Fatigue

[Glacies]

I was sure this has been covered here but a search didn't bring up anything useful.

I am still having fatigue issues with my fret hand when I'm playing barre chords. I have been playing them as long as I can stand it almost every night for months. Playing on an Epiphone LP and I'm wondering if maybe I should move to a different guitar - if maybe that neck is causing my problems. Thoughts?

[marnold]

Nah. Barre chords are just a PITA when you first learn them (assuming that you are just learning them). No way around it. If your hand hurts, stop playing so you don't cause any damage. You can try other guitars at a store and see if any feel more comfy to you.

[progrmr]

I have fatigue when I down-pick a lot ala Master of Puppets..sucks because my playing gets sloppy. I've just thought it was a matter of practice but I'm starting to wonder of that LP shape isn't helping - seems like my picking arm is pretty far back when playing sitting down.

How is it when you play standing up??

[Glacies]

I guess in the last year I've gotten serious about my guitar education and playing so I'm just starting relative to some of you guys, but I've been messing around with it for about 3 years. I can hit just about any barre chord and feel good about playing them for about... 30 seconds.. maybe less.

Progrmr, I confess I don't play standing up much. I pretty much always play by myself in my home office. I will try it out and see if there's a difference.

[marnold]

I guess in the last year I've gotten serious about my guitar education and playing so I'm just starting relative to some of you guys, but I've been messing around with it for about 3 years. I can hit just about any barre chord and feel good about playing them for about... 30 seconds.. maybe less.
Then I guess I would just vote for patience and practice. Remember that you shouldn't need the "kung-fu grip of doom" (tm) to play a barre chord. I'm guessing that your Epi neck is probably more on the chunky side. You could try a thinner neck, say on an Ibanez or Jackson, and see if that would help. I would think that practice will take care of it. No sense in buying new gear that won't actually help.

[Commodore 64]

My hand cramps up like a bastard when I do shuffle songs like Back in the USA or That'll Be the Day. You just gotta power through it if you are doing it for rehearsal or a live situation. Gimme Shelter does it to me as well, also All Day and All of the Night. Play those songs over and over for an hour, and you'll be begging for mercy, I know I am. When I want to do a stamina workout, that's what I do. But it's a long slow grind (going on two years for me, and I still cramp up).

[Neal]

Keep on playing and play some more. You will get stronger and stronger. Fatigue and pain, are the sideshoots of learning. They use to tell me to play till my fingers bleed.

[Bookkeeper's Son]

Watching a lot of guitar players over the years, I noticed that many of them don't use the common bar position using the index finger across all 6 strings, opting instead to only span the 1st two (high E and B) strings. I suspect that they're a bit less fatiguing that way.

[Eric]

Watching a lot of guitar players over the years, I noticed that many of them don't use the common bar position using the index finger across all 6 strings, opting instead to only span the 1st two (high E and B) strings. I suspect that they're a bit less fatiguing that way.
I agree with you there. I usually use the full barre shape when I'm actually playing, but I don't always press down equally hard on all parts of it. If I'm playing more power-chord-y stuff, I'll focus on the EAD strings. If I'm playing arpeggiated stuff on the higher strings, I'll make sure I'm getting enough pressure on the DGBE strings. I think that helps reduce fatigue a little bit.

I also agree with marnold that it's mostly just practice. Don't kill yourself over it, but do keep plugging away. Pretty soon you'll probably figure out something that works.

[oldguy]

Watching a lot of guitar players over the years, I noticed that many of them don't use the common bar position using the index finger across all 6 strings, opting instead to only span the 1st two (high E and B) strings. I suspect that they're a bit less fatiguing that way.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is fact.
I only play the strings req'd to form the chord. Often this will help the fatigue and you can practice longer.

[deeaa]

Get a steel-string acoustic, with something like .12 or .13 string set. Play that for a while every day, and an electric will feel like feathers after that. Seriously, it'll really teach you to press just the right spots only and train your finger strength the best.

Also, try other type necks and playing positions. A very thin neck is a real pain to chord on very quickly, and a V neck or a properly thick one is WAY more comfortable for chording, because the neck gives the palm support it needs for leverage over strings, which a thin one doesn't.

Furthermore, if you play mostly sitting, it could just be that you approach the neck too directly from below, which also means that you have to apply a lot of pressure towards your body from the elbow onward - if you keep the neck much lower like when standing, you're forced to approach the neck with wrist more like 90 degrees to neck, giving a good gripping leverage naturally (your thumb becomes a hook that serves as a good pivot point).

I guess everybody gets tired with barre chording too much. Often it can be helped by substituting every second or third chord with an open equivalent. I also hate playing songs that are all barres...I never make them that way, but I have a few songs that have all-barre verses for instance, and when we play the song a few times, it becomes clear that I'l quite looking forward to getting to the chorus so I can just drop a proper open chord and rest my hand for a while :-)

Likely it's a combination of all kinds of things. No way but play differently, different guitars, and it'll get there. I remember how for the first time I learned a full barre chord it took me a week before I even begun to think it possible I could ever learn to play the sucker properly, and years to get used to using them more than just now and then without tiring my hand.

p.s. I now have been trying to learn a few things on piano, just basic chords, and my right hand feels incredibly tired after just a while of hitting them...