This was my thought as well. You need just enough pressure from your thumb, so your fingers can fret the strings so they ring properly…but no more than that. If you squeeze too hard for long periods, you can get pain in the place you indicate.
Try and do a little stretching of the fingers, hands and wrists before you do your practice routine. It helps get the blood flowing into the local area, increases the flexability and decreases the the tension and the muscle fibers of the important groups to be used. It is a great habit to get into.
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That might be too much practice at this stage especially if you do chord changes A to D to A and so on for 20 minutes straight, which I bet you don’t 
. Just 2 minutes on chord changes daily is sustainable and then practice other stuff like song, riffs, etc.
You can decrease duration of practice but repeat it often. Like as you said morning, afternoon, evening.
I can’t see any blood 
Carry on 
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I think that’s it. I tried to be mindful while forming the chords, letting my thumb be as relaxed as possible and I didn’t experience any pain. Gonna do that for the next few days and hopefully I won’t be pressing down so much after a while.
Edit: My thumb points up and not towards the headstock, with the pad of my thumb being placed somewhere around the middle of the back of the neck.
Your thumb should point up, so that’s ok. As for the pressure/tension: concentrate on staying relaxed rather then speed for now, and limit your practise time to a couple of minutes (2, maybe 3) per exercise, certainly for those things you’re struggling with. It’s very tempting to keep on trying, but it will enhance te risk of bad execution and resulting injury. You’ll be ok, don’t worry
Make sure that you aren’t pressing down too hard. your thumb will have to provide force in the opposite direction; as much as your fingers try to camp down on the strings.
Many do this; I did (and sometimes do) this as well.
As a safety against buzzing strings, people tend to apply so much force on the strings
Nowand then, test this during practice and try to form clean chords with the LEAST amount of pressure, as if your instrument is a precious but fragile object.
You will buzz; that’s the point. gently apply a bit more force until you don’t buzz anymore. Remember that feeling, try to get -that- feeling while playing. It will extend your guitar stamina and lower the risks of strains and injuries. On top of that, changing chords will require less efort as well.
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Hey, im also a beginner (1 week) an have similar problems, and i will try the things that were suggested.
But i also have pain in my left elbow, this is the arm i grab the chords with. Especially with the DMaj to AMaj change.
I can feel the pressure through my arm when im trying to put my ring finger on the C# in the AMaj chord. When i practiced the day before, after waking up in the morning my elbow hurts really bad
Did someone experienced this too?
Im very unsettled, i just want to have fun playing the guitar 
Should i try a smaller guitar?
Thank you
Hi @getawav, by your elbow, do you mean the tendons/muscles around your elbow or rather the joint itself? If it’s the tendons and muscles, you’re probably dealing with a tennis elbow (or golf arm, depending on your spot of preference 
). In that case:
- Make sure to limit the pressure you put on the strings and neck to the minimum necessary to get a clear sound and consciously relax your hand, arm and shoulder while fretting. Don’t squeeze the neck, use as light a touch as possible.
- Take rest days between practice days.
- Limit your playing time on practice days. Justine recommends 20 min at the beginning. You could even spread those 20 min out over the day but as long as you’re having pain, I would certainly advise against doing multiple practice sessions in one day.
- Regularly stretch the muscles that cause you trouble. You can find specific exercises online. Do this multiple times per day, e.g. stretch for about 10 sec, relax 10 sec, stretch again, etc, 10 reps per session.
- Physiotherapy can help, as can wearing one of those tennis elbow braces.
- If necessary, leave the guitar to the side until the pain diminishes, but keep stretching those muscles. You don’t want to get to the point where it gets really bad and you simply can’t play anymore for a long period of time.
But rest assured, even if it slows you down some now, it will get better. Good luck!
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Hi @getawav, don’t be discouraged, many of us had pain when we started out. @LadyOfTheCastle has given you some great guidance. I’d also point you to this website, which offers self-administered techniques for guitarists experiencing wrist and arm pain. It has helped me a lot!
Keep us posted, and if the arm pain persists please do check back in, maybe including some photos.
Finally - welcome to the community! Consider going to the Introduce Yourself topic and telling us a bit about yourself. 
Hey, a little Update and a new question:
I had to took 2,5 weeks off, the pain in my elbow got better in this time.
Im doing the stretching everyday and only practice 4-5x a week with 20 minutes of actual playtime for each session.
Still hurts sometimes, the doctor said i can play but not too much.
Thanks for the advices.
So this is my question:
Im using a cheap classical nylon guitar. Its not mine, and i wanna get my own guitar.
I like the sound of western guitars with steelstrings a lot more, but everywhere i hear people saying its way more painful to play these.
But i dont know why, do you have to put more pressure on the strings? Because this is the most critical thing for my elbowpain, too much pressure. I always use just enough to make the notes sound good.
Fingerpain is really not a big deal for me on the nylonstrings.
Thank you!
Hi Niklas, I think there are two reasons people say steel string acoustic guitars are “painful” to play. First: the steel strings (especially the first three - the skinny ones) are, well, made of steel. It takes a few weeks to build up callouses, but we all do it. And you will too. The second reason is that the acoustic guitars tend to use thicker strings than electric guitars, and the tension is higher. This means the strings are a bit more difficult to depress than strings on an electric. Notice that none of this has anything to do with your elbow! Edit to correct: As @Tbushell points out, this is not accurate. Still, I think Niklas can probably manage a change to a steel-string acoustic if he gets one that fits him well.
That said: Make sure you try out guitars before you buy one. As you narrow down body styles, be sure to spend a significant amount of time (I’d suggest at least 20 minutes) playing an instrument to determine if it will be comfortable. You’ll see many, many people buy a dreadnaught guitar as their first instrument, only to find out it is too large for them. Especially for beginners, having a guitar that is not comfortable to play can cause elbow pain, shoulder pain, wrist pain. Here’s a thread discussing “smaller” guitar bodies I started a while back…people shared a lot of good information in it!
Let us know how your shopping goes!
Respectfully, this is incorrect.
Most of the muscles that flex and extend the fingers are just below the elbow. You can test this by putting the fingers of your other hand below the elbow and flexing the fingers in that arm… you can very clearly feel the muscles contract and relax.
Overuse of these muscles can refer pain into the elbow… either as tennis elbow or golfers elbow.
I suffered with tennis elbow for more than a year because I was playing with too much tension in one finger when trying to teach myself barre chords.
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Ah, thank you for setting me straight, Tom! I’ve corrected my post above. I learn so much in this Community. 
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What @judi and @Tbushell said is correct. Another factor is neck length: a shorter neck will result in lesser tension on the strings, and thus in less force needed to fret a note.
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“Silk & Steel” strings are also a good option. Much easier on the fingers than all metal strings.
Also, when my girlfriend put them on her guitar, she found that it was much easier to finger the A chord than with all metal strings. Much less pressure was required to make all the strings ring.
Just wanted to give an update.
I stopped playing completely for 2 or 3 weeks after my last post to give my wrist a break and to heal any strain I caused. I’ve been taking weekly in-person lessons since the beginning of January and moved away from Justin’s course (not because Justin is bad, just following my teacher’s lesson plan). My wrist pain is completely gone. I also know a few more chords than A and D by now.
Cheers and happy playing! 
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Sounds like you’re off to a great start! Some discomfort is normal when building new muscle memory, but if it’s actual pain, you might be gripping too hard or tensing up. Try keeping your thumb relaxed and not pressing harder than necessary. Also, take short breaks and stretch your hand/wrist. If it keeps bothering you, double-check your hand position—sometimes small tweaks make a big difference.
That is great news! Although I have been an online learner only, I suspect there is tremendous value to in person lessons. I am glad you have resolved your issues and this helps you move forward.
Justin’s course is excellent, but it can’t do everything. I followed the course for several years, but now I learn mostly elsewhere focusing on things that aren’t really Justin’s focus (classical and finger style). However, Justin’s primary material and some of the paid extra courses I took (or may take in the future) like the music theory course and strumming courses, are a gold mine reference I will use forever.
Most important, at this point and for me, is this community. I feel connected to other learning players of various experiences and learn or laugh here every day.
I hope I speak for the community in general, that regardless of how and where you learn, you are welcome here!
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