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Health Archives - Page 2

Fingernail Care: A Discussion for Bass Players
Ask Damian Erskine

Fingernail Care: A Discussion for Bass Players

Q: As I’m getting pretty deeply into a right hand technique using a ramp, light touch, etc… I’d like to hear your thoughts on fingernail care, particularly for your plucking hand. I keep mine pretty short (it’s hard to open canned drinks), and I’m guessing yours might be similar. Also wondering if you so anything to keep up your nail...

Stage Volume: Turn Up and Play Light (and Other Considerations)
Ask Damian Erskine

Stage Volume: Turn Up and Play Light (and Other Considerations)

Q: In hard rock and metal music, many players – including me – resort to playing with a heavy right hand to cut through the mix of distortion. As time goes by my right wrist starts to experience some pain and I’m thinking I should be playing lighter. Jeff Berlin and Gary Willis have been advocating “turn up and play...

Flu Season Fumbles and Avoiding Lost Gigs
I Wish I Knew That

Flu Season Fumbles and Avoiding Lost Gigs

As we get over the start of a new year and the holidays seem like a distant memory, we enter a new season with the worst surprise of them all… the flu. With the weather, the “warriors” who insist on coming into the office, travel, and the nights off to hang out with friends at the bar, we’re unusually exposed...

Randall Kertz Releases New Edition of The Bassist’s Guide to Injury Management, Prevention and Better Health
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Randall Kertz Releases New Edition of The Bassist’s Guide to Injury Management, Prevention and Better Health

Dr. Randall Kertz, DC has released an all-new, second edition of his popular book, The Bassist’s Guide to Injury Management, Prevention and Better Health. The second edition features expanded content and a new cover. The Bassist’s Guide is written specifically for bassists, dealing with the common, and not-so-common issues bass players encounter when practicing and performing, as well as every...

Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 6: It’s All In Your Head
Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist

Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 6: It’s All In Your Head

Never Mind — if It’s All in Your Head Your Mind Can Fix It “It’s all in your head” is a phrase commonly used by physicians – publicly or privately – when they aren’t sure what is wrong with the patient because symptoms don’t fit in with a test performed or a question on the history form or within the...

Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 5: Odds & Sods
Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist

Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 5: Odds & Sods

Lift Off — Common Sense Guidelines for Lifting and Moving Your Equipment Most of us carry our own gear around. Sometimes we get lucky and use house gear or somebody else’s gear (which isn’t always as good a deal as it may sound). At times, some of us are fortunate enough to have somebody else haul our equipment around for...

Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 4: You’ve Got Some Nerve
Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist

Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 4: You’ve Got Some Nerve

Strapped — Proper Strap Construction and Use Typically bassists are used to having a heavy weight around their necks. Earlier in this series we studied problems related to the wrists and forearms, which are usually muscle and tendon related (tendons attach muscles to bones, hence when overuse occurs it is from the pulling that the tendons do to the muscles)....

Developing Stamina
The Lowdown with Dr. D

Developing Stamina

I have trouble with stamina, especially when playing difficult music. How do you develop stamina? – John H. Developing stamina can be a real challenge on an instrument as large and as physically demanding as the upright bass. If developing stamina is a goal you need to achieve, I would suggest focusing on the following items as you begin your...

Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 3: Warm Up & Exercise Tips
Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist

Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 3: Warm Up & Exercise Tips

Bass Playing as a Sport Approaching the bass in the same manner athletes approach their chosen field of endeavor will pay dividends in stamina, injury reduction, and improved playing. Just as an athlete trains for an event in which they have to perform at their best, bassists practice, rehearse, and gig for hours at a time, frequently paying little or...

Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 2: Posture, Posture, Posture
Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist

Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 2: Posture, Posture, Posture

The Importance of Posture, in Life and Music In this installment, our focus is on posture, and how it – and lack of it – can affect bass playing in particular, and everything else you do in general. Bad habits started when we were young have a way of sticking with us as we get older. In part, that’s because...

Dealing with Repetitive Stress Injuries
Ask Damian Erskine

Dealing with Repetitive Stress Injuries

Q: Every morning, when I wake up at about 5 am to practice my bass, I find that my fingers get cold and blood stops going to them. When I stop and rest, I feel the blood rushing back to them. This started happening since I upgraded my practice time from four hours to about seven hours. Have you ever...

Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 1: Basic Technique
Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist

Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 1: Basic Technique

Common injuries that rob bassists of stage time Let’s start with an overview of the most common types of injuries bassists experience, the dreaded tendonitis, also known as repetitive stress injury, which will usually be felt in the hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, or neck and shoulder. As repetitive stress injury suggests, overuse is the cause of symptoms which can include...