Transcript included below…
Today, we’re going to consider the idea that practicing the guitar can sometimes be harmful.
Don’t worry – this isn’t meant to discourage or scare you – it’s actually meant to free you up to enjoy your guitar in a more intentional way.
As guitarists, I believe we need to be intentional. This includes many aspects of our enjoyment of this incredible instrument, especially how we play our guitars, and for how long.
It’s also important for us to consider what people say to us about our guitar playing, and reconcile it with what is true, even if advice is offered with the hope of encouraging us.
I’ve taught guitar workshops for almost two decades at regional worship conferences. In a class setting like that, I’ve encountered people with varying levels of experience.
Sometimes, people will offer their thoughts in class, and often, their statements are met with nods of agreement. However, there are things I’ve heard that I’ve felt prompted to gently disagree with.
One of those statements, offered by a student in my workshop on practicing, was this: “The more you practice, the happier you’ll be.”
I think this individual was trying to say, “Practicing diligently leads to progress, and therefore to fulfillment.” But what I heard her say was that happiness was in direct proportion to the amount of practicing we do.
It’s certainly legitimate to argue that practicing is an essential part of our guitar journeys, but are there things we can do as we practice that can actually cause harm?
I believe there are.
Track with me here. I don’t want to live in fear, nor do I want to discourage you from practicing.
Our ability to play well is directly related to our approach to practicing. And what bridges the gap between hearing a song on the guitar and being able to play that song well in its entirety, is…you guessed it…practice.
But there are three things I believe we need to be on the lookout for, so that we can know when it’s time to “stop” practicing. And by stop, I actually mean “pause.”
Please consider these thoughts I have for you today.
Hand Strength
The Lord has blessed me with good hands for the guitar. He has given me what I need to be able to play a lot of different chords, melodies and articulations.
There are chords, though, especially in alternate tunings, that can span multiple frets. I recall attending a guitar workshop at the studio of Pierre Bensusan in France, where he played a chord in DADGAD that spanned nine frets from the 3rd to the 11th fret, which I was not able to replicate (and still cannot).
Pierre, as well as many guitarists I’ve come across, has strong hands with long fingers. Some guitar players my age literally have the length of an entire digit beyond my hands. So, these guitarists are able to accomplish more than I am.
But I’m still confident that the Lord’s creation of my hands is exactly what He wanted for me, so I am grateful.
But what I’m keenly aware of, in addition to my hand size, is my hand strength.
Over time, I’ve become more aware of what I’m capable of, and what my limits are.
I see great value in playing enough guitar to keep my hands strong.
In addition, I rotate through several hand strengtheners that allow me to fortify different parts of my hands. The main one I like is a squeezy spring I bought on eBay for about $10.
I’m including several photos of this particular tool here.
I actually bought a dozen of these on eBay from a vendor in China, because I didn’t know how long they would be available, and I’ve broken a few of these by using them so much. I’ve also misplaced some of them.
As of this episode, a few of these are available from a vendor in the U.S. for $20 with free 4-day shipping. I’m not linking to it because these kinds of items come and go quickly.
But a search on eBay with words like “hand strengthener,” “grip exerciser,” and so on will yield dozens of different products like this that are on the market, averaging $10-$20 or so.
Now, I’m not a hand specialist, so I’m not prepared to dispense wisdom on the care and treatment of our hands in the arena of physical therapy.
Please remember that everyone’s hands are unique, and that each of us needs to be aware of our limits in all that we do.
If there are tools or techniques you’ve used to enhance the strength of your hands as a guitarist, I welcome them in the comments.
But I will say that practice, especially in healthy doses, along with the squeezing of these kinds of “toys” when I don’t have my guitar with me, has really led to my stamina and longevity as I fret chords of many kinds.
And I am an acoustic guitarist. Which means I have to work harder for my notes. But they are worth it, I assure you.
On the subject of hand strength, if you find that you’re just starting out as a guitarist, give yourself grace, and limit your time on the instrument.
In GuitarSuccess4U, I start off the early lessons by teaching several helpful stretches that have been game changers for me. Let me explain what I mean by game changers.
Around the time I became a father, I was practicing so much that I actually overdid it. I knew I was in trouble because my hands hurt too much for me to be able to pick up my infant daughter.
That’s a problem on multiple fronts.
So, I sought a remedy – I went to a physical therapist, and I brought my guitar with me. He observed how I was playing, evaluated my posture, examined my hands, and helped me get back on track.
Fortunately, I had not done damage of a lasting nature, and the stretches I began to learn (which I still use to this day, over 15 years later), have kept my hands and arms limber and ready for when the strenuous guitar passages come.
These stretches changed the game for me.
Unfortunately, I have personally met two guitarists who are world-class professionals, and whose stories did not turn out so well.
Because of the demanding guitar playing that each of them was embarking on for a prolonged period of time (perhaps without adequate stretches), they injured themselves.
Each of them had to undergo wrist surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome, and had to take off at least a year from playing the guitar.
Can you imagine having your musical voice on the guitar go silent for a season like that, knowing you could have prevented it?
So, these kinds of stretches are the “ounce” of prevention that are worth the “pound” of cure. More, of course, at GuitarSuccess4U.com.
But beyond stretches, what about a level of awareness of how our hands and arms are doing over the course of a practice session?
The person in my workshop who said, “The more you practice, the happier you’ll be” was actually met with a respectful qualifier from me.
I said, among other things that, “There can actually be a point of diminishing returns if we practice for too long.”
How aware are we when we practice? Do we keep an eye on the clock or a stopwatch? Do we know when our hands start to show signs of being tired?
Depending on your level of experience, I don’t recommend practicing for more than an hour at a time. Take a break. Do something completely different with your hands, and preferably less strenuous.
I notice that when I’m playing passages of music that are particularly technical, after 20 to 30 minutes, my fretting hand forearm begins to feel warm. Very warm.
Those tendons are heating up because of all the intense work I’m doing on the frets.
Consider the warm tendons in your fretting arm to be the “caution” light coming on, exhorting you to change what you’re playing, or if necessary, to take a break from playing for the afternoon, or for the day.
Ignoring this “caution” light can lead to muscle and nerve damage which I don’t know how to classify physiologically, but which I know is very real and has the potential to be detrimental.
It can be tempting to push through the pain, but trust me, the only kind of pain you want is the soreness on the tips of your fretting hand fingers as you develop callouses.
So yes, overexerting ourselves by playing difficult music on the guitar for too long…can be harmful. Let’s avoid that, shall we?
Mental Focus
When we practice, there are a variety of things we can spend time doing: scales, speed-building exercises, chord transitions, strumming patterns, fingerstyle, flatpicking, and so on. And on a side note, I teach exercises that develop these motor skills inside GuitarSuccess4U.
There’s also the mental aspect of acquiring a deeper knowledge of chord theory, which doesn’t take as much physical exertion, but does require our minds to be sharp.
Certain musical topics like the memorization of the fretboard, non-diatonic chords, various types of modulations, and more, can make our brains get a little frazzled if we focus on them for too long.
And even as I teach these concepts in GuitarSuccess4U that I just listed, I break them down into modest segments that can be consumed at a reasonable pace for maximum benefit.
Think about your ability to focus as you play the guitar. Does your practice session need to begin with technical, demanding material? I would actually advise against it.
I like the idea of starting off with something simple, and almost mindless, as I make myself at home on the instrument.
After I’ve tuned up (which I do every time I practice), I get reacquainted with my guitar in a way that says, “Good to see you, friend. Let’s see what the Lord has for us today as we work together.”
It’s like meeting with someone for coffee.
I’m not going to go deep on a discussion topic right away – I’ll first exchange pleasantries, maybe even debrief our most recent conversation (which would be our most recent practice session, right?) and then ease into the more challenging material.
I won’t go into great detail here, but during my practice session, I make sure to work on something I don’t yet know how to play, but also to play through something I do know, because we also need to keep our repertoire songs fresh.
I keep water nearby, so I can take a sip occasionally. This helps keep my mind alert for longer. But there does come a time when my mind starts to wander. That’s when I’m likely to encounter what I call “The Fuzz Factor.”
The Fuzz factor is when I start to get sloppy. I start to miss notes, or to drag, or even accelerate the tempo. I become noticeably less precise.
The biggest indicator of “The Fuzz Factor” though for me is this: I begin to make mistakes in a song in places where I never make mistakes.
This is my cue to stop – even if I haven’t hit my hour mark.
If I choose to keep playing, to push on through, I can cause harm. I might not cause physical harm, because my hands might not be tired. But is there another type of harm?
I would say yes. It’s what I’d classify as muscle memory harm.
Now, muscle memory is a topic for another episode, perhaps, but you get the idea. Our fingers develop a mechanical memory for how to play something on the guitar.
And our fingers only do what we tell them to do. They can’t think for themselves.
So, if I play something incorrectly and I don’t fix it, my fingers basically think to themselves, “I guess that’s how we’re supposed to play it.”
They don’t have the ability to say, “That didn’t sound right; let’s fix that.” Our fingers simply cannot think for themselves, so we need to think for them…and to be watchful and intentional.
Let’s say I’m practicing, and after about 45 minutes, as I’m working intensely on a very technical guitar piece I plan to perform or lead soon, I start to experience “The Fuzz Factor.”
What do I do?
Option #1 – I can play it once more and see if I can do it. I think this is a good option, because I can get a feel for the status of things.
Option #2 – I play until I make a mistake, and then I hit the brakes. I like this approach too, with one qualification – I think it’s super important to finish by practicing some aspect of the passage correctly.
Option #3 – I can keep on playing it until I (hopefully) get it right, but with how mentally worn down I might get, that’s not likely.
I don’t recommend this third option, because I could be reinforcing incorrect playing, which is what my hands will remember. And the next time I grab my guitar, I won’t be standing on solid ground; I’ll probably play some of those mistakes that I was “practicing.”
Now, if I’m weary and lacking focus, I won’t choose to play the song segment in its entirety. That, as we’ve discussed, would be counter-productive.
Instead, I’ll “divide and conquer.” I’ll just take one part of the challenging section and break it down in some way.
I might play it much slower. I might just isolate the variables to the movements of my fretting hand, or my picking hand, but not both.
If it’s a song that I sing while I play, the obvious choice is to take my voice out of the equation.
But it’s important to end on a strong note.
Back to the coffee meeting analogy; if I encounter a point of verbal disagreement with someone I’m meeting with for coffee, I don’t think it would be wise to end our conversation at that point.
Continuing the coffee meeting analogy, if there’s a disagreement, I think the best course of action, especially if it’s not looking like total reconciliation is immediately possible, is to take a moment to pray, to reassure each other that we’re still friends (even if we need to agree to disagree), and then to commit to meeting up again to continue the conversation.
Stopping a practice session earlier than we’d like is not quitting. It’s just hitting the pause button.
Conversely, prolonging a practicing session even though things are not going well, can lead to muscle memory harm, which we certainly want to avoid.
So, if you find yourself encountering “The Fuzz Factor,” and your hands are simply not cooperating, try to intentionally bring the practice time to a close, playing some aspect of the challenging section correctly, because the last thing you play is what your hands will remember most clearly.
Team Dynamics
Many of us play our guitars in a setting where we collaborate with other musicians. We may be professionals in a band, or volunteers on a worship team.
It’s likely that our rehearsals are in the evening, or even late at night, due to daytime work hours for some of our collaborators.
If you’re a “night” person, this is not as much of a challenge. “Morning” people may struggle to stay focused as the rehearsal progresses.
But everyone will have had “a day.” And a day could have been uplifting, but often, it has depleted us mentally and physically.
This is when we need to watch out for the risk of physical or muscle memory harm, which we’ve talked about, but not just for ourselves…for our collaborators, too.
I’ve been a part of worship team rehearsals that are very focused, but also concise. Like, literally 45 minutes.
This necessitates a high level of preparation and professionalism on everyone’s part. Each song basically gets one, maybe two passes, with time for a few questions.
In this environment, there’s really no major danger of over-exerting our hands or minds, because it’s a short sprint.
But I’ve also witnessed, first hand, a less planned-out rehearsal that went upwards of 3 hours. This was more of a collaborative brainstorm session, and for some, that’s how they process ideas.
There may be freedom in the room for people to come up with musical articulations and to talk about who steps forward in the sonic texture at different times.
But three hours for a set of four or five songs? Really?
I think, with a rehearsal that long, we run the risk of getting hazy, and at the very least playing a lot of guitar with only short breaks for discussion. I don’t recommend it, unless you and your team have a solid routine for rehearsals.
Someone’s hands (or even vocal cords) run the risk of fatigue if they press through a rehearsal like that. And often, we’re distracted enough by what we’re working on that we don’t realize how our muscles are working…or straining.
So, in terms of a healthy team dynamic, I’d say that preparation, and a balance of spontaneity can lead to a good rehearsal…especially if the leader can verbally “check in” with everyone and ask how they’re doing.
Be your own advocate, though. If your worship leader is not tuned into the fact that your long day has been just a bit too long, you may need to sit down, sit out, or step out. Do this respectfully, of course, but anyone who values your longevity will get it.
Overdoing it physically or mentally in a team environment is not worth it. We can still keep the standard high, especially if we take care of ourselves.
Wrap-Up
Well, this was quite the discussion. Perhaps you went into this episode with a bit of trepidation, unsure as to where I was going to go with this topic. Perhaps it has been informative.
I’m hoping that in some way, you still feel encouraged to practice. Just make those practice times count, and know when to pause.
My hope is that you’ll be able to play your guitar for a very long time over the course of your life, and that some of today’s ideas help make that possible.
If this episode was encouraging to you, I invite you to do two things.
First, please leave a comment with your thoughts. I’m in the process of taking my live practicing workshop and turning it into some kind of online educational experience, and these thoughts today are just a glimpse at that.
Second, if you’re not already investing in your guitar journey in an ongoing way, please check out GuitarSuccess4U.com.
This is a place where we have a curated collection of premium guitar content that is all arranged in such a way as to help you make tremendous progress, in a self-paced, God-honoring environment with a community of like-minded guitar players. Head on over to GuitarSuccess4U.com to learn more.
So, keep practicing, but stay tuned in to all that’s going on as you do. Know your limits, play the long game, and watch how far the Lord leads you down the path of serious fun on the guitar.
Thanks for experiencing this episode. I’ll see you next time.
Can Practicing the Guitar be Harmful?