Hi! I’m brand new to learning how to play my guitar. I’ve started and stopped multiple times. I really want to play the guitar!! I have 2 questions. I hope it’s okay to post them here (It was recommended by Danica at Justin.com)
I’m a fresh new beginner just learning the A & D cords. My fingers definitely hurt just like Justin warns about but I’m also experiencing a lot of left wrist pain (I’m left handed) playing an acoustic guitar. Am I doing something wrong or is this also part of the newbie pain to be expected?
My 2nd question: I travel at least 4 months a year internationally making it really difficult (impossible) for me to take my guitar. Should I get a portable practice guitar to travel with? I’m looking at the “Traveler Guitar Ultra Light” or for now should I consider “pocket guitar cords trainer” as seen on Amazon? I’ll never learn the guitar if I don’t come up with a solution for the time I can’t take my guitar with me!
Thank you for any feedback!
Tracy
Hi @tracyshannon , welcome to the forum! You shouldn’t experience wrist pain. You say you are left handed. Do you play a left handed guitar or a right handed one (i.e., do you use your left hand for strumming or for fretting)?
It maybe depends on how long your play for at a time but I don’t think wrist pain should be encountered. It might be to do with how you’re sat (assuming you’re sitting and playing) that’s perhaps making your wrist sit at an uncomfortable angle. I don’t know what type of chair you use but make sure it’s something upright, without arms, not a sofa. If you don’t use a guitar strap, then do as it will support the guitar neck for you.
Welcome. Glad you have found justins. You will get past that finger pain, thats normal. But the wrist pain is differnt. I would do some stretching excersizes before practicing as part of a warm up. Try and loosen up the might help a fair amount right there with those wrist ligaments.
I unceremoniously took this off the internet. Do not try to strech this far right away. Take it slow. I would hold these 15 to 20 seconds and work you way slowly to more time them a little more stretch. Make the streaching part of your practice at the start.
Edit: correcting an error. Do not try and streach this far right away. Dang phone keypad.
wanted to ask the same
do you hold the guitar like Justin or like Nitsuj?
And I think it would be a good idea to own something like a traveler guitar. I bought a very similar model but with two pickups (magnetic and piezo) when it was on sale.
I’d rather say a few things to consider. I like the tinyness of it and the fretboard is wide and nice!
But that pickup under the bridge (also on the “acoustic” model) sounds pretty harsh to me.
Depends on your liking and what you plug it into, of course. Maybe try the considered setup before you buy.
Of course, when practicing on your own in a quiet room, you can go just with the bare sound of the strings. I do this when it’s quiet and I don’t want to disturb anyone.
The included stethoscope doesn’t sound nice and pressed too much onto the ears - most people don’t use it.
You could also consider the same model, as “electric” with a magnetic pickup and a metal bridge. This pickup sounds better to me.
If you are playing like the usual left-hander, like Nitsuj there are also lefthanded models available - “LH”
Then, to have more fun hearing your guitar, I had found three great tiny options for traveling…
A tiny headphone amplifier to plug into your guitar and use with lightweight headphones with cable. (Bluetooth adds too much latency so you hear the sound later than you play which feels awkward)
These were the models I all considered great:
Nux Mighty Plug pro (although depending on your headphones, you might have to alter the presets, because there might be a slight disturbing beeping tone)
Fender Mustang Micro
or a tiny amp with a loudspeaker + off course headphone output…
Positive Grid Spark Go
Ok, this got longer than I intended…
All the best,
Dominique
Welcome to the forum Tracy. Can’t help you with the travel guitar but as for your wrist.
Like others have said make sure you are not bending it at an uncomfortable angle. Your wrist should be as straight as possible.
On the wrist front, are you leaning the top of the guitar towards you in order to see the fretboard. Doing this requires you to reach further with your fingers, so you naturally bend your wrist more to reach the frets. As a beginner you will want to see what you are doing but try and minimise this as much as possible.
As far as the “pocket guitar” goes, I bought one when I first started. I found it to be absolutely useless. If you were here I’d gladly give you mine. They’re not expensive, so I guess there’s not much risk if you want to try one. Your experience might be different than mine.
I second the Journey guitars. The removable neck system they have works well. They have both electric and acoustic travel guitars. I have one of their OF312 travel acoustics.
Definitely not, they’re a waste of money, very poor substitute.
Get an inexpensive travel guitar like the Donner one on Amazon, they’re not the best but a decent relatively inexpensive option.
Yes, you are almost certainly doing something wrong. Proceed cautiously, or you may injure yourself.
Your best bet for getting help here is to take a picture of yourself, sitting holding your guitar, while fretting one of the chords you know. Once we have this, we can probably quickly diagnose the problem.
Edit: I just did a search, and there are several wrist pain threads. One of those would probably help, or be a better place to ask the question.
Thank you for your reply! I misspoke about being left handed. I was trying to say it’s my left wrist that is hurting. I’m sure it mostly has to do with holding my guitar wrong. Probably Leaning too far as I’m trying to get my fingers to cooperate with the truly unnatural positions I’ve received many great responses and plan on trying them all.
This is an impressive community with a generous spirit!
Thank you, Darrell. I appreciate your input. As I looked at them a little more closely and read the fine print I could tell they were definitely a piece of junk.
Thank you! I’ll start using my strap. I’m sure it has to do with me just not holding my guitar properly as I’m trying to watch where my fingers are and where they need to go. I really appreciate the community reaching out. I have a lot of things to consider as a result.
Thank you so much for your response. I received a lot of great feedback and yours is unique in terms of suggesting exercises. I’ll definitely start working on this suggestion!
Thank you so much for your response and yes, I’m sure that I am leaning over and my posture has a lot to do with it. I’m just having a tough time figuring out where my fingers are without looking over. Somebody suggested that I video myself so I can kind of see what it looks like, I think I’m gonna give that a shot.
If you’re looking over to see where your fingers are that’s most likely the problem; the best thing to do is to sit in front of a mirror or any decent reflective surface that you can see yourself well enough in. That’s what I was told many years ago when I first started learning to play.
I’ve received many great responses and plan on trying them all.
