Guitar play overwork

by Ian Kirwan
(Redditch, Worcestershire, UK)

In my mid to late teens I played guitar furiously everyday, regularly clocking up 6-10 practice sessions involving various scale patterns, key changes and so forth. I was used to feeling aches and pains in my left hand as a result of my arduous practice sessions, so was barely aware of the pains creeping from my wrist up my inside forearm. I carried on with my practice regime blind to the risks and it very quickly went from mild pain to my left hand being so useless I could barely hold a mug of tea let alone articulate a piece of music on a guitar.

To fret a note was quite painful, something like the sensation you get down the back of your legs when trying to touch your toes. My tendons were so seized up that my finger movements had slowed to about a 3rd of normal speed even when trying hard. That was a bit like trying run 100 metres with someone on your shoulders.

I saw my doctor, who was somewhat vague, and basically told me to rest my arm/hand until is starts working again, and to take ibuprofen for any pain.

It took almost 3 months for me to get back to normal hand function. I then had to start my practice regime short and gentle and build up over a period of months until I was back at full capacity. By this time I had lost more than 6 months of instrumental development!

I now pay careful attention to what is going on around my left hand/forearm. If I start to feel tendon issues, I use ibuprofen gel on my forearm and fingers, and continue practice as normal. If it seems to get any worse then I will change to a different type of practice that is not so demanding on my tendons e.g. chord work and rythm. A useful indicator of the condition of these areas is temperature. If you have an established regime but find your arm/finger temperature to be higher than normal that could be and indicator that there is too much friction internally. So I use this as monitor/alarm to avoid getting to the pain stage if possible.

Just like correct posture at a PC work station, it is necessary to scrutinize technique. Very often recommended techniques will avoid much trouble. However with the electric guitar there are no specific rules. Guitarists tend to adapt technique to style rather than health. I have found the standard classical guitar left hand technique to be the most efficient and most circumstances and avoids stressing tendons unnecessarily. This may well be the case for other instruments.