Tag: Technique

Giving pain in the neck the cold shoulder – Guitarist’s Shoulder *

Nicole Neal12 Comments
Mylohyoid muscle visible right under jaw
What a pain in the neck (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I wrote a piece earlier on in the year about neck and shoulder issues and my journey in dealing with neck and shoulder pain. The piece outlined how I was revising my playing position, technique and looking at exercises…..Well, guess what folks. The neck and shoulder gremlins have returned. The little buggers!

I know it’s an issue that affects guitarists in all parts of the spectrum – beginners through to pros and everyone in between, so I thought I’d write a little piece on this today. You may have experienced or are experiencing something similar, and so in writing this I hope I can help in some way or start a bit of a discussion. This will also start a series of blog posts about treating and ultimately preventing soreness and overuse injuries of this nature.

So what’s the dealio? What’s going on?

Well, the pain and soreness in my right (and only my right) shoulder back and front (or posterior and anterior, if you want to get all anatomical and stuff) and the right side of my neck has been really building up again over the past couple of weeks. And naughty me for not paying attention to the first little warning signs and nipping it in the bud then. Smack hands!

The particular symptoms of “Guitarist’s Shoulder” that I’ve had going on are:

  • Serious amounts of clicking, particularly across the front of the shoulder joint, where apparently there are some very tight bands of muscle catching and popping across the clavicle (collarbone) – nice.
  • A continuous dull aching sensation in both the front and back of the shoulder joint, leading me to want to punch myself in the shoulder to relieve it!
  • A dull aching sensation sometimes travelling up into the back of my head, jaw and eye and down into my upper arm.
  • Sharp pain in right shoulder-blade, especially when turning my head to the right.
  • Tightness in right side of my neck – a real pain in the neck. Boom boom!

As you can tell from the delightful mix of symptoms it’s not really all that pleasant and can become quite restrictive in terms of playing – very annoying.

Ouch! How does that happen?

I think it’s likely a combination of a few things going on here:

  1. Me being very naughty and lazy and not (a) warming up my shoulder neck and arm muscles before playing, doing a few range of motion exercises (b) giving my muscles a good stretch post playing and (c) being rigorous with stretching between playing sessions
  2. Me being very naughty and lazy and not giving mindful due care and attention to my posture whilst playing.
  3. Not being fully mindful and observant of the little twitches, ticks, reflexes and other seemingly involuntary and often unnecessary movements one makes when practicing and playing. For example, does raising ones toes off the ground and hunching ones shoulders really help you in playing that pianissimo line up of the tenth fret? I’ll let you answer that one…..
  4. Possibly some physical weakness in the back and shoulders that I can address with some strengthening exercises.
  5. Overworked, tired and stressed shoulder, neck and back muscles from too much of one activity without an opposing kind of activity to balance things out.

So what’s next then? How do we go about remedying the situation?

Time for some myotherapy

l cracked it this week, and got really fed up of the constant dull aching sensation and sore neck and decided to I needed to get some immediate physical relief.  Time to get it sorted out properly.

Not in the form of painkillers; I don’t really like to take them unless I really have to because they can mask what your body is trying to tell you. So in this instance I’m sucking it up and listening in carefully to the messages my body has been yelling at me for a while. Immediate physical relief in the form of massage. And not just any massage. Awesomely seriously targeted and condition specific Myotherapy manual manipulation and a bit of dry needling to boot.

Myotherapists are experts in this kind of myofasical pain, its treatment and prevention. My lovely therapist’s diagnosis transliterated into my layperson’s terms is that my neck, shoulder and upper back muscles are really overworked, constantly “switched on” over stretched in one direction and super fatigued. As a result they’re not working properly, they’re all bunched up. To add insult to the injury this bunching also results in the reduction of blood flow to the area meaning the waste products generated by the constantly “switched on” muscles is not being flushed away which adds to the pain, tenderness and tendency to spasm.

The myotherapist tells me that the poor afflicted muscles are the levator scapula, sternocleidomastoid (or SCM for short), the upper trapezius, supraspinatus, and infraspinatus.

The human shoulder joint
The human shoulder joint (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My neck, shoulder and upper back muscles basically need releasing from the prison I’ve trapped them in, they need a good stretch and strengthening up.

After the myo session the next 12 hours or so I felt like been beaten up (which I kind of had!), but that seriously frustrating dull ache and pinching sensation in the back of the shoulder-blade were gone. Wooo! Still a bit of work to do though, as the ol’ chicken wing is still feeling a bit unstable, a bit tight, as is the neck.

I have another myotherapy appointment early next week, so I’ll you posted about the next step in my treatment and the strengthening exercises the myotherapy proposes I do.

To remedy the point about it doing enough stretching, I’m going to try some yoga classes in this first instance (going to give Bikram or hot yoga a whirl) and then follow that later in the year with some Alexander Technique lessons. I’m getting onto the yoga this very weekend so I’ll let you know how that goes.

In terms of my technique, over this next few days I’m going to set the movements radar to high alert. I’m also aiming to observe in greater detail all the movements I make whist playing. I’ll also be doing some stretches and range of motion exercises before and after playing (which I’ll outline for you in a future blog post).

* I’m not actually sure there’s a condition called Guitarist’s Shoulder, like Tennis Elbow or Policeman’s Foot (I shall do some research around that and follow-up….), but that’s what I’m going to call it for now.

Don’t wear yourself out! Avoiding unnecessary injuries when playing guitar

Nicole NealLeave a comment

I’m talking primarily about left hand technique here today and avoiding stresses and strains which can lead to injuries and ultimately enforced time away from the guitar. Boo! I’ve been through, and still going through one might argue, a technique change in the left hand to keep me fit and healthy in my playing. I talk from the one time painful voice of experience and know all to well the vital importance of being aware and observing for ourselves what’s happening with our bodies when playing.

So, on with the show

Are you relaxed all through the whole of your left arm when you’re practicing?

Shoulder, upper arm, forearm, hand, thumb, fingers? Really? Are you? What about that left shoulder saying hello to the left earlobe…. Ah huh…

Right, now that’s sorted there should be no bad or unhelpful tension in there, only good tension.

Good tension is that which helps you remain upright essentially, keeps your left arm in the position it needs to be, creates flexibility and aids easy, fluid movements, which in turn help create beautiful sounds and beautiful music.

Bad tension is that which constricts movement, reduces flexibility, causes pain and cramps in the short-term, and building up potentially more serious issues such as repetitive strain injuries over time. Not to mention it also creates strained, tense and thin sounds and ultimately holds back the music from its full potential.

Tendonitis, strains and other injuries are NOT an inevitability when playing the guitar.

Some things to think about in your next practice session

Do you find yourself pressing harder with your left hand fingers the louder you play with your right hand?

This used to be quite a significant issue for me and I’ll be first to admit that this bad habit can still have a tendency to creep back in if I’m not observant and aware of exactly how my left had feels whilst practicing. Just being aware of how things feel is a considerable first step in correcting them and making sure you’re not storing up trouble for later on.

Make sure you’re pressing down with your left hand fingers with only as much pressure as you need to make the notes sound without buzzing. Have a little play around with this, make a little exercise of it, and see how little pressure you really need from the left hand and fingers to make a note sound.

Be aware of how your left hand feels and any early warning signs of a potential issue. There shouldn’t be any pain when playing, nor any tingling or pins and needles sensations or numbness in the left wrist, hand or fingers.

How does your left thumb feel when playing? And after playing? The meat of the ball of the thumb should be relaxed and soft to the touch when not playing. If you find this wee bit of your anatomy sore or even cramping during playing, firstly stop before you do yourself an injury! Secondly, don’t ignore it – I can promise you it won’t go away of its own accord if you carry on using the same actions day in, day out. This is the perfect time to take a moment, stop and reassess exactly what is going on and address the technical issue, perhaps with a teacher.

And don’t try so hard!
Sometimes the mere fact of stretching so far or pressing so hard for that barre, reaching so hard for that stretch across the frets can be our undoing. We build these things up in our mind to be Everests of the guitar – huge peaks of virtually insurmountable difficulty, that can only be overcome by trying harder and pressing on through the pain.

Uhhh uhhh. Nope. Naughty!

Firstly, when you look at a particular element in the music that is causing the tension, it probably is not as difficult as you imagine. You may just require some carefully selected studies or exercises that, erm, exercise that particular element.

Secondly, awareness is key (again). Being aware that we’re trying excessively, aware that we’re putting undue strain and stress through our muscles, ligaments and joints can helps to just turn our effort down a notch or two.

Do you really need to be pressing that hard or stretch that intensely? What’s the right amount of “trying” or rather “doing” to achieve that musical outcome?

We kind of do this unthinkingly everyday – the right amount of effort to open a door, lift a lovely cup of cappuccino, walk down the road. We can apply the same to our playing. Once we’ve made ourselves aware of and learnt that right amount of effort required technically in our playing we need not think of it much again! And stop putting so much undue stress on our bodies and buggering ourselves up!

And don’t forget, these things take time (see my previous post https://classicalguitarnstuff.com/2012/06/16/growth-development-and-bamboo/) – keep chipping away, with awareness and care not to wear yourself out and you’ll get there.