How can I make my fingers stronger to hold bar chords longer?
Friday, September 9th, 2011 at
7:12 pm
I’ve been playing bar chords for a couple years and my hand still hurts from playing, causing me to loosen my stability. People say practice until it your hand gets stronger but it feels like someone is crushing my palm. Is there any other way?
Tagged with: bar chords • palm
Filed under: Chords
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Too many believe that you have to do the same thing (all the time) in order to get good at it. The trick is not to. Especially when it comes to muscles, tendons and nerves of the fingers and hands.
Think isometrics. But realize there has to be recovery time as well if playing too long or often.
Think of a gym room full of different exercise equipment that are meant to serve different parts of the body to be complete and even, alternative mechanics for those who have injuries or just starting out.
You have heard of how repetition over time with one kind of action or movement performed over time can be damaging either temporary and even permanent. We don’t want permanent, but rehabilitation if that is possible after the fact as well. Take a break.
From typists to tennis players, it happens. Over training, going beyond the limitations can be risky.
Rest. Rehab. Rebound. Regulation.
Get a hold of a palm sized rubber ball. Pull on some rope. Peel an apple or a bunch of potatoes for cooking. Swim. Whirlpool. Play the drums or the bongos. Type. Do some friendly hand shaking. Grab a handful of sawdust and release it. Make a rice bag with a heavy terry towel that you can heat up in the microwave for those aches and pains when at rest. Try clay modeling. Play the piano keyboard. Do some rock climbing. (Eh, too dangerous huh?) And play with the warm sand when the next time you are at the beach.
Anything short of pain killers. But if the pain persists, there could be even nerve damage, which this too has to have time to heal up like any muscle tissue. You may in time experience numbness too and that is another sign to be aware of. (Professional therapy is in order if things get worse.)
Establish a program you can fall back on to do other things with your hands to exercise and manipulate anything short of brain surgery (which us players would probably be good at) so as to have them go in other directions and position other than frequent barre chords.
I broke a finger of my playing hand years ago, play fine today. But the middle finger of my left hand does clamp (no pain, not a cramp) sometimes in a chord position and looks kinda funny. When I pop it back, I sometimes have to explain myself.
Good luck m’friend. Wish you well.