Wrist Pain

braedenc
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Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 6:27 pm
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Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:12 pm

Not sure what to do. Im fairly new to playing guitar, although ive played enough I can mess around a bit without the tips of my fingers feeling like they're on fire lol.

Anyways Im experiencing pain on the pinky side of my wrist. More specifcially it seems to occur exclusively when my fretting includes my pinky finger and the pain fades when I stop playing and eventually goes away even when im playing until I use the pinky again or do some far stretching on the fretboard.

I thought it could be guitar placement,I tried using a foot stool on my right foot, goin to the classical style guitar on left leg with and without a foot stool, and using a guitar strap but the pain still came back. Whenever I use the pinky on the guitar,I see the wrist on that side kinda pulling up and it looks stressed out.Ive managed to grab ahold of the concept of fretting lightly as a lot of beginners tend to use a deathgrip, when its not needed. However even using light pressure with my pinky seems to envoke this stressed out state. Ive done wrist stretches, although thats just been more recently since ive been feeling the pain. I dont want to aggravate the situation by just trying to play through it and ending up with tendonitis or something more serious. Is there anything you guys would recommend or ideas of what the problem is, or maybe some exercises that would help?

Anyways thanks for taking the time to read this.


quincy451
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Joined: Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:53 pm
Status: Offline

Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:34 pm

braedenc wrote:
Not sure what to do. Im fairly new to playing guitar, although ive played enough I can mess around a bit without the tips of my fingers feeling like they're on fire lol.

Anyways Im experiencing pain on the pinky side of my wrist. More specifcially it seems to occur exclusively when my fretting includes my pinky finger and the pain fades when I stop playing and eventually goes away even when im playing until I use the pinky again or do some far stretching on the fretboard.

I thought it could be guitar placement,I tried using a foot stool on my right foot, goin to the classical style guitar on left leg with and without a foot stool, and using a guitar strap but the pain still came back. Whenever I use the pinky on the guitar,I see the wrist on that side kinda pulling up and it looks stressed out.Ive managed to grab ahold of the concept of fretting lightly as a lot of beginners tend to use a deathgrip, when its not needed. However even using light pressure with my pinky seems to envoke this stressed out state. Ive done wrist stretches, although thats just been more recently since ive been feeling the pain. I dont want to aggravate the situation by just trying to play through it and ending up with tendonitis or something more serious. Is there anything you guys would recommend or ideas of what the problem is, or maybe some exercises that would help?

Anyways thanks for taking the time to read this.
With regard to the finger tips on fire. Sounds like a bit of the normal beginners reaction to playing on steel strings. I rain into some of that with my steel string so I went with extra light gage strings. Killed the finger tip reaction a great deal. But left a reasonance in the guitar that should not be there and killed the sustain so bad that the instrument is unplayable for a lot of things.

With regard to your pinky. You could have a tendon issue there which is best left to a doctor and xrays to figure out. But you are correct to not try and push through it. One thing you might try which most likely will not cause additional issues is a trick runners and track atheletes use. That is to come up with a stretching exercise for all your figners including the pinky which will prestratch it before you play your guitar. When I first took up guitar I used to do that well as speed exercises. For I have always felt my fingers are slow and tight for what I want them to do on the guitar. I know myself I have been playing enough to get a ache in my second and third finger that goes up to the second knuckle. But it is noticeable but not cronic so I ignore it.


braedenc
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Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 6:27 pm
Status: Offline

Thu Sep 17, 2009 12:37 am

quincy451 wrote:
With regard to the finger tips on fire. Sounds like a bit of the normal beginners reaction to playing on steel strings. I rain into some of that with my steel string so I went with extra light gage strings. Killed the finger tip reaction a great deal. But left a reasonance in the guitar that should not be there and killed the sustain so bad that the instrument is unplayable for a lot of things.

With regard to your pinky. You could have a tendon issue there which is best left to a doctor and xrays to figure out. But you are correct to not try and push through it. One thing you might try which most likely will not cause additional issues is a trick runners and track atheletes use. That is to come up with a stretching exercise for all your figners including the pinky which will prestratch it before you play your guitar. When I first took up guitar I used to do that well as speed exercises. For I have always felt my fingers are slow and tight for what I want them to do on the guitar. I know myself I have been playing enough to get a ache in my second and third finger that goes up to the second knuckle. But it is noticeable but not cronic so I ignore it.
Thanks for the quick reply, do you know any good stretches/exercises for the individual fingers or the speed exercises you reference. Oh and I actually meant i already got past the finger tips on fire part. Anyways thanks for the quick reply.


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