Playing guitar really, really makes my hand hurt.

[DodderingOldMan]

My left hand (fret hand; I'm right handed) really becomes genuinely painful after maybe ten minutes at most. The pain's in the tendons in my wrist, and it prevents me from wanting to play after a very short time. I can barely move my hand once I put the guitar down. Am I doing something wrong? Do I just have crappy tendons and carpal tunnel syndrome or something? Or is this just normal, and something that will go away with more practice?

[DElyMyth]

Try playing more relaxed, this helps.
Also, don't "force" your wrist too much, or you can get long-term issues with it.

Mostly, be relaxed while playing and don't press too hard on the fretboard (just enough to have the string touching the fret wire without buzz sounds).

Ibuprofen can help for the inflammation, but don't abuse it.

[Greyeye]

i recommend you to hold guitar like classic guitar style.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY1e87dU_g8

it may give you a lot less problem on your left hand wrist.

[xxIceColdxx]

I've also read that you should stretch your hand and wrist before playing. Also as someone else said play loose. I'm still new and I can only play for 1-2 hours on this game.

[DElyMyth]

Yes, I forgot about the stretching.
I was told by my physiotherapist to do it before and after playing.
Before to warm up tendons and muscles, and after to relieve the tension.

[wraith7201]

Whatever you do, if you're feeling pain in your tendons, do NOT continue to play until the pain goes away. You can do serious damage if you "play through it."

As others have mentioned, it sounds like you're playing too tense. Practice playing specific riffs very, very slowly for 10-15 minutes to help loosen up your wrist and fingers. When you feel yourself tensing up, stop playing. Take a moment to relax, and then practice whatever you were playing very slowly again, until you feel like you can play it without hurting--then speed up.

If none of this helps, you could very well have a potential case of tendonitis or carpal tunnel that you should get evaluated by a doctor.

[ianj001]

Originally posted by Rogue203:

Whatever you do, if you're feeling pain in your tendons, do NOT continue to play until the pain goes away. You can do serious damage if you "play through it."

As others have mentioned, it sounds like you're playing too tense. Practice playing specific riffs very, very slowly for 10-15 minutes to help loosen up your wrist and fingers. When you feel yourself tensing up, stop playing. Take a moment to relax, and then practice whatever you were playing very slowly again, until you feel like you can play it without hurting--then speed up.

If none of this helps, you could very well have a potential case of tendonitis or carpal tunnel that you should get evaluated by a doctor.

Agree with Rogue203 also, check your posture, you shouldn't be supporting the guitar weight with your left hand, it needs to be free to move around. Try making a video of yourself playing and look at what you are doing with your left hand. It should NOT hurt like this, it may feel a bit sore but you shouldn't be in real pain, that says something is wrong and you should stop playing and seek medical advise.

[Buck]

I agree with others saying that you are probably muscling the neck too much. You only need to press just hard enough for the note to sound clearly.
Make sure you keep your thumb UNDER your middle finger, as if you are pinching those fingers together. Many guitarists (and bassists) have a habit of stretching their thumbs out, which causes you to need to use more strength to put enough pressure down on the strings. Having your thumb in the correct position allows you to get more pressure with less strain in your fingers, forearms and wrists

[The Qubit]

I would recommend getting a couple of one on one guitar lessons to get this addressed if you keep having this issue. You should not feel any discomfort in the wrists when playing.

It all comes down to bad technique, and will affect your overall playing ability and not just cause pain. Prolongued tension/pain can lead to physical disability that could result in you never being able to play guitar. As mentioned by others, if you feel any pain, STOP immediately to prevent long term injury.

You need to keep your wrist flat for the most part as you play. If you generally sit down to play there are couple of positions where the guitar rests on different legs. A lot of people rest it on the leg at the same side as their picking hand, where the guitar neck is only raised a few degrees. If you do this, you could try the classical position, where the guitar rests on the opposite leg with the neck raised up about 45 degrees. This will help to you to position your wrist flatter, and provide more room to move up and down the neck.

[Bobifle]

Beside all the good advices already given, i'd also say that it's perfectly normal to experience pain.

You have to work with it, the pain is part of the process and is 100% normal. You just need to stop at the right time. If your hand keeps hurting 30 minutes after a session then you've gone too far. If you've done some sport in your life you know what I'm talking about, it's basically the same process.

One good thing to do is when you start feeling the pain, backoff a litle bit, play ghost chords half of the time, the pain must be present but rather low, otherwise you'll hurt your hand.

[☠ Asasin ☠]

I think my hands are too small to make the chords >_>

[DodderingOldMan]

Originally posted by Buck:

I agree with others saying that you are probably muscling the neck too much. You only need to press just hard enough for the note to sound clearly.
Make sure you keep your thumb UNDER your middle finger, as if you are pinching those fingers together. Many guitarists (and bassists) have a habit of stretching their thumbs out, which causes you to need to use more strength to put enough pressure down on the strings. Having your thumb in the correct position allows you to get more pressure with less strain in your fingers, forearms and wrists

I think this may be my problem. But I have quite small hands (delicate, girly hands... not ideal for a guy :P) and I struggle to make even basic power and barre chords without really having to stretch and contort my wrist into painful positions. I tried out the 'classical' position and it is less painful, I'll stick with that for a while and see how it goes, but I may also have to accept my physical limitations...

Thanks for the advice, folks :)

[raphe nuclei]

:D

10 minutes of guitar after 10 hours of online gaming, daily, can have that effect.

I've experienced wrist pain from full-time programming with gaming in between. It mostly hurt at work, but when I was honest with myself, it was the CS that was the Source of the problem.

[Barnes]

Originally posted by strover:

Originally posted by Buck:

I agree with others saying that you are probably muscling the neck too much. You only need to press just hard enough for the note to sound clearly.
Make sure you keep your thumb UNDER your middle finger, as if you are pinching those fingers together. Many guitarists (and bassists) have a habit of stretching their thumbs out, which causes you to need to use more strength to put enough pressure down on the strings. Having your thumb in the correct position allows you to get more pressure with less strain in your fingers, forearms and wrists

I think this may be my problem. But I have quite small hands (delicate, girly hands... not ideal for a guy :P) and I struggle to make even basic power and barre chords without really having to stretch and contort my wrist into painful positions. I tried out the 'classical' position and it is less painful, I'll stick with that for a while and see how it goes, but I may also have to accept my physical limitations...

Thanks for the advice, folks :)

Gonna say real quick here that hand size isn't the issue here. I've seen and played with people with all sorts of hand types and some of the best guitarists I've had the pleasure of playing behind (I'm a bassist) had small, slender hands, guys and gals equally. The issue is what folks have mentioned: bad fretting posture and too much strain moving your hand to fret. It's a not uncommon issue, sadly; I've seen lots of beginners with this issue. I've a few frankly very bad habits myself, for example the wandering thumb issue Buck mentioned. I also do quite a lot of thumb-over when fretting on the D and G strings, with higher fretting actually causing thumb stretch. I'm aware of the deficiencies in my posture, and have been working on correcting them, but it's darned slow and really easy to revert in the midst of play without noticing until something requires a glance down. A lifetime of ingrained bad habit can be really tough to change, so I'd recommend what others have: see about changing how you handle the neck, and definitely see about getting at least a couple of basic 1-on-1 sessions with a tutor.

As the commercials say, "If the problem persists, see your physician." You could really cripple yourself doing it as you are, especially if you try to power through anyway. It's been said a few times, but it's solid advice. If you're having that much physical pain from it over such a short period, you definitely should have it checked out by a doctor.

[Barabajagal]

Originally posted by strover:

Originally posted by Buck:

I agree with others saying that you are probably muscling the neck too much. You only need to press just hard enough for the note to sound clearly.
Make sure you keep your thumb UNDER your middle finger, as if you are pinching those fingers together. Many guitarists (and bassists) have a habit of stretching their thumbs out, which causes you to need to use more strength to put enough pressure down on the strings. Having your thumb in the correct position allows you to get more pressure with less strain in your fingers, forearms and wrists

I think this may be my problem. But I have quite small hands (delicate, girly hands... not ideal for a guy :P) and I struggle to make even basic power and barre chords without really having to stretch and contort my wrist into painful positions. I tried out the 'classical' position and it is less painful, I'll stick with that for a while and see how it goes, but I may also have to accept my physical limitations...

Thanks for the advice, folks :)

Like you I have small hands and like other beginners I tend to press too hard when fretting. But its a bad habit that I'm beginng to break as I practice.

If you're experiencing real pain just after 10 minutes or so then stop and take a break. If the pain persists then by all means see a doctor!

Barre chords can be tough on beginners and unfortunately RS throws beginners into the soup way too early. RS is afterall a video game, and if things aren't going well within the game, we beginners get all tensed-up, fret hard, and strain and maybe injury ourselves. So back off a little. Instead practice strumming, practice chord formation and develop your chord change speed first. Work on your technique. That has been my approach. Your left hand will strengthen with practice. I'm now working on barre chords and I find them much easier to perform than I did when I first started out in RS two months ago.

Good Luck

[SiegeFrog]

If you're a complete beginner (like I was a year ago), my advice would be to go here:

www.justinguitar.com

Check out the beginner's course, and do it. I started with it in January after messing around with Rocksmith for a month. It definitely reduced my RS2014 for a few months, but now that I've come back to the game, things are a lot easier and more enjoyable. I got the suggestion on this forum last January. Best decision I ever made.