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Just a little tip I've learned about my poor fret-hand technique that I've begun to work on improving.

With flamenco guitar, and steel-string acoustic for that matter, it's easy to fatigue your fretting hand by inefficient position. I recently learned from my guitar teacher that I was placing too much tension in my left hand (e.g. thumb pressing against back of fingerboard to hold bar chords, for example) - he could see this through a video cam ! In the past, after long practice sessions, at times the muscles in my pinky and third finger would hurt very much.

What he noticed about my fret hand fretting was that too much of the fretting motion was coming from my interphalangeal joints (IP joints - the 2 joints nearest the ends of the fingers) instead of my metacarpophalangeal joints (MCP joints - or knuckle joints).

http://www.assh.org/Public/HandConditions/Documents/Web_Version_PDF/MPJoint.pdf

Note in this article "The MP joints are less often affected by arthritic conditions than the smaller joints in thehand or the joint where the thumb joins the wrist (CMC)".

Thus - to extend the life of your fretting hands, most of the fretting motion should come from the MCP joints. I would very much like to know I will have enough techniqe to be playing guitar well into my 80s and 90s; Paco de Lucia is still playing faster than Superman (or Flash Gordon - if you remember him). According to my guitar teacher - Sabicas gave his last concert in his 80s and was still playing exceptionally well. I want to make sure I have hobbies to do with my friends as I get older that go beyond golf (in fact, I need to quit paddle ball - too rough on the knees, and start playing golf ASAP - for those of you that haven't heard of paddle ball, it's a city sport played against a wall, similar to hand ball, but you use paddles; because it's played on concrete and involves lots of sprints and running - lots of wear and tear and knee and hip replacements that paddle ball players need as they age).

Can anyone share their take on this, whether they ever experience finger pain in the fretting hand, and what they do to minimize the tension in their fretting hands as they play ?

Last edited by Joe V; 02/10/13 03:20 AM.
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"...what they do to minimize the tension in their fretting hands as they play ?"





Bourbon?

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...what about the AA guys ?

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Joe, whenever anyone has the complaint that their fretting hand hurts, wears out "too soon" from playing barre chords, etc. etc. - it is almost always due to bad hand placement and usage habits. This is yet another area where lots of misinformation and disinformation resides, likely from those attempting to solve the problem by themselves rather than having someone knowledgeable about the subject of guitar playing show them ways to eliminate the bad habits. That is the job of the good teacher.

It takes longer to break a bad habit built up over time than it would to learn how to do things in a better fashion from the beginning, but don't get discouraged, there will be a day when that is in the distant past.


--Mac

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Along with what Mac has mentioned the guitar position is also very important. Those guitar slingers whom have their guitars down to their knees will have more hand and carpal tunnel problems than those whom have their guitars high on their chest, watch classical and jazz players to see what I mean.

If you google proper guitar techniques, how to hold a guitar, avoiding guitarist’s hand stress etc you will find many videos and articles about what you need to know.


Me, it's not about how many times you fail, it's about how many times you get back up.
Cop, that's not how field sobriety tests work.

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I have always tried to have good hand placement with my left hand......thumb in the middle of the neck, on guitar and banjo...........and I have always used "squeeze-release" .....in four/four & two beat to accent rhythm playing.
The problem now is cramp after a spell of rhythm playing.....physio says "Stop squeezing, very bad for you!"
Very hard for me to do! Not so bad when I'm playing solos, as my hand moves about much more.
Advice anyone? Regards, Joe G.

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Playing the piano helps


Lenovo Win 10 16 gig ram, Mac mini with 16 gig of ram, BiaB 2022, Realband, Harrison Mixbus 32c version 9.1324, Melodyne 5 editor, Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL, Presonus control app, Komplete 49 key controller.
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Quote:

Can anyone share their take on this, whether they ever experience finger pain in the fretting hand, and what they do to minimize the tension in their fretting hands as they play ?




With tongue planted firmly in cheek may answer is, what I do is put down the ax and spend more time on the forum. Ducking and running also helps relive chord finger stress.

And to 90db's advice . . . I agree bourbon also has helped over the years.

Later,

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That's no fair.

Bourbon can lead you to believe it helps anything.



--Mac

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What it doesn’t


Me, it's not about how many times you fail, it's about how many times you get back up.
Cop, that's not how field sobriety tests work.

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That's no fair.

Bourbon can lead you to believe it helps anything.



--Mac




And what's your point?

Later,

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Oblio.

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Oblio.




How do you keep all all this obscure minutia organized in your brain? You never cease to amaze me, all I can add is . . . if the "hat fits".

Later,

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