I am incredibly grateful that I was able to overcome the issues I’ve had in the past, and that I’ve been able to continue to develop techically. I sincerely hope you are able to find a solution which works for you.
Absolulutely. We’re not adapted to hold any position for extended periods of time. There is no “perfect” or “ideal” posture, but there are positions we can adopt which are naturally less strenuous to maintain, and can be maintained longer than others.
Here I have to disagree.
I’ve spent a lot of time studying the anatomical/physiological aspects of guitar technique. Understanding how our hands, wrists and forearms actually function allows us to clearly identify which muscles are aligned to a particular task, and allows us to recognise cocontractions. Understanding mechanics allows us to recognise leverage and structure.
Form or technique isn’t something you “perfect,” it’s somethign you continually refine over time. There’s also no ideal, universal technique. Technique is highly context dependent.
I would agree that it’s largely unhelpful for beginners to worry about subtle modifications or adjustments to technique and their implications. Just get some reasonable approximation of form, start playing and worry about making improvements as you need them. However, optimization is enormously beneficial, and I think it’s fair to say that most “advanced” players don’t really appreciate how deep the rabbit hole goes.
I also think that focusing on making movements “small” is a terrible idea based in very naive understanding, but that’s another rant entirely.
Also, not to boast, but I am a highly technically proficient guitarist, for whatever it’s worth. I have multiple students here on the forum who can attest to it.
If you’re warming up with any kind of “finger independence” exercises, I’d strongly recommend that you stop doing them immediately. These exercises essentially train you to contort your hands into unnatural positions through cocontractions. The coordinations involved are highly specific non-transferrable to actual playing, and the fretting postures trained are sub-optimal for actual playing. At best, they’re a complete waste of time. At worst, they’re adding to your total stress and contributing to your problems.
As I said, I don’t think there is an ideal, “perfect” technique. I also acknowledge that obsessing over technique can be unhelpful, and that there is a lot of fear-mongering in discussions of technique and the relationship to injury, catastrophizing, etc.
However, technique is a major determining factor in the stress we experience, and efficient technique does reduce injury risk by reducing stress. Washing your hands helps to prevent the spread of diseases, we shouldn’t deny that just because some people fixate unhealthily on handwashing and scrub until their skin comes off.
It’s important how we contextualize things. Most people will experience some form of RSI over the course of their lives. Some are a short-term nuisance, others are debilitating, chronic problems. Some people play guitar with highly inefficent technqiue and never experience injuries, others have excellent technique and still have problems.
However, there are certain forms which are highly correlated to injury, and there are alternatives which reduce stress enormously.
We should be encouraging people to optimize their playing technique because of what it allows us to achieve on the instrument, and because it allows us to play more and do more of what we love to do.
It’s also worth mentioning, SRV’s technique was highly optimized for that specific context. Rick Graham also has highly optimized technique in his specific context, but it wouldn’t be suitable at all for SRV’s context. Also, it’s worth mentioning that Rick plays for hours every single day.
Agreed.
I totally understand. I can play guitar all day and not experience any issues (provided I’m not doing something really stupid), gripping in Jiu-Jitsu and computer work are my primary stressors.
If you have some video, I’d be happy to see if I can help in any way.
Again, I’d suggest making a video. I’ve spent a lot of time studying fretting hand mechanics, there might be something I can suggest to help.
I think it might be worth dropping down to a set of 9s, it’s about an an 18% reduction in fretting forces and a larger reduction in bending forces (bending force depends on string diameter squared). If you’re up for it, 8s would be a very substantial reduction in minimal required forces, and if you’re hesitant, you could try a set of 9.5s.
As for specific exercises (in the strengthening sense), I’ve tried everything and none of them really helped me. I’ve tried grip strength trainers, extensor trainers, powerballs, resistance bands, everything. My hands got stronger, but it didn’t improve my situtation. You’ll never be strong enough to fight yourself and win.