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  • are you putting too much pressure on the frets? also hand positioning can make a difference. if you adopted an awkward position for holding a chord it can cause pain, i used to do barre chords in a weird way due to being self taught at the beginning, it was a while until I was corrected but it felt better straight away.

    it is largely down to strength which comes in time along with your practice.

    I would try to do big wide chords to strengthen up your fingers, it should make the simpler stuff feel easier and help you progress. just do silly things like elongate a chord as far across the fret board as possible or do barre chords with only your index and middle finger etc.

    another thing to consider is the set up of your guitar, that can put pressure on your hands and cause aches if the action is all over the place or strings are too heavy

    another thing I found helpful early on for finger positioning practice was using a multi effects pedal, as daft as it sounds.

    I used to have trouble going cleanly to a C chord for instance. found by chance after getting a multi effects pedal for Christmas, I cycled through the usual d, c, e, g, chords on each setting, of which there were many, and by the time I got through them all i was moving to all chords quite happily, I think largely as I was distracted by the pedal and doing it repetitively for however long. it just didn't feel like practice. subsequently I got to grips with a few other wacky chords just cycling through like that, not paying too much attention and just doing it

  • i am probably pressing too hard on the fretboard, i have found a good hand strengthening / stretching exercise for warm up though to work with, hand positioning and posture could be better too. thanks for the advice

  • I’d measure your neck relief and action, see if adjusting those would help. Also, make sure you aren’t wearing the guitar too low that you’re having to hook your wrist under the neck.

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