Tag: practice

Don’t wear yourself out! Avoiding unnecessary injuries when playing guitar

Nicole NealLeave a comment

I’m talking primarily about left hand technique here today and avoiding stresses and strains which can lead to injuries and ultimately enforced time away from the guitar. Boo! I’ve been through, and still going through one might argue, a technique change in the left hand to keep me fit and healthy in my playing. I talk from the one time painful voice of experience and know all to well the vital importance of being aware and observing for ourselves what’s happening with our bodies when playing.

So, on with the show

Are you relaxed all through the whole of your left arm when you’re practicing?

Shoulder, upper arm, forearm, hand, thumb, fingers? Really? Are you? What about that left shoulder saying hello to the left earlobe…. Ah huh…

Right, now that’s sorted there should be no bad or unhelpful tension in there, only good tension.

Good tension is that which helps you remain upright essentially, keeps your left arm in the position it needs to be, creates flexibility and aids easy, fluid movements, which in turn help create beautiful sounds and beautiful music.

Bad tension is that which constricts movement, reduces flexibility, causes pain and cramps in the short-term, and building up potentially more serious issues such as repetitive strain injuries over time. Not to mention it also creates strained, tense and thin sounds and ultimately holds back the music from its full potential.

Tendonitis, strains and other injuries are NOT an inevitability when playing the guitar.

Some things to think about in your next practice session

Do you find yourself pressing harder with your left hand fingers the louder you play with your right hand?

This used to be quite a significant issue for me and I’ll be first to admit that this bad habit can still have a tendency to creep back in if I’m not observant and aware of exactly how my left had feels whilst practicing. Just being aware of how things feel is a considerable first step in correcting them and making sure you’re not storing up trouble for later on.

Make sure you’re pressing down with your left hand fingers with only as much pressure as you need to make the notes sound without buzzing. Have a little play around with this, make a little exercise of it, and see how little pressure you really need from the left hand and fingers to make a note sound.

Be aware of how your left hand feels and any early warning signs of a potential issue. There shouldn’t be any pain when playing, nor any tingling or pins and needles sensations or numbness in the left wrist, hand or fingers.

How does your left thumb feel when playing? And after playing? The meat of the ball of the thumb should be relaxed and soft to the touch when not playing. If you find this wee bit of your anatomy sore or even cramping during playing, firstly stop before you do yourself an injury! Secondly, don’t ignore it – I can promise you it won’t go away of its own accord if you carry on using the same actions day in, day out. This is the perfect time to take a moment, stop and reassess exactly what is going on and address the technical issue, perhaps with a teacher.

And don’t try so hard!
Sometimes the mere fact of stretching so far or pressing so hard for that barre, reaching so hard for that stretch across the frets can be our undoing. We build these things up in our mind to be Everests of the guitar – huge peaks of virtually insurmountable difficulty, that can only be overcome by trying harder and pressing on through the pain.

Uhhh uhhh. Nope. Naughty!

Firstly, when you look at a particular element in the music that is causing the tension, it probably is not as difficult as you imagine. You may just require some carefully selected studies or exercises that, erm, exercise that particular element.

Secondly, awareness is key (again). Being aware that we’re trying excessively, aware that we’re putting undue strain and stress through our muscles, ligaments and joints can helps to just turn our effort down a notch or two.

Do you really need to be pressing that hard or stretch that intensely? What’s the right amount of “trying” or rather “doing” to achieve that musical outcome?

We kind of do this unthinkingly everyday – the right amount of effort to open a door, lift a lovely cup of cappuccino, walk down the road. We can apply the same to our playing. Once we’ve made ourselves aware of and learnt that right amount of effort required technically in our playing we need not think of it much again! And stop putting so much undue stress on our bodies and buggering ourselves up!

And don’t forget, these things take time (see my previous post https://classicalguitarnstuff.com/2012/06/16/growth-development-and-bamboo/) – keep chipping away, with awareness and care not to wear yourself out and you’ll get there.

Sight reading: are you a push bike or a Ferrari?

Nicole Neal3 Comments

I was checking out Carlos Bonell’s blog recently, reading some of his witty little 100 lessons for life plucked from the guitar.

Number 5 of these referred to himself in his formative years as being a push-bike of a sight reader in comparison with sight reading Ferraris of orchestral-type instrumentalists. This little anecdote and life lesson reflects my own thoughts (and blog post only t’other day) that we as guitarists can sometimes suffer in our musicianship. This is what Carlos had to say….

While at William Ellis School in North London I played music with violinists, cellists and pianists. None of them were much older than me, but their music reading skills were way ahead. They were like Ferraris on their respective instruments, accelerating to 100 miles per hour in a few seconds. While I pedalled away on my push-bike guitar still at bar two, they were already at bar seven. I resolved to change this humiliating situation and through hard work and determination eventually replaced my guitar pushbike with a motorbike. It was a big improvement, but I kept working at it right through my teens and during my student days too until one day my persistence paid off spectacularly – but that’s another story.

Lesson for life:
Improve your guitar-reading skills so you can keep up with other musicians. Illiteracy is a handicap in all walks of life.

And check out his full blog post here: http://queenguitarrhapsodies.com/blog/?p=1244

As Carlos states, working on your musicianship skills can really pay dividends with your playing.

I believe ensemble playing can really help in that, push you outside of your comfort zone slightly, but inevitably coerces you in to really, really, REALLY learning your way around the fretboard. Did I say REALLY learning?! After playing with a group of others for a while fifth, seventh, ninth, tenth, you-name-it position playing will not be a problem – in fact, you won’t even think about it anymore. I can pretty much guarantee you this!

I remember after having played in an ensemble for a little while, being faced with a bit of sight-reading with shtuff around the seventh and ninth positions – I didn’t have time to think! Argh, I thought! I’m going to bugger this up aren’t I? My hands and sub-conscious brain thought better, however. They were moving around with ease – yes, this note is here, this one here….Noicely done. Noice… I was very pleasantly surprised. Whoop whoop! I’d dumped the treadley on the side of the road and was opening the gull-wing doors of my Ferrari Enzo. Yay!

This kind of ease of movement in terms of fretboard geography is brought about through diligent and daily practice of scales (those finger patterns and movement just become second nature) and putting yourself into a group situation where the ability to play on is crucial. With just a little study and pushing your boundaries a little one can achieve a lot. If I can do it, anyone can.