How bad is carpal tunnel when playing the guitar??

Question:I have recently gotten carpal tunnel in my wrists, and when I went to play the electric guitar, my wrists started to hurt pretty bad. I had to stop playing. I am having to take some physical theorapy, to exercise my arms and forearms, and even some massages to help with blood flow, and I am not supposed to play the guitar for about 6 weeks or so. I am pretty upset about it, I have a huge passion for guitar, and I don't know how this dumb carpal tunnel is going to effect it. I was wondering, if there's anyone who's dealt with this, how well can you play the guitar with carpal tunnel?? My dad seems pretty posotive that if I really do good on these upper-body excercises, that I'll have no problem when I pick up the guitar again. But I just have no idea how it's going to turn out. Please, if you know anything about my situation at all, I greatly appriciate any info.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I have recently gotten carpal tunnel in my wrists, and when I went to play the electric guitar, my wrists started to hurt pretty bad. I had to stop playing. I am having to take some physical theorapy, to exercise my arms and forearms, and even some massages to help with blood flow, and I am not supposed to play the guitar for about 6 weeks or so. I am pretty upset about it, I have a huge passion for guitar, and I don't know how this dumb carpal tunnel is going to effect it. I was wondering, if there's anyone who's dealt with this, how well can you play the guitar with carpal tunnel?? My dad seems pretty posotive that if I really do good on these upper-body excercises, that I'll have no problem when I pick up the guitar again. But I just have no idea how it's going to turn out. Please, if you know anything about my situation at all, I greatly appriciate any info.

Perhaps you should consider taking up finger style guitar when you heal up. Many computer programmers actually use guitar as therapy to guard against carpal tunnel, but you have to get into those strings with your fingers and strengthen those tendons. If you explore this, be sure and take up a style of playing that utilizes all four of your fingers on your picking hand and learn a few songs that actually stretch and develop interdependency between the muscles in the fingers and the larger muscles in the forearm. The main thing is having the patience to let the injured tissue heal. If you don't follow your doctor's orders at this point, you could be looking at permanent injury and years of pain. Hang in there and don't give up. Many folks have come through this with flying colors. When you are ready, be sure and ask about unusual things like nerf ball therapy and finger exercises. Remember that carpal tunnel is a repetitive stress injury, so you are going to have to change your whole lifestyle just a bit to avoid falling back into the habits that created this condition. Fingerstyle guitar is a great new habit to explore, and it never hurts to learn how to play Blackbird and Dust in the Wind anyway.

I read that taking vitamin B supplements will help people with C.T. feel better.

A friend of mine - aprofessional guitarist - had CTS. In the end, he had an operation - the good news is that he was back playing +++ without any pain+++ in 3 months.

The great avant-garde English guitarist Derek Bailey was afflicted with carpal tunnel syndrome towards the end of his life; it was actually an early syndrome of the motor neurone disease that would kill him. He made a lovely album called 'Carpal Tunnel' in which he talks frankly about his diagnosis and how he's doing. The main way it affected his playing was that he couldn't hold a pick, and so had to learn to play with his fingers, which he'd never done before. You need to be in tune with Bailey's extraordinary music in order to enjoy this album but it's a remarkable piece of work; his control of artificial harmonics is still incredible.

Your carpal tunnel will, I hope, have nothing to do with motor neurone disease. Bailey was old when he got the symptoms and he passed away not long afterwards, leaving a lot of grieving fans like me.

I hope you will recover fully and get back up to full playing strength; as a fellow player, I am rooting for you. In the meantime, if you like adventurous guitar playing, check out Bailey's whole work and this late album will make more sense. (It helps if you already like the work of a composer like Anton Webern.) Anyway, you can listen to samples of it (and indeed buy it, if you want to) at the link below.