Jamie Andreas is a virtuoso classical guitarist from New York.
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© Jamie Andreas
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Click here for a printer-friendly version of "Discover Your Discomfort".
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Okay, I'm going to explain some powerful things for
the practicing
guitarist who wants to see results from their
practice. In other words, the
guitarist who wants to do what I call correct practice.
Have you ever had trouble playing something on the
guitar? Have you
ever seen or heard someone play something, tried to do
it yourself, maybe
practiced it for a long time, and ended up with only
frustration and bad feelings
about yourself as a player? Be honest now. I've been
playing for 30 years,
and I have never met a player, including myself, who
could honestly answer no
to that question.
There are a few things that are always true when we
are unable to play
something we want to play on the guitar.
One of the things that you will always find, if you
look for it, is
what Arron Shearer called, in his first book,
uncontrolled muscle tension.
Many, many players have in fact commented on this
fact, mainly because this
fact becomes obvious to anyone who plays for awhile,
pays attention, and
starts to discover the path to gaining increasing
ability on the guitar. Many
people mention it. The problem is they never tell you
what to do about it!
Oh sure, you'll hear people say "play S-L-O-W-LY", or
"RELAX"! I
asked, ordered, screamed, and pleaded with students to
do that for probably 20
years, before I realized that almost no one was
listening to me, or
maybe they didn't believe me, or maybe they thought I
was kidding (well,
his face is turning purple, but, nah, I don't think
he's serious)!
No, it seems most people would rather try to play that
bar chord or
that scale with their shoulders tensed up to their
ears, their pinky tensed
up and pulled 2 inches from the neck as they dislocate
their shoulder trying
to get it to it's note on time, practice and play that
way day in and day
out, and then wonder why they find that scale hard to
play, that it breaks down
at a certain speed. Or maybe they wonder why they have
a pain here or there.
Hell, they may be really persistent and keep at it
till they qualify for this
new disease I'm always reading about, Repetitive
Strain Injury.
I got a new student about a year ago, we'll call him
Tom. Now Tom had
been teaching himself for a few years, is very
musical, very intelligent,
and managed to learn fingerstyle guitar well enough to
attempt some rather
challenging pieces, including some classical
repertoire. In fact, he
would play for friends and often impress them.
However, it was also true that he knew he never played
anywhere near
his best in these circumstances, and the piece would
often break down somewhere.
It was also true that he had a growing pain in his
left shoulder when he
practiced.
Tom has two very important qualities that a player
must have in order
to overcome problems, and make what I call Vertical
Growth. Those two
things are Desire, and Honesty.
Tom doesn't have the pain in his shoulder anymore, and
his playing is
getting better and better. This is because he has
learned a few things. He has
learned about the incredible state of muscular
relaxation that a player
must have as they play. He has learned how difficult
it is to actually make
sure you have that relaxation as you play. He has
learned about Sympathetic
Tension, how every time you use one muscle, others
become tense also,
and how if you are not aware of it, and allow it to be
there, it becomes locked
in to the muscles through the power of Muscle Memory.
Tom is also learning, over time, that by always making
the effort to
focus his attention on this muscle tension, he can
always eliminate some part
of it, and by consistently doing this in practice,
things begin to feel
easier and easier, because he was really fighting his
own muscle tension,
which made it feel so hard.
Tom inspired me to invent a phrase, something for him
to always keep in
mind when he practices. In fact, I told him to do what
I do. Write it out on
a sign and keep it somewhere in front of him as he
practices. On the
music stand or taped to the wall like I do. The phrase
is "Discover Your Discomfort". Pay attention, notice what happens in the
body as you
play. How does it feel. Good players are not
experiencing that discomfort when
they do the thing you struggle to do. If they had to
struggle they wouldn't
be good players!
Now as usually happens, I began to use the phrase
myself, and began to
discover new levels of my own discomfort. And I began
to see my playing
improve, I mean fundamentally improve. You see, there
is no end to this
process.
Why do so many of us allow such discomfort when we
practice and play?
There are many reasons, I'll go in to them at another
time. What I want to
do now is give you some ways of discovering your own
discomfort, and begin to
minimize it.
Hold the guitar as comfortably as you can.
Allow your left arm to hang limp at your side.
Place your right hand fingers on the strings, keeping
them very loose
and relaxed. If you use a pick, float the pick in
between two strings and
keep it there.
Focus your attention on your shoulders, as you raise
your left hand
slowly. Raise it straight up without extending it, and
place all your fingers
on the sixth string, around the tenth fret. Keep them
on the string so
lightly, you don't even press the string down. (Not
easy at first)!
Do you feel anything in your right shoulder as you do
this? Do you feel
any tightness come in to the pick hand, perhaps you
are gripping the pick
tighter, or tensing your wrist? Be honest now.
Keeping your left hand fingers on the string lightly,
begin to move
your hand down toward the first fret. You must do this
very slowly. Notice what
happens throughout your body. As I have had students
do this, I have seen
everything from tense ankles or belly, to practically
falling off the chair!
I hope I have provided a starting point for further
investigations
and insights for you. Take anything you find hard to
do, stop yourself in
the middle of it, and check out what is happening in
your body. You will be
amazed.
For more information on how to develop these insights,
visit www.guitarprinciples.com. Good
luck!
Copyright 2001 by Jamie Andreas (www.guitarprinciples.com)
Additional Columns by Jamie Andreas
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