GUITAR TECHNIQUE: Guitar Playing & Hand Pain

[TheDARKNESS8030]

im thinkin i might have general muscle strain....my frethand looked like the vein had popped or smthn cuz hit as a bump where the vein is....i havent palyed my guitar for a couple of days cuz amp blew out but im back and i was learning a very fast paced song where its usually on the 6-3 srings and and my had has to be like really jacked but after awhile it gets sharp and i stopped how can i fix this? without the doctor no money...help please

[andythrash]

Very well explained, as a physiotherapy student and a guitarist myself I found this vid very interesting and useful! I can totally relate to this since I have been experiencing fretting hand pain for quite a while. Self mobilizations for the wrist helped me treat this pain and stretching the forearm muscles really helped me in preventing this pain from returning. Vids of the self mobilizations & forearm stretches are available on YouTube, so these should help every guitarist out there! Rock on!

[MetalboyIzzy50]

I like the the start of the video thats pretty cool

[Dynamik5]

Great video Andrew, I recently bought this book called The art of practicing by Madeline Bruser, which goes pretty in depth about body mechanics and focusing on relaxation. The concepts provided are really helpful, still reading it. If you ever get a chance to look at it, let us all know what you think. Has some interesting ideas about how to approach your practice time constructively, etc. Thanks!

[guitarsamurai1]

Ive been playing guitar now for about 17 years. Back when I was just starting to learn about guitar, I was shown similar exercises to the ones you re playing. People that knew me back them thought that I was wasting my time with stuff like this. "No Pain No Gain" was the attitude of most of the guitar players that I knew back then. Im glad to see that they were all wrong

[joeyguitarlo]

I have hand pain (both hands) but as long as I practice slowly my hand pain seems to be manageable. I find that it doesn't hurt at all if I practice slowly.

[andrewspyguy50]

I bought a DVD course that talked about this. I followed the instructions and everything worked out perfectly. Btw, thanks for the info on soloing in your 7/11 podcast, it's helped out a lot!

[neuregel]

ive never had pain in my hand from playing but i think its dumb to sit around and force yourself to play for 7 hours a day. it cant make you a better player.

[boblawblaws604]

@neuregel,

WHAT THE... Man, holy... I'd thing You'd become frickin' awesome if you could practice for even 5 hours never mind 7 hours a day! If I could practice for 7 hours a day, WOW... I'd become totally amazing. I'd learn EVERY fuckin single Ritchie Blackmore solo and form one of those sleazy bar bands. I'd tour in a bus from city to city and play a whack of bars. Didn't Chuck Berry maker doing that. I's play in a sleazy bar band totally like that.

- Your pal Bob the Git-Tarrre Man !!!

[satchfan2010]

Amazing timing. i can totally relate to the video, i've been getting palm pain in the left hand for a couple of weeks now, which is extremely annoying and limiting my practice. I'm trying self-massage and natural anti-inflammatory's. It's not the first time i've been afflicted with hand pain.I seem to do all the right things, Stretch (gently), warm up, breaks etc. I sometimes ask myself why i go through this ''ritual'. Thanks for the video Andrew.

[creativeguitarstudio]

@satchfan2010,

Thanks for the great comment!

Most often people will only experience Muscle Strain. You'd have to go pretty extreme on yourself to move that up a notch to tendinitis. But, folks can do that to themselves, (it's human nature). Overall, the key (the magic bullet) is to keep very relaxed. A balanced social & home life with a good mind-set toward things unexpected will go a very long way to keeping the body's muscles working pain free each day.

Thanks for watching,

- Andrew

[DoorMat444]

The best teacher in the world? Quite possibly.

[lozleigh]

Great video on an often overlooked subject!

[imjohnandyouare]

Jesus Christ your intros are amazing

[hawg427]

The guy that wrote in with the prolonged practice sessions in my professional ( Paramedic ) advice and I also had this, is Carpal Tunnel. 90% of the time all the fingers will have varying degrees of numbness except the pinky finger. I had surgery on both of my hands and the doctor that performed the surgery on my Left hand ( my chard hand ) hit a nerve and now I have permanent damage to my L-hand with numbness in 2 of my fingers. I also have degenerative joint disease. I try to play an hour/day.

[Hylianmetroid]

Mr. Wasson, I would really like to submit a question, but I don't know where to submit it to. Where should I go to do so?

[creativeguitarstudio]

@Hylianmetroid ...

Hello, submit your questions to my GuitarBlog website:

AndrewWasson (dot) com

Thanks for watching,

Andrew Wasson

Creative Guitar Studio

[melodichand]

were you out of tune at the beggining?

[boblawblaws604]

@melodichand,

WHAT the? "Out of Tune"

He's totally in tune... Are you deaf & dumb, or just plain DUMB?

Shit man take some lessons and develop your ear before making such stupid comments.

- Bob

[melodichand]

@boblawblaws604 im in atlanta institute of music -.-

[COOLBIAN57]

@boblawblaws604 Actually, one of the notes was out of tune haha (it happens sometimes, even on really nice guitars). Still probably one of the coolest/best things I've heard him play though, if not the best.

[boblawblaws604]

@COOLBIAN57

Yes, yes - YES...... the 432nd/th note into the piece, (that he JUST FUCKIN' ROCKED the wet-test juicy hot fuckin' PUSSY ON !!!!) was a 76th milli-Tards plus one plus two of a half of a semi-flat retro-balanced. I know this because I'm a big nerd music student whose never had a slut blow me in a club bathroom and .... Andrew should smoke a bigger JOINT before playing. While smoking that BIG Fattie why dont'cha change yer strings while yer at it.... Arrrrrr.

[SoulGuitarMan]

why am i always the 302th viewer???

[75SilentWarrior]

@SoulGuitarMan 302nd.

[SoulGuitarMan]

@75SilentWarrior my bad grammar nazi

[udsahn]

I only sometimes feel a bit of tingling in my thumb, almost like a nerve's been pinched. It's like my pick is pinching a nerve or from palm muting. The upside though is that the feeling goes away if I put the guitar down for a short while and rarely returns. Still am somewhat unsure what causes it though. There's no pain at least though.

[CharvelDude94]

Insightful video, thanks Andy! :)

I have a very annoying problem which has affected my playing over the last couple of years, where I have really sore pain in my fingertips. Whenever I contact and fret the string it hurts really bad, feels similar to having a pin stuck into it. When this happens I take acouple of days off usually, even a week or more, but this problem constantly returns. Do you have any experience of this?

[tombrenttomb]

@CharvelDude94 I've heard that some people are allergic to nickel, which guitar strings are made of. Could this be a possibility?

[LastFatality09]

its kind of funny i only have finger pain sometimes while playing my acoustic but when playing guitar hero i have horrible wrist pain

[leopower7]

@LastFatality09 When I play guitar hero, I have ear pain, eyes pain, wrist pain and die because IT SUCKS!!

[LastFatality09]

@leopower7 meh coulnt care less each person likes whatever they want

[NewMetallica]

I'm also planning to go crazy on practicing guitar this summer. This lesson couldn't be uploaded at a better time. Thanks a whole lot Andrew, as always your lessons are amazing! I've always learned to never play through pain, guitar isn't a torture device.

[joesimmons90]

@NewMetallica Right. There shouldn't be pain. Maybe a burning which is a workout of the tendons though, and that's good.