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Discover Your Discomfort!
or

Why Are So Many Guitarists Masochists?
by Jamey Andreas (www.guitarprinciples.com)

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.
Â
Hold the guitar as comfortable as you can.

Allow your left arm to hand 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.
Â
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
http://www.guitarprinciples.com. Good Luck!

Copyright 1999 by Jamey Andreas. All Rights Reserved.