Playing guitar can be an extremely rewarding hobby and creative outlet. However, learning to play guitar often involves building muscle memory and dexterity through consistent, mindful practice. For many beginners, guitar practice can feel like a frustrating struggle at times. Tension and anxiety often creep in, making it harder to learn proper technique and progress. Thankfully, there are methods and mindsets that can help transform guitar practice into a calmer, more enjoyable experience.
Understand the Roots of Guitar Tension
Before diving into techniques for calmer guitar playing, it helps to understand some of the common causes of excess tension. Here are a few factors that often lead to tense, rigid guitar practice:
- Inexperience and lack of muscle memory
- Focusing too intensely on perfecting every note and chord
- Worrying about mistakes or what others think
- Physical discomfort from poor posture, positioning, etc.
- General anxiety about guitar playing abilities
Knowing the sources of tension is the first step toward addressing them. The next step is learning specific ways to counteract those sources of tension in practice.
Cultivate a Growth Mindset
One of the key mindsets for calm, effective guitar practice is maintaining a growth mindset. People with a growth mindset believe that skills and abilities can be developed through effort and perseverance. On the other hand, a fixed mindset assumes that talents and capabilities cannot be improved much. These different mindsets lead to different reactions when facing challenges while learning guitar.
Someone with a fixed mindset is more likely to interpret mistakes as evidence that they simply don’t have natural musical talent. They feel anxious and discouraged when skills don’t come easily. With a growth mindset, mistakes are viewed as a natural part of the learning process. Challenges are expected on the road to improvement. This mentality reduces frustration and anxiety during guitar practice.
Remind yourself that nearly all guitarists had to push through a steep learning curve at first. Expect mistakes but know they will decrease with patient, mindful practice over time. Keep your inner voice positive, compassionate and focused on growth. This mentality shift can relieve a great deal of tension at the root.
Cultivate Self-Compassion
Hand-in-hand with a growth mindset is cultivating self-compassion during practice. Judgement and self-criticism typically increase tension and anxiety. Alternatively, giving yourself permission to be a beginner reduces stress. Experiment with thinking encouraging thoughts like:
- “I’m still learning. Mistakes are normal as I build new skills.”
- “I appreciate myself for working to improve at guitar today.”
- “Even experienced guitarists sounded like beginners at first.”
Notice judgement thoughts but purposefully replace them with understanding and encouragement. You deserve patience with yourself as you build new abilities. Self-compassion provides a calm, productive learning environment.
Maintain Good Posture
Physical discomfort and poor posture habits can generate unnecessary tension during guitar practice. Take time to set up your body properly before and during playing:
- Sit upright on a stable chair without arm rests.
- Keep your spine straight, shoulders relaxed down.
- Position guitar on right thigh if right handed.
- Support guitar’s weight by strapping it or using a footstool.
- Keep wrists straight and elbows at 90 degree angles.
- Bring fretting left hand close to strings to minimize stretching.
Check your positioning regularly as you practice and make small adjustments to maintain good form. Your muscles will thank you over the long haul.
Take Regular Breaks
Fatigue is an enemy of calm, coordinated guitar playing. When muscle tiredness sets in, tension often arises in compensation, along with mental frustration. Avoid this by scheduling short breaks into your practice sessions:
- Take a 1-2 minute break every 20-30 minutes.
- Shake out and stretch tired muscles.
- Give your mind an intermission too.
Consistent short breaks help maintain mental focus and prevent muscle strain or injury. Aim for multiple, productive yet tiring practice sessions per week rather than marathon single sessions.
Play Slowly
Trying to play pieces and exercises too quickly is another path to tension and anxiety. As a beginner, focus on keeping movements extremely slow and gradual. If you feel tension increasing, slow down even more. Speed will come naturally over time through repetition at moderate tempos.
Isolate movements like single notes, scales or chord changes and drill them painstakingly slowly. Let your muscles learn proper relaxed technique before gradually increasing tempo. Be a tortoise, not a hare, especially early on.
Relax Peripheral Muscles
Many beginners tense muscles that aren’t even involved in fretting notes and picking strings. Excess tension in your arm, back, neck and even face makes everything harder.
Scan your body periodically as you play. Relax any areas not directly related to action on the fretboard or strings. Also consider where tension tends to collect in your body generally. Use deep breathing to send relaxing sensations to chronically tense areas like the neck, jaw or shoulders.
Pay Attention to Breathing
Many people unconsciously hold their breath or breathe shallowly when focused intently. However, oxygen is crucial for keeping muscles relaxed during intricate guitar work. Make a point to breathe deeply and continuously during practice.
Here are some tips for purposeful breathing:
- Inhale deeply through nose, directing air deep into belly.
- Exhale slowly out through mouth.
- Count out a few seconds for each phase.
- Imagine breathing down to your abdomen.
- Pause briefly between inhale and exhale.
Consistent deep breathing delivers oxygen, stimulates relaxation and helps maintain laser focus. Make it part of your standard practice routine.
Isolate Problem Areas
When you identify specific challenging chord transitions, finger placements or rhythms, break them down methodically. Isolate the issue and drill it separately multiple times, not moving on until you achieve clean execution.
Separating tricky spots prevents you from accumulating too many tension points at once. Master manageable portions completely before connecting them to build a whole song or piece.
Use a Metronome
Rushing tempos often precedes tension, so keeping steady time is key. Practicing with a metronome or click track keeps you honest about your pace. Set the speed slower than you’re comfortable with to enforce deliberation. Gradually notch up the bpm as parts get more solid.
The merciless consistency of a metronome may seem tedious at first. But keeping yourself in time will pay off in spades later.
Record Your Practice
Recording yourself during practice provides instant feedback that you don’t get in the moment. Keep a small audio recorder running and listen back between repetitions. Hearing missteps and unevenness you miss actively will allow more rapid corrections.
Review recordings not to criticize but to inform. Oil any squeaking hinges in your technique through objective analysis. Monitoring progress via recording also feels gratifying.
Simplify Difficult Songs
Attempting pieces beyond your current technical skill often heightens tension and frustration. Pick songs at or just beyond your ability rather than far above. Also, consider simplifying difficult parts of a challenging song.
For example, create an embellished chord version of a fast solo section. Or reduce fancy fingerpicking parts to a more basic version. Simplifying allows you to play desired songs sooner while developing core skills.
Focus on One Goal Per Practice
Don’t expect every practice to address every weak point and guitar goal simultaneously. Instead, choose a single skill, song or technique to concentrate on completely during a session.
Maybe you want smoother transitions between open G and D chords today. Or perhaps perfect hammer-ons and pull-offs are on the agenda. Hyper-focusing prevents impatience, distraction and tension from creeping in.
Practice Consistency Over Long Sessions
Training your muscle memory and skills requires regularity more than marathon practice. Multiple daily short-to-moderate sessions of 20-45 minutes deliver compounding benefits over time better than occasional long slogs.
Consistent practice signals your mind and body that guitar is a fixed part of life to make gradual improvements toward. Plus, performance quality and concentration decline past about an hour per session anyway.
End on a Positive Note
Always finishing guitar practice on something you executed well leaves a sense of accomplishment, not frustration. Plus, nailing a smooth run-through floods your brain with positive chemicals to reinforce technique.
Not only does the reward of ending right feel great in the moment, it also motivates you to eagerly continue practicing tomorrow. Leave yourself smiling and looking forward to the next session.
Practice in Multiple Positions
Sitting in the same posture for an entire practice session can lead to physical tensions from stillness and muscle fatigue. When possible, get into different positions as you work on guitar skills:
- Sit in a chair for part then stand for a portion.
- Practice a piece lying down then move to a couch.
- Split time between a chair, classical position and crossed leg.
- Shift spots and posture each practice to avoid overuse.
Moving your body, even in small ways, keeps muscles loose and engaged. Change energizes both your physical form and mental focus.
Invest in Ergonomic Gear
Poor quality or improperly sized gear can hinder relaxation and cause strain. Upgrade key items like:
- Guitar that is comfortable for your body size.
- Cushioned strap with adjustable length.
- Soft case that’s easy to open and store guitar in.
- Height-adjustable chair and/or footstool.
- angled capo for reducing wrist strain.
Quality ergonomic accessories seem small but make a surprising difference over many hours of playing. Treat them as an investment in your enjoyment and progress.
Stay Hydrated
Dehydration exacerbates muscular fatigue and mental distractibility during practice. Keep a water bottle on hand for frequent sips:
- Drink 2-4 glasses of water in the hours before practice.
- Take a sip or two between song repetitions.
- Have a larger drink during short breaks.
- Choose cool water to aid focus and energy.
Proper hydration aids all systems involved in guitar playing, keeping your mind relaxed and muscles supple.
Watch for Signs of Overexertion
Listen to your body so you halt practice before crossing over into exhaustion or injury territory. Warning signs include:
- Shaking muscles
- Calluses causing sharp pain
- Tingling or numbness in hands
- Dull aches transforming into strong cramps
- Need to press extremely hard to form chords
If you notice these issues, stop and rest immediately – otherwise you risk short term or long term damage. Soreness is expected, but serious discomfort is an urgent red flag.
Avoid Excess Caffeine
It’s tempting to rely on coffee or energy drinks to power through guitar sessions when tired. But too much caffeine can backfire by inducing jitters, crashes and dehydration.
Limit intake to 1-2 cups coffee equivalent per day. Stop consuming caffeine at least 3 hours before practice to avoid peak jitters. Stay hydrated and get adequate sleep instead if possible.
Pick a Consistent Practice Time
Establishing a habitual practice time programs your brain and body to expect focused work at that time. The same daily time slot builds an association so that your energy and concentration automatically heighten.
Early morning or late evening before bed are ideal for avoiding daytime distractions. But choose whatever timing you can maintain consistency with on most days.
Vary Your Practice Routine
While using a consistent time is optimal, altering up the content of each practice session adds variety to engage your mind and muscles fully. Maintain flexibility in your routine by:
- Switching between technique drills, song practice and theory work.
- Changing genres – jazz, rock, folk, etc.
- Alternating sitting and standing positions.
- Using different guitars/amps for tone variety.
Prevent your brain from auto-piloting due to sheer repetition. Spice up your guitar workout plan.
Join a Class or Find a Tutor
Learning in a vacuum can deprive you of feedback, inspiration and new techniques. Consider signing up for a weekly group class or hiring a personal guitar tutor for at least a few lessons.
The fresh perspective of an instructor helps diagnose problem areas. Their guidance also provides structure and accountability. Plus, a social learning environment creates fun motivation.
Make It a Lifestyle Not a Chore
Ultimately, sustainability comes from truly enjoying the guitar rather than viewing it as a forced chore. Explore all the aspects that originally drew you to the instrument. Let guitar practice nourish your mind, body and spirit.
Remember that music learning is a lifelong journey. Progress requires patience and self-compassion. With the right mindset and methods, practice can be challenging in a calm, rewarding way.
Conclusion
Learning to play guitar with relaxation and mindfulness is absolutely achievable by anyone. Start from a place of compassion, maintain healthy routines and focus on the musical journey over outcomes. By transforming your mindset and methods, guitar practice becomes meditative and fulfilling.