Guitar Rote Exercises - Calibrating Fret Hand Grip or Pinch Pressure

In this exercise, we work on calibrating our fret hand pinch or grip pressure.

When we are first beginning to play guitar, our hands were weak, and soft,

But as we practice, our muscles get stronger, and our callouses get thicker,

And you can easily find yourself accidentally pinching or gripping or fretting too hard.

This exercise goes together with a pick hand exercise, where we work on calibrating pinch or grip pressure applied to the pick.

One part of the lesson thats not mentioned here, but should have been, is to do the following calibration....

1) fret a note as you normally would, and pluck the sting to make it sound.

2) fret the note slightly harder, and pluck the string again...

3) fret and sound the note 10 times in a row, and each time fret it a little bit harder than the time before, so that by the time you get to 10, you are fretting as hard as you can.

4) fret and sound the note 10 more times in a row, and each time fret a little but softer than the time before, so that by the time you get to 10, you are fretting absolutely as soft as you can, while still sounding good.

5) repeat on each finger

6) practice all fingers, everywhere, on each string, at every fret.

Another reason for this exercise is to kick-the-crutch so-to-speak

The crutch, in this case, being the thumb as an anchor point.

In earlier exercises, we set out to deliberately train to use the thumb as not only *an anchor point, but the first and primary anchor point!

So this exercise is another transitional exercise, between beginner and intermediate guitar player.

At first you were too weak, but now you are too strong!

Also, by removing the thumb from the equation, by moving the thumb to the bottom side of the neck, we can calibrate a few more things, namely

1) each fingers strength, independent of the thumb strength.

2) pick hand arm leverage on guitar body.

3) is 1) and 2) together.

Which means your guitar is in the normal playing position, and with your fret hand finger, you are pushing backward on the string, into the fretboard.

Normally, your thumb would be behind the neck, preventing the neck from moving backward, away from your finger, as you try to fret a note.

But because your thumb is gone, the guitar neck is free to swing backward, away from your finger, as you fret a note.

But because your pick hand arm is resting on the guitar body, you can lean on the guitar body and leverage the guitar neck forward, as you try to fret the note.

This is a careful balancing act, because whichever pushes harder, will make the guitar neck move forward or backward.

Once you master this balancing act, your thumb is free to move around, and not act as an anchor, or to act as an anchor in new ways.

This is helpful, as you will discover, when you go to reach certain notes on the neck, and your thumb actually prevents you from reaching them, because your thumb is hooked under and behind the neck, and trapped.

By putting your thumb underneath the neck, you are freeing the thumb from being trapped behind the neck,

So for example you can reach the highest fret on the low E string.

Normally, you wouldn’t ever play that note, because its unreachable, and its easier to find that note elsewhere.

So, because we can’t easily reach the note, we tend to not play the note, and it becomes a cycle of what you practice, or don’t practice.

So with this thumb-under hand position, you can be more easily prepared to reach the hardest note, and then we might practice playing that note more, and eventually get to the point where we are comfortable working in all 4 corners of the fretboard,