In my younger days I played a lot of fast noodly stuff, aggressive rock or classical playing where my muscles and tendons were tortured for hours on end. I had some issues with tendonitis, a ganglion cyst, which caused all sorts of pain when playing, so I started focusing on ways to help it. I looked for ways to reduce the tension in my hands and arms while I played, and by sheer necessity I greatly reduced the pain and vastly increased my endurance.

Bad Guitar Habits

Something I’ve noticed in the last few years is that my technique has changed, mostly due to the type of music I play. I still play a little fast noodly stuff, but most of my gigs these days are rock & roll and country, where 90% of the time you’re playing rhythm guitar, and the solos are more listener-friendly, just solid ‘fit-the-song’ type stuff. All well and good, but that style of playing causes me to let my focus on technique slip, and bad habits develop.

Finding a Fix

I tried all sorts of things to help alleviate the pain when playing, from different hand positions, sitting positions, etc… I was told about Alexander Technique, which isn’t just for musicians, but many practice for it’s benefits to posture and proper alignment of the body. I am not a big disciplined routine kind of person, so I just had to plow my own way, taking bits and pieces and discovering my own way to fix my problem.

Follow the path

One thing I got from every relaxation approach was that tension doesn’t always necessarily originate in the place you think is the problem. For guitarists, that’s the hands and arms. But, the problem isn’t always directly related to how you wiggle your fingers…it could be starting in your head, your neck, back, shoulders, etc… It is amazing how your body can hold stress and tension while your mind is focusing on something (like playing guitar…) Whether it’s clenching your teeth, tensing your shoulders or arms, or simply holding the guitar wrong, just being aware of the origin and following the chain of tension can help fix bad habits.

Start with breathing

Grab a metronome or drum machine, set it to a comfortable tempo, and practice playing something easy like a scale or lick, while paying strict attention to:

First – Your Breathing. Should be nice and even…Don’t hold it! Lots of people do this.

Second – Your Jaw muscles. (don’t clench!)

Third – Your Shoulders & Back. Relax them, don’t hold one shoulder higher than the other, etc…

Fourth – Your Elbows – They are a common place to hold tension when picking.

Fifth – Your Wrists/Hands.
Press only as hard as you need to fret the notes
Don’t strangle the neck with your thumb
Make sure you are not holding your wrist (on either hand) in an unnatural position/angle.

The Bottom Line

The purpose of all of this is to get you to think about the many places you could be creating counter-productive tension, and eliminating it. Bad habits can effect your tone, your timing, and your stamina. Not to mention you can create serious problems like tendonitus, carpal tunnel syndrome or worse. It is truly possible to play virtually tension-free, and with a little practice it comes pretty easy. But, if you’re like me and slip into bad habits easily, things can slide downhill pretty fast. Keep things loose and relaxed and you will play better, guaranteed!

Cherry Sunburst Les Paul

I never met him, but Les Paul seemed like such a cool cat. So full of energy and always living life to the fullest. I may have never known him, but his name has certainly been a standard (unintended pun) around my house.

This has got to be the coolest commercial ever. We’ll all miss Les Paul.

One question I don’t think anyone EVER asked me when I was teaching guitar lessons was… “How can I be more musical?” Hmmm…after all, the guitar is just a medium, right? a means to an end…a blank canvas, waiting for input. John Lennon once said, “I’m an artist, and if you give me a tuba I’ll bring you something out of it.”

So once you have the bag of tricks, transcending the technical and making music is not so easy. In fact, there is no answer to that one. No solution, no way to pinpoint it. Sure, you can emulate emotion, play with more dynamics, feign some sort of tortured soul act, jump up and down, roll around on the ground…whatever passes for passion. But really, how direct is the conduit from your heart to your hands? Do you stop by the head on the way to the hands? Does is take years of heartache to forge a ‘real’ musician or can the neophites play too?

See, none of these questions really have answers…I sure don’t know. I do know that for me, the only way to feel like I’m feeling the music is to STOP thinking about music and just think about LIFE. Whatever that might entail. Thinking about music or guitars or amps or some new chord shape or scale or tricky lick does nothing but feed my technical side…it’s not going to help me dig in to a song and really add anything to it. That’s the goal I think – adding something by giving a part of yourself, imparting something to the music that could only come from you. That’s why the really great players have a strong signature sound – they are putting their whole being into it, transcending the details of technique and gear, making music that could only be theirs.

So I guess the place to start when trying to be more musical is right in your own life experience, your ‘wheelhouse’…figure out what means something to you beyond fingers and frets and speakers…how does what you’re playing relate to YOU? Where does the sound you are making cross paths with the human that you’ve become?

One thing I did learn from teaching guitar is that not everyone is a deep, poetic, artsy-fartsy mysterious musical madman that parties like a rock star, dates supermodels and sacrifices something for their art. The fact is, most people are far from that, and that’s just fine. Most people just want to play an instrument for fun, or the technical challenge, or just to hear themselves play the opening riff to every rock song they grew up listening to. It’s funny how mentioning that you play guitar immediately conjures up (in other people’s minds) the image of some crazy musician type with no responsibilities, no worries…just SEX DRUGS AND ROCK & ROLL, BABY!!!

Ok, sorry if this rant took a strange turn, but I thought it would be a good way to inject a little reality into the topic, which is my whole point – your reality is what is going to shape the way you play. Embrace it – anger, happiness, frustration, loss, fun, jealousy, rage, love, hope, fear…all are necessary to make the world go ’round. Let them all be your motivation, throw ‘em all in the pot and stir!

This whole internet thing is pretty cool…although it can’t yet read people’s minds, so I would like to get some input from you on what type of stuff you would like to see! Please take a moment and let me know your level and interests, and what you would like to see more of around here! (this info is for my use only and will not be published anywhere!)

My band has some nice slick (meaning not done by me with a crappy camera) footage I could post, but I sort of like the new ‘home-grown’ trend.  Keepin’ it Real! as the kids say… Anyway, make fun, hoot, holler, cast aspersions, etc…