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Thriller
The Thriller
I’m really working hard on the Dm7 bar chord. It actually does’nt sound that bad. The second bar is the Am7 (I think). I can do either but switching??? maybe not. My real question is this. When will my fret hand stp cramping when I finish playing. Wow. What can I do to stop this? I’ll take almost any suggestion. I really want to learn BB King.
Thanks
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3 Replies
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Hey Mave,
what kind of an angle is your fretting hand at when wrapped around the bottom of the neck?
If you are trying to look at the strings while you fret you are probably putting a lot of stress on your wrist by bending and holding that angle for a long period of time. Practice a few minutes a day on a few chord progressing with your eyes closed so you don’t have to bend the wrist a lot to fret the notes.It will take a while to get good at not needing to look at the strings.
As i have said in other forum sections I use a therapeutic squeeze ball almost every day and squeeze and release and bend my wrist a lot every day. also i use the chinese steel balls and roll them around a lot while reading or doing activities that don’t require my hands. All of this seems to help, but I do notice that there are angles that i hold my wrist in that do put a lot of stress on it. I use CBD cream when the pain is noticeable and that does help also.
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If you are playing every day think about taking a day off every week and let those muscles and tendons relax for 24 hours. i find this very hard to do so as my parents used to say don’t do what I do, but what i say to do….. remember that one.
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Discovery! (Perhaps some insight, maybe less than 2 cents worth)
I’m doing OK on my barre chord journey. None seem impossible, some harder than others. Noticing the limitations I’m experiencing, I’ve been examining the flexibility in each of my finger joints and also my ability to control the movement: bend the knuckle where it’s needed most.
The biggest problem is in the ring finger of my fretting hand is at the last knuckle (DIP joint), I have no problems at the MCP joint. I can only bend it about 45 degrees where 90 would be desirable to prevent muting of the string below it. Index and ring are almost able to bend 90 degrees
As I check out all my fingers I see there is a lot of disparity between all 8 fingers. It tells me that I must do stretching exercises to improve flexibility and control.
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