Fretting hand tension

[TBman]

I've discovered that one of the biggest hurdles I'm facing in learning classical and playing cleanly, is tension in my fretting hand. It is causing a lot of movement noises. When I think about it, I can get my hand to relax some, but not 100% and it does reduce the noise quite a bit. I suppose after 50+ years of not giving it any thought could be a problem

How did you deal with it and how long did it take you to conquer this?

The 2nd hurdle is keeping my knuckles more or less parallel to the strings, but one thing at a time. The two are intertwined a bit though.

[rick-slo]

Never had a problem with that on a decently set up guitar. One could posit a list of things about body, wrist and finger position in
relation to the fretboard and frets, etc., and I am sure you have come across all of those comments and advice in the past. I would
just say memorize and play at least some of the repertoire to the nth degree and you will likely feel how easily it flows in those cases
and you will be able to apply ease and flow more readily to the next pieces that come your way.

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by TBman

I've discovered that one of the biggest hurdles I'm facing in learning classical and playing cleanly, is tension in my fretting hand. It is causing a lot of movement noises. When I think about it, I can get my hand to relax some, but not 100% and it does reduce the noise quite a bit. I suppose after 50+ years of not giving it any thought could be a problem

How did you deal with it and how long did it take you to conquer this?

The 2nd hurdle is keeping my knuckles more or less parallel to the strings, but one thing at a time. The two are intertwined a bit though.

Hi Barry,
For sure you're not alone. Something we all have to deal with. As Rick said, you've probably come across this advice in the past in some form or another, but some tips are more important than others when dealing with too much tension.
Especially coming from the steel string guitar, it's important to make sure you're not applying too much pressure with your fingers to make a note sound cleanly. Scott Tennant talks about that in Pumping Nylon. Worth revisiting that chapter. With nylon it doesn't take nearly as much. It's a hard habit to break.
For practice, take any piece you happen to be working on and just isolate the chord changes within the piece as you would be playing it on the fretboard.
Finger the shapes or notes and make clean sounds with as little pressure as you can. Change positions and do the same with the next chord. Don't worry about timing. It's not about that. It's just a mental "Aim Directed Movement' exercise to engage your finger muscle memory into ingraining what it takes to make a clean sound.
It'll be real slow at first, but after a while, your fingers will "get it" and sync it up with your brain and ears.
That would be a good thing to practice for what you describe above.
It has other benefits too, like making sure your fingertips plant the right way as you're negotiating the changes.
Worth a try!

[Carey]

A couple things that have helped me have a more flexible left hand are descending slurs- especiallly from 3 to 2, while maintaining good hand
aiignment, and vibrato practice. I also use a small mirror to watch by LH
quite a bit, attached to a screen in from of me in my little practice nook.

[GuitarsWeB]

Maybe you action is too high...even at the nut. Also, low fret wire is harder to fret and barr.

[Ceabeceabe]

Are you talking about squeaking?

https://youtu.be/owdahmo3ALg

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Ceabeceabe

Are you talking about squeaking?

https://youtu.be/owdahmo3ALg

Yes, but not from slides, from position shifts, including holding a barre and then shifting slightly while playing various additional notes.

[Judas68fr]

This will sound like a stupid question, but what's your playing position? The proper classical sitting position, with the left foot elevated (or the guitar elevated on the left foot) leads to a much better alignment of the left arm with the neck, which in turn helps with proper left hand technique.

If you're sitting with the guitar on your right leg, then chances are you're compromising that hand position, which in turn can lead to more stress in the left hand.

When I'm doing my warm up exercices, one of them is runs up and down the neck, using just the bare minimum amount of pressure to make the note ring. It's a good exercise to do when switching between different types of guitar.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Judas68fr

This will sound like a stupid question, but what's your playing position? The proper classical sitting position, with the left foot elevated (or the guitar elevated on the left foot) leads to a much better alignment of the left arm with the neck, which in turn helps with proper left hand technique.

If you're sitting with the guitar on your right leg, then chances are you're compromising that hand position, which in turn can lead to more stress in the left hand.

When I'm doing my warm up exercices, one of them is runs up and down the neck, using just the bare minimum amount of pressure to make the note ring. It's a good exercise to do when switching between different types of guitar.

I'm in the classical position, thanks.

[Judas68fr]

Ok so I'd strongly recommend going through Tomo Fujita's warm ups/exercises videos. Here's one, but he's got more on his channel, that's basically what I was teaching my students too: integrate a couple warm up runs in your daily routine, where the focus is using as little pressure as possible on the fretting hand, and minimize motion and energy on the right hand as well.

[YOUTUBE=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5TdEszM1u0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5TdEszM1u0[/YOUTUBE]

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Judas68fr

Ok so I'd strongly recommend going through Tomo Fujita's warm ups/exercises videos. Here's one, but he's got more on his channel, that's basically what I was teaching my students too: integrate a couple warm up runs in your daily routine, where the focus is using as little pressure as possible on the fretting hand, and minimize motion and energy on the right hand as well.

[YOUTUBE=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5TdEszM1u0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5TdEszM1u0[/YOUTUBE]

I'm looking at his videos, thanks.

[GuitarsWeB]

How high is your action at the 12th fret? Are you using high tension strings?

[TBman]

Originally Posted by GuitarsWeB

How high is your action at the 12th fret? Are you using high tension strings?

I've reduced the relief a great deal on both of my classicals. Their set-ups are more like my steel string guitars that I only play fingerstyle on. Almost no relief, low overall string heights at the nut and saddle. No buzzing though and not too low that it kills the tone. Three of my main steel string players were professional set-up for me. The 4th, a slightly used McIlroy came setup perfectly so I lucked out.

[GuitarsWeB]

Well, most player have action way too high. 3mm 6th string at the 12th fret is fine.