Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => Time Out => Topic started by: Gary on September 26, 2006, 06:46:09 AM
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After 6- 7 years playing I finally got round to booking some lessons and I had my first one two weeks ago. Tutor seems very knowledgable, excellent player, nice bloke etc and so far everything feels very positive.
He gave me some chromatic and major scale exercises to take away and I've been spending about half an hour every day on them (due to go back for my second lesson tomorrow). For the first week I had no great problems although I noticed some tension in my left wrist. I didn't worry too much about it because I stopped when it became noticeable and it went away soon afterwards. Last weekend however I spent at least an hour playing and I've had a pain in my wrist ever since.
What am I doing wrong - poor technique/ posture, over doing it, onset of athritis?
Obviously I'll mention it to my tutor but I'd appreciate any advice from anyone who's had similar problems.
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I think it could be posture combined perhaps with intense practice.I note that you have been playing 6 to 7 years and are no novice but did you pick it up and play for 20 minutes or have you played regularly for , say. an hour. Check with your tutor first I think.
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This is probably no help to you but I sometimes get that problem after trying to learn some faster songs/riffs. The pain normally goes away in about 10 minutes but once its lasted a few days..
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DO NOT IGNORE WRIST PAIN
WHETHER IT IS TENDONITIS OR JUST FATIGUE
Seriously - take advice to prevent it becoming permanent
It may be intense practise after a long break - it could be that your hand is not relaxed enough as a result of concentrating so hard.
If you need some relief from it try applying arnica gel (available from health food shops)
But DO seek advice
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After the weekend I took a break and didn't touch the guitar yesterday. I spent 15 minutes playing chromatic scales this morning and I could feel it coming back on so I'm leaving it at least until my next lesson tomorrow.
It's strange because I'm not playing anything I wasn't doing before - approx half an hour per day compared to half an hour every other day before. The main difference is that my tutor is making me play much slower and more accurately. Maybe the concentration on accuracy is subconciously making me press harder or hunch over the guitar. Or something.
Feline - it only hurts when I play so I'm not keen on anything to relieve pain - it would only tempt me to play when I probably shouldn't.
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Feline - it only hurts when I play so I'm not keen on anything to relieve pain - it would only tempt me to play when I probably shouldn't.
I hear what you say
I would maybe only suggest the pain relief to break the cycle of pain, take down any inflamation and to enable you to avoid adding tension through maybe feeling stressed by it.
The Arnica Gel has much fewer side effects than say Ibuprofen Gel/ Ibulieve and works well on Arthritic joints too
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Feline - it only hurts when I play so I'm not keen on anything to relieve pain - it would only tempt me to play when I probably shouldn't.
The Arnica should lessen the inflamation, rather than just deadening the pain. So it relieves the cause of the pain and not just stops it hurting.
As for how it's coming about I suspect that it's most likely from tension caused by incorrect positioning of your guitar. Just for an experiment, try standing up to play and raise the guitar right up to a very nerdy height. Then play with your left wrist as straight as possible. Try to focus all of the movement into your fingers and keep the hand moving as little as possible. Small, gentle movements are your goal.
See how that goes. If it seems to work, then keep at it for a while and then modify it to where you can play with the guitar high enough so that it doesn't strain you, but not so that you choke on the guitar. :)
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sorry if this doesn't help much, but that title sounds soooo dodgy
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The Arnica Gel has much fewer side effects than say Ibuprofen Gel/ Ibulieve and works well on Arthritic joints too
I would very much suggest avoiding Ibuprofen if you have asthma, even then it has been known to induce peoples first asthma attacks :(
Try warming up to your exercises slowly as well.
Rob...
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Slight dull pain is ok like when your doing those chromatic scales. Sharp pains, stop playing, rest the wrist, and go slower.
Wristband/guards did wonders for my wrists, when I had problems.
You can try stretching your wrist before/after playing, and during the day.
Sean
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yeah.
i have some kind of pain if i do not warm up 10 minutes before with some "little balls to pump"
or apropriated medical stuff.
as feline said, do not ignore it, or you will be $%&#ed up.
in other words.. you will feel your entire arm , dormant.. and pain.
this if you manage to SLEEP.
q:/
Go to a doctor.
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"little balls to pump"
I dont think I want to know what your warmup routine is :o :lol:
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ahahahaha $%&#gin cr@p.
IŽll have to take pics of it
ahahahah HOLD The $%&#gin ON
ahahahahahahahaah
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Here it is
I use these machines to warm up.
after and BEFORE the guitar playing.
(http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/7166/dsc099622pl5.th.jpg) (http://img87.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc099622pl5.jpg)
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Thanks for all your replies so far. Having spoken to my tutor, given a lot of thought to it and tried my hardest to analyse what I've been doing differently. I've decided it's probably a combination of over stretching and a lack of warm up. I'm going to try no playing at all until after next weekend and then work out some kind of warm up/ stretch routine. I'll see how it goes then but keep the suggestions coming.
BTW I got myself some arnica gel so'll we'll see if it does any good.
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Hello mate
I used to get pains all the time in my wrist, it was all down to poor technique and practising too much.
The way I go round it was by taking lots of breaks when doing tough exercises and concentrating all the time on being relaxed. You need to try to apply the lightests pressure u can to the strings which takes a lot of work and this will majorly mess up your current skills.
Another thing to try and do is to have the fretting hand perpendicular to the neck, look at steve vai or doug aldritch, actually check this link out and look at his fretting hand especially during solos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbtrR3Z_xz8
Hope this helps somewhat
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warm up, have correct technique, and don't over do it.. i had a very very bad case of rsi 2 years ago from playing too much guitar but have changed my fingering and picking technique, practice more efficently and warm up propperly and havent really had a problem since.
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Hello mate
I used to get pains all the time in my wrist, it was all down to poor technique and practising too much.
The way I go round it was by taking lots of breaks when doing tough exercises and concentrating all the time on being relaxed. You need to try to apply the lightests pressure u can to the strings which takes a lot of work and this will majorly mess up your current skills.
Another thing to try and do is to have the fretting hand perpendicular to the neck, look at steve vai or doug aldritch, actually check this link out and look at his fretting hand especially during solos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbtrR3Z_xz8
Hope this helps somewhat
I can relate to this and it's very much in line with my plans for when I start playing again. Excellent link BTW and really illustrates your point.
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I got really bad tendonitis from a factory job some years back (brick factory!) and it hurts like hell. If your wrist actually "Creaks" like a ruxty door wen you hold your ear to it, get thee to a doctors!!!
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Just warm up relaxed an un-rushed, stop each 20 mins and shake all the tension out like you would if your working out. Drink water or natural fruit juice. Breath and practise something else for 20 minutes. Repeat.
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This is all good advice. I screwed up my hands really bad by ignoring pain and practicing anyway. I couldn't play for about six months. My advice:
1. If it hurts, STOP IMMEDIATELY
2. If you're learning something fast, learn it slow first. When you can play it slowly without pain, your hands will have developed the posture necessary to speed it up in good form. At that point, speed it up slowly. The process usually takes about 5 minutes and you wind up with a much better grasp of the part you're trying to learn to boot. [Side Note: I find this makes the difference, sound-wise, between a kid dorking around in his bedroom and a reasonably serious musical statement.]
3. When you're on the computer, don't keep your hand on the mouse when you're not using it. Try to push your keyboard forward so your arms can lay on your desk.
4. If you think you've done serious damage, take some time away from the guitar. I got thrown so f'ing off course when I screwed up my hands, I would have been a much better player now if I had just sacrificed a week or two to let the damn things heal.
5. Just be more conscious of when your hands/arms start to ache/tingle throughout the course of the day, both on the guitar and off. Being aware of it goes a really long way to keeping your body positioned in such a way that physical stress is minimized.
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earlier this year in the school holidays, i was doing some SERIOUS practice sessions - until my left hand got pins and needles for no apparrent reason - Not good, especially coz I was only 14 at the time. I was also getting a lot of this 'clicking' sound when i bent my wirst slightly. Lots of pain. All it took was for me to:
(A) Re-learn my left hand with my thumb resting ON the back of the neck, not OVER it, and
(B) Use a foot stool.
Do whatever it takes to get your wrist and forearm straight. Also, simply try and economise with your LH movement. Keep your fingers very very close the the frets. This will also help you play a lot faster.