One fine day Pat McKee got it oh-so-right:
PM> I am an occupational therapist and a guitarist myself. You have
quite an interesting challenge. Does your client play the guitar for
pleasure or as a vocation? Does he play to accompany himself while
singing, or does he play classical style. You will need to problem
solve with him to come up with a compromise.
I am a BK amputee and guitarist, and I will assume your client plays for
pleasure. But Pat’s succinct point, which I echo:
PM> If he wears a prosthesis, it will obliterate sensation which seems
undesirable, and probably limit PIP motion. It seems to me that
unless he is too hypersensitive, he should learn to play without a
prosthesis.
Bingo. Any prosthesis will eliminate sensitivity, and it is sensitivity
that a guitarist relies on to extract a sound, their sound, a human
feeling, which is what finally matters, from the insensitive strings.
It sounds as if your client is playing a steel string guitar. He might
consider switching to a classical or even a flamenco (the neck is
smaller) guitar since both use gut strings which are less taxing to
depress on the finger board.
PM> Perhaps he has trouble fretting individual strings because his
middle phalanx is too wide, especially since it is the site of the
amputation. Perhaps a simple ring of thin low temperature
thermoplastic around the middle phalanx would compress the soft
tissue, although you would need to be careful not to compromise the
circulation.
Rather than attaching extraneous devices to his digits, ask him to
listen to Django Reinhart, whose recordings from the 1930s are readily
available on CD. Django was an innovater, a man who in site of having
“two dead finger, one burned finger” created a unique, often imitated
style in the field of jazz and swing guitar. He did not need either all
of his digits nor a prosthetic device to accomplish this task. It came
from his heart and soul, which is where all decent musicians draw
sustenance.
As an option, Bill Clement is a bass guitarist with a San Francisco
metal band, which requires him to play with speed, agility, and volume.
He accomplishes this by turning the input pot up to 11 and fretting the
bass with his left hand, hammering the strings with sufficient force to
generate clean notes, one at a time, which is how bass players walk
lines.
I agree it is challenging, but if your client has the will and spirit to
play music, he will do so in spite of having a digit that is not quite
up to snuff. BTW, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead had an amputated
finger, tho I do not recommend his lifestyle. Heroin does not make you a
better player, but having an adequate supply of desire and spirit will.
Please feel free to give my address to your client if he would like to
chat.
Wayne Renardson
Nashville, TN
