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Discover
Your Discomfort! Why Are So Many Guitarists Masochists? By Jamie Andreas
www.guitarprinciples.com
Okay, I’m going to explain some powerful
things for anyone who wants to see RESULTS from their guitar practice,
and really learn how to play the guitar well. In other words, the guitarist
who wants to do what I call CORRECT PRACTICE.
Have you ever had trouble playing something
on the guitar? Have you ever seen or heard someone play something, tried
to do it yourself, maybe practiced it for a long time, and ended up with
only frustration and bad feelings about yourself as a player? Be honest
now. I’ve been playing for 30 years, and giving guitar lessons for 27
years, and I have never met a player, including myself, who could honestly
answer no to that question.
There are a few things that are
always true when we are unable to play something we want to play on the
guitar.
One of the things that you will always
find, if you look for it, is what Aaron Shearer called, in his first book,
uncontrolled muscle tension. Many, many players have in fact commented
on this fact, mainly because this fact becomes obvious to anyone who plays
for awhile, pays attention, and starts to discover the path to gaining
increasing ability on the guitar. Many people mention it. The problem
is they never tell you what to do about it!
Oh sure, you’ll hear people say "play
S-L-O-W-LY", or "RELAX"! I asked, ordered, screamed, and pleaded with
students to do that for probably 20 years, before I realized that almost
no one was listening to me, or maybe they didn’t believe me, or maybe
they thought I was kidding (well, his face is turning purple, but, nah,
I don’t think he’s serious)!
No, it seems most people would rather
try to play that bar chord or that scale with their shoulders tensed up
to their ears, their pinky tensed up and pulled 2 inches from the neck
as they dislocate their shoulder trying to get it to it’s note on time,
practice and play that way day in and day out, and then wonder why they
find that scale hard to play, that it breaks down at a certain speed.
Or maybe they wonder why they have a pain here or there. Hell, they may
be really persistent and keep at it till they qualify for this new disease
I’m always reading about, Repetitive Strain Injury.
I got a new student about a year ago,
we’ll call him Tom. Now Tom had been teaching himself for a few years,
is very musical, very intelligent, and managed to learn fingerstyle guitar
well enough to attempt some rather challenging pieces, including some
classical repertoire. In fact, he would play for friends and often impress
them.
However, it was also true that he knew
he never played anywhere near his best in these circumstances, and the
piece would often break down somewhere. It was also true that he had a
growing pain in his left shoulder when he practiced. Tom has two very
important qualities that a player must have in order to overcome problems,
and make what I call Vertical Growth. Those two things are Desire, and
Honesty.
Tom doesn’t have the pain in his shoulder
anymore, and his playing is getting better and better. This is because
he has learned a few things. He has learned about the incredible state
of muscular relaxation that a player must have as they play. He has learned
how difficult it is to actually make sure you have that relaxation as
you play. He has learned about Sympathetic Tension, how every time you
use one muscle, others become tense also, and how if you are not aware
of it, and allow it to be there, it becomes locked in to the muscles through
the power of Muscle Memory.
Tom is also learning, over time, that
by always making the effort to focus his attention on this muscle tension,
he can always eliminate some part of it, and by consistently doing this
in practice, things begin to feel easier and easier, because he was really
fighting his own muscle tension, which made it feel so hard.
Tom inspired me to invent a phrase, something
for him to always keep in mind when he practices. In fact, I told him
to do what I do. Write it out on a sign and keep it somewhere in front
of him as he practices. On the music stand or taped to the wall like I
do. The phrase is "DISCOVER YOUR DISCOMFORT". Pay attention, notice what
happens in the body as you play. How does it feel. Good players are not
experiencing that discomfort when they do the thing you struggle to do.
If they had to struggle they wouldn’t be good players!
Now as usually happens, I began to use
the phrase myself, and began to discover new levels of my own discomfort.
And I began to see my playing improve, I mean fundamentally improve. You
see, there is no end to this process.
Why do so many of us allow such discomfort
when we practice and play? There are many reasons, I’ll go in to them
at another time. What I want to do now is give you some ways of discovering
your own discomfort, and begin to minimize it.
- Hold the guitar as comfortably as
you can.
- Allow your left arm to hang limp at
your side.
- Place your right hand fingers on the
strings, keeping them very loose and relaxed. If you use a pick, float
the pick in between two strings and keep it there.
- Focus your attention on your shoulders,
as you raise your left hand slowly. Raise it straight up without extending
it, and place all your fingers on the sixth string, around the tenth
fret. Keep them on the string so lightly, you don’t even press the string
down. (Not easy at first)!
- Do you feel anything in your right
shoulder as you do this? Do you feel any tightness come in to the pick
hand, perhaps you are gripping the pick tighter, or tensing your wrist?
Be honest now.
- Keeping your left hand fingers on the
string lightly, begin to move your hand down toward the first fret.
You must do this VERY SLOWLY. Notice what happens throughout your body.
As I have had students do this, I have seen everything from tense ankles
or belly, to practically falling off the chair!
I hope I have provided a starting point for
further investigations and insights for you. Take anything you find hard
to do, stop yourself in the middle of it, and check out what is happening
in your body. You will be amazed.
Copyright 2000 Jamie Andreas.All rights reserved.
Free! 10 Things
You Can Do Right Now to Become a Better Guitarist! “The Principles
of Correct Practice for Guitar,” the Perfect Start for Beginners, the
Answer to the Problems of Players. Start to play the guitar without getting
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how to do "perfect practice" with the Principles of Correct Practice for
Guitar. Visit:
www.guitarprinciples.com
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