Hi Andrew, you may find this blog interesting to read: Ken McCaw: playing guitar one handed
Andrew Crawley
68 • South Australia
Goal:
Play guitar again
Time Frame:
3 Months
Best Outcome:
Play guitar again Write some more songs Have some teaching
Steps and Action Plan:
Step 1:
Finger strength
Activity 1:
Individual joint movement
14 Responses
Thanks for sharing Diana
No worries Andrew. Did you see Deigh's plectum?
Also, lookout for Antonio Ianella due to his hemiplegia he unfortunately didn't get back to paying guitar to the level he wanted, however he picked up piano instead and started his band The Lion Tamers.
I'm also retraining, lack of strength in right hand has made me design and build plectrums using Kangaroo skin! Here's a pix 
Good work Deigh
Couldn't add a pix of the plectrum yesterday, I was on the wrong computer.. However, here it is today.
Do you have similar problems? I've played guitar for nearly 70 years and the stroke was a blow. Ive got back to practicing for half an hour daily since I easily lose focus on what I'm doing. Keyboard playing is the in the dame boat.
Deigh
Thanks for sharing Deigh.
The stroke I had was not severe.
I have made quite a lot of progress so far...
I'm finding certain chords difficult because of the stretch... but there's definitely improvement...
Playing the guitar is therapy in itself...
Andrew, Tell us more bout your stroke, was it your right side affected? and are you right handed? Did the stroke affect your music reading skills?
I'm in my sixth year of recovery. My right hand was worse hit but loss of strength generally meant that the left hand was also weak and sluggish. I spent hours filing some frets to get rid of buzzing only to find that it was the lack of strength or my left hand that was the problem. This is gradually improving.
Deigh
Hey Dwight,
It was my left side which was affected.
3 days after the stroke all I could do with my left thumb was to touch my first two fingers.
And there was a lack of strength in my right leg...
I have a number of friends praying for me...
I have a significant amount of movement in my left hand (I strum with the right hand) ....
At the moment my aim is to be able to play what I used to be able to play...
The Practicing is rehab in itself... I'm also "inventing " some finger movements to isolate individual fingers...
Overall, I'm making significant progress.
Andrew
Hi Andrew
The strokes I had after a traumatic accident affected my left side. My right wrist had been smashed beyond repair so it could only be cleaned out and injected with cortisone. So I had to rehab both hands. I really needed that left one to work due to the restrictions on the right. I spent 3 months in hospital recovering from all my injuries and 18 months in outpatient rehab. I tried various equipment for my hands and what I found the best for me was the Theraputty to warm up and stretch my hands out, followed by the PowerWeb. I purchased both these items and have them with me at home to use whenever I want. They both come in different strengths so you can work your way up. The PowerWeb was purchased by my rehab facility based on my desire to be able to put fuel in my car as I didn't have the strength to do it. Within 3 weeks of using the PowerWeb I was able to pump fuel with either hand, I would switch hands as I have a big tank ! I have gone on to do many other things also and when I was discharging from rehab I was able to improve my grip strength in both hands that was in the normal range for a person my age (I actually was stronger then my OT, even she was surprised). I started on a grip strength of 7 in my left and 0 in my right, both ended up over 32. Hope this helps.
Renae.. I had to look up powerweb on google to find out what it was. It looks like an excellent tool for exercising. I relied on household pegs for daily exercising since they could be kept in a pocket for instant use. I have draw full of things I used initially to regain strength and even now on my daily walks I carry a small stick to twist between my fingers.
flexibility was as important as strength. In my early days I used to hammer 4inch nails into a treestump in the garden. First attempts took 56 blows to sink a nail, (mind you, some were complete misses!) I Improved to 10 hammer strokes before stopping the exercise.due to the fact that the tree stump had collapsed!
Deigh
Deigh
Sounds like you have made some good progress also. I too used pegs, hammers, elastic bands, marbles etc etc. They are all great in the early days I think, but when you want to move further ahead the PowerWeb was a game changer for sure. You will have to find a new stump !
Stump eventually collapsed with weight of nails in it. Realising that the hand was no good without the arm strength top back it up I retrieved a fly rod from the shed and would daily spend sometime doing casting practice in the driveway. Even today in my sixth year I do daily floor exercises to keep everything moving easily.
My guitar playing is not too bad now, nothing like pre-stroke but using computer backing programs like Encore gives me practice at home and that is better than nothing.
How are you doing playingwise?
Deigh
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