Welcome to a new weekly 10-second tip.
In this tip, we will talk about a way to reduce tension in your fretting hand and arm.
This is a super simple tip, but one that will make a difference.
It’s all about:
“Doing anti-tension exercises”
An anti-tension exercise does what it says on the tin.
Basically, to do one, do this…
Take any fretting hand exercise or scale you play and instead of fretting the notes as normal and plucking them…
Don’t.
What you do is this:
- Do the fretting hand movements as usual, but do NOT press down on the strings.
- Instead, touch the string with the fretting hand finger using the lightest of touches – as if your finger is a butterfly on the string.
Like I say, you can try this with a scale or a technical exercise such as the “spider/walking” exercise.
Or you could try playing frets 5 and 8 with the index and ring fingers on every string.
Either way, breathe deeply and relax because when done well, this concept will train you to stop being as tense when you play.
Then, when it comes to the actual playing, you will be able to apply just enough pressure to make the note clear and still stay relaxed.
For more on this and to get a whole series of anti-tension exercises (and learn barre chords) check this out…
The Ultimate Guide to Barre Chords
Have a great Friday!
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of great tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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