Group 1
We’re thrilled to introduce our upcoming Two-Week Intensive (TWI): "Avoiding Exponential Left-Hand Tension" with guitarist Arturo Castro Nogueras! This interactive, online course is designed to help you identify and manage left-hand tension, equipping you with techniques that will elevate your playing to the next level. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned player, this TWI is packed with valuable insights and exercises tailored for all skill levels.
Sign-Up: October 1st - October 6th
Course Dates: October 7th - October 18th
Where: Our community forum
What You'll Learn Over These Two Weeks:
- How to Spot Tension Build-Up: Learn how to recognize early signs of left-hand tension and how to relax your hand before it impacts your playing. Arturo will provide practical advice on maintaining a relaxed approach to your technique.
- Exercises for Continuous and Active Relaxation: We’ll explore specific exercises that promote ongoing relaxation, helping you stay mindful of your hand positioning and tension levels during your practice sessions.
- Mastering "Position Zero": Discover the concept of "position zero" and how to use this foundational technique to keep your left hand relaxed, improving your overall control and sound quality.
How to Participate:
- Join the course discussions on our community forum.
- Watch Arturo’s video assignments, and share your progress.
- Receive feedback directly from Arturo Castro Nogueras throughout the two-week journey!
Ready to relieve tension and unlock smoother playing? Mark your calendars and get ready to dive into this intensive learning experience. See you on the forum! 
Assignments
Hello everyone!
It's great to be back with a new TWI. This time we are going to focus on left-hand relaxation!
Exercises:
1. Observe your relaxed hand. Play simple notes or chords and in between always consciously relax your hand. This first part of observing your relaxation will be very important for our next exercises.
2. Record a couple of bars of a simple piece you are practicing right now, returning to "position zero" in between of every position change.
Looking forward to your questions and comments!
Exercises for the second video:
1. Identify the structural sequence to design a practice pattern
2. Practice the three steps to change between positions. (relax - prepare - play)
The music examples are in the comments. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Exercises for the third video:
1. Practice the first line of Estudios Sencillos No. 2 and apply the 3-step system for relaxing (relax - prepare - play)
2. Count five seconds between each step so you take time to feel your hands and observe the process.
I'll post the excerpt of the etude on the comments.
(Sorry if the video is a bit longer than usual, I got exited with the subject. Pinky promise that the next one will be shorter :)
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Hello
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Hello,
As I've gotten older I have some left hand issues that have started to bother me for around a year. Some may be from repetitive stress over the years, over practicing, tension, and genetics. I have some arthritis pain, cartilage break down in my joints and scar tissue from a previous surgery. All this to say, the more relaxed I am the better. I have learned to space out my practice in short time periods, and practice strategically. I'm looking forward to learning more tips for relaxing.
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Hi. I'm from Kendal in the UK. I've been having a little bit of pain in the little finger of my left hand. I'm hoping that this course will improve that. Also in a few(a lot of!) pieces where it starts to get difficult my left hand starts to tense and that makes the piece a lot harder. (It also happens in my right hand but that's a different two week intensive!)
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Hello my name is Rodrigo Esparza so in my left is relax at most when second first position and up to getting to the 7 position is when I tense up I tend to try different way to not get tense but the more I think it tense up even more I hope this course will give great advice form the instructor.
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I am Bud, Washington State, USA. No present problems. I keep looking for ways to practice relaxation in both hands and my body as I improve my technique, especially as I increase speed.
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Hola, Arturo! con muchas ganas de escuchar tus ideas sobre este asunto! Hi, everybody from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Always looking for knew ideas to merge wtih my teachings!
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Hello, my name is Anja. As I am teaching guitar mostly to beginners at a music school, I started to observe my own guitar-playing from a different perspective and realized how important it is to discover solutions for a relaxed playing from the start, to choose the right technical challenges at the right time, combined with fun and successful experiences by the students. As my goal is to be a good model for my students, I'm looking forward to getting aware of my own superfluous tensions in maybe my hands/arms/shoulders. : )
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Hello Arturo, It's great to see you again and I look forward to your expert advice on achieving relaxation in our left hand. This is key to obtaining better fluidity, speed and endurance while playing. I know the focus to this TWI is on the left hand, but hope you will touch on some right hand, if possible. If not, perhaps in a future TWI.
Let's have some fun together learning from Arturo!
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Hi, I am Peter from South Africa. I studied music and guitar performance in the early 90's and then took a long break as the burdens of keeping a roof over my head caught up with me. Now in my 50's, and being on a long sabbatical (or perhaps retired), I have time to dedicate to playing again. While on the one hand, I feel as though there is a long road to get back to the level that I was at so many years ago, on the other, I feel I have an opportunity to clean up my technique as I relearn some of the repertoire that I have forgotten.
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In addition i wanted to ask for advice in how to not create tension when moving up to the higher position but then coming back to 1 or 2nd position without creating that tension or causing so much effort in the hand
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Hello! I’m looking forward to this workshop. Left hand tension is something I need to improve.
Mike
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Hello Arturo, Phill from the UK here. I enjoyed the first workshop and am looking forward to the rest of the course! I have pain in my middle forefinger joint and have not been able to play for the last month due to tendonitis in my little finger - especially painful when stretching the little finger out to reach for notes.
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Hello,
I am Gunter from Austria and I am curious about the work on this topic. I am an amateur guitarist with lots of fun but little success on playing guitar. Hopefully, my left hand technique will improve with the exercises.
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Hello all. I am glad to be joining this TWI since I am starting working on some pieces where excessive tension is an issue for me. The alternation between functional tension and relaxation is an action that I want to work on so it becomes an automatic part of playing. I look forward to Arturo’s guidance in practicing this important skill.
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Hello I am Mark Lopez from San Diego Ca. I have had 2 injuries to my left thumb that have damaged the nerves. When I play with my rock band I don't really notice much pain. But, when I play classical pieces I notice I tend to grip the far too hard and then a lot of pain and fatigue sets in. I hope this course will give me the tools to free me from this cycle.
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Hi Arturo,
looking forward to stay (or become) relaxed in the next to weeks. Especially while playing barrés and stretches.
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Hello, I've been working on decreasing LH tension, so this TWI is perfect timing. I tend to press too hard on the strings resulting in hand pain and tension. I look forward to playing with more relaxation.
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Hello Arturo!
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Hello all . I have been experiencing some left-hand discomfort when the thumb is extended. I am hoping that reducing tension can help reduce that.
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Dear Arturo
Here are my two videos. I hope you can access them. I am looking forward to your opinion.
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AnKUSGIvnByMhuctXTVersGszT2cxw?e=MwOiNN
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AnKUSGIvnByMhucujrfRNbIhZEOpOA?e=SKcO4L
Kind regards,
Günter-
Gunter thank you so much for sharing. That is exactly the idea. Well done. Now that you have observed this you can now try to relax a bit faster. Imagine putting your arm up and letting it fall. Just eliminating tension as soon as you don’t need it anymore. Let me know how this feels.
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Hello Arturo and fellow learners, my name is Joosje. I’m in Belgium. I’m a life long learner. The idea of tension/relaxation is familiar to me. But it’s so hard to achieve when you’re playing demanding pieces. I’m now focusing on the directions in the video and will try to record some passage the coming days.
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Here are first 3 measures of Fantasia 16 by Milan :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/157YOiw0QNLhyABgm5uA4SnVSf5_mMrJS/view?usp=sharing
--James
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James Washburn thank you very much for sharing your video. That looks very good and it's on point. Another way you can practice this is only playing the chords and focusing on a complete relaxation of your LH. For example: play a chord as a quarter note and then a quarter rest for relaxing and continue in this rhythm. Let me know your thoughts.
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Hola de nuevo, Arturo! Hi everybody!
This is great! If i may, i'd like to add some interesting stuff.
On the subject of LH relaxation i have found that some basics make a lot of difference, plus many things that should always be said are seldomly spoken of.
The position of the guitar and fretboard should NOT be too far to the left. I understand that it may give confort to the right hand but a fretboard too much to the left (if you are right handed, i mean) causes the elbow to open too much from the body for the first positions and we all know that work done further from you is far more difficult than work done close to the center. Sustaining the elbow is a frequent cause of tension in the shoulder and arm.
The MRP (Minimum Required Pressure) for each note may vary. The sky is the insufficient pressure, the oceans deepness are the over excesive pressures. The MRP is the thin horizon line. And the best place to do the finger pressure is exactly almost over the fret.
Many times, because we fear it, we prefer to pay a note three times as much pressure just to be certain that it won't sound badly or stop in mid-duration. That's very harmful! Imagine going to the supermarket and buying things overprice just to be certain that it's gonna be you the one who gets them! We play hundreds and thousands of notes a piece. If we are adding to their price it's always gonna be costly.
Relaxing the hand as Arturo shows many times contributes to prepare (at least half way) the next position without doing nothing!
Just a little of the natural weight of the arm is more than enuogh to press any note, couple, trios, quartet or barre of notes (if the fretboard is a little tilted to the roof to present a vectored plane parallel to the floor where the weight might rest).
Many times we alter the way the hand goes up because the fingers are eager to get to the fretboard, we bend the wrist and there goes effortless playing...
Many things around this very interesting subject that must be and surely will be the playground of every guitarist professional or amateur.
Looking forward to reading more of you all, seing all the videos and learning from Arturo!!
