Extreme Newbie Question

[Yonderboy]

Greets all,

Just picked up a guitar for the first time about three days ago and just started through SD's lessons last night. Here's the question. I am having a great deal of trouble dealing with my left hand position (I'm right-handed). Notes involving fretting the 6th string in the first fret are killing me. I try to maintain classical thumb position, but I feel like I'm studying Yoga. And ideas to keep me from losing my mind?

[StoneDragon]

My advice is to take it slow and easy. What you describe is pretty common for people who are just starting out. It takes a little while to develop the muscles and tendons of the wrist and hand, and that position on the neck is tough.

You don't say whether you are learning on an acoustic or an electric... the only real difference being that it can be a little harder on an acoustic.

The best thing to do is hit those exercises a little bit every day... enough to train the left hand but not enough to cause problems.

[Yonderboy]

Hey thanks, StoneDragon. I appreciate the reply. You see, I have other musicians coaching me to not worry about being that strict on the classical thumb position. Conflicting info. Guess I'll just have to go with what works best for me. You would think that as a Hapkidoist, I would be used to the phenomenon of my hands being in pain. Guess the (electric) guitar will teach me some new definitions of pain. Heheh.

[ghodaddyyo]

Hapkidoist, huh? I'm an Aikidoka myself and know quite well what you mean by hand pains. Trust me, you won't encounter anything painful in that sense! Just some fatigue in your hand that you can shake off.

It seems like there is a few martial artists on this site. There are 3 other guitar players in my dojo as well. 2 of them are just casual pickers, but one of them plays in the army band. Maybe we can discuss the connection guitarists have with martial arts!

[Yonderboy]

Sure! I would love to discuss anything martial arts. Of course, (ahem) must keep this board about guitar. Hehehe. If you are curious, you can check the website I made for our association. www.swccnm.com/hapkido/hapkido.html (http://www.swccnm.com/hapkido/hapkido.html)
Have fun!!

[StoneDragon]

yonderboy,

Are you experiencing pain in the wrist or hand when you try to fret those notes?

If so, Then you may need to alter the position of either your hand or the guitar itself. You shouldn't be feeling any bad kind of pain. Like ghodaddyyo stated, your hand will feel fatigue from learning a new posture, but anything that causes actual pain needs to be adjusted. Most often it can be a case of bending the wrist at too sharp an angle due to the guitar being too low or if you are sitting down, resting the guitar on your right leg rather than your left like those classical players do.

I'm a stickler for proper hand position though... it's like learning stances and footwork... everything else builds off of that foundation. And just like martial arts, most difficulties that you might face later on can be traced back to lack of foundation.

[Yonderboy]

StoneDragon,

I believe I would classify the pain in my wrist and fingers more as a big discomfort than actual sharp pain (like martial arts pain). My real concern was for learning the correct hand position to begin with. I don't want to start by learning and becoming rutted in bad habits. The classical thumb position is what is most difficult for me. It is so much easier for me to have my thumb laying horizontal, I sometimes give in to temptation. Heheh. And of course, at this stage in my guitar development I don't really see any negative side effects. I mean, my pinky is pretty much useless at this stage anyway. In short, I know you're leading me down the right path, its just hard for me to walk it at the moment. I will, of course, keep trying. Nothing worth doing is easy (usually). Thanks again.