I did run into some fret-hand problems in early fall. I was practicing a particular Cmaj scale at the first frets and forcing the stretch. I got a fair amount of stiffness and some pain out of that. I finally concluded that I could be leading up to some real damage so I dropped that scale and some other big-stretch scales out of my routine. Within a week the symptoms were gone. :) I do have some stiffness in my fingers but I'm convinced that that is part of my advanced age. ;) The good thing is that, although I often wake up with finger stiffness, the guitar practice makes it better. Those kind of results I like! The practice I do now, much longer than those in the fall, don't seem to have any negative effects. But as I posted above, the length of the practice sessions grew over 11 months to where they are now...
"It takes a lot of devotion and work, or maybe I should say play, because if you love it, that's what it amounts to. I haven't found any shortcuts, and I've been looking for a long time."
-- Chet Atkins
-- Chet Atkins
