There are very few quick fixes on any instrument. Most of the time your progress is going to come from hours on the fretboard, and I tend to avoid anything that promises otherwise. But I think this one is different, and it's useful whether you're a beginner, intermediate or advanced. I use it myself.
It's about left-hand pressure. You'll notice an improvement straight away, but it's not a one-off. It's a prompt you need to keep coming back to.
Why pressing too hard holds you back ▶ 0:54
One of the tells of a beginner or lower intermediate player is that they press too hard on the strings. That causes a few problems:
- You pull notes sharp. Pressing too hard can bend the string slightly out of tune.
- You physically pull the string. If you can't quite reach a note, you can end up dragging the string sideways as you hold it down.
- Your feel suffers. This is the more subtle one. Too much tension makes things sound clunky and not quite as natural as they should. It's hard to describe, but if you've heard it, you'll know what I mean.
As you get better, this tension does tend to settle down a bit. But it creeps back in all the time, and you might be surprised how much you're carrying even as a more advanced player. It's very easy to tense up through concentration and effort, especially when you're playing something difficult.
The pressure reset exercise ▶ 1:38
Take anything you're working on: a chord progression, a scale, a riff, a solo, whatever. I'll describe it with the G major scale because that's the easiest way to show it.
- Play it too softly with your fretting hand. So softly that the notes don't really sound. You'll mostly hear clunks and muted thuds.
- Increase the pressure by about 5 to 10% each time you play it through.
- Listen as the notes start to come through. A few will buzz at first. You'll probably notice the higher strings come through first, because they're thinner and easier to press down.
- Stop when it sounds clean and natural. There might still be the odd buzz, but you'll hear the point where it starts to sound right.
That point is roughly how much pressure you actually need. When I do this, I know for a fact I end up playing at least 20 or 30% more relaxed than I normally would, maybe more.
One honest note: if your guitar needs a setup, there's only so much buzz this will get rid of. Mine needed one when I filmed it.
Playing gently, actually too gently at first, and building from there completely re-centres your sense of how much pressure you need.
Keep it going ▶ 3:28
Once you've found that lighter pressure, the job is to hold on to it as you go back to whatever you're practising. Over time the tension will come back, so you'll need to repeat the reset. That might be every half hour, every hour, or just every time you sit down with the guitar.
I find that when I do this, not only my speed but my feel and flow improve. It's a two-pronged thing. You can play more easily, and because you can play more easily, your feel improves and you sound like a better player.
Don't let your picking go soft too ▶ 4:09
One quick warning. When you go gentle with the fretting hand, it's really easy to start picking gently as well. Don't. Keep your picking intensity up while your left hand relaxes.
You need to be able to separate the two hands here: light with the left, still picking firmly with the right. That's a useful skill in itself.
Pick the thing you're struggling with most right now, play it far too lightly, and creep the pressure up until it sounds clean. Then try to stay there, and run the reset again whenever you feel your hand tightening up. Have a go and see how much lighter you can actually play.
