pinky finger lock

I've been playing for many years. Recently, I have experienced something new, in that my fretting pinky finger kind of locks into the L position. To straighten it I have to exert harder and then it snaps into a straight position. There's no pain but its obviously not good for smooth transitions in chord changes. I have been playing alot lately ; 2- 3 hours a day. Maybe I need to give it a rest ? Anybody out there experiencing something similar ?

Hi my fretting pinky is locked in an L shape I have whats called a trigger finger.

See a doctor because it can get worse, if you have a trigger finger it means the tendon is being restricted by a growth on top of it. you can have the growth removed and it should cure the problem. but my one grew back after about 6 years, I could have an operation but there is only a 47 percent chance it will work,if it goes wrong they will cut my finger off. At the moment I can play the first 3 strings and dominant 7ths all down the neck using my pinky but cannot play anything that requires more than a 1 fret stretch. I have learnt to use the stiffness of my pinky to play hammer ons and offs but most of the time I replace cords I cannot play with ether triads or other versions of that chord.

I hope this helps and good luck.

Thanks for the advice, I'll discuss it with my Doctor. It's kind of weird in that when I'm playing the stiffness and locking up goes away after awhile It actually feels normal after execrcising it while playing. The locking up returns a few hours after playing and especially in the morning after a night of sleep. I thought maybe maybe the pinky was getting "musclebound" - but it sounds like it could be more serious. Glad you have been able to find ways to work around it. Gives me hope.