Aching thumb when barring with 1st finger

[Ben Thorpe]

Does anyone else get it when they try a barre chord with their index finger, their thumb aches like hell? My thumb pressing on the back of the guitar aches because of how hard I’m barring. I tried to push less hard, but when I push less hard the strings start to buzz and the sound fades. Is it normal for barre chords to hurt your thumb, or would I be doing something wrong? Any tips for making barre chords less painful would be much obliged!

 

[Matt Wildman]

Yep it’s totally normal. I experience it all the time. The only thing you can really do is take breaks when your practicing them and don’t over do it. That’s the only way to get the strings from buzzing is just pressing down hard with your thumb like you said. Especially on acoustic.

 

[Jen Hapke]

Try to place your thumb in the center of the neck and try to put it where the most pressure is against the fretbord. You can start with playing a barre chord with only the index. Then you can add more fingers in a position that isn’t that stretching. If it’s not clean control every string until you find the buzzing one. Sometimes it happens to me that is play a barre chord and hear a buzzing but when i control it I find out that the problem is not the barring finger but another one. I just focus to much on the barre and forget about the other fingers.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

There are numerous reasons as to why this happens. But I’d like to severely stress that no pain is ever normal. Soreness, fatigue, weakness is fine. But my friend is a massage therapist and she has informed me of this habit of pressing into the back of the neck for extended periods of time can lead to carpal tunnel. She’s currently treating a guitarist friend of mine for carpal tunnel. If you are having to press THAT hard into your neck to where it hurts, I’d suggest checking out the action on your guitar, the gauge of the strings, and even the shape of the neck (D shape, C shape, etc). All of these can have a huge impact on the ease of barring a chord. There’s a reason why classical guitarists have such light feeling, gentle strings when they play In conclusion, I would check into all these factors and make sure you are applying equal pressure of a “squeeze” when barring. It could be something as simple as your index finger and hand muscles aren’t strong enough yet. But NEVER EVER place 100% of the burden on your thumb If you can buy one of those “finger gripper strengtheners” like at a fitness store, or even squeeze a stress ball (my therapist friend uses a soft tennis ball) it’ll help build the strength in your hands. I hope this helps!

 

[Matt Wildman]

That’s what I meant. Soreness not pain