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Posted by: radarlove1984 Mar 27 2007, 02:32 AM

For the last few weeks, my left (fretting) hand wrist has been really sore. I still don't know exactly what triggers the pain, but lately it comes when I play 3nps runs or bend strings.

The up and down motion doesn't bother me, but the side to side wrist movement is painful. This has never bothered me before, and as far as I know, I'm using the correct technique.

Is it possible to practice too much each day? I've been playing between 5-8 hours a day, for about 3 months now. Should I take a week off?

I know this has been asked a lot, but could someone restate the left hand technique again, or point me in the direction of a topic/lesson related to this? My technique looks fine to me, but maybe I'm missing something obvious that I just haven't noticed yet.

Or maybe I'm just playing too much?

Posted by: ezravdb Mar 27 2007, 07:49 AM

No, that's not to much practice . But if you take some rests in between (I talk about minutes) a day.
You don't have to take a week off...
I've almost practiced a year with everyday 4-7 hours.
What is also good: When you take a rest think about other aspects you can train, like transcribing.
(Check the topic!)
or composing, or ear training.

Well you know, there's lots of things to do XD

o, the speed picking lesson by Pavel shows enough aabout the technigue I think.
and Kris has a lesson too I thought.

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Mar 27 2007, 08:18 AM

Yes 5-8 hours can be too much - it completely depends on how/what you practice and pauses etc. Also if this kind of routine is new to you it might be very hard on your hands.

Folks - YOU HAVE ONLY GOT TWO HANDS!! If your body sends out signals that something might be wrong, always take it seriously.

Posted by: jeff Mar 27 2007, 08:26 PM

Kris is right on about this. Take one week off as you have suggested. That's a good idea. Believe it or not, it won't hurt you . In fact, you may find that you can play better when you return. I have done this several times and it works great. You need a break.

Posted by: Pavel Mar 27 2007, 08:34 PM

I would not suggest you a week off. Just play simple excercise like 2 hours every day for a week. Just to get more relaxed. Play some simple pentatonic stuff or some clean strumming and stuff like that. You'll still be practicing but it will make you much more relaxed - later you'll be able to get to serious practice sessions like before.

Posted by: Bitey Mar 27 2007, 08:35 PM

Same here I got more fast and got more control when I took a break and let my hand rest.

Posted by: Robin Mar 27 2007, 08:53 PM

Warm up and take breaks

Posted by: The Uncreator Mar 27 2007, 09:17 PM

I had the same thing, almost needed surgery to, i didnt play for 3 days (thats when the pain finnaly went away) and after that, i stretch the muscles before i play, and if it starts hurting to bad, i stop for about an hour or so or untill i feel better.

Posted by: radarlove1984 Mar 27 2007, 10:53 PM

Wow, judging from how many people replied saying "Take Some Time Off!" in less than a day, I guess this could have potentially gotten a lot worse if I ignored it. Thanks for knocking some sense back into me.

I'm going to play it safe for the next few days and mostly work on ear training, theory, and finger picking. I double checked the speedpicking videos and at least I'm using the correct technique.

Now that I think about it, I have been going a little crazy with the practice. 3 months ago I couldn't play a major scale twice in a row without making a mistake. Now, I can accurately "speed" pick triplets at 120bpm for 10 minutes without making a mistake or breaking the tempo. Not impressive, but considering that I started as an absolute beginner, it's no wonder my wrist is sore.

And I just realized that each month of practice got considerable harder since I was making progress.


I always warm up before I start, but I'll definitely take more breaks in between metronome practice. Thanks for the advice.

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Mar 27 2007, 10:55 PM

I think it's important to realise that it is possible with simple - harmless practcing to chronically injure your hands/arms. This happened to me and I couldn't play for six months, I do know people who never could return.
Had I not continued practicing when feeling pain this would most certainly never have happened.

Posted by: The Uncreator Mar 28 2007, 12:45 AM

6 months!?!

Damn, the most i ever went without playing due to injury was a week and a half, i couldnt imagine half a year!

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Mar 28 2007, 08:58 AM

Yes my injury was quite serious - and I probably wouldn't have healed if it wouldn't have been for the professional help I got. Had I been a little more vigilant on the warning signals I would have saved lots of practicing time, money and trauma - but hell I got the experience which is always worth something!

Posted by: The Uncreator Mar 28 2007, 02:43 PM

True True, and now you can pass the knowledge on to us, or maybe i should say, a warning

Posted by: radarlove1984 Mar 28 2007, 06:41 PM

Thanks for sharing that story. Damn... it really puts how serious this stuff could be into perspective. Hopefully more people will read this.

Posted by: Ben C Mar 28 2007, 10:20 PM

Someone should sticky this thread, so everyone can read about it.

Posted by: beebo Mar 28 2007, 11:56 PM

You know this also happens w/ my wrist when I write in school it's annoying

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Mar 29 2007, 09:34 AM

As soon as we have enough "valuable" threads we should sticky them on a new board... By the way - are we there yet? Do we have enough such threads - what do you guys think?

Kris

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Mar 29 2007, 03:53 PM

Lets start a list and see how many we get:

- The threads where people ask for specific solos to be made into lessons
- Maybe some sort of index thread to all of the guitarists that Instrumental has threads on?
- Don't practice until you need surgery
- Can I get to the riff of the day after it has gone

I'm sure we can think of more.

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Mar 29 2007, 11:16 PM

See ??

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=3341&view=findpost&p=25539

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Mar 30 2007, 09:10 AM

But can all these be considered as "valuable" threads?

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Mar 30 2007, 09:56 AM

I just got this email

Important - I have not verified the legitimacy of his remedy - so it's not something I recommend!

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Mar 30 2007, 01:36 PM

Depends what the intention is I guess - if valuable = saving us repeating ourselves answering similar questions, then yes, but if valuable = good advice related to guitar playing, then no (apart from the surgery one)

Posted by: radarlove1984 Mar 30 2007, 06:48 PM

Whoever sent the email, thanks for the concern. It looks like I really got lucky this time. I've only been seriously practicing 5+ hours a day for a few months now, and I started as a complete beginner in January. I posted this topic when the pain started to become constant, and because of the feedback I got, I stopped practicing right away.

I'm only on day 4 of not playing, but already my wrist feels normal. To be safe, I'm going to wait 3 more days before I start again, and I'll make sure I take it slow for a while.

I'll post back in a few days and let everyone know if the pain is still there. Thanks again for all the help, everyone. Chances are, if I didn't get this kind of feedback, I would have kept playing for another 4 months or so, and then I'd have to deal with a permanent problem.

As far as I can tell, this was just a warning sign.

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Mar 30 2007, 06:59 PM

Yes it really seems it turned out to the best!

Posted by: jeff Mar 30 2007, 09:34 PM

I believe you should put more of an emphasis on using the search feature. Perhaps an explaination of it and the reasons why it is helpful to use before you post something. I must say that I am guilty of not searching myself before I post.

I think that would solve a majority of the problems. Something that has bothered me in other forums is that often times the same questions get asked by several people who really do not know that their question may have been asked before. Then, as a result, someone will fire back with a negative response like "hey idiot - that has been asked, why don't you check here or there..." . That certainly is something that you would want to avoid at GMC.

One of the great things about GMC and what keeps me coming back is that I haven't had that type of experience here because it's members are good people. So using the search feature or employing what Andrew and Kris are talking about here is an excellent idea. If for anything, to avoid such a comment as described above.

As far as the advice about wrist pain, really, that is something that needs to be diagnosed by a doctor and not to be messed with. No one here really knows how long of a break is needed if any. There is a lot of advice on the Internet about everything and you need to take it with a grain of salt. But, when it comes to physical pain, it is foolish not to have it looked at by a doctor.