Get Hurt Playing Guitar? Impossible, right?

Well, Actually.. It Can Happen!

Many musicians experience episodes of pain in their hands, arms, necks, and backs in their careers. Some of those pains could be the early signs of a repetitive-strain, or overuse injury. When it comes to repetitive and over-use injuries, a little prevention can save you a ton of pain, lost time, and possibly having to give up playing altogether.

Avoiding injury playing guitar can be pretty easy, if you think about it properly. An athlete knows that to avoid injury, they must stretch, warm up, and cool down, train regularly, work on strengthening, flexibility, etc. Why should guitar players be any different? In fact, they aren’t.

This is the first in a series of short articles that will be appearing on Guitartipjar.com over the next year, aimed at helping prevent injury, referring you to resources you might not have known about, giving you tools to care for yourself, and suggesting how to get proper help if you are injured.

Let’s start with some basics:
Make sure your guitar is in good repair, and especially that it’s set up properly. An incorrectly tuned, damaged, or improperly adjusted guitar can make your hands work a lot harder.
Sitting or standing? Most guitarists opt for sitting while practicing, and may stand while performing or rehearsing. When standing, make sure you have a good guitar strap – one that’s wide enough to keep your guitar comfortably on your shoulder. Adjust it to suit your fingering hand so you can keep you wrist bend at a minimum. (It may look cool to have your guitar down by your knees on stage, but it can put a lot of strain on your fingering hand.)
Sitting – pick a chair with minimal padding and scoop. Look for one that’s proper height, i.e. so your knees are bent 90 degrees or slightly less. (While the classical method has some pretty specific ideas about proper positioning, including a little platform for the left foot, guitar always on the left thigh, erect posture, right and left hand and wrist positioning , lots of pros play their whole careers without doing so.)
Position your guitar so it balances comfortably on either leg, or if you’re playing a very large instrument, you can use a strap to help keep it stable. Angle it so most of the fret board can be reached with the fingering hand with a gentle bend of the wrist. (I have to assume you’re using a conventional way of fingering the guitar, not a lap-style or fingering with your thumb.)
If you’re practicing from music, place it (preferably on a stand) in front of you so that the center of the page is slightly below your horizontal line of sight.
Ideally, you should now be able to sit comfortably straight with your instrument, without craning your neck to see your music.

Trouble sitting up straight? Try this exercise, based on the Feldenkrais Method® below.

Sit near the edge of your chair or stool without you guitar, feet flat on the ground, hands on your thighs.
Slowly roll your pelvis forward on your sit-bones. As you roll forward, feel yourself getting “taller” over your pelvis. Do this movement in the pelvis and lower-back, keeping your head and shoulders in the same vertical plane as your pelvis.
When you approach the end of your forward movement, relax your belly, letting it hang forward. Can you get a little more forward movement now? Stay there and breathe a few seconds.
Now, reverse the process and slowly roll back to your starting point. Rest for a few seconds. Is this where you started, or slightly more forward?
Continue the movement backward, feeling yourself getting smaller, curling in on yourself. Stop when can’t keep your head over your pelvis any longer. You can hang your head forward. (Don’t contract in the chest or round the shoulders, just let gravity do the work.) Breathe in this position a few seconds.
Reverse and repeat this series a few times, and then rest. Is sitting up straight easier now? How do your neck, back and shoulders feel?
You can repeat this exercise as often as you like.

If your attention wanders during practice it may be that you’re uncomfortable. This can be a clue you need a break, or you may need to change how you’re sitting or holding your guitar.

As always, consult your guitar teacher about any persistent pain or discomfort while playing. They will help you improve your form to reduce pain and fatigue.

Enjoy playing! Stay healthy!

Hello and Welcome,

This is the first post for my new website and blog. (I couldn’t think of anything cool to say.) Anyway, I want to thank many of you who have offered me encouragement and support in developing my web-presence, and especially Darren Ernest, who generously gave his time and expertise (and patience) helping me create this blog and new website.

As a total noob to blogging, I hope you all will forgive any errors in etiquette, or other blunders I make as I learn this new aspect of life on the internet, and feel free to offer comments, complaints, advice,  etc. once I turn on commenting on the blog.  I will post an announcement when it is ready.

Some of you may have visited my prior website at www.maurlife.com, and noticed it was less than stellar, shall we say?  It was a first attempt, and while I am apologetic it wasn’t very good, it was the best I could do at that time.

A lot has changed since 2005 on the web, and much has changed at MaurLife Therapeutics, LLC, as well.  Since I put up my first site, I have engaged a number of colleagues and friends to share my unused space, and now I have several other practitioners sharing my space on different days.  The result is a happy, productive, yet tranquil, atmosphere in the office with opportunities for cross-referral, and consultation.  I feel it brings more to my clients, and theirs, and is a lot more fun than just working alone for all of us.

I am looking forward to making this new site a lot more interesting and useful to everyone, and you can expect I will be posting tips, answering questions, commenting on relevant news items, talking about different conditions and injuries, and sharing stories of healing.  And, you can expect to find links to resources and useful websites.  I will also figure out how to link to this blog via RSS feeds, so you can keep abreast of what’s happening effortlessly.

To wrap this up, I am looking forward to a lot more interaction with all of you very soon.

Best in Health,

Maury