David Leisner's book and dealing with chronic tension

Playing Technique
#1

I’ve been looking for ways to address chronic tension in the body (particularly the upper arms and torso) when playing guitar and part of that search has been reading David Leisner’s book, ‘Playing with Ease - A Healthy Approach To Guitar Technique’. In the book he gives exercises to identify tension in different parts of the body and then offers solutions, usually something like ‘do X and notice the tension it causes in Y, now do Z and notice the comparative lack of tension in Y’.

Problem is, in most of these exercises I don’t feel the tension or lack thereof he describes. Most of his solutions make sense and mirror what I’ve read in piano technique books for the most part, but I’m just not feeling the difference they’re supposed to make. Also the advice for the areas I can actually feel the tension in was particularly sparse.

Has anyone had any success in dealing with this kind of problem? It seems like most advice amounts to either ‘just relax’ or ‘keep everything in it’s neutral position as much as possible’.

#2

Hi @Maboroshi ,

I’d have to start by saying that I haven’t read the book, though I’ve just ordered it, and I’d be interested to discuss it when I have more of an understanding of it’s content.

I’ve been fortunate never to have issues with habitual tension on the guitar. However, I used to type with very poor form and too much tension, and this lead to severe tendinitis/tendinosis in both wrists which persisted for nearly two years. I have successfully retrained my typing form and I have no issues now. The principles I learned are transferrable to guitar technique and they have helped me to continue to refine my technique by developing sensitivity to tension and allowing me to focus on learning through haptic feedback.

You have to begin by learning to habituate a low background of tension so that you can actually feel subtle differences in tension and learn to apply the minimum effective tension while playing.

The problem is that you can’t try to relax, so even beginning this process presents a problem. Similarly, trying to keep everything in neutral position can be accomplished through exertion, so this isn’t useful advice either.

When I’m discussing this with students, I compare it to starting a conversation with somebody by saying “Don’t panic, but…”

What you actually can do is to learn to break habitual action through interruption and learn to rest and reset. I have a process for this which has helped my students. It largely comes down to understanding the principle I call “The Hand at Rest,” which I’ve made some videos about in the past.

Expectations need to be tempered here; you won’t remove decades of habuated tension in a week. This is a sensitivity which develops over time, and trying to hurry the process is completely counter-productive.

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#3

Hi @Tom_Gilroy , I have been trying to adopt the hand at rest concept and it really makes a difference.as you describe. I’d love to understand more on how you maintain it through longer lines across the fretboard and arpeggios (especially those that contain position shifts). I often find that my thumb gets left behind…

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#4

Ok, I’ve bought the book on Kindle and I’m most of the way through (it’s short and not particularly difficult reading).

Firstly, the book is 100%, totally focused on the classical guitar. The specifics of left and right techniques demonstrated simply do not apply to a steel string acoustic guitar or an electric guitar. As for how valuable the specific mechanics outlined are for the context of classical guitar, I am not qualified to say. However, they are very far from optimal for an acoustic guitar or an electric guitar.

There is good advice and some senitments I totally agree with. For example, I’ve long criticized the typical conception of “economy fo motion” to be overly naive and unhelpful, and I totally agree that large, effortless movements.

However, there’s a lot of nonsense too. There are statements which the author claims are based upon anatomical reasoning, but which either have no basis in anatomy which I can recognize, or which are totally at odds with our actual anatomy.

For example, he claims that the muscles which flex our MCP joints are larger and more powerful than the muscles which our PIP and DIP joints. This is categorically false. Our MCP joints are flexed primarily by our lumbricals, which are small, weak muscles intrinsic to the hand. Our PIP and DIP joints are flexed primarily by Flexor Digitorum Superficialis and Profundus (respectively), which are larger muscles in the forearm, and which are much, much more powerful than the lumbricals.

Moreover, when discussing elements of posture and positioning, there’s really very little acknowledgement of the degree of variation in individual anatomy. For example, there is very significant variation in human hip anatomy, and the “middle range” the author specifies for abduction and rotation is not universal.

I would honestly recommend that electric or steel-string acoustic guitar players just ignore the book entirely, and that classical players take everything stated with the knowledge that if something works, it may not be for the reasons implied, and hold it in mind that they may need to make allowances for their own specific anatomy.

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#5

I hope I am not mistaking Leisner for someone else, but I’m almost certain it’s him that dislikes the music of Barrios. We’re of course all entitled to our own opinions but sheesh…if that really was him, it doesn’t surprise me that his book contains some nonsense. Even if this had played out differently and the book actually contained 100% factual info, what good is a relaxed body if one has a soul made of steel?

EDIT: at risk of the above tongue-in-cheek paragraph being too negative, I should mention that from the very little bit I know about Leisner, he’s a great player :slight_smile:

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#6

I listened to the works of Barrios a while back after you recommended it to me, it’s hauntingly beautiful music.

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#7

VERY well written too, from a form and voice leading and harmonic standpoint. Whether I’ve got Leisner in a case of mistaken identity or not, the musicologist who’s responsible for most of us even knowing who Barrios is (Ricco Stover) came to my college and guest lectured and did a masterclass. It was him who mentioned Leisner (or someone, in case I’m mistaken) openly denounced Barrios’ music. Then he held his middle finger high in the air lol!

And since I’m drifting horribly off topic, here’s my little story on tension and classical guitar.

My first teacher was Julian Gray and he worked with me to remove some excess tension in my playing. Part of it was nerves since I’d not had lessons prior and was learning classical guitar from the ground up at the age of 17 (pretty late in life compared to most), and from someone so highly respected as Gray. His advice to me was to relax my shoulders (traps) because he could see them tensing up and he felt this was traveling down to my hands. I wasn’t even aware I was that tense, but he had me in front of mirror so I could see it for myself. I had to consciously remind myself every minute or so to relax my shoulders since I couldn’t always feel it.

That last point may be applicable to you @Maboroshi if you’re having difficulty ‘feeling’ tension or lack thereof. Sometimes you can ‘see’ it more easily than you can feel it. At least, in my case that’s true because I think I have below average sensory perception. Plus, I have a history of ignoring things that feel ‘difficult’ in general, thinking with more experience it will feel more natural and become easier. CTC has taught me a great lesson there - if it doesn’t feel easy, it’s probably wrong.

A follow up question I’d have is if tension is actually causing you problems. If something obvious like pain, or lack of stamina, I’d understand the desire to address it. I’m just hoping it isn’t in this category of “one more thing good musicians ought to do” that many of us (DEFINITELY me) have wasted so much time on over the years :slight_smile:

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#8

Barrios? I don’t know who that is, but I am going now to check it out.

I don’t know who David Leisner is, but I am going to chime in here and say that I have got literally DECADES of tension in my right hand/arm when it comes to picking. Why? I don’t know. But after a discussion with Tom and then almost a week’s practice of something that is SO conceptually easy (yet still quite difficult for me) I am feeling quite a difference in my playing already. Totally relaxed? Nope not yet (Might be a while but I’ll get there!) but definitely looser and feeling the benefits already I think!

Tension is definitely the enemy in my case - so to the original poster - good luck!

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#9

I will get some links together for you of some of my favorites and DM them to you. He was a genius classical guitar composer from Paraguay. As long as you actually like classical guitar (
no worries if you don’t, truly :wink: ), he had something for everyone. He mostly wrote in a romantic style (“Chopin of the guitar”, if you will) but he also wrote some really authentic sounding baroque pieces and also plenty in a native folk style.

Unlike a lot of music written (or adapted) for classical guitar, he had excellently written bass lines and voice leading in general. Unfortunately, this makes for some extremely difficult fretting. His pieces were the most challenging of everything I learned during my classical studies. Still, I could trade all the other classical guitar repertoire and only play/listen to Barrios and be content :slight_smile:

And get back on topic, managing his fretting shapes and not allowing tension to creep up the arm to the rest of the body is a true test of a great classical player lol