Pain/cramp in fingerpicking hand

[ColdFingerz]

Hi All,

I’ve had a really persistent issue and am at my wits end trying to fix it.

When fingerpicking, particularly when palm-muting and playing alternating bass w/the thumb, I get this cramp in my right hand. Referring to a diagram of the hand muscles, it occurs in the opponens pollicis (muscle in the palm connected to the thumb).

The sensation can best be described as the kind of burn felt in your legs when running or in other parts of the body after lifting weights. The pain occurs quickly, maybe 30-45 seconds into starting a song, and goes away right after I stop playing.

I’ve tried changing my hand position. I’ve tried relaxing my arm/hand as much as I can. I’ve tried changing the guitar to my opposite knee and having the neck angled upward. IÂ’ve been analyzing my wrist angle and it seems to be within the common practice.

The ONE thing that seems to keep it from happening is using a thumb pick. I don’t like using a thumb pick, I prefer the sound of the bare thumb and find the thumb pick difficult to control. The control of course can be learned with lots of practice, but I don’t want to feel limited to always having to use one, especially since I prefer the bare thumb sound.

I have a teacher, he’s as stumped as I am.

Any ideas/pointers would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

[Sarhog]

Are you using your pinky as an anchor? If so, try floating your hand without an anchor.

[ColdFingerz]

No, I don’t anchor my pinky.

[Riverwolf]

Longshot here, even low levels of dehydration can cause cramps.
I get them in the balls of my feet.

[jseth]

Try alternating palm muting with playing clear notes, just to break up the repetitive action. I know that when I palm mute, my wrist and hand assume a fairly stressful position. If I did it all the time, I can imagine that my right hand would let me know about it! Varying your picking could help... mute with your fretting hand more frequently.

Try changing your hand position, relative to the fact of the guitar. I have to remind myself to attack the strings at more of a 90 degree angle than slipping sideways. With my style, this results in hearing "scraping" sounds from the nails on my right hand; when I shift position to attack the strings from more straight-on, those scraping sounds go away.

On a therapeutic note: Do 5 minute soaks in warm (not hot!) water with Epsom salts. My hands LOVE this... after I finish and rinse them, I have to wait a bit (20 minutes or so?) for my fingertips to harden up again, but it feels incredibly good! Grandma was right; Epsom salts are a miracle! Ha!

I have found that different guitars seem to take slightly different actions to achieve a good palm muting, or even finger picking. I'm sure it's something relative to the height of the strings off the face of the guitar, the size of the guitar body, or any of the myriad other aspects of different instruments, but I;m not about to measure all the various aspects involved... I just know that different guitars "feel" different. Have you checked out how other guitars feel?

Good luck with it - I know it is crazy-making when something is going sideways with my hands, so I feel for you.

[PeterM]

Possibly it is radiating out from the CMC joint. That would be a major OUCH so I hope it is not that.

Myself, my hand is WAY out of position when fingerpicking unless I use a thumbpick. I also do not like them much.

I have been using classical position for about a month...puts my hand in the right position.

[Bob Womack]

Are you on a statin drug to reduce cholesterol? They can cause a similar response and it can be in tendons and muscles. In my case it also ended up involving the muscles in the forearm used to play. Eventually, turning a doorknob was painful enough to bring tears. I was talking to my doctor about it and he really didn't take it seriously until one day he bounced into the room in a good mood, grabbed my hand, and shook it. The tears came and he said, "That's not right." We ended up running through all the various statins, all of which caused the problem, and then taking me off statins all together.

Bob

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by ColdFingerz

Hi All,

I’ve had a really persistent issue and am at my wits end trying to fix it.

When fingerpicking, particularly when palm-muting and playing alternating bass w/the thumb, I get this cramp in my right hand. Referring to a diagram of the hand muscles, it occurs in the opponens pollicis (muscle in the palm connected to the thumb).

The sensation can best be described as the kind of burn felt in your legs when running or in other parts of the body after lifting weights. The pain occurs quickly, maybe 30-45 seconds into starting a song, and goes away right after I stop playing.

I’ve tried changing my hand position. I’ve tried relaxing my arm/hand as much as I can. I’ve tried changing the guitar to my opposite knee and having the neck angled upward. IÂ’ve been analyzing my wrist angle and it seems to be within the common practice.

The ONE thing that seems to keep it from happening is using a thumb pick. I don’t like using a thumb pick, I prefer the sound of the bare thumb and find the thumb pick difficult to control. The control of course can be learned with lots of practice, but I don’t want to feel limited to always having to use one, especially since I prefer the bare thumb sound.

I have a teacher, he’s as stumped as I am.

Any ideas/pointers would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

If your teacher is stumped - and he can see what you are doing, as well as what other positions you try - then it's hardly something anyone here could help with. (Not that will stop me trying... )

What's significant is that you dont get it when using a thumbpick. That has to be because it puts your thumb at a better angle - parallel to the strings, a more natural angle with your hand.

My guess is that to pick the bass strings with your thumb while also damping them is putting your thumb at an odd angle, and/or causing you to use muscles in the wrong way.

Without the thumbpick, are you picking with your thumbnail or just the side of your thumb? Using the thumbnail while damping the bass is obviously awkward- it needs the thumb to bend and be held quite stiff. Using the side of the thumb ought to be OK, because the angle is then the same as using a thumbpick (parallel to the string) - the thumb is just a lot closer to the strings.

But I'm shooting in the dark here! Without seeing your position, or the other positions you've tried - and if your teacher is baffled too! - it's hard to know what to say.

FWIW I don't like using a thumbpick, for the same reason you don't. I don't have your problem, although I think I've had hints of something simiar before - and it was down to a position (of the guitar and of the hand) that meant my hand felt quite rigid. Your picking hand should feel quite relaxed, and the pressure on the bridge should be quite light.

[jseth]

I wanted to add these thoughts...

Our hands are simply INCREDIBLE mechanisms! We use them every day, nearly 24/7, and many people do not think about them much, if at all, UNTIL THEY HURT!

I take time to care for my hands; I do self-massage, I give them a soak every once in a while, I work with those Badoan balls (the Chinese meditation balls), I squeeze balls for strengthening... at 72, I'm thrilled that they're hanging right in there!

You didn't say if you were doing any sort of stretching or hand exercising, but, to my way of thinking, that would be a wonderful place to start with finding a solution to your problem...