rombsix -> RE: 640 mm scale length guitar (Dec. 12 2010 22:14:12)
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quote:
I feel you are just not making the effort big guy. When I watch your vid your elbow is way back near your hip. It should be more forward so you play more on top of the fingerboard and your wrist more parallel to the neck. Thank you for your comment, Ricardo. The reason why I keep my elbow far back near my hip is because it helps keep my wrist in continuity with my forearm (i.e. parallel to the FLOOR, and NOT parallel to the neck/fretboard). This is because I CANNOT angle my wrist the way you do at 2:45 of your video, or else, I will end up with BAD pain and stiffness in my wrist which will prevent me from playing for a couple of days. This is mainly because of the synovial cyst that I have on my left wrist. Before I developed this problem with the cyst, I used to do what you mentioned when I found certain positions that required more stretching. I'm afraid doing this for sometime had a role in making me develop that cyst in my left wrist. There are no studies that show a direct relationship between mechanical overuse of joints, and the development of such cysts, but there are trends that show a relationship. If you remember, at one point, I started playing in the traditional position with the neck way up in the air (like Paco Pena), but that didn't feel very comfortable in terms of the guitar being unstable and prone to fall (requiring me to hold it up with my left hand, and thus have less freedom to move up and down the neck). However, this allowed me to keep my wrist IN CONTINUITY with my forearm, thus allowing me to avoid forming an angle thereby avoiding the pain due to the cyst. I then started using a strap to keep the guitar from wanting to fall, and to free my left hand up a bit. That was more comfortable, but NOT as comfortable as playing cross-legged, like PdL. I therefore returned to playing in the PdL position (despite all the back pain it causes me, which I then started remedying by going to the gym and working out my lower back and abs, and by doing "yoga" stretches at home), but settled for an elbow far back near the hip to keep my wrist from angling and exacerbating the cyst pain. So you see, if I play the way you want me to, I get wrist pain. If I play like Paco Pena, I get no pain, but I don't feel comfortable playing freely over the whole neck. If I play like PdL (cross-legged), I get back pain and I have to move my elbow back near my hip (for better wrist-forearm alignment - the whole cyst issue), therefore disallowing me to get those stretchy chords / positions. That is why I was thinking to myself: maybe a 640 scale length guitar with a narrower nut will solve the problem once and for all - but then, I started getting people telling me that such guitar dimensions would make other positions (especially with a capo) too crowded, and thus uncomfortable to play. THAT is why I am confused about the matter, and I can't seem to make up my mind regarding what guitar dimensions to settle on. Maybe the BEST solution would be to finally gather the courage to get surgery done on my left wrist to remove that cyst, and hope that my pain / range of motion would go back to pre-cyst days. However, there are always risks with surgery, and there's about a 5 to 10% chance that the cyst will RECUR after surgery. So, what should I do? [:D][:(]
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