Is anyone else out there struggling with arthritis and still adamant about playing? I found a couple of things that helped me recently. The first is to warm my hands either in warm water or use a heating pad before playing. Second is to do finger exercises by stretching each finger and getting them moving before grabbing a pick or fretting a chord. Most importantly I bought a special guitar pick called a blackstone pick. It was a bit pricey, $20 for a set of 3 but it fits over your thumb and you can grab it with your first finger for a sturdy grip. They have light, medium, and heavy. This has done wonders so far in helping me to play again with pick and not sound so uneven with the hand strumming. Itās near impossible to drop the pick while playing.
These Black Mountain picks are really good, I use them occasionally for fingerpicking (alternating thumb stuff). Youāve worn it for your OM-performance, right? I thought I caught a glimpse on it sitting on your index finger? Anyways, it is great you found some way to keep on playing even though arthritis is giving you a hard time.
Maybe, also consider loosening your arms and shoulders a little before playing. I often find that tension in my upper arms or around my shoulder translates to my hands, too, making them feel stiffer and less relaxed. Keep strumming away and enjoy it, Jeff!
Like Lisa I also use Black Mountain thumb picks but I got them for playing trad acoustic blues and especially steady thumb Blues. But like you have discovered, they can be used as a standard pick. With the spring loaded thumb wraparound they can be very stable with the index finger used as support.
So if this works for you go for it.
Not sure if its arthritis specific but my old hands are beginning to get knarly but its a useful option. TBH I switch between normal picking (flat), fingers only freestyle, hybrid picking and as I said, thumb picking for certain genres. But if it works for whatever you are doing Jeff go for it.
Thanks for the advice on keeping the whole arm relaxed. The pick I used at the open mic was an imposterš cheap version while o was waiting for my blackstone to ship. Now that Iāve tasted the quality one I canāt go back. The last open mic I did a couple weeks ago my hand got so bad I almost lost the pick during a live performance and had a death grip going to keep in time. Hence I am trying to adapt and overcome. Glad to hear youāve tried these picks too.
Iām glad to hear you use this pick as well and like it. Thatās a great idea to use it for blues. I might add my āballpark bluesā song to my next open mic and my confidence will be higher not worrying about strumming issues. I spent a year playing with no pick at all in acoustic and itās time to sharpen up my skills to have a professional sound. Flat picks are still fine for me on electric guitar thanks for your thoughts on this as this has been a thorn in my side for years now.
