Relaxed Playing

Hey Guys:

Hope everyone is doing well out there in guitar land!

Hi Rich, congradulations on the new guitar.

It is a funny thing that I am guilty of as well. I find myself tightening up more so with playing rhythm than doing solo work. I think this may be because rhythm is so important and I need to focus on keeping those chord changes in time, whereas when I am jamming over a backing track I can just make stuff up and if feel much more relaxed.

Not sure if that helped you but that is the way it is for me.

Originally Posted by: rich.messner

I have found that when I relax my fingers and my movements, I can play more fluently, then utilizing forced movements.[/quote][p]That's a great observation that applies to all guitar learning & playing. You want as little tension & strain in your body. You want to be completely relaxed in order to have the most natural & efficient motion possible. Too much pressure or tension actually hinders your ability to get to the next motion on time! I have a brief lesson that might help clarify this issue.

https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=13958&s_id=1141

Originally Posted by: rich.messnerCan anyone weigh in on how to perform and practice without tightening up?

The trick here is to start by constantly reminding yourself to stay loose. If you feel your arm, hands or fingers getting tense, then make a conscious effort to relax them immediately. The only way you can make this an automatic process is, of course, repetition! The quicker & more often you are aware of the problem (tension) and make yourself correct it immediately when it happens (relax!), the quicker you will gradually make it a subconscious, second nature physical reaction. So, it is essentially a psychological issue as you mention!

[quote=rich.messner]As they say in baseball, you think long, you think wrong.

This can be applied to guitar as well! But it's not a matter of thinking too long. It's a matter of being prepared to think in big enough units.

Any physical activity that requires quick motion & precision timing (playing guitar or hiting a fast pitch!) requires a very small reaction time.

This is why repetitious practice is so important.

The goal of repetitious practice is to train yourself to think in small economical units that contain a large amount of instuctions. The specific process is to automate small motions or actions into larger & larger groups. The goal is to increase the range of your focus.

When you first start playing you have to focus on every little aspect & motion. Press your fingers here, move it a little, keep holding it, am I doing it right, strum with the pick, hit the right strings, are those the right strings, did i miss the string, why does it sound wrong.

And so on. :)

Gradually as you repeat these motions each becomes a little more automated, or second nature. Your fingers, nervous system & brain become used to those motions. They become accustomed to making those motions when your mind says, "Strum C chord" or some motion or action you've learned & practiced. Your mental focus is all contained in those 3 words & if you've practiced enough, then your hands & nervous system take care of the rest.

So much physical motion & activity is contained in those 3 little word. That's essentially the process that all musicians go through in order to be able to play music in real time. There's no time to think of every little motion necessary to do a complex task. There's only time to think, "C chord", or "Verse", or "Blues lick in C". And count on your hours, days & years of repetitious practice to take care of the details.

That's how musicians can play entire songs or concerts seemingly effortlessly.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Chris and Bill:

All helpful information, Bill I am in the same boat as you, when free jammming, you don't worry about exact timing. But when accompanying music with specific notes and rythems I tend to tighten up. Because, I want to be on-time with the music, even just practicing.

Chris thanks for the lesson you sent, I am one of those guilty of not wearing my strap when I am sitting, (I play and practice mostly sitting), I will adjust this moving forward.

Great sharing as we are not alone in our guitar learning journey.

More to follow, forward progress!

Thanks again

Rich

Originally Posted by: rich.messner

Chris thanks for the lesson you sent, I am one of those guilty of not wearing my strap when I am sitting, (I play and practice mostly sitting), I will adjust this moving forward.

You're welcome! Keep practicing!

Hey Rich,

I think, this is what I tell myself at least, it is ok for us "mature students" to cut ourselves some slack. As Chris points out, the pro's have countless hours of practice. I have watched some of the interviews from players like Vai and Bonanassa and they talk of hours at a time working on guitar. Most of us older learners have a spent a life just earning a life with little time for much else. Guys like you and me do what we can. I am just happy to finally learn something about how the music I love is structured and can play along at some level.

Keep playing man!

This is purely from a self awareness type of view point. I am not a teacher. Listen to Christopher.

However, I do this when I am going a bit too fast then I actually should. I want to "get there". And with "there" I mean: I want to get to the point of nailing it. So very focused on the end result instead of enjoying the moment and taking it at the right pace.

Originally Posted by: JOMJ

However, I do this when I am going a bit too fast then I actually should. I want to "get there". And with "there" I mean: I want to get to the point of nailing it. So very focused on the end result instead of enjoying the moment and taking it at the right pace.

Those words could be the biggest lesson of them all, since it will follow you through out your playing experience. Every time you learn a new trick, you find yourself back at "The old Same Place". Forget that lesson, and you will have a difficult time advancing your skills, because that "I want it now" attitude will only frustrate your efforts.

As Lisa has so elequently stated "You will be able to preform that new skill, just as soon as your are physically ready"... not a second before. Practice is where you get physically ready. You body will tell you when it is ready, not the nagging voice your brain. That nagging voice is responsable for a lot of people just giving up on playing the guitar. That is because they keep tell themselves "I will never get there"... and with that attitude it is NO SURPISE.

I think it was Anders who said something like "If you keep beating yourself up about where you want to be, instead of enjoying how much you already can do, it will be a long slog". It is not so much embracing the "Right Pace" as embracing the only pace. You only learn as fast as your body can actually accomplish, so relax. Patient, persistant, practice pays. Embrace it, because, everthing from there on is dirivitive...