Category: Guitarist Health

Fingers and thumbs, or getting your digits sorted for playing

Nicole NealLeave a comment

I thought an appropriate subject to follow on from a very recent post on posture, and ensuring the body and arms are positioned well for playing, would be a post on your dexterous digits.

Muscles and other structures of wrist and palm
Muscles and other structures of wrist and palm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As I stated in a very recent post, the foundation of your movements in playing the guitar should really come from the bigger muscle groups. Once you’ve identified the leverage-type shoulder movements in the left arm (or right arm, if you’re left-handed) and you’ve got a grasp on, well, grasping the guitar comfortably with the right hand, then we can move on to looking at the movements of the hands, fingers and thumbs.

Right then. Right hand.

Make a loose fist with your right hand as if you were going to punch something, curling your fingers under. Unleash your fingers in a relatively rapid reflex-kind of action.

Be aware of the finger movements here – the fingers should be moving from the big hand knuckle. This knuckle is the primary driving force behind both your free stroke and rest stroke. Of course, there will be some movement of the other two knuckles in the fingers, but the primary “stroke engine” should be your big ol’ hand knuckles.

Similarly with the right hand thumb. Unless you have some issues that prevent it, all of the right hand thumb movement should originate from the base of the hand. Check out that relatively long bone you’ve got there coming from the wrist and that big ball of muscle forming the base of the thumb – that’s what you really want to use to drive a bit fat juicy bass!

And the other hand. Don’t want it to feel “left” out….

Sorry. Bad pun. Love them.

Anyway, swiftly moving on.

You should aim to keep your lower left arm, wrist and hand in alignment. Obviously this is not going to be possible all of them time, but this is a key aim to prevent things getting all squished and smooshed together and rubbing and constricted and all things nasty going on in that very small conduit for all manner of tendons, muscles, nerves, veins, arteries and who knows what else that is the carpal tunnel.

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(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My most important piece of advice here is to avoid unnecessary tension in the left hand. You need much less pressure than you probably realise to fret a note. A wee experiment: try just touching the string with a super, super light touch with the left hand, just grazing it and try playing the note. It will sound not like a nice note, but buzzy or thunking probably.

Gradually, ever so gradually, whilst playing the string with the right hand apply a little more pressure until the note starts to sound. I’ll bet you $50 that there’s really hardly any pressure at all there and you’re still pressing quite lightly.

Occasionally, we might need an extra bit of pressure,for an awkward stretch or squeezy barre for example. In this instance, use that leverage principal and take the pressure and tension our of your fingers, out of your hand, even out of your arm and shoulder, and lean in with the body. Lean your body in to the guitar to meet the required finger pressure – the greater the pressure required the greater the lean.

Have a think about these things next time you’re practicing – am I squeezing too hard? Do I need that amount of tension and pressure? Is that pressure and tension really helping?!

Posture for playing classical guitar

Nicole Neal2 Comments

Getting your seated posture sorted for playing is pivotal to physically enjoying your playing, reducing the chance of overuse or incorrect use injuries and ensuring the longevity of your playing. You really don’t want to end up 10 or 20 years down the line being forced to play only in small goes or being forced to stop playing at all. It’s worth taking the time just to slow down or stop and assess your posture.

Portrait of an articulated skeleton on a bentw...
Sit up properly! Photo credit: Powerhouse Museum Collection

Big to small

When looking at posture I always work from the biggest structures first (i.e. the larger body parts or muscles) before then moving thought to successively smaller elements. Getting your overall seated position needs sorting out before moving on to the movement on the hands and fingers. Your seated position and posture is the framework, the basis from which you’re building your playing and your finer movements.

Building a good solid base for yourself, a bit like practicing your daily scales, is key to much faster, or rather much easier progress, down the line.

Pointers on posture

When seated make sure your legs are bent at roughly 90 degrees, with both feet flat on the ground. Then holding the guitar (using either your preference of foot stool or rest), make sure that your back is straight, using your stomach muscles to help keep that nice straight form. Sit towards the front of your seat; don’t sit too far back on the chair or lean on the back of the chair.

Think about tucking your tail bone under your bum. Lengthen your spine by imagining you’re a puppet with a string attached to the crown of your head keeping you upright.

Legs

Whatever your choice of foot stool versus guitar rest (and I recommend rest as I believe it reduces adverse impacts to the hips and lower back) ensure that your left foot, knee and shoulder are all aligned – no knee or foot sticking out to the side. This neutral position is the most natural and ultimately comfortable position to play in. With the right leg, bending this in at a similar angle, or even slightly closer to the chair acts as a stabiliser rooting you to the ground and creating a solid playing position.

One key tip, passed on to me by the great Phillip Houghton that I in turn pass on to my students, is a non-slip mat on my right leg where the body of the guitar contacts with my leg (of course, swap that to left leg if you’re a left-handed player). This helps to stabilise the guitar, make it feel really solid and in control, particularly if your guitar is heavy (as some of the newer style lattice braced guitars are) or you’re wearing potentially slippery clothing. The grip of the mat takes a bit of the tension away from your right arm in pinning the guitar back or limiting the guitar’s movements.

Arms

Your right arm should be soft and heavy, positioned over the bell of the body, with just the minimal amount of tension through it to hold that relaxed form. The feel is almost as if you’re embracing the guitar. Just be careful though not to drop and round the shoulder; hold your form through the shoulder joint too.

With the left arm, also be careful not to drop the shoulder and ensure your wrist is nice and straight, and in line with the hand and arm most of the time. Movement to reach the strings should primarily come from the shoulder in a vertical pivot like movement – make use of this big muscle group, rather than putting undue stress and strain on the smaller muscles of the wrist and lower arm.

Similarly when moving up and down and around the fretboard, use you shoulder as a horizontal pivot. Use the bigger muscles to do the majority of the work. This is what the shoulder is designed for and you’re really going to protect yourself from carpal tunnel syndrome type symptoms this way. I should know – I learnt the hard way on this and went through a long journey of correcting my previously poor technique.

So the key, “take home” message today is to make use of the body’s natural movements. Use leverage by using the biggest muscle groups to carry out the bulk of the work – that’s your back muscles, shoulder and arms – before moving on to think about smaller movements from the hands, fingers and thumbs. Movements are not massive either, probably much less than you’d think.

And relax!

Here’s a great You Tube clip I found on setting up your posture that may also help….