Originally Posted by: gmixstudiosis this something that could cause damage if over excersized?

Absolutely, yes. Please be careful.

All practicing and playing should be aimed at approaching the mechanics of playing in as efficient, natural a manner as possible. So, the advice to keep your physical motions to a minimum is right on target.

Applying this principle further: use just enough pressure to fret and pick the notes.

Not enough pressure obviously results in a poor sounding note (or a missed note). However, on the other side of the same coin, too much pressure is also bad. It results from keeping your arm, wrist, hand and fingers too tense (using too much pressure) and from pressing too hard on the fretted notes. This in turn results in muscle cramping and fatigue and actually hinders your ability to get to the next note quickly. And, of course, also hinders your ability to continue to play for longer periods of time.

This is tricky to get used to and is a very personal thing, because only you can directly experience how much pressure you are using. The best thing to do is to always start practice slowly and lightly (meaning with light pressure fretting and picking the notes).

The guitar fundamentals lessons on Mechanic of Fretting Notes covers these ideas. My tutorial on visualizing scale patterns shows some of the mechanics and practice patterns I use to accomplish this sort of thing you are working on.

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=605
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=419

Best of success!