WhyISuckAtGuitar.com - Reducing Fretting Hand Tension - Part 1

For more lessons please visit http://www.whyisuckatguitar.com.

A free video guitar lesson on reducing tension and increasing accuracy in the fretting hand. This is part one of a three part series.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• fretting hand position
• fretting hand exercises
• fretting hand
• guitar fretting hand
• guitar tension
• guitar tendonitis

[flashaxl]

Great lesson! Nice guitar by the way, what those little switches do?

[dvuksanovich]

@flashaxl Thanks! There are a bunch of controls on this guitar... There's a push/pull on the volume knob for active/passive pickups. There are two knobs to control the EQ in active mode. There's a tone knob for passive mode. There's a pickup selector. There's a phase switcher. Finally there are switches that turn each pickup into a single coil (one for each pickup).

[vbdude006]

Great lesson! I like how you focus on the muscle relaxation part of it, but I'm just wondering why you didn't talk about stretching? Even if you are relaxed, if you don't stretch your hands and arms can hurt and lock up as well. I mean I hear how important stretching (& massaging) is from a lot of guitar teachers and some great instructional videos such as John Petrucci's Rock Discipline. I mean I can really notice a difference, especially in endurance when my muscles are thoroughly stretched.

[dvuksanovich]

@vbdude006 Thanks for watching. I've never stretched before playing the guitar, personally. That doesn't make it bad, and I certainly wouldn't tell anyone not to do it, but it's not really something I can talk about since I don't do it myself.

[ElusiveHermit]

avoid the claw: words to live by

[dvuksanovich]

@pockthehairy I had that same feeling for awhile but it'll go away once you start making real progress. That's where the fun is.

[pockthehairy]

@dvuksanovich Yeah that's fine, the thanks all goes to you. I've never had lessons and never really regretted it until recently but after watching this I literally feel like I've wasted years trying to work on my own faulted technique

[dvuksanovich]

@pockthehairy Thanks for watching and glad I could help. I'm going to be adding a "Testimonials" page to my website soon... do you mind if I use some of what you wrote?

[pockthehairy]

Fucking hell I've been playing guitar for almost 10 years and I wondered why I haven't really been getting any better for the past urr 7 haha. This video has opened my eyes so wide I can taste my eyelids. Thank you so much, I'm going to watch my left hand's every move from now on. Also gonna watch your other video on the righty.

[brettbed]

Way to break it down Dan! Clear, concise, organized, no nonsense, and well thought out.