How to develop a more relaxed fretting hand?

19

Thank you all for your replies, I didn’t expect to get so much feedback, so I try to answer everybody without taking a day off :wink:

First of all I recorded a little video, just a quick recording, so neither the quality of recording nor my playing is great, but my faults are visible and audible (hope Richard doesn’t move it into the category of “how to not play scales” :joy:) I know, there are plenty of mistakes, I shouldn’t brace my pinky, fingers closer to the strings, I think my fingers are curled to much, etc…
I post a link here JG Community Am Pentatonic - YouTube and will edit it to my first post too.

Thanks Tony! So there is a light of hope :grinning:.

Uuups, you got me… the 40 is quite a while away, seems as I’m more in the “Old dog” category with 54. So I tell everybody it’s due to my age? :joy:

OK. I’m patience in person. At least sometimes…

@jkahn Thanks, JK, I postet a link above. I also experiment with different fingerings in songs but not when I’m playing the scale.

NO, NO, NO I’m not of that species who thinks, they grab a guitar and play like David Guilmour after four weeks.
I know, that it will take time and there are no shortcuts. I was not asking for a shortcut :wink:.

My intention was to ask before I develop bad habits in hundreds of practice sessions. Better to ask, than to turn the clock back later.

I’ll do so, thanks!

@TheMadman_tobyjenner Thanks, Toby. Good to know, that advanced players like you have to work on it after many years of playing too. Maybe one should do some “guitar meditation” with active stress relief…

4 Likes
20

@adi_mrok I feel tension when playing stretchy chords, with the fourth finger involved. I have chords that I can play without big effort but when changing to those stretchy chords, I feel tension and after playing for longer it gets really strenous. I think, that’s quite normal. I was more interested how to avoid tension while playing e.g. scales, or riffs, because this tension makes finger movement sluggish or slow. I feel, that it hinders me to get faster. As suggested I posted a video above.

@Jamolay Thank you, Joshua, you quoted the post I was searching this morning, but didn’t find anymore. I read that suggestion but I fear, I can’t do this exclusively for weeks. But I’ll have a look at the video.

@goosecheese Thank you for your reply. I already have 10’s on my acoustic and 9’s on my electric. And both guitars are set up.

I love this, because it’s spot on! I’m tall, my hands are quite big for a woman and I have power. But playing guitar doesn’t work with a sledgehammer method :joy:. My problem isn’t so much that hands cramp, it’s more a problem of getting more agile with my fingers.

Thanks for that, Eddie!

1 Like
21

Rogier, I have a split personnality :joy:. There is Helen, who plays guitar and could play the whole day long and there’s Andrea, who’s working, cooking, caring for her family, doing sports, etc. Helen sometimes doesn’t like Andrea very much, as she is a “killjoy” :joy:.

2 Likes
22

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
I only ever classify myself as an Advanced Beginner, you are too kind.

1 Like
23

@TheMadman_tobyjenner You shouldn’t hide your light under a bushel :sunglasses:.

1 Like
24

I’m going to address to Helen then :smile:

You’re playing with the finger tips but I think your putting to much curl into your fingers causing the tension in your hand and fingers. You could try flattening out you fingers a little to relax the fingers.
I also noticed your pulling some of the strings downwards as you’re moving up and down the scale. This is something to be avoided. I thing flattening your fingers will help with this as well.

Other than that you’re doing pretty good and after finding the sweet spot with the fingers you relax and get faster.

2 Likes
25

That’s exactly what I have thought after seeing your video, try going slower but make sure fingers are flatter against strings so there will be less tension in your hand. If they tense up too much try to shake it off, and I would suggest also doing down and up run once, taking few seconds break to relax and starting again rather than going up and down in many series as per video. Your hand will always tense up after a few times and especially if you can’t relax doing it once, this is a strength that needs to be built in over time.

3 Likes
26

That was my first thought as well, keep them much flatter.

1 Like
27

Helen, what I mostly notice is that your pinky is flying up straight when you use your ring finger on the A, D, and G strings. I’d aim for a relaxed curl, parallel with the other fingers.

Sympathetic tension between the ring and pinky is pretty common, I believe…I’ve certainly experienced it.

My suggestion would be to slow things way down, and really focus on what happens when you fret with your ring finger. How does it look?

More importantly…how does it feel?. Not just in your hand, but also in your arm and even your shoulder.

You may notice muscles tensing up that you’ve never noticed before.

Also, I think I saw a video exercise for this. Will post if I can find it.

1 Like
28
2 Likes
29

Sounds like you’re on the right track.

Stick to mindful practice, and take your time, and remember Tomo Fujita:

Don’t compare
Don’t expect [to progress] too fast
Don’t worry
Be kind to yourself

:heart:

1 Like
30

Hi Helen,

I’m hearing you on this, it has been a prevalent issue for me over the years. I blame it on the rubbish acoustic I first used which had super high action and also probably a too high string gauge, causing me too have to press hard to get a note to ring clearly, a habit I’ve struggled to shake.

Looking at your video, I like your precise movements and focus on control, however I agree with the others that the curl is too much and a flatter finger position will help to reduce tension plus have the added benefit of muting some of the other strings by resting gently on them as you move through the scale, riff, etc.

Regarding the flying pinky, this lesson of Justin’s was recently suggested to me and has helped a lot! Have you seen it? If not, it may help with wrangling that little sucker and possibly with relaxing the hand in general or at least gaining greater control over your fingers which in turn may lead to a more relaxed approach down the track? I do note Justin’s fingers tend to be quite curled in this video, so maybe the flatter finger position recommended above isn’t good advice?? :joy: But perhaps that’s just for this specific control exercise? :thinking: Anyway I hope it helps :slight_smile:

2 Likes
31

Wow, a lot of helpful advice was given overnight! Thanks for that!

I learned something (what I knew before, but didn’t do seriously), but here’s the proof:
RECORD YOURSELF! Look at yourself from another perspective! You will see things you didn’t realise before! That was my first thought, when I had a look at my own video.

Thanks @stitch @jkahn @adi_mrok for pointing out, that I curl my fingers to much. This was the first thing I realised, as I watched my own video. I wasn’t aware of that. Not at all. I know, that fingers should be much flatter on the strings and if somebody asked me, I would have told him, that my fingers are laying on the strings much flatter than they really do. From my perspective behind the fretboard it was not as obvious.

@stitch

I saw that too, have to fix it. Another thing I didn’t notice before and I haven’t got any explanation why I’m doing that. Maybe pure fear not to get the next note clean? :thinking:

@adi_mrok

Normally, I play it one by one, as you say, having a little break inbetween. I did this only for the video, because I normally need at least one/two/three run(s) through to get into it and I wanted to show more than one run up and down. Also I’ll slow it down again. I tried to play a little quicker, because recordings always sound slower to me than what I’m feeling while playing.

@Tbushell

Yes, the flying pinky! I can’t get control over it right now, but I’m working on it!

Good advice, I have to restart the whole process. There are just too many things to consider for one brain :joy::
Correct hand and wrist positioning, hitting the right spots on the strings, moving fingers fluently, not to press to hard, not to lift fingers up too much, not to curl fingers too much, accurate picking, keeping rhythm and…trying to mute correctly, something that distracts me a lot…

That’s a very good aspect, as some issues already occured. First it was whrist pain, then it moved up to my forearm and elbow…so I thought it was time to seek for solutions to minimize tension.
Thanks for the video, I’ll watch it later…I actually should do my work right now…

1 Like
32

Thanks Liam! Really kind!

After a really serious illness in 2020/2021, I don’t stress about a lot of things anymore! I “Take it easy”. A line of text of this song I really like is: “DON’T LET THE SOUND OF YOUR OWN WHEELS DRIVE YOU CRAZY”. :cowboy_hat_face: :guitar:

2 Likes
33

Hi Jeff, I’m also having hard times with my acoustic, even though I love her. I started with the acoustic and had to use a lot of effort to press strings down, especially in the first fret. I had it in the guitar center but everything is ok. Hm…

Hes, I’ve seen that a while ago, but I have to rewatch it. Due to an old injury I have some issues with my third and fourth finger. But I think, with constant training, it will improve.

1 Like
34

Well, bumpy ground or with gravel it happens to me regularly :joy:

Oo sorry :blush:,…

Great to see how you approach and pick things up… :sunglasses:

I go play guitar for long now,…

Greetings,…

1 Like
35

Oh man, Rogier, :joy:, yes it has a totally different meaning for you :pray: :hibiscus:! For me, it is about a “philosophical level”. We often get upset, not because things are as they are, but because we stress up ourselves by our own expectations. Happy practice session!

1 Like
36

:joy:…that’s why I’m say sorry, because I understood what you meant :blush:, but sometimes I say / tap what I have to think about,…Oo sometimes???/ yes, what if I always did that, :speak_no_evil:…always busy head here,…

I look forward to your scale in a few weeks, the tip about flattening your fingers will make all the difference (I myself keep my fingers a little slanted also when I need to fret perfect with my 3rd when i start scales on the first frets now,…ssst…But maybe that has already been said , and maybe this is a bad tip ,… I really don’t know :grimacing:),…in the end I succeeded from fret 5 ,…now 3 almost always and from fret 1 it’s harder work…

:sunflower:

37

Ha, ha, same with me, always reading between the lines, I hear and see lot more than people say…

Uuups, I thought I could get through with the one video. That already was quite a step for me, because I never posted before :see_no_evil:, let’s see…but a good idea anyway!

1 Like
38

:blush: :sunglasses: :wink:

And

:rofl:
NOPE!!! But of course it can also be a song… :blush: :wink:

But having said that…that it was your first video I have noticed,and was happily surprised :sunglasses:…and when one sheep is over the fence…the farmer has to build a higher one :smile:

1 Like