guitar?

Anyone ever find too much climbing and too much guitar are bad for both . I find if I do to much of both they seem to suffer equally.

What I really mean is does the interland think these two things stress such similar skin/joints/tendons in the hands and wrists they are hard to do alot togther?Whatta ya think?

Totally. When I take time off from climbing I usually play more guitar and vice versa but cannot do both within the same time frame.

ive played guitar for 14 years and ever since i started climbing ive gotten much worse at guitar.

but you cant get to the top of a big ass mountain by playing guitar...

I consider them to be independent of one another - climb 2-4 days a week, half plastic and half rock, and probably practice music the same amount of days. In fact we normally have a session after climbing nights, jamming for a few hours.

Only detriment is the occasional skin injury from climbing can mess things up, but I'd rather play than not so I work around it. Or the chalk that despite scrubbing never washes out fully and slows the fingers down a little.

I think the more you climb, and play, the more strength you gain in the fingers/forearms depending on your style, which would only help with the instrument.

However just like climbing, warmups and stretching are useful and most often ignored for the instrument.

Here's some recent stuff:

youtube.com/user/chrisvulta…

I played bass and guitar professionally for about 25 years before getting a bit arthritic in my left fingers... stopped touring, sold the 12 string and went back to climbing. There were a couple of trips at the end that involved climbing and shows, and those shows were harder to pull off. I can still play bass and 6 string occasionally, but not as well as I used to. I usually have less finger trouble when climbing than when playing, but not always. I know a route-setter at the BRC who climbs quite hard, and also plays guitar very well- he is, however, about 20 years younger than I am. It pretty much boils down to how much wear and tear you've got on your joints, the genetic "hand" you were dealt, and how mindful you're willing to be.

Thanks for bringing this up!

TenLetters playing Tonight!!!

Flagstaff, AZ
Mad Italian Public House / Studio 111
Rock n Roll (not as bad ass as the guy in the link but PLENTY fun!)
7:30 - 9

Climbers come out for a while to get hung over for tomorrow's SENDS

Thanks, Steve

Missed YOU! , but we had a crowd willing to shout and sing along. Good times on Graduation night. Maybe you can get there next time!. I'm hitting the Forks Sunday.

Steve

I suffer the same problems, It depends what type of climbing I am doing that effects my playing, More recently I live in France and climb way too much limestone , so naturally I want to play guitar on rest days, but can't, The Limestone destroys your pads.

I am gonna start filing my pads with Rough sandpaper and course files daily so I can take the pain

If I climb in Coloardo though, there is not much there that destroys my tips the way the rock here does, if I am in the high alpine, it doesn't seem to be a problem on Granite, it's just the limestone.

And at all costs I am avoiding plastic these days

Depends on the player. If you are trying to play an acoustic with high action and heavy gauge strings while trying to slide around the guitar then yep it's going to suck. However an electric guitar with normal to low action with #9's, or even 10's doesn't bother me at least. The other side is the type of rock you spend most of your time on. You probably wouldn't want to play guitar after a day of HP40 bouldering.

I've found that climbing has made my hands stronger in strange spots, and weaker in terms of "AHHHH WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MY CALLUSES?!"
But I've been playing for roughly five years, and climbing for about eight months, so I'm probably not the best example.

18 years of guitar, 9 or 10 of climbing, no noticeable effect for one on the other for me. But I've never stopped playing during this time. I reckon that has a bigger impact on your playing.

mongoose wrote:ive played guitar for 14 years and ever since i started climbing ive gotten much worse at guitar. but you cant get to the top of a big ass mountain by playing guitar...

It may not help you get to the top of a mountain but it sure doesn't hurt with the ladies. I'm not sure which is more motivating.

I've been playing for 25 years. I find that climbing makes my fingers ridiculously strong, fast and accurate for playing the guitar. However doing a lot of both at the same time inflames my carpel tunnel leaving my fingers numb and my wrist throbbing. You can do both successfully but you will have to do that which nobody wants to do and ice your inflammation.

Interesting. I've been wondering about this recently as I go through my yearly bout of elbow tendinitis. Problem is, when I'm not climbing I play way more guitar, as I attribute my tendinitis from extensive 'gripping' I can only imagine that holding down guitar strings exacerbates my problem but I have heard otherwise... whats the word?

Climbing and jamming, my two loves, can we all just get along??

Ha ha you guys are still playing with your fingers!

Ben Walburn wrote: I've been playing for 25 years. I find that climbing makes my fingers ridiculously strong, fast and accurate for playing the guitar.

That's pretty much what I've found. People often ask if guitar playing makes your fingers strong for climbing, but it is quite the opposite. If your guitar playing is increasing climbing strength, you need to take your hunk of lumber to a luthier and get it worked on.

Admittedly I don't play a lot of fingerstyle, that's one style I could see being affected by a lot of climbing/bouldering - any classical guitarists here? The nylong strings are prob easier but I think right-hand technique would suffer.

I can vouch for guitar, bass, & mando though...

fotovult wrote:Admittedly I don't play a lot of fingerstyle, that's one style I could see being affected by a lot of climbing/bouldering - any classical guitarists here? The nylong strings are prob easier but I think right-hand technique would suffer. I can vouch for guitar, bass, & mando though...

I play fingerstyle, more in the travis-picking, blues style, but there are no noticeable effects. Is your right hand a mangled claw or something, because I don't see the correlation...

If you've got to choose one or the other, then choose guitar; chicks love it. Climbing is only about the chicks anyway, right?

You could cure cancer, irrigate the Sahara, look like Pitt and climb like Bachar but around a starry-night campfire you'll be no match for a slightly dodgy rendition of 'Comfortably Numb'. NASA scientists have shown this to be true, with computers and slide rules and shit.

Unless you never want to share your tent with anything other than your sweaty socks and your copy of 'Warriors Way', then learn guitar.

Zeke wrote: I play fingerstyle, more in the travis-picking, blues style, but there are no noticeable effects. Is your right hand a mangled claw or something, because I don't see the correlation...

Right hand is fine, and generally works well plucking progressions rich in 13th chords etc and grabbing some melody lines. But during periods of strength training (weeks with more bouldering than roped climbing) the fingers feel clunky and slow when working on classical pieces requiring finer right hand motions.

Captain Fastrousers wrote:If you've got to choose one or the other, then choose guitar; chicks love it. Climbing is only about the chicks anyway, right? You could cure cancer, irrigate the Sahara, look like Pitt and climb like Bachar but around a starry-night campfire you'll be no match for a slightly dodgy rendition of 'Comfortably Numb'. NASA scientists have shown this to be true, with computers and slide rules and shit. Unless you never want to share your tent with anything other than your sweaty socks and your copy of 'Warriors Way', then learn guitar.

If I could somehow read this without hearing your accent in my mind, I would almost agree. Well, that, and I know you know shit all about guitar playing.

fotovult wrote: Right hand is fine, and generally works well plucking progressions rich in 13th chords etc and grabbing some melody lines. But during periods of strength training (weeks with more bouldering than roped climbing) the fingers feel clunky and slow when working on classical pieces requiring finer right hand motions.

I thought you said you didn't play much fingerstyle, now you're a virtuoso? I guess you should switch to the more brutal American styles, they are not so dependent on finer motions.