing too soft. So how can you play then? We acoustic mandolinists need thoughtful support of our band mates then.

Another thing that helps me is practise. I dedicate a big amount of practise time on relaxed right hand technique. E.g. this one: http://youtu.be/WycCmb-F41o

It takes 10 000 hours of practise to become a world class expert in any field including making music. - Daniel Levitin in his book "This is your brain on music"
So take your time - Bauzl in this post ;-)

But don't forget to have fun and enjoy your picking!

I think you nailed it. For me, in a monitoring problem I play loud and hard and that definitely will cause problems. I'm convinced others hear a mandolin better than the mandolinist himself.

[harleyfrank]

A lot to think about. Thanks guys. I was having to play loud that night and we were going fast on a lot of stuff, faster than usual in fact, so maybe that was it. I don't think it was stressed as until it happened I felt quite relaxed. Afterwards, yeah, kept thinking I'm going to balls it up and of course, when you go down that path the inevitable happens... Hey ho, I think I probalby noticed more than eiher the rest of the band or the audience anyway..

I'll try doing finger stretches next time I drive to a gig and see if that helps.

It was funny though when our guitar player started one of the tunes we play faster than he usually does and then couldn't' keep up with himself:-)

[terzinator]

I totally feel your pain, man. I'm there, too.

It's soooo easy to play with sweetness and light in my cave, picking fiddle tunes along with a backing track... or even jamming with a few friends. I'll listen back and think, hey, that was pretty good.

But when we gig (and we really don't gig often...), I'm a mess. It gets loud, and you try harder, and try to play louder, and you can't hear yourself, and the cortisol kicks in, and there are 1000 places I'd rather be!

Played the other night and it all felt like I had to play really loud (couldn't really hear ourselves well in the monitor), and it just felt like everything was out of tune, and my fingers were moving at half speed, and my picking hand was stiff as a corpse. Ugh.

I still haven't figured out the secret. Someone above mentioned propranolol, which kinda helps the butterflies, but oftentimes the hands move in direct relation to the feedback my ears are getting. And it breaks down from there.

I totally thought my strings were crappy, and in need of changing. I thought, yeah, get some new strings on there, and it'll sound good again! But I played a little bit the next day, just me, and the mandolin sounded great. Not like the buzzy, out-of-tune barbarian it was acting like the night before!

Practice to me sometimes feels like the golf driving range. It's never a real indication of how the actual round will go! But I love to practice, because it sounds good DURING the practice.

Anyway, no real help there, except to say misery loves company.

[JRcohan]

In terms of this problems origins being physical or mental implications. I believe as in most things in life, this symptom was caused by a combination of the two factors. Sorry to state the obvious. I have to agree with Usuallypickin, make sure you breathe while playing, and keep tension in you fingers, hands and arms to a minimum in practice and performance. I know this sounds easier said than done, if you notice tension make a mental decision to be untense, or take a break before your body makes the decision for you.

Good luck, it doesn't sound like serious carpel tunnel or anything like that, I am pretty sure some concerted physical and mental relaxation can overcome this problem.

[Patrick Bouldin]

I totally feel your pain, man. I'm there, too.

It's soooo easy to play with sweetness and light in my cave, picking fiddle tunes along with a backing track... or even jamming with a few friends. I'll listen back and think, hey, that was pretty good.

But when we gig (and we really don't gig often...), I'm a mess. It gets loud, and you try harder, and try to play louder, and you can't hear yourself, and the cortisol kicks in, and there are 1000 places I'd rather be!

Played the other night and it all felt like I had to play really loud (couldn't really hear ourselves well in the monitor), and it just felt like everything was out of tune, and my fingers were moving at half speed, and my picking hand was stiff as a corpse. Ugh.

I still haven't figured out the secret. Someone above mentioned propranolol, which kinda helps the butterflies, but oftentimes the hands move in direct relation to the feedback my ears are getting. And it breaks down from there.

I totally thought my strings were crappy, and in need of changing. I thought, yeah, get some new strings on there, and it'll sound good again! But I played a little bit the next day, just me, and the mandolin sounded great. Not like the buzzy, out-of-tune barbarian it was acting like the night before!

Practice to me sometimes feels like the golf driving range. It's never a real indication of how the actual round will go! But I love to practice, because it sounds good DURING the practice.

Anyway, no real help there, except to say misery loves company.

Yep, same song, same dance. In-ear monitors will solve, puts you back in control, especially if one of your ear buds is dedicated to your instrument. A pain to deal with but worth the effort.

[terzinator]

Yep, same song, same dance. In-ear monitors will solve, puts you back in control, especially if one of your ear buds is dedicated to your instrument. A pain to deal with but worth the effort.

In-ear monitors... great idea, but I'm a Pro-Audio novice.

What do they plug into?

[Steve Lavelle]

In-ear monitors are the best solution for hearing yourself, but no the most affordable. To be truly effective, you should get an mold of you ears done (~$75), and once you have that you need to get them made for $500-$700. and then there is the added cost of the transmitter/receiver for wireless operation ($200-$1000) and the availability of tailoring you own mix (what you hear of yourself and the rest of the band) for the IEM, which implies a higher end mixer in your sound system. A cheaper way to go is one of the small 5-7" monitors by Mackie or Behringer at around $200-$300.

[D C Blood]

Hi Frank...I'm not trying to worry you, but it might be a good idea to get a good physical exam. I've been playing about fifty-two years now and I started noticing several years ago I was going through what you described, more often than not, especially on faster tunes. Turns out I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, due to my exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. I sincerely hope that it isn't the case for you, but you might google the PD symptoms and ask your Dr. about the possibility.

[Toni Schula]

In-ear monitors... great idea, but I'm a Pro-Audio novice.

What do they plug into?

In ears plug into your ears

Sorry I could not resist.

Sunkwood explained very well how to sink your money on IEM. I so far didn't take this big step due to the big investment.

[mandowilli]

Read this book.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Inner-Game...game+of+tennis

[JRcohan]

Read this book.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Inner-Game...game+of+tennis

Not with convention. But I think with certain people, "myself included." Reading this book or others by Timothy Gallowey. There is a good one he co-authored with Barry Green called the, "The Inner Game of Music."ww.amazon.com/Inner-Game-Music-Barry-Green/dp/0385231261