How to Stop Hand Cramps Playing Barre Chords Thumb Position If you’re getting cramps after playing constantly for 10-15 minutes or more, then try to take a break for 2-3 minutes, and shake your hands gently to loosen them up again. Practice finding the minimum amount of finger pressure you need for single notes and chords, and regularly checking your technique during your play session. Look carefully at your fretting technique, and experiment with how hard you actually need to hold the strings to get a good sound. Some guitarists have also found that holding the guitar into your body more firmly can help reduce the clamping pressure needed with your fretting hand. Try using a strap even when you are sitting, as this takes away the need to hold the neck with your fretting hand, which reduces the amount of strength you use to play. If you play sitting down, then you may have become used to holding your guitar without a strap. Change Your Guitar PositionĪre you playing with the neck too far forward or back? How about the angle up or down?Ĭhanging the way your guitar sits can make a big difference to the tension in your hands and body, and particularly the angle of your fretting hand wrist. Just a couple of minutes is plenty, and the other benefit is that you will play better also. Some gentle stretches of both hands and fingers is also a great way to get ready for playing, and every guitarist should make a habit of doing this before every session. Just wiggle your fingers around to limber them up before playing, and if you are playing somewhere cold warm your fingers up before playing. Here’s some general tips that help stop hand cramping in many cases. How to Stop Hand Cramps When Playing Guitar Holding a pick between your thumb and forefinger with too much pressure while playing notes rapidly is normally the cause.įlamenco guitarists are more likely to get this problem, as they play very fast. Regular strumming with fingers is less likely to cause hand pain. When you have fingers flexed, under tension, and making rapid movements, these are the conditions that will cause problems. Your playing (strumming or picking) hand is less likely to get cramps and pain due to a bad wrist angle. Why Does My Playing Hand Cramp While Playing Guitar? Sometimes the above issues only come into play after extended playing, and just requires you to take a break to release the tension. Many people play this way because they see their favorite artists play this way, however if you don’t have large hands (long fingers) this method can cause playing issues. This causes a lot of tension through your wrist and fingers, as you struggle to get clear sounding chords. Your wrist angle can be too sharp if you have small to medium hands, and like to wrap your thumb over the top of the fretboard. Wrist AngleĪnother thing that can cause this issue is having a kinked wrist angle when playing. Sometimes the extra tension is caused by the way your guitar is set up, and you may find the action is set too high, or the strings are too heavy for your playstyle.Īcoustic guitars use thicker strings than electric guitars, so you are more likely to experience fretting hand cramping on an acoustic. There are a few reasons why this can happen, with the most common reason being too much tension, meaning you are holding the strings down too hard. I can be a worry when you regularly get fretting or picking hand cramps from playing, and before the problem becomes more serious it’s a good idea to find ways to stop the problem Why Does My Fretting Hand Cramp While Playing Guitar? The best way to avoid hand cramps is to warm up before playing, play regularly, and use less tension when playing guitar. Tension is the main reason guitar players get hand cramps, and this can happen in the fretting hand or the playing hand.
For others it’s because they already know some barre chords, haven’t played for a while, and get pain after a few minutes of constant playing. Quite often new guitar players get them when learning to play barre chords. Lead guitar players can also experience cramping in their playing hand after fast solo’s and extended playing like at a gig. Everyone at some point in their guitar journey has experienced hand cramps, and it’s not just something that happens to beginners.
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