A pro once told me to try playing with as little fret hand force as necessary to get the note. I have remembered this and notice that when I use it I get a more beautiful sound, almost universally. I also noticed that, even though I play day and night a lot of hours, I have almost no calluses on my finger tips. This comes from having a soft hand I think, almost exclusively.

I suppose if I played in a band, gigging five or six shows a week I would have heavy callusses. Maybe just from getting sloppy and forcing myself to play when I'm tired, etc.

When I find my wrist or hand are hurting the first thing I think is that I must be doing something wrong and I try to reposition myself. Usually this helps.

Pressing down too hard on the strings, especially with guitars with the newer jumbo frets, can actually pull the note out of tune. Playing with jumbo frets requires a new fretting style where you might not even push all the way down to the fretboard to get the notes.

Working on having as soft a hand as necessary I think is an economy of style that really pays off in terms of both improved sound as well as less stressed hands, wrists, and fingers.

Great concepts here Jimi.