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I've hit a bit of a plateau in my playing lately, and it occurs to me it's not because of the notes this time...I know where lots of those are. My ability to express myself is limited by my chops, particularly in soloing...
.....so I've undertaken something I've known has been coming for a long time but that I've been dreading: relearning to play with less tension on both hands.
I've got a helluva right hand and that's carried over to my left hand and created a lot of bad habits. So I'm starting over, fingers crowning the frets and using just enough tension to sound a note, no more.
Tonight it's occurred to me that if I use any more hand tension on my guitar than I use typing on this computer, I'm probably pressing too hard.
Anyone else been through this?
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That is on my list of things to do. "Light touch" is relevant to almost everything we do, and I'm a guy that likes to squash stuff, just to be sure.
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It is a natural tendency to press hard when you don't have to. I think we all do it. If you don't think about it, you probably press hard. I catch myself sometimes and make an effort to use less tension, but that's only when I think about it. I guess we need to make oursleves think about it all the time until it becomes habit. I think it is a noble effort to work on this issue. Just another bridge to cross.
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Well said Jerome. I've noticed my tone and sustain getting WAAAAAAAY better as I lighten up......
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Absolutely BGD. I started out with a really cruddy guitar that NEEDED to be mashed in the neck to get anything out, moved to nylon, and then back to steel. Now that I have my Martin, I realize a lot of my buzzing (yes, MINE not the guitar as it's been PROVEN to me that it's all me) is due to my fingering. Sometimes it's placement (cut the nails, get the fingers rolled up there where they belong) or too much pressure. Relearning is tricky, and the more I get INTO the playing the more I find myself putting too much tension. I'm working on it too.
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I have changed my pick selection to 1mil+ to force myself to use less right hand pressure. Those mofos go through electric 10s or 11s like butter if you're not careful.
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