Fatigued Fingers

My fingers have been copping a lot of abuse this weekend.

I spent about 5 hours on Saturday playing guitar and/or bass, which included a mad bass riff that required a fair bit of slapping and popping. It was awesome to play again, but the price was various fingers on both hands have worn thin in various areas, the net result being an unhappy Richie.

On Sunday I went bowling, and despite bowling an unassisted 110 (ie. no bumper bowling) I walked away with a thumb that felt sorer than I'd like.

In the evening, I was on keyboard for church and playing it like an American singer-songwriter who relocated to Melbourne. I've always liked having a guitarist playing, especially in the absence of a decent keyboardist, but that nite I think we managed to pull it off. Unfortunately, in the process I made it a lot easier to pull off part of my finger-nail. My inspiration spurred by Ben Folds means that I have the nasty habit of slamming my fingers straight into the keys - and physics dictates that something's gotta give, which in most cases, is my finger nail. It's at that uncomfortable stage where the bit which has snapped off is still holding on to a bit of flesh - so it's loose enough to move every time you tap your finger (and you can feel it pull everytime it moves) but still clinging on stubbornly so that it will take a half-decent tug to separate it from the rest of me.

With old battered hands like this, how am I meant to do my job? Well, I think this entry proves that although typing is a little awkward, it's still possible.
I need to start playing a low-impact instrument.