Group 1
Unlock your full musical potential with this tailored course, designed for players seeking to release tension at the instrument. After countless hours of playing, it's not uncommon to develop unproductive habits of tension and stiffness. But it's never too late to change. By shifting our focus from the instrument to our bodies and surroundings, we can rediscover the joy and freedom of playing with ease.
Check out Dragos' Course on tonebase
Dragos Ilie - Mind and Body Mapping: Understanding Your Hands and Arms
Details
- Course Period: February 13 - February 24th
- Sign-Up: starts on February 8, 11 am PT!
- Group Session: February 20th, 10 am PT
Assignments
Here is a playlist with the first two assignments! A third one will be added next week!
Exercise 1: Bringing our arms around the guitar, with specific focus on leading with the pinky. Whenever we move our arms, we lead (whether we are aware of it or not) with a specific finger (call that the initiator of the movement in the arm). There are two general camps, the leading with thumb and leading with pinky camp. If you want to check that in more depth, you can watch the course I taught on Body Mapping on Tonebase. For today, I want us to imagine our pinkies as if they were the initiators of the movement.
**Demonstration of what I do - focusing my awareness on pinky, moving the entire arm up/down, in circles, with focus on the pinky (for some it helps if you imagine the pinky grew an inch longer). Drawing a line from pinky all the way to the shoulder blade.
***Applying over the guitar. We now bring our pinky-oriented arms to the guitar. **Doing it a couple of times. You may notice as you do that, the chest and upper back also free up. Why is that so? We have just integrated our whole arms into playing: collar bone, shoulder blade, upper and lower arm bones.
Exercise 2: Inclusive Awareness. I learned this from my mentor Jennifer Johnson. This exercise should help you gain a wider sense of awareness which is both helpful in releasing tension as well as connecting with the room, and the audience. When we tense, we collapse. We shorten, narrowing our vision and movement.
**Demonstrate at the instrument. Sometimes to get out of that habit, the easiest thing to do is to allow the surrounding space to be part of your awareness. This exercise has 3 levels:
- Start this exercise by playing anything. A scale, a passage. As you do, pick an object thatās in your visual field. You can keep that in your peripheral and still be able to pay attention to the task of playing the scale. The object itself can be vague: let the color or the loose shape of it be in your awarness.
- 2nd level, pick an object on the right side as well. This one is particularly important for us guitarists since we tend to ātwistā to the left to see the fretboard.
- 3rd level. pick as many objects as you want. Let the whole room become part of your experience. This is extremely important for a performer. It may feel scary at first, but this
- way you will be able to deliver the sound to your audience. Now you are playing for them.
Third Assignment
Exercise 3:
Breathing out on the scale. This is an exercise to apply during your own playing. I found it very useful with improving hard spots. Often when we have difficult passages, we tense up which results in a holding of our breath too. The most common pattern is the one where we inhale (up), without releasing. This exercise helps you undo this pattern. Weāll use the a C Major scale just because it is the easiest form exercise, but you can do this over any passage. Take a big inhale, then play the 1st octave. Preferably you want to save enough air to perform the shift as well, that is the spot where we tend to tighten up our breath the most. Practice back and forth till you get the hang of it.
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Thank you for these exercises. When I was young learning the violin, I think Exercise 2 would have helped me conquer stage fright and tame my tension. Also, the presentation on mapping helps me practice away from the guitar during the day (Dragos Ilie - Mind and Body Mapping: Understanding Your Hands and Arms).
Recently, there was a community forum on ToneBase concerning guitar supports. I wanted to ask Dragos Ilie if his GuitarLift (I believe that is what he is using) most helps him engage with the guitar without tension and stiffness in the torso compared to other supports available. If so, what size for a 5'6" (167 cm / 1.67 m) tall person would be least intrusive in the GuitarLift, but still allow for the correct angle? I tried the regular full plate version on demo at some point, and had no problems with the suction staying on, but found it a bit heavy, such that the guitar seemed to fall away from me. That created some tension. Perhaps the half-plate version would work better for my torso size?
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David Hi David,
I use the large plate because I am pretty tall (6'3), but recently I have actually been experimenting with a smaller size guitarlift that I put pretty close to the end of the guitar.
I believe a medium one should do fine, but it really depends on your general sitting position and how high do you like your instrument to be (some shorter people that I know still use the tall one, and vice versa).
As for the suction cups I recommend using under them non stick static film sheets. You can find those online, I believe strings by mail sells them too. If not that, the standard cling-on protective sheets also work. This way you won't have to worry about the suction cups falling, or damaging your finish.
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David Hi David. I have a medium size GuitarLift and it works perfectly for me. 5'7''
I've used it on guitars with French polish and polyurethane without any problems from the suction cups. I watched the same video on guitar supports, and like Ashley, I've tried them all. My favorite is the GuitarLift. She had the half size and that one is just too small to get the right height/angle of the guitar. I know what you mean about it being a little heavy and falling away but I find with my right arm resting on the bout it keeps it in place without tension. Maybe you just need a little time to get used to it.
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Debbie I am demoing the ErgoPlay, which does seem to work, but think, eventually, the Guitarlift may be a more robust solution (in the Medium that both you and Dragos recommend). Out of curiosity, what was your experience with the ErgoPlay (I have the Trƶster model)? What did you find ultimately did not work if you used it, and how is the GuitarLift better? This issue of support may seem trivial, in contrast to the the plethora of other technical, artistic and musical aspects of the guitar, but in the context of thinking about body mechanics while interacting with the instrument, the novice like myself finds the subject tricky. Once a good solution is found for oneself, I am sure it's something that recedes into the rearview mirror (or at least I hope), so I appreciate the patience taken in this forum to share those old experiences.
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David I used the Ergo play for a while. The one thing that did not work for me was that being on the side of the guitar, I tended to let the guitar be too parallel to my body. However, I have seen people adjust the Ergo play in such a way that the guitar rests at an angle more similarly to the footstool or guitarlift. The main reason I prefer the guitarlift over all other supports is the versatility it offers in choosing and changing the height and angles of both the neck and bouts of the guitar.
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David hi David, I donāt think it ever fades into the background. Elite players are always trying new and better supports out because none of them are perfect. I really love the footstool best but unfortunately my lower back goes out after one hour of using it. Iāve tried both the Troster and Tappert. I donāt feel as secure with them as I do the GuitarLift. Iāve had the suction cups come loose on the former but never the latter. The GuitarLift is sturdier and just feels better to me. But you should try them all and see for yourself. You can always return the one you donāt like.
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Dragos I I notice what you are talking about with the relationship of the plane of the guitar body to that of the torso. I will try the medium and half-plate Guitarlift to see if I can achieve the level of flexibility and sense of securing the instrument mentioned in the positive reviews of the support. Thank you very much for your advice and taking time out of the main topic of the Intensive to address this technical detail.
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Debbie your experience resonates with my own, even in the short time I have been playing. I appreciate your response, as I am hoping to avoid the issues mentioned above, as I start to play for longer sessions.
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Hello Dragos,
I watched your Mind and Mapping presentation last week and found it very interesting. I believe I lead with the pinky. It was not difficult for me to feel the sensation and it feels normal to imagine that. However, I'm having a problem with what I think is tennis elbow in my right arm from a lot of arpeggio and tremolo practice. When I'm practicing I keep reminding myself to relax but I think tension creeps in especially around the bicep. I like your second video as well on having different points to look around the room. It definitely opens things up - mind, body, and awareness.
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Debbie For what it's worth:
I have lateral epicondylosis (aka "tennis elbow") on my left (not from guitar), and the sports medicine doctor, orthopedist and general practitioner I have discussed the problem with recommend specific exercises that are found to be statistically effective for many and may be worth performing gently, especially after activity. For me, these eccentric contractions do seem to have some effect on staving off increased pain in the elbow. However, epicondylosis is a persistent and difficult condition to eliminate completely, in my experience, since I cannot completely stop my work involving arm usage for weeks/months and only perform exercises to encourage healthy tendon repair and regrowth.
The escalating series of treatments described in the link(s) above are no guarantee of a "cure", so I opt for a compromise of therapeutic exercise and rest whenever possible.
Next steps involve prescription nitroglycerin patches (if allowed by your doctor/pharmacist), but they can cause migraines with little benefit in my experience. Prolotherapy (PLT, a glucose-enriched serum) or Platelet-rich-plasma (PRP, the body's own plasma, partitioned into a platelet enriched serum) injections directly into the tendon are the least invasive next step, but usually are not covered by insurance due to the preventative nature of the treatment.
My orthopedic doctor advised against any sort of surgery (due to the risks and lack of guarantee of truly curing the problem, since it did not arise due to an acute injury, such as breaking a bone in the elbow area, etc.) or steroidal injections (since they only offer palliative temporary relief, an have the long-term side effect of making the body's own repair of the tissue less likely, though some patients have found a combination of PRP/PLT in conjunction with steroids to offer some lasting relief in acutely painful situations).
From what I gather as a non-medical expert, but as a patient with epicondylosis, the name of the game is to stimulate the body to self-heal through gentle exercises mentioned above, and supplement that if the pain is acute with the least invasive treatments available (patches, then PLP/PRP) that further that process, also mentioned above.
The doctor frowns at telling me the diagnosis, because it's one of those common, but frustrating conditions (like lower back pain) for which the medical science does not offer a simple solution.
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Debbie,
How is your right hand pinky when you practice tremolo? Do you notice patterns of chronic tension, aka holding the pinky in/out, not moving with the a finger? Also, have you mapped your rotation at the forearm properly? (I talk about that more in detail in the Body Mapping lesson). Usually these factors contribute greatly to tension in the elbow area and the ulnar nerve. I also found that massaging the lower triceps wither with a ball, a massage gun or hands (close to the elbow) helps releasing a lot of tension in that area.
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David thank you David. Thatās a lot of great information. Iāll start doing the exercises. Iāve also gotten a lot of relief by doing a qigong routine that was recommended to me by an acupuncturist. Here is the link if you want to check it out. I think itās the gentle movement and stretching releasing blood flow that really helps.
https://www.holdenqigong.com/product/qi-gong-for-the-arms-wrists-and-hands/
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Dragos I thank you Dragos. I donāt have any problem with my pinky sticking out during tremolo. It moves freely with my a finger and the hand itself feels relaxed. I feel the tension more in my forearm and bicep. I have watched your Body Mapping lesson. I think I am leading from the pinky but I will rewatch the section on rotation of the forearm again. Massaging the area with a ball is something I do as well. One interesting thing is that my arm hurts more when I straighten it out. Or if I hold it out straight and squeeze my hand it hurts on the forearm just below the elbow and on the inside of the forearm as well.
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Debbie thank you very much for the QiGong suggestion.
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Debbie Thank you for sharing the qigong exercises, will check them as well. Unfortunately I am not in the position to give any medical advice, but I hope you are working with an expert on the arm pain issue. I am sorry to hear you have to deal with this.
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Dragos I I am just grateful for your approach. It's new information to me and anything that can help with prevention and proper ergonomic playing is a plus. Perhaps you can take a look at me playing in this video and see if you can perceive any problems I can address.
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Debbie
Hi Debbie,
I could not see anything bad in your right hand regarding tension or the pinky. It seems that you are relaxed and following through with the motion on each stroke. Let me ask this: do you find that you press your forearm into the guitar more than you need to? (do you get a āredā line on the forearm after practicing)? That could also be a cause of fatigue when playing repeated arpeggios or tremolo.
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Dragos I Hi Dragos. Yes that is exactly a problem Iāve been having. I slip a very thick sock over my sweater so I donāt feel my arm digging into the guitar. I donāt know how to remedy that. I feel if I rest my arm more lightly then Iām raising my shoulder and adding tension there. Iād love a suggestion! Thank you for watching the video.
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Debbie
Hi Debbie, Really nice performance.
It sounds like I had a similar problem to yours after a couple of months of really overdoing it. It might sound a little nutty, but I was playing one day and my tennis elbow brace ended up sitting right on the edge of the guitar and I noticed how much better it felt. My wife is an archer and it got me thinking about her armguards. Long story short, I ended up trying a couple of different ones and now I always wear one when I play and it's much more comfortable and I feel like I can keep my elbow and shoulder more neutral since they're not compensating. I keep the straps relatively loose so I can slide them on and off easily and pull my shirt down over them. They're soft but more solid than any of the guitar sleeves I've tried since those are more about protecting the instrument than you I think. Just an idea. Good luck and brava again on your Bach. Really enjoyable.
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Steve Price thatās an interesting idea. Iāll look into it. Thank you!
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Debbie There are a couple of options. First you might want to give the armrest supports a chance, a lot of people use those and like them. Here's one of them:
There is also the matepis armrest sock, which has a strong plastic pad on the inside that reduces the forearm from making direct contact to the corner of the guitar:
https://www.matepis.com.br/EN/pr-luva
The other option (which is something I've been doing recently) is to adjust the angle of the guitar itself, so the forearm doesn't fall at such a sharp angle over the instrument.
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Steve Price That's interesting! The matepis armrest sock is very similar to that as it has a plastic pad on the inside. Not as strong as the archery pad!
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Dragos I thank you Dragos! Those all look like great options
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Debbie You're welcome, Debbie!
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Hi Dragos, Thanks for running this session. Doing the second exercise was really interesting since once I started opening up to items in my peripheral vision I also noticed how much tension I had in my shoulders and neck so I was able to relax those. I had a question about this technique though. One of my biggest issues with performance is losing focus. Something will pop into my head while playing and then things will sometimes fall apart. I feel like opening my awareness is kind of like an invitation to having more of these distractions. I'm curious if you have any thoughts on that sort of issue and if there's something I can do to avoid them.
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