Train Your Guitar-Playing Muscles To Work For You

As you may have already figured out, playing the guitar requires synchronous movement/coordination between you finger, palm, wrist, forearm and shoulder muscles. My beginning students have described finger/wrist muscle movements as being unnatural or awkward when they are trying to make chords or notes. I assure you that motions that may seem awkward at first can become almost natural if rehearsed enough.

So lets learn an exercise that demonstrates your ability to build muscle coordination today. It will seem pretty awkward when you first start it but as you go the movements will become almost natural.

OK everybody put down your guitar and get ready to realize your ability to build muscle coordination in just a manner of minutes.

1. Put two pieces of newspaper (the whole page) on the floor directly in front of you, one to the left one to the right, kneel in front of them.

2. With outstretched fingers grasp the middle of a paper in each hand.

3. Lift the papers to about shoulder level.

4. Take the paper you have grasped and use it as leverage to grasp and bring in more paper toward your palm, use you fingers to crush the paper as if you wanted to created a ball of it in your hand.

5. Continue drawing more paper in and crushing it until you have only a baseball sized result in each hand.

Did you do it the first time out? As you went along did it get easier? This is what practice is all about taking a muscle movement that would in any other contest be awkward and repeating it until it gradually becomes comfortable. Apply what you just discovered about yourself to building muscle coordination on the guitar. Happy paper crumbling!