Tension

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Tension

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Paul Magnussen

Posts: 1805
Joined: Nov. 8 2010
From: London (living in the Bay Area)

Tension

I’ve always suffered from physical tension when doing anything difficult. Nowadays it’s nowhere near as bad as when I was a beginner; but even now, when I’m playing a tough passage, I sometime find that I’m clenching my feet (seriously!).

It’s not performance anxiety (or at least, not the “in front of an audience ” kind), because I still do it when I’m alone.

Dave Russell recommended Alexander Technique. I certainly respect his opinion, but it’s time-consuming and the tuition can be expensive.

Others favour a stiff whisky, which seems a bit drastic — especially on a regular basis.

Any other thoughts?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 8 2017 18:37:36

Leñador

Posts: 5237
Joined: Jun. 8 2012
From: Los Angeles

RE: Tension (in reply to Paul Magnussen)

Didn't Paco say all he had to do was make sure his tongue was relaxed and the rest of him would follow?? When I heard that somewhere I noticed I held tension in my torso so now when I'm tense I focus on relaxing my torso and the extremities follow suite. Maybe you can find the initial culprit?
Whisky doesn't work, drink tequila.

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\m/

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 8 2017 19:48:25

Ricardo

Posts: 14822
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Tension (in reply to Paul Magnussen)

This issue, like looking at fingerboard or hands, facial contortions, breathing problems, always missing the same note, etc, are part of "practice makes perminant, not perfect" issue. Basically by repeating this habit, your fingers tense and your toes curl in one spot, because that is how you have been practicing it and are now part of the music. You have to practice specifically NOT doing these things in severe repetiton, to erase the old habit. And I mean AT TEMPO. Because playing at a very slow tempo is not the same thing, it's that simple. It will feel like you are actually playing a different piece of music at first, and that is a good thing because it means you can now erase the old thing and replace it with the new version.

Wish there was a simpler solution. Perhaps, if you are not tapping your foot, try using it to keep time there. It gives the foot a new task to focus on. Or vice verse, if you are tapping your foot and curling the toes, then deliberately stop tapping the foot for that passage. It means you will have to "re learn" the music with the new foot technique, whatever it is, but it will help erase the old habit.

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CD's and transcriptions available here:
www.ricardomarlow.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 8 2017 20:29:24

Erik van Goch

Posts: 1787
Joined: Jul. 17 2012
From: Netherlands

RE: Tension (in reply to Paul Magnussen)

Getting writ of unwanted technical tension over the years has cost me tons of sweat and dude to lack of practice hours still is a constant struggle. Even with the best guidance it took me 3 years to discover my arpeggio and tremolo lacked fluidness because i kept to much tension on my thump. The solution was not to do arpeggio/tremolo exercises all day long (hoping the problem would solve itself) but to make sure to check, double check and triple check all tension was removed from my thump before allowing myself to move a single finger. It involved lots of slow down action and narrowed down focus and awareness before relaxing the thump became part of my system. Unlike you the overal physical tension of my body has increased the last couple of years rather then diminished (you won't believe the oral sounds and face gestures i make during guitar playing and not only when dealing with difficult passages). I haven't tried it on this problem yet but the only solution i know is to sit down and give the problem my undivided attention using all my senses to turn bad habits into better ones over time. At least it's for free, aside of the stress of not getting the required results instantly because trying to relax/change habits can be very stressful and won't happen overnight (the best results i got when i decided to start from scratch again after 20 years of playing, i stopped playing and in stead worked extremely intense on building up a completely new technique based on complete relaxation, exploiting my natural biomechanics and the sound feedback of my guitar, studying individual fingers/moves and parts of fingers/moves building my way up from there. A very important element was that during that period of re inventing myself i did not allow myself to fall back into old habits for even a second, allowing new habits to "settle" without being disturbed/contradicted/clouded by old habits. Also i made sure not to play anything that was "out of control").

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The smaller the object of your focus the bigger the result.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 8 2017 20:43:30

Paul Magnussen

Posts: 1805
Joined: Nov. 8 2010
From: London (living in the Bay Area)

RE: Tension (in reply to Erik van Goch)

quote:

you won't believe the oral sounds and face gestures i make during guitar playing and not only when dealing with difficult passages

Well, you’re in good company — look at Julian Bream!

Thanks for the advice, guys (I almost said chaps, but I guess that would be dating myself

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 8 2017 22:38:43

Tap_Tap

Posts: 10
Joined: Aug. 6 2016

RE: Tension (in reply to Paul Magnussen)

sometimes I find when i'm tense i am also holding my breath, at that point i slow the metronome down and focus more on breathing while playing. not to say it's all about breathing, but it's something to think about.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 8 2017 23:35:56

edguerin

Posts: 1589
Joined: Dec. 24 2007
From: Siegburg, Alemania

RE: Tension (in reply to Paul Magnussen)

quote:

Well, you’re in good company — look at Julian Bream!

or Pedro Bacán

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Ed

El aficionado solitario
Alemania

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 9 2017 8:53:36

Ramirez

Posts: 243
Joined: Apr. 16 2005

RE: Tension (in reply to Paul Magnussen)

Yeah... Tension can really mess you up:

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 9 2017 12:35:00

Piwin

Posts: 3562
Joined: Feb. 9 2016

RE: Tension (in reply to Paul Magnussen)

This isn't going to help but:
I think just being aware of it is the hardest part. Not just aware in general, but aware everytime and wherever it creeps up on you.
I feel like my history of guitar playing has been a neverending game of whack-a-mole with tension. When I see one tension point pop up, I can get rid of it fairly easily just by focusing on relaxing that area, but then another one creeps up on me somewhere else. And sometimes a mole pops up from a hole where I succesfully whacked it out of existence before, but for some reason the next time around it takes me a long time before I realize it's there again.
I'm not even sure if my overall tension levels have dropped over the years, or if I'm just re-arranging it to different parts of the body.

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"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 9 2017 14:31:01