This info is so crucial and hardly any teachers ever mention reducing tensions in the body. They just say “keep practicing”.. but that’s not enough! Tension keeps many players from ever getting past intermediate stage and they never even know why they can’t get any better because the tension is so habitual and out of their awareness. Great job touching on this subject!
One thing I noticed after watching multiple Tom Hess videos is that every one of the players in the masterclasses has their guitar in a classical positioning. Introducing this position into my playing rather than resting my guitar on my right leg dramatically reduced tension in my right shoulder/picking side. This was a big problem for me due to a shoulder injury a few years back.
Yep. Think about some of the great shredders. Many are basically playing in a classical position standing up. When Slash takes one of his faster solos, he's usually one leg up on a monitor and will have the guitar almost vertical. Same with Zakk Wylde. Or the shredder will balance it off their hip, angling the guitar over 45 degrees when they're playing a solo or difficult passage. Allows the most natural position of the hands/fingers for full motion without tension.
Moments after switching from resting my guitar on my right leg over to my left leg for the more "Classical" sitting position, I could tell it's better on the shoulder of my picking hand. When you set it on the right leg, and you're right handed, the shoulder is farther back behind the body, in a more tense position. I think these guys may go a bit too far with the "you should never feel one moment of the slightest tension whatsoever!" kind of rhetoric, but overall it is a good check. I think it's more practical to shoot for minimal tension, rather than zero tension.
I have shoulder instabilty and extremely tight right chest muscles due to playing the guitar improperly and far too tensed up concentrating lol. I have a smaller acoustic but when I play my friends larger normal one it's worse. Its extremley painful. It makes my scapular Wing and back ache whilst playing. My physio rubbished my claims it was due to my guitar playing. Thanks for the video. Its gonna be hard to 'retrain' myself to play. Noone teaches this...I've now found these vids tio late but hopefully it will improve.
Funny you should post this... It's the one thing that I've been working on the most lately. I became aware a while back that this is the single most blockade that is keeping me from moving forward.
![[Guitar Speed Lesson] Less Tension = More Guitar Speed](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pPAdv7ALaG4/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Picking Technique Lesson] How NOT To Pick](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0f2BYvktP-o/mqdefault.jpg)
This info is so crucial and hardly any teachers ever mention reducing tensions in the body. They just say “keep practicing”.. but that’s not enough!
Tension keeps many players from ever getting past intermediate stage and they never even know why they can’t get any better because the tension is so habitual and out of their awareness.
Great job touching on this subject!
Muscle tension absolutely DESTROYS fast guitar playing... thanks for sharing with us how to get rid of it! :)
One thing I noticed after watching multiple Tom Hess videos is that every one of the players in the masterclasses has their guitar in a classical positioning. Introducing this position into my playing rather than resting my guitar on my right leg dramatically reduced tension in my right shoulder/picking side. This was a big problem for me due to a shoulder injury a few years back.
Yep. Think about some of the great shredders. Many are basically playing in a classical position standing up. When Slash takes one of his faster solos, he's usually one leg up on a monitor and will have the guitar almost vertical. Same with Zakk Wylde. Or the shredder will balance it off their hip, angling the guitar over 45 degrees when they're playing a solo or difficult passage. Allows the most natural position of the hands/fingers for full motion without tension.
Moments after switching from resting my guitar on my right leg over to my left leg for the more "Classical" sitting position, I could tell it's better on the shoulder of my picking hand. When you set it on the right leg, and you're right handed, the shoulder is farther back behind the body, in a more tense position.
I think these guys may go a bit too far with the "you should never feel one moment of the slightest tension whatsoever!" kind of rhetoric, but overall it is a good check. I think it's more practical to shoot for minimal tension, rather than zero tension.
I have shoulder instabilty and extremely tight right chest muscles due to playing the guitar improperly and far too tensed up concentrating lol. I have a smaller acoustic but when I play my friends larger normal one it's worse. Its extremley painful. It makes my scapular Wing and back ache whilst playing. My physio rubbished my claims it was due to my guitar playing. Thanks for the video. Its gonna be hard to 'retrain' myself to play. Noone teaches this...I've now found these vids tio late but hopefully it will improve.
Funny you should post this... It's the one thing that I've been working on the most lately. I became aware a while back that this is the single most blockade that is keeping me from moving forward.
Thanks for sharing it🤘
Great tips, thanks.
Things u never think of .
As aggressive as metal is. You would think that shredding takes a lot of strength. Just like martial arts. The softest putty stops the hardsst of hits
The tension under the tongue is a tough one for me personally. It always creeps up on me without me realizing it.
nice guitar
virtuoso secrets