Economy of Effort and the Fretboard Finger Trap

You would never guess it by looking at me, but sometimes I can be a bit of a health freak. I’m always working out, going for runs, I always try to eat healthily etc,. I guess it’s a good thing really, it helps me stay focused and is great at busting stress. So, with this in mind I decided to go on a bit of a detox- no coffee for at least two weeks, and no alcohol for four (I read somewhere that these were the number of weeks it takes to cleanse your system of each “drug”). So how does this help you?

Well, while I would encourage anyone to try this for the obvious health benefits, it brought some important things to my attention. You see, I came off alcohol and caffeine within weeks of each other and the very week I gave up drinking became a very stressful week for me due to alot of things that happened- and the worst part was I couldn’t just have the odd drink to help deal with it (Once I decide on doing something, I don’t quit!). The entire episode made me think of guitar playing (not that there’s anything that takes my mind off guitars…) and how we sometimes have extra tension that we don’t realise is there, and in order to deal with it we sometimes create more tension in other muscles to “balance things out”. Just like I was experiencing stress in my life and using another form of stress (drinking) in an attempt to “balance things out”. Of course, everything does balance out but half the time you’re so tense it’s like you’re wrestling an elephant…

Economy of Effort

I talked about this one in my article on economy of motion, where I explain that an “economy of motion” really boils down to an “economy of effort”. After taking a break from alcohol and caffeine, I realised that trying to balance out the tension doesn’t work- in fact it just creates more (a bit like one of those Chinese finger traps…and I hate those!). So under my principles of “economy of effort”, I realised that the only way out of this situation is to stop pulling myself in two directions at once. Just like a finger trap, the solution is to stop pulling- stop creating more stress and learn to relax. If something is making you stressed you should deal with that first, and this carries right over to guitar playing. To make your playing easier, faster, and allow your fingers their full range of movement, you need to stop tensing up other parts of you to compensate.

Economy of Motion

Try playing this exercise and watch closely what your hand is doing. You see, in order for your fingers to fret the notes, you have to tense the right muscles and only the right muscles! If your fingers aren’t quite as strong as they should be, or if you’re not making the right movements, you’ll notice your little finger lift itself off the fretboard. What is happening is, you’re trying to give more strength to your other fingers by tensing up your hand (creating stress) but what this does is pull your hand in a different direction which pulls your fingers away from the fretboard- thus making their job more stressful because they’re trying to pull your hand back to the fretboard. Your little finger is pulling your hand in one direction, and your other fingers are trying to go in the other direction- now we have what we could call a “fretboard finger trap” situation. This is the situation that leads to sloppy playing and injury…not to mention it makes playing the guitar alot harder than it really is!

Whats the solution? If you find yourself in the fretboard finger trap situation, just like the Chinese finger trap, you need to learn to relax your hands. Go over the exercise again, but this time slower- as slow as you need to go to make sure your fingers aren’t jumping around and tense. Never just “work through” the tension, attempting to work through the problem is like pulling harder on a Chinese finger trap (which wont work, trust me!).

My Solution

Just like fingers that aren’t strong enough to fret the strings properly need to relax and build up strength, the same is true for my beer and coffee issue. If you’re not strong enough to live your life without caffeine or alcohol, then the solution isn’t to drink more but to drink less, relax and build up your strength of character. Addiction and weak fingers are two things to be avoided by all guitarists!

If you like my blog, please don’t forget to subscribe.

December 7, 2009 at 12:04 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises | 4 comments

4 Responses to “Economy of Effort and the Fretboard Finger Trap”

Fingerpicking | Chainsaw Guitar Tuition says:

02/02/2010 at 3:24 pm

[...] you remember the “fretboard finger trap”, you’ll know that the real secret is moving only the right muscles- and for finger [...]
How to Play Guitar: Finger Agility | Chainsaw Guitar Tuition says:

22/03/2010 at 11:22 pm

[...] used by our (already evolved) hands. Yes, there is a correct technique for playing the guitar with economy of motion and speed, but it’s not always the one that “comes naturally” to [...]
Grip Strengtheners and Finger Weights | Chainsaw Guitar Tuition says:

02/06/2010 at 11:16 pm

[...] than the ones that help your fingers move independently. Again, this comes down to the idea of “economy of motion”, or “economy of effort”. You should only be using the muscles you need for moving your fingers, not the ones that live in [...]
Nailing It with the Hammer-on! | Chainsaw Guitar Tuition says:

29/06/2010 at 11:04 pm

[...] if you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ll know how important such things as economy of motion and finger strength are…they should definitely be the “top two” in your list of [...]