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Hello everyone!

im just starting out with the course and I am currently on session 1. 

Im pretty good at 82 BPM at all the exercises but when I speed up to 92 BPM, I feel a bit tense in my right hand and the muscles(of hand) start getting sore like the feeling you get when you do high volume bicep curles. 

How do I play so that my right hand doesn’t get too tense or is it ok to feel a bit tension. ?

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welcome and merry Christmas.. you will get all sorts of advice of what has worked for people. For me it was a matter of building up my hand strength a little at a time slowly.  A lot from what I have seen has to do with lots of practice and more practice many times and then it comes to muscle memory. MM works wonders and in my prior profession trained many times a year with different scenarios thrown into the mix and MM would always come into play always. Stay with it and like many here don't rush and sometimes you must go back and start over.. no problem as its life. Good luck and welcome to our family! Oh your right hand will settle down over time just try and relax as much as you can and have fun. Also work with a hand strengthening tool while watching TV or driving. 

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Welcome to Guitar Gathering and the Learn and Master Guitar Fingerstyle course! 

Perhaps you'd like to introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your guitar and music experience, goals and dreams. You can do so here; 

Regards; NeilES335 - Moderator

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Welcome! Enjoy your guitar journey!

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Welcome to our family. Plan to learn a lot, play a lot and make a lot of new friends who are all on the same journey. Enjoy the ride.

Henk

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Relax, take it easy. You don't need to work that hard. Don't be so hyper-focused that you miss out on the joy of playing guitar. Guitar is not a strength activity. You need a firm grip on the pick, but you don't need a death lock. The same goes for your fretting hand. You need the correct amount of pressure in the correct location to make your guitar sing. Have fun with it!

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I’ve been observing my practice and I noticed that my right hand becomes tense only in the pattern 2 exercises ( thumb-3-2-1). In the other exercises my hand stays relaxed, even while playing estudio and malinguana. 

I’ve tried slowing down the tempo but now that I focus on relaxing my right hand, it just tenses up more. ?

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57 minutes ago, ak0693 said:

I’ve been observing my practice and I noticed that my right hand becomes tense only in the pattern 2 exercises ( thumb-3-2-1). In the other exercises my hand stays relaxed, even while playing estudio and malinguana. 

I’ve tried slowing down the tempo but now that I focus on relaxing my right hand, it just tenses up more. ?

Some of those exercises require fretting fairly advanced chords as well as new picking patterns. Stick with it, and with patience and time, you will get there. You are doing well to focus on tension. The important thing is to learn how to relax (usually by really slowing things down and being attentive to where the tension starts) and then playing without - or with less, tension.

Best wishes

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Hello everyone! And thanks for your advices!

I slowed down to 40 BPM and not everything’s fine because now I can notice the tension building up and consciously let go of it. 

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1 hour ago, ak0693 said:

Hello everyone! And thanks for your advices!

I slowed down to 40 BPM and not everything’s fine because now I can notice the tension building up and consciously let go of it. 

First of all, welcome and I'm glad you're here.

When your hand is doing something comfortable and familiar there's no need to tense up.  But when you start getting to the edge of your ability and your hand can't keep up with what your brain is telling it to do, it starts to tense up.

There is always going to be this increasing muscle tension as you approach the edge of your current ability.  The good news is that the "edge of your current ability" moves.  What is causing you tension and stress today at a certain tempo you may be able to play completely comfortably in a few months.

Tension is always something we want to minimize in our playing. We need to be ever aware of it and constantly try to consciously relax our hand as we get into musical territory where it wants to tense up.

Just keep working at it slowly. As you become more familiar and competent at doing the task at increasing tempos your hand will relax.

Hope this helps!

- Steve

 

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