[Larry F]

Here are some things that I think require strength: holding a bend; holding a barre chord; trills with the fourth finger for a couple of bars or so. These are obvious to me. Could there be things that do require strength that are not obvious?

As I've said before, I used to be a kind of hot shot player before giving up the guitar in 1978. I started playing again three years ago have made enough progress to sit in with a band the other night and not seem to stink up the place too much. But I remember a few years ago working on bends, trying to hit exactly the right note. I also remember very clearly that if I held a bend too long, or did too many bends in a short amount of time, that I couldn't hit the note at all. My bend finger would cramp up and become weak for a minute or so. I have improved a lot in that area, but there is still a point at which cramping happens. Believe me, stretching did not improve this. Maybe cramping is the wrong word. What is that happens when you can't a lift a weight has too many reps. That feeling is what I am talking about. The hand seems to become very weak after too many bends.

I got a great rubber donut that I use a lot. This spring, I drove to 5 conferences in the midwest, with each trip taking 4-7 hours. I worked with the rubber donut almost every minute I was in the car. When I got home and started playing again, I distinctly noticed that so many aspects of my playing had improved faster and farther in this 2-month traveling period that at any time, even when I was practicing 4-5 hours a day. I should note that the things I teach my fingers and right hand to do are basically the same things that I had, well, mastered is not the word, but I felt that I had reached a comfort level that freed my fingers so that I could start playing from my head without my left hand seizing up.

So, in this 2-month period, what contributed to my improvement that got me farther along in that amount of time than ever before? Well, we could say that I was benefiting from a break from the guitar. From a Thursday to a Sunday, I would only play 1/2 hour to 1 hour in the hotel room. When I got home, I didn't play much more than that, do to crazy school things. Once school settled down and I could focus on my playing, that is when I noticed that so many things that I couldn't play well, were much farther along than ever before. Assuming that I am telling the truth here, what was it that made me better? A break from the guitar, or the rubber donut that I used for, let's see, 5 hours a day for 2 days a week and 1 hour a day for all other days. It seems very clear to me that the rubber donut played a very role in my improvement. My improvement seems to have been in the ability to hit and hold something, or to repeat much faster, cleaner, and longer a series of 2-5 notes. What else could have contributed to this improvement? More or less sleep, road food? I don't see why we can't acknowledge that strength of this kind contributes to better playing, in the areas that I mentioned above, and in related areas. I am not advocating that people stop playing guitar and just sit around with the rubber donut. But using it on a trip for concentrated amounts of time was, I don't know, somewhat as good, or almost as good, or just as good, or better, or way better, or much better than practicing the guitar for an equivalent amount of time. Not wishing to brag, but remember that I was not learning new fingerboard, finger, chord, picking, or strumming patterns that I couldn't do when I was younger. Maybe I am a rare case, since I could already do these things when I was younger.