JamesF

Hi All,
Had a guitarist nightmare on Sat night. Playing to a packed local pub, half way through one song, i got a hideous cramp in the forearm of my left hand. My hand turned into a claw and was forced to finish the song trying to play with just one finger. As you can imagine, it was nearly impossible. Managed to stretch it out a bit and finished the gig ok, but it was awfull and now i can feel my arm aching and my hand feels all swollen. Ive never had that before. I was quite tired at the time and also the gig was sprung on us at the last minute, so we didnt really have time to practice. Anyone else have that problem? Any advice on how to prevent it?
Thanks
Jim

Guybrush

Be careful so you don't get a inflammation of the tendons or something similar. I'd go to the doctor if you still have the swelling.

As for preventing strain, possibly using a capo on the neck could be a solution. It can reduce the amount of barrès you have to do.

__________________
Something Completely Different

drh1589

Once I realized this, every gig got easier and sounded infinitely better.

__________________
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

Farfisa

I still have problems with hand cramps when playing songs comprised almost entirely out of barre chords. I still can't play "scott free" entirely without making a funny face to cope with the pain and I've been playing for about 2 1/2 years with 2-3 practice everyday. Oh and guess what, I can't use I capo because the chords are everywhere on the neck. Barre chords piss me off, and **** all of you *******s who bitch about how uncreative they are (yes, I am talking to you, obnoxious metal***s).

Burning Down

I get the same thing occasionally. Like Tore said, keep an eye on it for now and maybe use a capo. I've always found that using a capo helps, but it may only work if the majority of the song is played in one key (like A for example, where you can place the capo at the 5th fret).

Daktari

I've had this happen a few times. I even mentioned it to my doctor and he said this happens quicker if you are dehydrated and hot. He recommended when playing to not drink any alcohol but just water and even better, that salty electrolyte stuff that athletes drink.

Well, I took his advice and it's not happened again. Also, the shape of the neck on a guitar can make a big difference. If the cramp still happens I would experiment with a different size and shape of neck.

By the way, I play one-man reggae mostly and use a looper so when my hand got stuck on F#m, yes, I remember the chord, I had to make up a whole new melody on the vocals to fit to this one chord until I eventually faded the looper out,ha, ha. Funny now but painful and embarassing at the time.

Try the salty drinks, worked for me.

Gordon.

SATCHMO

Bananas, Advil, & patience

Neapolitan

I was going to mention bananas (for potassium) too.

__________________

mr dave

a capo isn't really going to help as that's not the purpose of the device / limits the range of the neck / alters the key of the instrument.

the vast majority of the time cramps like this are due to a single thing - POSTURE. the fact that it cramped up into a claw sounds like the culmination of potential years of neglect and poor form. especially if it still hurts a few days later. lots of questions coming your way now....

how many days ago was this gig?
has the pain changed at all since? either in intensity or localized area.

have you had any other issues with your hands or wrists? what kind of work do you do? lots of repetitive motions with little variances?

when you play bar chords is your thumb parallel to the frets (good) or angled out in line with the neck (very bad)?

how far into the set were you when this happened?
how long was your set?
how often do you practice?
when's the last time you practiced before this gig?
what sort of warm-up / stretches do you do prior to performing?
how low do you wear your guitar?

if it's continual pain you should probably check with a doctor or some other health care professional before finding out what a bunch of strangers on the net have to say.

__________________
i am the universe

Guybrush

How do you figure this? I mean, if you had a song that only used two chords, F and A#, a capo on the first fret would let you play those "as if" they were E and A. Maybe it's not the nr. 1 purpose of the thing and maybe it's not always applicable and maybe it'll only save you one barre chord out of ten, but a capo does bar the strings for you and as such can reduce the amount of barre chords you have to play.

__________________
Something Completely Different