I cannot seem to relax when I play guitar. How can I break the `death-grip`?
Breaking the "Death Grip"
I would like to focus on one of the top reasons that many player can not seem to gain speed in their playing. I call this “The Death Grip”. The Death Grip is a habit that many new guitar players get into when they are first starting to learn to play. They focus so much on holding the chords and getting a clean sound that they often overcompensate on the strength needed to hold the strings to the frets. There are two major downsides to The Death Grip. These unfortunate side effects consist of sounding out of tune and reduced fretting hand speed. These are the problems we are going to cover here.
Sounding Out of Tune
I constantly get e-mails from players who want to know why they sound out of tune when they are playing. They have checked their tuning with a digital tuner and checked their intonation, yet they still feel like they are out of tune. One of the first questions I ask is, How hard are you holding your strings down with your fretting hand when you play? Why do I ask this? Well, I’m glad you asked. Here’s the simple answer.
When you hold a string down toward the fretboard it is going to come in contact with the desired fret. If you push the string down to the fretboard you are essentially stretching the string over the fret causing the note to go sharp. How sharp the notes goes depends entirely on the height of the frets on your particular guitar. Higher frets will cause the note to be sharper than lower frets. Scalloped fretboard will also have more of a detuning effect.
Here is a simple test you can perform yourself to see how much of this effect you are getting with each of your guitars. Hook your guitar up to a digital tuner and tune each open string as perfect as possible. Now choose a note on one string of the guitar. Hold that string so that it is touching the fret just enough to sound clearly and with no buzzing. Check the note on the tuner. It should be perfect if your intonation is set correctly. Now play that note again until you get the perfect reading. As soon as you get the reading on the tuner, push the string all the way to the fretboard while the string is still sounding. You should notice that the needle on the tuner goes sharp. You can do this with all the strings individually and with any note on the fretboard.
Now that you have been able to visually see the effects of the Death Grip on your ability to play in tune, we are going to move on to the second problem before we discuss how to deal with these issues.
Dealing with the Issue of Speed
Many players feel like they can not achieve the speed necessary to play the music they want to play. Again, the culprit is often times the Death Grip on the neck. When you are holding the strings to the fretboard too hard it is much more difficult to move your fingers quickly and smoothly. This often times can also be the cause of cramping in the hand and forearm.
Furthermore using to much force is going to cause fatigue to your finger, wrist and forearm muscles causing you to slow down even more. If you learn to have a lighter touch you will have much more success in achieving speed and you will be able to play longer and more relaxed.
How Do We Break the Death Grip
As I stated in the beginning of this article, the Death Grip is a habit and one that is usually formed early in a players learning curve. Like any habit, it will not be easy to break. You need to practice and be aware of your touch to the strings. Here is what you should do.
Set aside ten minutes at the beginning of each practice time exclusively for working on your fretting hand finesse. Pick songs that you can already play without concentrating to much on the chords or notes. The reasoning for this is simple. You want to spend this practice time concentrating on your fingerboard touch. If you do not know the song well, you will find yourself concentrating on the chord changes instead of the fingerboard finesse. This kind of negates the whole reason for spending this practice time to break a habit.
Concentrate on just pushing hard enough on the strings until the ring clear with no buzzing sounds. It will take time to get used the exact amount of strength you need to use, but with practice it will start coming to you naturally. The more you practice this, the quicker you will be able to break the habit.
I hope this article was enlightening and can help you to become a more dynamic player.
Written by Gary Allen
www.guitargearheads.com
Copyright © 2008 Allen & Halberg Publishing, Inc.
GuitarGearHeads™ is a Trademark of Allen & Halberg Publishing, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
I would like to focus on one of the top reasons that many player can not seem to gain speed in their playing. I call this “The Death Grip”. The Death Grip is a habit that many new guitar players get into when they are first starting to learn to play. They focus so much on holding the chords and getting a clean sound that they often overcompensate on the strength needed to hold the strings to the frets. There are two major downsides to The Death Grip. These unfortunate side effects consist of sounding out of tune and reduced fretting hand speed. These are the problems we are going to cover here.
Sounding Out of Tune
I constantly get e-mails from players who want to know why they sound out of tune when they are playing. They have checked their tuning with a digital tuner and checked their intonation, yet they still feel like they are out of tune. One of the first questions I ask is, How hard are you holding your strings down with your fretting hand when you play? Why do I ask this? Well, I’m glad you asked. Here’s the simple answer.
When you hold a string down toward the fretboard it is going to come in contact with the desired fret. If you push the string down to the fretboard you are essentially stretching the string over the fret causing the note to go sharp. How sharp the notes goes depends entirely on the height of the frets on your particular guitar. Higher frets will cause the note to be sharper than lower frets. Scalloped fretboard will also have more of a detuning effect.
Here is a simple test you can perform yourself to see how much of this effect you are getting with each of your guitars. Hook your guitar up to a digital tuner and tune each open string as perfect as possible. Now choose a note on one string of the guitar. Hold that string so that it is touching the fret just enough to sound clearly and with no buzzing. Check the note on the tuner. It should be perfect if your intonation is set correctly. Now play that note again until you get the perfect reading. As soon as you get the reading on the tuner, push the string all the way to the fretboard while the string is still sounding. You should notice that the needle on the tuner goes sharp. You can do this with all the strings individually and with any note on the fretboard.
Now that you have been able to visually see the effects of the Death Grip on your ability to play in tune, we are going to move on to the second problem before we discuss how to deal with these issues.
Dealing with the Issue of Speed
Many players feel like they can not achieve the speed necessary to play the music they want to play. Again, the culprit is often times the Death Grip on the neck. When you are holding the strings to the fretboard too hard it is much more difficult to move your fingers quickly and smoothly. This often times can also be the cause of cramping in the hand and forearm.
Furthermore using to much force is going to cause fatigue to your finger, wrist and forearm muscles causing you to slow down even more. If you learn to have a lighter touch you will have much more success in achieving speed and you will be able to play longer and more relaxed.
How Do We Break the Death Grip
As I stated in the beginning of this article, the Death Grip is a habit and one that is usually formed early in a players learning curve. Like any habit, it will not be easy to break. You need to practice and be aware of your touch to the strings. Here is what you should do.
Set aside ten minutes at the beginning of each practice time exclusively for working on your fretting hand finesse. Pick songs that you can already play without concentrating to much on the chords or notes. The reasoning for this is simple. You want to spend this practice time concentrating on your fingerboard touch. If you do not know the song well, you will find yourself concentrating on the chord changes instead of the fingerboard finesse. This kind of negates the whole reason for spending this practice time to break a habit.
Concentrate on just pushing hard enough on the strings until the ring clear with no buzzing sounds. It will take time to get used the exact amount of strength you need to use, but with practice it will start coming to you naturally. The more you practice this, the quicker you will be able to break the habit.
I hope this article was enlightening and can help you to become a more dynamic player.
Written by Gary Allen
www.guitargearheads.com
GuitarGearHeads™ is a Trademark of Allen & Halberg Publishing, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
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Relaxation Pt. 2
