Just working on some bass parts for the new thingie I'm doing. I played insane shotgun speedbass with tons of chords and stuff in a thrashcore band for YEARS. What I'm doing now is tricky but mostly single note walking stuff and my hands are KILLING me after like an hour!
 
Oof. DO WHAT I TELL YOU TO FINGERS!!! YOU SOFT LAZY BASTICHES!!!

Two words: Voltaren Gel, it is scrip but nothing that can be abused. You should be able to get some easily, it does wonders for joints.. if that is the problem. If you need calluses, well you know what you have to do! Good luck with it. I am well acquainted with pain, pain is a friend who sticks closer than a brother! If you're getting arthritis or other joint pain I can tell you things that will help. I've tried a LOT of different things, some unconventional, some work some don't. Be well my friend!
 
J

Tell your fingers to just play in AM.
 
No pain.
 
Lot's of Gain.

A great finger strengthening exercise I learned is to take a sheet of newspaper (preferably a large broadsheet), grab it right in the middle and scrunch it up in a little ball with one hand. Perfect for developing overall hand strength, plus I get to tell that lousy New York Times what I think of it.

Heh. Thanks, Julien but this does seem to be mostly due to letting my callouses soften and losing my bass/acoustic guit muscles. I've been so absorbed in learning how to make this bleeding program do what I want that the actual thing I'm learning it all for (playing) seems to have been pushed to the back of my priorities list.
 
Although I am surprised at how well my back has been handling this round of bass shenanigans. For a while there I couldn't even play my guitar without wonking myself out and the bass was just brutal because of the extra weight and longer scale (which I think contributed to the basslines of the Beepster Creep being so darned boring). My 4-5 hours of daily back care seems to be paying off... somewhat.
 
It's just really weird for me to have to stop playing because of claw hands and/or massive blisters forming (of which I seem to have a doozy bubbling its way up from the depths of my index finger's pad/tip). I actually ripped a good hunk out of the tip of my ring finger a while back while working out guitar parts for this song which put me out of commission for a week or so. Total flow breaker.
 
tl;dr... My big strong man hands have turned into delicate little princesses and it's annoying me.
 
Guess it's better to be annoyed about something like that though than the whole not even being able to walk from my desk to the pisser... which thankfully I can again.
 
Cheers.
 
 

Mesh
Tell your fingers to just play in AM.
 
No pain.
 
Lot's of Gain.

This one's actually in Bm.
 
Unleash the poop jokes!
 

sharke
A great finger strengthening exercise I learned is to take a sheet of newspaper (preferably a large broadsheet), grab it right in the middle and scrunch it up in a little ball with one hand. Perfect for developing overall hand strength, plus I get to tell that lousy New York Times what I think of it.

I just gotta start playing more again. Now that I have all day, every day (well most days) to focus on my music it seems I'm playing less than any time in the past 25 years since I first picked up a guit.
 
That is starting to change though now that I've figured out this whole DAW business. Still lots of gaps as I slap pads and edit/mix crap. I think I'd better force at least a 20 minute practice session every morning to avoid this nancification.