Left Hand Position

[Problem Child]

OK, here we go.
Yesterday I was playing the guitar about 6 hours (and 2 hours before that) without making any brakes longer then 10 minutes, and in the end of the day I felt a quite strong discomfort in my left hand (but NOT pain). Today the hand is still quite weak. Is this normal, or is my hand position wrong. I read the hand position lesson once again, and it seemed to be correct. I also tried to press the strings as light as possible.

[cyberfret]

You want to be very careful of just jumping in a playing 6 hours per day. If you were playing 2 hours per day before, and then jumped to 6.....that is a big jump. I know that you are going to get people in here saying "well Joe Satriani practiced 12 hours per day". But you have to really build up to that.......and that is really too long to physically practice anyway. Joe probably was studying theory, and doing other non physical things during his practice. You should really break up your time more as well. Split your time between physical practice, like scales and arpeggios......and mental practice, like learning the names of the notes, working out theory concepts on the neck of the guitar etc.

So it is not a hand position problem, but an over exertion problem. You need to slowly work up to that. And even if you work up to practicing that long, you need to be very careful. To help prevent injury, make sure that you are doing some overall upper body exercises. Injuries occur a lot of times in the muscles around the ones that are directly involved in playing. So get yourself in a good basic exercise program.....especially for your upper body.

Today, I would not play for more than 15 minutes. And do a lot of stretching. In fact, I would give yourself a few days of very light practice. Then SLOWLY work back up to more practice.

--Shawn

[slaughteredsoul]

I get the same problem sometimes when i practice longer than usual,except the pain shoots up and down my shoulder(the right one to be precise)..i started taking breaks during practice,to relax my shoulder.
and like Shawn said,during that time,i'd learn to read music,learning the names of notes and chords, etc.
so basically, i can play for three/four hours without hurting myself in any physical form.
i suggest that if u want to pratice more, take more regular breaks.

[slaughteredsoul]

i also get it when im sitting too long on the computer, so i guess its got nothing to do with my guitar position :rolleyes: