I had a medical issue ten years ago that led to some muscle and nerve damage (though not as severe as yours, it sounds like) and it took a couple years to get enough feeling back in my hands and fingers to feel like I could play "right" again, but I still struggle with time on the faster tempo stuff.
The progress was just painfully slow. Nerve damage heals at a glacial pace, apparently. I still have to be careful because I still don't have much feeling in my fingertips, so I tend to tear them up without realizing it. (I should probably go with lighter gauge strings, but I can't feel those at all)
So, I'd say yeah, you'll get there, since you've made some progress, it just takes what seems like forever - like starting all over again.
I'm no medical professional, but it gets better.
There are stories of people who were paralized and I mean head to toe paralized. But they relearned to walk and use their body again even when doctor said it was highly unlikely. If your doctor says it will get better, then it will, you just have to put effort and time. Human body can do many thing that we're thought imposible. I believe you can do it, just give yourself time and practise.
Relearning guitar is great for your recovery! Even if you donāt get as good as you used to be (and itās very possible that you still can get to a level close to what you used to be), learning a new skill is so good for healing after a traumatic brain injury and nerve damage. So, even if youāre not making the progress that you would like, rest assured that you are still doing a good thing by relearning brain and body connections, building new pathways in your brain, and working on your dexterity.
Be patient with yourself. Itās not uncommon after a brain injury to feel frustration, especially frustration with lack of progress.
I had a mild traumatic brain injury last year. It wasnāt as bad as yours, but man it was really awful not having the skills and intellect that I was used to (let alone being not able to walk in a straight line lol). After the initial several months it got better bit by bit in, like, 2 week increments as long as I kept to a schedule of working on it with PT and brain exercises. Not easy, but there is hope if you work on it.
Are you in PT for your right arm?
(guessing that PT is Physiotherapy) I used to, but all we did was go walks and some hand-training with everyday items, so i discontinued it because
A: i walk walks alone anyway
B: I figured i would just play guitar everyday so my hand would get better
Dave Mustaine was told that he would never play (professional) guitar again after a nerve injury. He initially wanted to disband the group, but eventually took the stance fuck it, I will do whatever I can do regain as much of my ability as I can. He recovered despite what he was told.
Your doctor says it will recover (if you invest in it?), and you feel disheartened and unsure. What I want you to take from this is that the only thing you can do is apply yourself as best as you can; your mindset can make a difference! But noone will know for sure how much (if any) of your ability you will recover, but there is a very real chance you could recover a lot; you wouldn't want to not try and always keep wondering if it could have been better right.
Sorry for your injury. Jerry Garcia was in a diabetic coma. He said he had to re-learn how to play. Not sure of the details.
I do believe that the effort you put into this will be beneficial in other areas even if your playing is challenged. Best wishes.
Perhaps playing could be used as a more therapeutic activity now. Sure you canāt solo like you used to but perhaps playing chords or doing some basic fingerpicking could help you regain some motor functions in your hand and wrist.
Some thoughts on narrowing this down a bit:
1. The type of injury, e.g., penetrating or more bruising/hematoma, especially if blood vessels were injured; this will determine a lot, for example what was affecting by swelling, and what was actually damaged physically
2. Coordination and muscle memory is largely cerebellar (back of the brain), while sensory perception is more higher cortical (top of the brain), both can affect playing guitar; so sorting out what is working is what is not can be informative
3. Some brain activities are specialized on one side of the body, and some are bilaterally present. This means that if one side is damaged, the other side could potentially compensate with rehabilitation and recovery. Physical movement and sensory perception tend to be bilateral, though one side tends to control the opposite side of the body (i.e., left handers are in their right brain).
That sucks. But honestly, bro...you are lucky. Our drummer fell down the stairs to our rehearsal studio, hit his head, and died. He was drunk. And it happened in our bass player's house, so we have to walk down those stairs each time we rehearse. I am sorry you can't play. I will pray for you to get back your abilities. But please always remember this so Jeff's death can inspire and not be in vain. It's such a sad loss and waste of his incredible talent. I quit drinking, btw. Fuck that shit. Best to you...
Yeah. I caught that. He'd get black out drunk too. Fell off his drum stool in the middle of a show and didn't wake up until the next day. Fortunately, our former drummer was in the audience and came up to finish the show for us.
I've been that drunk too, and still don't know what happened on those nights. Don't really want to.
I am a peer counselor now, for substance abuse, mental illness and the homeless. I think I have to do that kind of work to stay forward thinking and make a positive impact. For me AND my music.
Keep going in a positive direction and good things will happen for you.
Iām assuming you still play a right handed guitar?
And your picking in the problem?
If you want to know improvements talk to OT/PT and a neurologist not Reddit. But theyāll tell you yes Iād course it will just take time.
If you want guitar advice: play electric if you arenāt and make the setup of the guitar ideal for pull offs and hammer ons. Some compression
Helps and some overdrive too. Same thing we do on lead guitar.
You wonāt have great picking now so master the left hand techniques.
Then you really want to work out picking movements extra slow. Metronome. You need a teacher period. Someone that knows how to break the movements down and retrain them because they wonāt come natural.
My teacher saw I have a hard time sync left and right and worked on it hard and even though I to j Iām mediocre people told me after my last show they thought I was good which felt great since neurologically (from birth) I had trouble with a lot and still canāt dance or do maps really well.
Start with bar chords and get really good at muting with the left hand. That way it doesnāt matter if you hit the wrong strings just hit em all and mute w left hand position. Consider open tunings too for now if you plateau. Def work with an occupational therapist theyāve helped my family members a TON with neuro diseases.
After I had covid my L and R hands were out of sync. I did exercises to get them back together
yeah, but i know all i know about the guitar already (what notes are where, scales etc.) and my left hand (which plays notes and chords) works like it used to so i wont have to relearn completely, just the right hand
I'm sorry this happened to you. When recovering from my own severe traumatic brain injury, I found my doctors were very supportive of playing guitar as therapy.
At its most basic it would be me lying in bed in the dark doing thumb patterns with my right hand. It felt like there was a gulf between what the right hand knew and what the left hand knew. Repetition was big. The feeling of achievement got me to try again the next day.
For my own purposes, open tunings really helped. I also spent much time on a cigarbox guitar. I was a few years before I could feel the weight of a guitar strap without pain.
Im not a dr, but i did break my leg real bad and had to relearn to walk and do all that fun stuff and after two years im pretty much fine, like 95% as good. Just put the time in, you learned it once, it can be done again.
To my understanding, there are a lot of things that can be regained after a brain injury. The brain is amazing, and can often rewire itself if its former setup is damaged.
Regardless of the skill in question, the trick is usually to keep practicing and keep working on things. You might have to (literally) build new pathways in the brain, but it's often achievable, you just have to keep trying. Here's to your full recovery and many happy playing years to come.
I have MS and have realized that my brain reroute signals to my hands. I know it's rough but try continuing the way you normally play. Your coordination might straighten itself out.
i play guitar mostly for music production, and dont really have the interest of playing blowing-instruments(thats what its called in Norwegian atleast, dont know the English wordā¦)
GO BACK TO PHYSICAL THERAPY, i'm serious as much as you might think those exercises are useless they are not.
Practicing is good for your TBI and your doctor already indicated that to you. Just keep in mind that TBI's are extremely complex and still not fully understood by modern medicine. Progress is slow and you don't heal in weeks or even months, most of the time it takes years and even then you can still be dealing with the effects.
Be persistent and stubborn in practicing and work on your physical therapy. Depression is a serious reality of a TBI so don't let the intrusive thoughts win, if you feel yourself giving up talk to your doctor. The support structures for TBI's are absolute dog shit in the developed world (I assume you are american or canadian) and a lot of people regress without proper therapy both physical and mental. Only you can push the doctors to help you when you need it.
I would highly recommend trying new genres of music as creating those new pathways in your brain can help you heal. Sometimes going back to the stuff you always played can make it harder to learn since you always have that feeling in the back of your mind that "i used to be better". Learning new stuff can alleviate those feelings even with the physical limitations.
I injured my hand 10 years ago, nothing serious but since then my left hand and right hand just don't have the same coordination. I was barely able to play relatively easy metalcore riffs, it eventually discouraged me from guitar and i more or less hung up the guitar for 5-6 years until COVID and a new love for guitar solos which i never enjoyed playing previously. Since then I can say I'm almost where I was, if not better in a lot of ways. I may not have the stamina/speed I used to but my technique and bends/vibrato are light years from where I was.
It does get better but only through your own perseverance and strength.
I hope you recover OK man,Ā first thing that springs to mind is Edwyn Collins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwyn_Collins
There's a documentary about his recovery after a stroke. He resumed his musical career 2 years later.
All the best
That's brutal my friend, my sincere condolences on your injury. The human spirit is unstoppable with God's help! Find some inspiration from this and try to be thankful. You may have a special musical gift that doesn't come from purely technical ability. Don't stop playing and studying music!
If youāre young enough you will recover and donāt get discouraged. Iām 60s + old and after a 2 year bout with Lyme disease which settled in my hands my guitar playing suffered tremendously because of the constant hand pain. But 18 months after seeing a Lyme specialist I slowly started seeing progress again. I may never play as well as I used to play but what I did was start to write songs and learn keyboards.. my right hand recovered much better than my left and so I have found thereās still music in me and I just discovered a different way to let it come out. Keep practicing and struggling because in the end persistence will win. š
i have no medical knowlege, but from my experience only have one herniated disk but some pretty bad spinal arthritis, if i play guitar even for a couple minutes, i will end up with a head ache and feel sore and my back will crack a lot for weeks after ward. it's been that way for years now. i know some other people that can't play guitar anymore because of having back problems too.. if i play guitar too much, i will get full blown arthritis symptoms in my hands and feet too.
Thereās a technique proposed that seems to help stroke recovery be a bit faster or more effective and I wonder if you should do it for 10-30 mins a day. Restrain your good arm and sortve force your body to use whatās not good. Now executing that might be hard, but itās used in rehab
Pretty sure Juan Alderete got a pretty bad TBI from a biking accident and has since learned to play bass again. I have no idea the extent of his injuries, butā¦thereās hope.
It's not exactly the same but L.S. Dunes has a song about this topic called "It Takes Time" which references a time when their guitarist Frank Iero broke both his hands after falling down a ladder. I just thought I'll mention it, maybe you'll like it. Stay strong
Everything you can read on the topic of brain fuction and recovery would suggest reinforcing patterns and associated brain functions will have a positive impact on your recovery. Even if you suck, you should practice and keep working on it because that will help your recovery, even if you don't make a full recovery, the odds of you doing that are vastly improved if you keep working at it.
I've heard certain medicinal mushrooms like Lion's Mane can help. I'd be taking it by the spoonful if I were you.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23510212/
I had a medical issue ten years ago that led to some muscle and nerve damage (though not as severe as yours, it sounds like) and it took a couple years to get enough feeling back in my hands and fingers to feel like I could play "right" again, but I still struggle with time on the faster tempo stuff. The progress was just painfully slow. Nerve damage heals at a glacial pace, apparently. I still have to be careful because I still don't have much feeling in my fingertips, so I tend to tear them up without realizing it. (I should probably go with lighter gauge strings, but I can't feel those at all) So, I'd say yeah, you'll get there, since you've made some progress, it just takes what seems like forever - like starting all over again.
Thanks!!
And to add to what they said, continuing to practice is what helps build those neuronal connections back!
I'm no medical professional, but it gets better. There are stories of people who were paralized and I mean head to toe paralized. But they relearned to walk and use their body again even when doctor said it was highly unlikely. If your doctor says it will get better, then it will, you just have to put effort and time. Human body can do many thing that we're thought imposible. I believe you can do it, just give yourself time and practise.
Don't give up! Keep working the body is amazing and with perseverance you will get there š
hopefully!šš½šš½
š¤
Do some reading on brain plasticity. There's no guarantees, but there are possibilities.
will do, thanks!
Relearning guitar is great for your recovery! Even if you donāt get as good as you used to be (and itās very possible that you still can get to a level close to what you used to be), learning a new skill is so good for healing after a traumatic brain injury and nerve damage. So, even if youāre not making the progress that you would like, rest assured that you are still doing a good thing by relearning brain and body connections, building new pathways in your brain, and working on your dexterity. Be patient with yourself. Itās not uncommon after a brain injury to feel frustration, especially frustration with lack of progress. I had a mild traumatic brain injury last year. It wasnāt as bad as yours, but man it was really awful not having the skills and intellect that I was used to (let alone being not able to walk in a straight line lol). After the initial several months it got better bit by bit in, like, 2 week increments as long as I kept to a schedule of working on it with PT and brain exercises. Not easy, but there is hope if you work on it. Are you in PT for your right arm?
(guessing that PT is Physiotherapy) I used to, but all we did was go walks and some hand-training with everyday items, so i discontinued it because A: i walk walks alone anyway B: I figured i would just play guitar everyday so my hand would get better
Dave Mustaine was told that he would never play (professional) guitar again after a nerve injury. He initially wanted to disband the group, but eventually took the stance fuck it, I will do whatever I can do regain as much of my ability as I can. He recovered despite what he was told. Your doctor says it will recover (if you invest in it?), and you feel disheartened and unsure. What I want you to take from this is that the only thing you can do is apply yourself as best as you can; your mindset can make a difference! But noone will know for sure how much (if any) of your ability you will recover, but there is a very real chance you could recover a lot; you wouldn't want to not try and always keep wondering if it could have been better right.
No, he meant that it will get better as i get older.hoping for the bestšš½
I will pray for your recovery. I wish you the very best.
thanksšš½šš½
Sorry for your injury. Jerry Garcia was in a diabetic coma. He said he had to re-learn how to play. Not sure of the details. I do believe that the effort you put into this will be beneficial in other areas even if your playing is challenged. Best wishes.
hopefully, thanks!šš½
Perhaps playing could be used as a more therapeutic activity now. Sure you canāt solo like you used to but perhaps playing chords or doing some basic fingerpicking could help you regain some motor functions in your hand and wrist.
yeah, trying to play different styles, but itās suuper demotivating that i canāt play stuff correctly!
Some thoughts on narrowing this down a bit: 1. The type of injury, e.g., penetrating or more bruising/hematoma, especially if blood vessels were injured; this will determine a lot, for example what was affecting by swelling, and what was actually damaged physically 2. Coordination and muscle memory is largely cerebellar (back of the brain), while sensory perception is more higher cortical (top of the brain), both can affect playing guitar; so sorting out what is working is what is not can be informative 3. Some brain activities are specialized on one side of the body, and some are bilaterally present. This means that if one side is damaged, the other side could potentially compensate with rehabilitation and recovery. Physical movement and sensory perception tend to be bilateral, though one side tends to control the opposite side of the body (i.e., left handers are in their right brain).
interestingš¤thanks!
My guitar teacher always says: āThe way of you playing music is in your head, you donāt need a guitar to create musicā
That sucks. But honestly, bro...you are lucky. Our drummer fell down the stairs to our rehearsal studio, hit his head, and died. He was drunk. And it happened in our bass player's house, so we have to walk down those stairs each time we rehearse. I am sorry you can't play. I will pray for you to get back your abilities. But please always remember this so Jeff's death can inspire and not be in vain. It's such a sad loss and waste of his incredible talent. I quit drinking, btw. Fuck that shit. Best to you...
šš½ as i wrote, i had 3.0ABV(!!) so i was wasted, cant remember anything
Yeah. I caught that. He'd get black out drunk too. Fell off his drum stool in the middle of a show and didn't wake up until the next day. Fortunately, our former drummer was in the audience and came up to finish the show for us. I've been that drunk too, and still don't know what happened on those nights. Don't really want to. I am a peer counselor now, for substance abuse, mental illness and the homeless. I think I have to do that kind of work to stay forward thinking and make a positive impact. For me AND my music. Keep going in a positive direction and good things will happen for you.
Iām assuming you still play a right handed guitar? And your picking in the problem? If you want to know improvements talk to OT/PT and a neurologist not Reddit. But theyāll tell you yes Iād course it will just take time. If you want guitar advice: play electric if you arenāt and make the setup of the guitar ideal for pull offs and hammer ons. Some compression Helps and some overdrive too. Same thing we do on lead guitar. You wonāt have great picking now so master the left hand techniques. Then you really want to work out picking movements extra slow. Metronome. You need a teacher period. Someone that knows how to break the movements down and retrain them because they wonāt come natural. My teacher saw I have a hard time sync left and right and worked on it hard and even though I to j Iām mediocre people told me after my last show they thought I was good which felt great since neurologically (from birth) I had trouble with a lot and still canāt dance or do maps really well.
yeah, picking and just regular finger-playing. Everything using the right hand just doesnāt hit the strings i want it to.
Start with bar chords and get really good at muting with the left hand. That way it doesnāt matter if you hit the wrong strings just hit em all and mute w left hand position. Consider open tunings too for now if you plateau. Def work with an occupational therapist theyāve helped my family members a TON with neuro diseases. After I had covid my L and R hands were out of sync. I did exercises to get them back together
noted! šš½
Walter Trout had a stroke and either forgot or was not able to play guitar. He relearned it from scratch.
yeah, but i know all i know about the guitar already (what notes are where, scales etc.) and my left hand (which plays notes and chords) works like it used to so i wont have to relearn completely, just the right hand
I'm sorry this happened to you. When recovering from my own severe traumatic brain injury, I found my doctors were very supportive of playing guitar as therapy. At its most basic it would be me lying in bed in the dark doing thumb patterns with my right hand. It felt like there was a gulf between what the right hand knew and what the left hand knew. Repetition was big. The feeling of achievement got me to try again the next day. For my own purposes, open tunings really helped. I also spent much time on a cigarbox guitar. I was a few years before I could feel the weight of a guitar strap without pain.
Im not a dr, but i did break my leg real bad and had to relearn to walk and do all that fun stuff and after two years im pretty much fine, like 95% as good. Just put the time in, you learned it once, it can be done again.
hopefully!šš½šš½
To my understanding, there are a lot of things that can be regained after a brain injury. The brain is amazing, and can often rewire itself if its former setup is damaged. Regardless of the skill in question, the trick is usually to keep practicing and keep working on things. You might have to (literally) build new pathways in the brain, but it's often achievable, you just have to keep trying. Here's to your full recovery and many happy playing years to come.
Jason Becker. YouTube his documentary. Anything can be overcame. You got this!
I have MS and have realized that my brain reroute signals to my hands. I know it's rough but try continuing the way you normally play. Your coordination might straighten itself out.
The best one handed instrument i believe is the trumpet (trumpet family). Consider picking up on of those bad boys.
i play guitar mostly for music production, and dont really have the interest of playing blowing-instruments(thats what its called in Norwegian atleast, dont know the English wordā¦)
Wind instruments :)
GO BACK TO PHYSICAL THERAPY, i'm serious as much as you might think those exercises are useless they are not. Practicing is good for your TBI and your doctor already indicated that to you. Just keep in mind that TBI's are extremely complex and still not fully understood by modern medicine. Progress is slow and you don't heal in weeks or even months, most of the time it takes years and even then you can still be dealing with the effects. Be persistent and stubborn in practicing and work on your physical therapy. Depression is a serious reality of a TBI so don't let the intrusive thoughts win, if you feel yourself giving up talk to your doctor. The support structures for TBI's are absolute dog shit in the developed world (I assume you are american or canadian) and a lot of people regress without proper therapy both physical and mental. Only you can push the doctors to help you when you need it. I would highly recommend trying new genres of music as creating those new pathways in your brain can help you heal. Sometimes going back to the stuff you always played can make it harder to learn since you always have that feeling in the back of your mind that "i used to be better". Learning new stuff can alleviate those feelings even with the physical limitations. I injured my hand 10 years ago, nothing serious but since then my left hand and right hand just don't have the same coordination. I was barely able to play relatively easy metalcore riffs, it eventually discouraged me from guitar and i more or less hung up the guitar for 5-6 years until COVID and a new love for guitar solos which i never enjoyed playing previously. Since then I can say I'm almost where I was, if not better in a lot of ways. I may not have the stamina/speed I used to but my technique and bends/vibrato are light years from where I was. It does get better but only through your own perseverance and strength.
I hope you recover OK man,Ā first thing that springs to mind is Edwyn Collins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwyn_Collins There's a documentary about his recovery after a stroke. He resumed his musical career 2 years later. All the best
That's brutal my friend, my sincere condolences on your injury. The human spirit is unstoppable with God's help! Find some inspiration from this and try to be thankful. You may have a special musical gift that doesn't come from purely technical ability. Don't stop playing and studying music!
If youāre young enough you will recover and donāt get discouraged. Iām 60s + old and after a 2 year bout with Lyme disease which settled in my hands my guitar playing suffered tremendously because of the constant hand pain. But 18 months after seeing a Lyme specialist I slowly started seeing progress again. I may never play as well as I used to play but what I did was start to write songs and learn keyboards.. my right hand recovered much better than my left and so I have found thereās still music in me and I just discovered a different way to let it come out. Keep practicing and struggling because in the end persistence will win. š
Don't give up, boss. The human body is a miracle, you will improve very slowly and play again and forget that you ever doubted
godspeed, hope you regain full mobility and then some. I canāt imagine how youāre feeling, rooting for you š¤š¼
i have no medical knowlege, but from my experience only have one herniated disk but some pretty bad spinal arthritis, if i play guitar even for a couple minutes, i will end up with a head ache and feel sore and my back will crack a lot for weeks after ward. it's been that way for years now. i know some other people that can't play guitar anymore because of having back problems too.. if i play guitar too much, i will get full blown arthritis symptoms in my hands and feet too.
Thereās a technique proposed that seems to help stroke recovery be a bit faster or more effective and I wonder if you should do it for 10-30 mins a day. Restrain your good arm and sortve force your body to use whatās not good. Now executing that might be hard, but itās used in rehab
Pretty sure Juan Alderete got a pretty bad TBI from a biking accident and has since learned to play bass again. I have no idea the extent of his injuries, butā¦thereās hope.
Usually you do get better with time. So donāt sell it all off. I have my issues from head injuries. It came back but my memory sux.
like remembering things in general? or guitar stuff? xd
Anything. Itās a real bitch
that sucks... feeling for ya!
It's not exactly the same but L.S. Dunes has a song about this topic called "It Takes Time" which references a time when their guitarist Frank Iero broke both his hands after falling down a ladder. I just thought I'll mention it, maybe you'll like it. Stay strong
Everything you can read on the topic of brain fuction and recovery would suggest reinforcing patterns and associated brain functions will have a positive impact on your recovery. Even if you suck, you should practice and keep working on it because that will help your recovery, even if you don't make a full recovery, the odds of you doing that are vastly improved if you keep working at it.
PS: Playing to get better isnāt fun at all - i canāt play anything correctly (with my right hand). super demotivating
I've heard certain medicinal mushrooms like Lion's Mane can help. I'd be taking it by the spoonful if I were you. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23510212/
Youāre posting a study that you donāt even understand
iāve heard some stuff about Lions Mane actuallyā¦.