Pain in wrist

Hey guys,

I'm fairly new to guitar. Been playing for about 5 months. I have 2 questions. Is it normal to experience slight pain in your wrist and cramping in your hand when playing for awhile? After like ten minutes I get a cramp feeling near my left thumb and after like an hour my wrist will hurt. Just wondering if anyone else experienced this.

Also I wanted to know if theres a way to play minor power chords. I wrote a simple progression in the key of c and want to use an a minor for the bridge. any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

My wrist and fingers hurt when I fist started but that passed within about a month. If you don't already do it maybe some warm ups before you really start playing hard.

Try these:

http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/lesson.php?id=21

Yeah it is mate..but i dont tihnk its normal to feel pain in your wrist almost a year and a half after starting -.- Even though I play stretches of 8hrs+ sometimes 12hrs+ and play alot of thrash style music I dont think I should be getting the pain my fretting wrist that I do >.

yeah I used to get epic wrist pain back when I started and still upon occasion when I play alot of scales but it develops over time to where you'll barely be able to feel it, also there's no such thing as a minor power chord as a chord is dictated major or minor by the 3d note whilst power chords consist soully of a root and a 5th.

the best thing to do when you do get de pains is to relax ur hand ur whole arm in fact. dont do all dat rolling ur wrist flexing ur fingers bending ur fingers and wrist. you need to get the blood circulation bak into your hand so jus relax it flop it down and get the blood flowing bak :D

When i play a lot of barre chords back to back for 3-5 minutes, I get sharp pain in my thumb which doens't let me push down with the amount of pressure i wish I could.

When I started, I played through the pain: HORRIBLE IDEA!!!

When you start getting pain. Stop: shake it out: wait a few minutes: then start again. If you do not do this, you will develop a very bad habit that will ruin your wrist in the long run. For example: I've had a few scares of not being able to move my hand at all: losing all feeling.

This didn't start happening until I started playing guitar: Of course, my dad also had to deal with Carpel Tunnel, so I'm probably a special case. Just be careful: Take care of yourself as much as you take care of your guitar (Which I hope you do :))

your using muscles and stretching tendons
that aren't normally used/stretched every day.

remember to only use just enough pressure to play.
you'd be suprised how little pressure is needed when
your setup right. i don't know your setup but you could
have the action set as low as possible if it already isn't.

like JustJeff said when you have pain to stop playing.
rest for however long it takes to subside.

everyone experiences this to some degree when first learning,
especially folks with smaller hands.

Yes I used to get major wrist pain with barre chords after a few mins. Strengthen your wrists by squeezing a tennis ball a few dozen times a day. It worked a treat for me!