The guitarists death grip - Entertainment - Music

How a cheap guitar can hinder your progress.A common problem with cheaper guitars, especially steel string acoustic guitars, is that the strings are set way too high above the neck, making it very difficult to press the chords. What a beginner guitarist may not realize, is just how much easier the task of training your fingers to play the guitar is on a slightly more expensive guitar that's been worked on by a luthier. The luthier doesn't need to build the guitar, he just has to do a few minor things to it so that it plays nicely. The most important of these is to level and crown the frets. On an acoustic guitar I would take this one step further and have him lower the bridge as well. Acoustic guitars are notorious for having high bridges which make them more of a strain on the hand when pressing chords and notes. I have played some acoustic guitars that where very well set up, but these have been few and far between. The advantages of learning to play on an electric guita r become glaringly obvious to anyone who's tried to learn on a cheap acoustic guitar. Even a relatively cheap electric guitar, somewhere between 100 and 200 dollars, easily outperforms similarly priced acoustic steel stringed guitars. One of the dangers of learning to play on a guitar that requires such extreme finger pressure, is developing what's known as the death grip.This is a bad habit, in fact it's more of a conditioning, that causes the guitarist to clench the guitar neck so tightly and apply too much pressure when fretting notes, that the ability to develop any meaningful degree of speed and dexterity on the guitar is seriously hampered.Sometimes it can be so bad that they pull the guitar strings out of tune.I have a friend who suffers from this condition, and try as I may to get him to lighten his grip on the guitar when playing, he seems unable to do it.

How to deal with guitarists death grip.There's no easy away around this, except to spend some time every day practicing to lighten your grip, and also see to it that the action on your guitar is as low is it can be.If you can't get it any lower, then think about taking it to a guitar builder or repairman and ask them to do what they can.

Griffbrett Gitarre