Marty Friedman gave me tendonitis

General Music Discussion
#22

On the re-fingering context, Marty himself never plays those arpeggios with the stretches from the album version live. Even in videos of Megadeth from the 90s, he always changes the pattern to avoid the big stretches.

Notice that on the G major arpeggio, he does not do the alternating top note up to A, and on the E7 arpeggio, he opts for just a 2nd inversion E Major triad so he just needs to barre his 1st finger at the 12th fret.

I’ve also had issues with my left hand in the past from playing too much stretchy stuff on an extended scale neck, so I always play Tornado with Marty’s friendlier fingerings.

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#23

Very interesting. I just blindly followed the tab I had. Next time I will look for a better way. Thanks!

#24

Well to be fair, I doubt anyone who wasn’t a fan that watched multiple live performances would even know that he alters it live.

Apparently, this is something he does frequently. I think he mentioned in his Rick Beato interview that he’ll simplify some parts of his tunes so he can focus more on the performance and worry less about nailing a really difficult part.

Another tune I’ve noticed him doing this in is Dragon Mistress. On the record there is a sequence of 2 string arpeggios that are straight sextuplets at between 125-130, but live he plays them as one set of sextuplets and then a set of 16th notes.

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#25

Agreed! Only player I saw doing “classical posture bending” is Chris Poland. Looks awkward but sounds great!

@Need4speed I think this is a great starting point!

Main advice would be to do slower vibratos (basically halve the tempo of the mini bend-release, you can find a convenient subdivision compatible with the song’s tempo and follow that).

Also, I would advise to not over-practice licks because it definitely increases the risk of RSI! I think you’ll find that after 5 mins of repeating the same thing it will basically stop improving (because we usually stop trying new things), and it becomes repetition for the sake of repetition. Better move on to a different thing and come back to it later. I myself have to constantly be reminded of this :slight_smile:

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#26

Didn’t Chris Poland have some severe tendon injury? That would seem likely to make him a special case.

And yes, I’ve always wanted to learn how to do those pitch-wheel bends, such a cool effect.

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#27

These replies are great. I asked for advice on dealing with a tendon injury and I get back responses directly related to that, but also a whole bunch of really cool and nuanced advice on how to approach things when I’m able to return to playing.

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#28

Honestly, this is generally a pretty high-signal, low-noise crew, on this forum. I’m pretty consistently impressed.

I’ve also been typing up some variation on my tendonitis how-to for more than a decade now, I should really just write something up. :rofl:

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#29

One of the most fundamental pieces of wisdom about picking technique that this site has given me is “it should feel good to play.” I think that you can almost boil down all the good advice to that :laughing:

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#30

That’s not half bad, actually.

#31

Same. And because I have small hands, I prefer 24” scale guitars, but there are so few of them. :confused:

I’ve taken to stringing up a 25.5” one string gauge higher (0.012 instead of 0.011 in my case) and tuning down to E flat — which makes the same notes almost exactly the same scale as 24” in standard tuning.

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#32

My two cents about that: never trust the tab and prioritize ergonomics above everything.

In my case, I’ve been noodling over EVH’s Spanish Fly but Eddie’s stretches on the first few frets were killing my hand, so I decided to find alternative positions and I can play it a lot better and with more confidence than before (still not “well” tho :sweat_smile:).

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#33

Interesting, I hadn’t thought about that. I have an older Carvin (DC-120, I think), which seems a bit smaller scale than normal and is a little easier to stretch on. Another important factor is the shape and radius of the neck, which really makes a difference to me. The Ibanez wizard neck and the Carvin feel the most comfortable.

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#34

Yep. Poland had an accident that severed a tendon which caused loss of feeling in his pinky and the ability to bend the tip of his index finger forever.

I went through something similar—a complete paralysis in the tip of my index finger and thumb on my fretting hand from an anterior interosseous nerve injury. It was a nightmare. I went from working on Yngwie licks to not even being able to fret a traditional C chord. This happened before the Internet, so there was almost no information available to me. I briefly saw a GP that told me it was a median nerve injury and that it might get better or not, and that I would need to see specialist and do rehab and whatnot. And I knew that wasn’t happening because I had no health insurance. Hell, I had to borrow cash that day to see him! I was only 20 then. I had to be my own rehab. Years later I found out I’d accidentally stumbled onto some legit techniques the pros use (and what had actually happened to me). But it took me about three years to fully recover.

I got mad respect for Poland. I mean that SUCKS bad. But he didn’t let it stop him. He might even be my favorite Megadeth guitarist. The solos on Peace Sells are marvelous.

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#35

When I was a teen I didn’t “get” Chris Poland. His style was too alien and advanced for my younger self. I didn’t think it was poor playing, of course. It just didn’t grab me back then. I was more of an an Alex Skolnick (and later Marty) guy, but as I’ve gotten way older, Chris Poland’s work on Peace Sells has re-emerged as completely amazing to me. No idea what I was thinking back then. That guy is amazing.

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#36

I’m a similar situation as you! I came back to playing guitar after 10 years (about 2 years ago) and practiced very intensly and probably forecfully and I got tendonitis in my both forearms and wrists.

It’s been about 1.5 years and my forearms have fully recovered but my wrists are still there but minimal, sometimes it flares but I can still do everyting normally.

The only thing that helped me was massaging the whole nerve path from the wrist up towards the traps. I did and still do this almost everyday.

The other thing is excercising my arms and forearms which I still do.

I did resting, ice bags, hot bags, for the first probably few months and they had zero effect for me untill I strated doing the above.

Anyways I’m not a doctor but I researched alot and that’s what worked for me! hope that helps.

#37

Thank you. Sorry to hear that it still nags you from time to time. I just started PT this week and they use heat to warm me up, then 15 minutes of wrist stretching and forearm massage, then exercises. Hard to tell for sure if it will work but most of the stretching and massaging feels good and I can handle the exercises so far. Seems similar to what you describe.