[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by wguitar

…I wanted to share and was wondering if others have had similar experiences. Also, got me wondering if pressing too hard is a common thing, and techniques folks have used to soften their playing touch.

Happy strumming my friends !

Hi wg…

I taught fingerstyle for 40 years, and often when students improved significantly it was time to work on not over-pressing, relaxing the fretting hand, elevating the headstock while playing, proper setups etc - all of which work together in a package to improve sound/tone, and playing flexibility.

They practiced simple and very repetitious exercises done daily and kept up till the magic happens. These were scales and etudes, arpeggios which they already knew how to do.

I taught all my students first position scales (2 octaves) in keys of E-A-D-G-C-F and we started with quarter notes and built up to 16th notes (at tempo) using hammer ons and pull offs as we built speed.

We also learned a few basic etudes based on arpeggios.

These were what we reverted to as they began to learn to relax. And I had them practice them daily for 15 minutes or each exercise repeated at tempo 10 times without a mistake (make a mistake and start over). Within weeks they were adjusting their touch, and better intonation and fluidity appeared.

But before any of that the guitars had to have a proper setup (we have a local guy who does good setups reasonably). In a couple cases where money was tight, I suspended lessons for a couple weeks (they bought them in packages of 4) so they could apply the money to a setup.

Without a setup which supports easy pressing of strings, there is no learning to lighten up the touch.

Good luck as you pursue this goal…