Chronic Pain is Screwing with my Songwriting

[Reid Rosefelt]

I had an accident while on vacation in Paris in late March. If you know the stairs at Montmartre, you know what it means that I rolled down them. One mistep and off I went. My wife says I went down over twenty steps before some nice French people stopped me.

While rolling down these steps didn't seem to bother Keanu Reeves...



for me, it was quite painful. My left leg was black and blue. But I sucked it up and continued to do all our tourist stuff for the rest of our trip. I just avoided stairs.

But some time after I got back, I felt intense pain in my upper right arm and tingling in my right hand. The problem was in my neck. My orthopedist thinks that I didn't do my neck any favors by tumbling down those stairs.

I've been going through a series of orthopedists, physical therapy and a pain doctor. Everybody is saying no guitar or piano until I have my epidural. I have cheated on this a little bit, but I realize I have to listen. No means no.

This sucks because I have always written songs while noodling around on the guitar or piano. Just looking at the guitars on the wall is depressing. I've done some things like rewriting lyrics in Synth V (not much different from typing this post), but I am strictly not allowed to play for a while.

One thing songwriting books remind me that a lot of songwriters only write lyrics. And some people who write both lyrics and music write the lyrics first. So I am trying to work on lyrics alone. Sometimes I sing them, and sometimes I don't. But I miss the chordal accompaniment. That's been my way of writing songs since I was 12. For me, it is weird—it's like doing everything left-handed.

I'm trying to decide whether this is something that is all bad or whether there may be some positive aspects to it. Maybe this old dog can learn a few new tricks.

 

[Louie]

I'm trying to decide whether this is something that is all bad or whether there may be some positive aspects to it.

After taking some time to reorient yourself, wanted to encourage you to keep on truckin’. I don’t at all mean using your hand and playing guitar when your doctors say not—please be very careful. But wanted to encourage you to continue finding ways to keep on with songwriting and creativity even with your normal groove/flow severely disrupted. Creative people need to be creative. More than once I’ve had severe tendonitis (today it is called RSI or repetitive strain injury). Different injury, but I know what it is like having the wind knocked out of my sails, and not being able to play for prolonged periods. I eventually found different paths back to music and how to manage RSIs, and I still play multiple instruments today. It’s a long story I won’t bore you with. Just wanted just offer a word of encouragement to find different paths to explore along your road to recovery, it will be worthwhile.

 

[Nekujak]

So sorry to hear about your pain and injuries @Reid Rosefelt. It's like adding insult to injury to be forced to endure pain plus not be able to pursue an activity that feeds your soul. Hopefully, you'll be able to get back to it soon.

There have been a couple of times in my life when I was unable to play the guitar for a period of several months due to injuries. During one of those episodes, I sought out alternative approaches to songwriting, and ultimately ended up using Garage Band on my iPad. Not only was I able to play rudimentary chords while writing, but it enabled me to record basic arrangements and vocals, all just using the iPad, which in my case, didn't put stress on my injuries.

Aside from continuing to be able to make music, the biggest benefit was that it pushed me out of my typical guitar-playing comfort zone, causing me to explore songwriting in fresh new ways that would ultimately enhance my overall songwriting efforts after I was finally able to play the guitar agian.

I offer up this experience as a form of encouragement. Hopefully, your pain will subside sooner than later, but in the meantime I hope you can find satisfactory ways to continue expressing your creativity

 

[David Cuny]

Hi, Reid.

Sorry to hear of your injuries.

You could shell out $6 for an iOptigan (runs on iPad or iPhone) for some prime 70's cheese, but you're limited to a fixed set of keys, and the A is actually an E diminished:



There are a number of VIs that can be triggered via the mouse or a single key, like NI's Session Guitarist:



If you set the UJAM guitars into Chord Mode, you can also trigger diatonic chords with the mouse:



Either of these allows real-time playback in the key of your choice in various styles. I'm fairly sure you've got at least one of these.

The Indiginus guitars are similar, in that they can be set to Latch mode and then triggered with a single mouse click on the keyboard. But above and beyond using the diatonic chords for a particular key, you can assign any sort of chord you want - either from the dictionary or custom-built - to any key.

All these can also be triggered in your DAW with a single note. That means you can draw them onto the piano roll with your mouse.

Of course, you could also use BiaB. You can use Shift+Enter to preview how a chord in a cell sounds.

 

[kgdrum]

Hi Reid,
I feel your pain,literally.
On January 30th I was attempting to go down the stairs in a subway station,a young lady ran down the stairs brushing against me.
I lost my balance and tumbled down the entire flight of stairs,OUCH!
I could barely walk for a few days ,the left leg (back of the knee)left hip and left arm into the shoulder were all sore,black and blue etc…….
After 4 or 5 months most of it got better my range of motion (left knee) is much better but now my right knee has been acting up ,sore and weaker than usual probably from compensating with the left knee

I’m an idiot so of course I never went to a doctor or got any of this checked out so all I can say is FEEL BETTER!

 

[Reid Rosefelt]

Hi, Reid.

Sorry to hear of your injuries.

You could shell out $6 for an iOptigan (runs on iPad or iPhone) for some prime 70's cheese, but you're limited to a fixed set of keys, and the A is actually an E diminished:



There are a number of VIs that can be triggered via the mouse or a single key, like NI's Session Guitarist:



If you set the UJAM guitars into Chord Mode, you can also trigger diatonic chords with the mouse:



Either of these allows real-time playback in the key of your choice in various styles. I'm fairly sure you've got at least one of these.

The Indiginus guitars are similar, in that they can be set to Latch mode and then triggered with a single mouse click on the keyboard. But above and beyond using the diatonic chords for a particular key, you can assign any sort of chord you want - either from the dictionary or custom-built - to any key.

All these can also be triggered in your DAW with a single note. That means you can draw them onto the piano roll with your mouse.

Of course, you could also use BiaB. You can use Shift+Enter to preview how a chord in a cell sounds.

I have used VIs like these for years, but I always have written my chords first, and then put them in. I tried to use @Nekujak's idea and fooled with my iPad, but that just wasn't it for me.

What is working best for me now is writing lyrics and singing them into my phone. I'll figure out the chords later.

Depending on how my epidural goes a week from Monday, it's possible I'll be back to my guitar and piano (for limited times each day) in a few weeks. That will be enough.

But thank you everybody for your kind words!

 

[Reid Rosefelt]

I had my epidural and it helped me a lot. By the next day I had no pain in my arm anymore. The neck still hurts a bit, but that's not a big deal.

After a few days, I started playing guitar now and then for short bits. I probably should wait until the followup appointment, but screw it. The rule has always been to not do things that make me feel pain and I am following it. Playing guitar used to hurt and now it doesn't. I'm not an idiot. I'm not going to play all day long. I don't know if I will ever get back to that.

But I'm back to songwriting every day.

 

[cpasteve]

Grew up playing guitar, and after getting an arthritic hand left hand (and IT degree) I developed this - see below. Nothing limited about it, But guitar and piano are the best tools, so I get it.

 

[David Cuny]

Grew up playing guitar, and after getting an arthritic hand left hand (and IT degree) I developed this - see below. Nothing limited about it, But guitar and piano are the best tools, so I get it.

Link? I'm not seeing anything "below".

 

[cpasteve]

Link? I'm not seeing anything "below".

Chordware Progression Assistant – Music creation software https://share.google/8UZbfR5V2aJHBFKAO

It's on my signature at VI - forgot I was on SP!
I'll be releasing the full version in about a month. But the limited free version (playable chord/scale list generator) is available - windows standalone.