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The aches and pains of being a musician
What kind of physical pains do you ladies have to deal with when playing your instruments and recording. I realize that there’s the usual “blisters on me fingers” that come with getting those calluses built up when you’ve been away from playing guitar for and period of time but what other kind of muscular or skeletal aches and injuries have you suffered from and what do you usually do to remedy them? Practice, practice, practice takes it’s toll even on young musicians.
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14 Replies
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Lots of bruises on the right upper arm from Mona hitting me with her guitar’s headstock on tiny stages, sore feet from playing in boots all night (I guess that one’s on us), heat strokes (Cavern! ;-)), singing through colds and sore throats (you gotta do what you gotta do), achy blistery fingers (ah well), sweaty, painful hugs from drunken crowd members, nearly poking your eyeball out when changing guitar strings …
… but really, there are a lot more “physically” demanding or dangerous jobs than being a musician 🙂 So far we managed to dodge the carpal tunnel thing which is good … touch wood!
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Gotta agree with the string changing. So far I’ve avoided my eye but I’ve poked myself in the finger and drawn blood plenty of times with the high E string!.
Can I add the Les Paul back?. Those things are heavy and can become a pain (literally) after playing them for a while.
And not to forget the end of night tear down and pack up. Just what is needed after a long exhausting night!
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My 2nd oldest bro, being the self-taught guitarist he is (mostly jams on his own or with a few buddies and does Blues mostly stuff but will do occasional rock-Beatles, Led Zep stuff, etc) has most likely had some of those issues that both Lisa and Darryl speak of here happening to them, especially the fingers and string changing stuff…. Growing Up when he’d have jam sessions going on in basement, I had witnessed his fingers being blistered, etc. ?
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I was aware of the dangers you experience playing live with your younger sister from a previous contribution of your’s Lisa. It’s a pity she’s not a left hander like Paul McCartney.
Thanks for the heads up – “painful hugs from drunken crowd members”. I’ll bear this in mind when I finally get to see you play live one day!
I truly appreciate how you suffer for your music so people like me get to enjoy it pain free! If you came back to Australia for a while, I could assure you that at least you could play without so many colds and sore throats. It’s nice to see so many more Australians joining the MLT Club.
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Bruises on your arm, I feel for you Lisa, because Mona moves pretty good on stage there and I imagine it could be pretty painful. But how can one stay upset with her, little sis is so cute. Mona, hope you give Lisa a lot of hugs in return. Please do wear glasses when you change those guitar strings, cause we don’t want any harm to come to either of you. Must be a labor of love to create music like you do that bring us all so much happiness. Thank you for all you go through, you are both real troopers.
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When I was playing, I used to have the sore fingers thing, of course, but then I developed a cramping in my fingers and wrists which did ultimately become carpal tunnel later in life. For me, the real self imposed pain though was smoking way too many cigarettes and slamming too many fan-bought tequila shots. Our gigs were four hours long with hardly any breaks because keeping people in the house was more important than resting. As a solo performer, that meant for some very long nights with your hands feeling like they were going to fall off and your voice so hoarse you couldn’t talk. Granted there was pleasure in that pain. But now the torn rotator cuff in my right arm makes playing my Washburn Jumbo a challenge. But I think Lisa was alluding to the fact that if you love it, you do it and when you are doing it you make the pain go away until tomorrow… but tomorrow always does come one day.
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Well you’ve certainly suffered for your art Brian. Reminds me of the MLT song.”Nothing is in Vain”.
Also, your comment – “Granted there was pleasure in that pain” reminds me of the Divinyls’ song “Pleasure and Pain”.
“It’s a fine line between pleasure and pain
You’ve done it once, you could do it again
Whatever you done, don’t try to explain
It’s a fine, fine line between pleasure and pain” -
And not to forget the end of night tear down and pack up. Just what is needed after a long exhausting night!
Darryl! How I always despised breaking down and making sure no one runs away with your gear!
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Oh dear Darryl and Tomás. Such a tough life for guitarists. Spare a thought for all those drummers out there! I’m not surprised Mona chose the guitar over the drums for their live bands.
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Yeah being a drummer would suck. But at least they can park in the handicapped spots when they leave a pair of drumsticks on the dashboard!
I always help the drummer load and unload in any case.
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Ummmm……if you want to hear from an old-timer…..when joints are arthritic, playing gets a little more painful when we age. Seems due to genetics or repetitive motion or whatever, my back, hips, knees, hands, and shoulders have a bit of the arthritis going on. Over the last year I have been postponing one concession to the onset of painful things………my hips and knees are a little “iffy” now and I have recently started sitting down when playing the guitar and singing. And, I absolutely hate this because I have a hard time staying still with the music playing.
Anyway……over time I have learned how to play guitar better despite the joints hurting some and my vocals have gotten better as I have learned more about breathing techniques to hit certain notes. Mike.
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I’ve never met a drummer that was above asking for help carrying his equipment. I’ve always helped, especially since as the bass player I had to carry the heaviest cabinet. Drummers are also great at Car Tetris.
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Any local bands that I’ve seen and know a couple of personally… They all pitch in and help each other with setting up/dismantling before/after gigs… Regardless of who plays what, etc… It’s a group effort.. Now in Glass Tiger’s case… Because they are well known, they have crew that look after most of it but still make sure their own stuff is handled properly, especially Sam, the keyboard player… He’s very particular with his stuff… He tends to setup himself, etc.. Lol… I’ve seen him do it many times during a sound heck before a show and afterwards over the years that I’ve known GT for…
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Back when I was still working as a musician, what I hated the most was humping gear in and out before and after the gig, and setting up. Large club tube amps weigh a freakin’ ton!!! What I wouldn’t have given to have a roadie, LOL. I can remember changing strings and poking through my finger tip till it bled. Also, I’ve been zapped by a bass player who had a different ground polarity than me (that one really takes you by surprise!). However, we used to have a lot of fun too… like doing things to our drummer that he couldn’t retaliate because, well, you just can’t stand up in the middle of a song, although I did take a few drum sticks to the back of the head, LOL.
By the way Howard, the Divinyls are amongst my favorite bands! Chrissy Amphlett’s passing was a real huge loss to the music world!
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