Guitar Shoulder Pain - how it happens and how to make it better.
Location of the Levatus scapula
Disclaimer: This is not a substitute for medical advice - stretching can harm you if you push too far - follow this advice at your own risk.
If your serious about mastering guitar, then you may know something about the 10,000 hour theory - that any skill takes around 10,000 hours to truly master.
Unfortunately for us guitarists, the guitar is, fundamentally, not an ergonomic instrument. In other words, no matter how well you hold the guitar, it's difficult to avoid certain repurcussions that all this practice will have on your body.
The first problem is with the right shoulder (or left shoulder for lefties). Especially on acoustic guitar, your strumming arm needs to come over the top of the body of the guitar. This can mean that you're always lifting your right shoulder up whilst playing the guitar.
If you do this enough, it will affect your posture, and could even start giving you headaches, shoulder pain, numbness in the right arm, and numerous other related problems. Don't forget that the body is one big interconnected network, so a problem that starts in your shoulder can easily manifest as pain or problems elsewhere.
If you find this is happening to you, the best thing you can do is take some rest from practice, and stretch a muscle called the 'Levatus scapula'. Stretch it on both sides - not just the side which hurts. Here's a video showing you how.
If your serious about mastering guitar, then you may know something about the 10,000 hour theory - that any skill takes around 10,000 hours to truly master.
Unfortunately for us guitarists, the guitar is, fundamentally, not an ergonomic instrument. In other words, no matter how well you hold the guitar, it's difficult to avoid certain repurcussions that all this practice will have on your body.
The first problem is with the right shoulder (or left shoulder for lefties). Especially on acoustic guitar, your strumming arm needs to come over the top of the body of the guitar. This can mean that you're always lifting your right shoulder up whilst playing the guitar.
If you do this enough, it will affect your posture, and could even start giving you headaches, shoulder pain, numbness in the right arm, and numerous other related problems. Don't forget that the body is one big interconnected network, so a problem that starts in your shoulder can easily manifest as pain or problems elsewhere.
If you find this is happening to you, the best thing you can do is take some rest from practice, and stretch a muscle called the 'Levatus scapula'. Stretch it on both sides - not just the side which hurts. Here's a video showing you how.
The second muscle that is commonly affected by guitar playing is the upper trapezius. This can be especially shortened on the side of your neck which bends over to look at the guitar - for right handers this is the left side. This shortening will commonly lead to the left shoulder being permanently higher than the right while at rest. If you look in the mirror and relax your shoulders you can check for this imbalance. In some guitarists it is quite pronounced. Here's a stretch for the upper trapezius.
As stated at the beginning of the article, muscular imbalances in the shoulders can lead to lots of referred symptoms. Things like headaches, swollen/blocked sinuses (so you can't breath through one nostril), mental agitation, nausea etc. So if you are getting any symptoms like this and you play guitar, take some time to do these stretches.
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