Fretting hand tension

[Boreas]

I agree with this idea. Having anyone present when I am practicing helps me get used to performing publically. I sometimes take an acoustic guitar to the park with people around and practice singing and playing there.

My cats were my only family, and they always went to another room when I pulled out a guitar.

 

[Alcohen]

My cats were my only family, and they always went to another room when I pulled out a guitar.

That's so funny. My cat only audibly complains about one thing - when I pick up a guitar. Everybody's a critic!

OP - the best feedback I've gotten recently was someone asking, "Did you breathe before you started your solo?" There are a range of things we can do in the moment that help. A lot more than someone yelling at you to "relax!" A lot of this is novelty and familiarity. As with everything else, more reps go a long way to getting to flow.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

. . . Personally, if there is another human within hearing range, any guitar chops I imagine I have go right out the nearest window! Very disconcerting.

Yeah, I've always had a hard time replicating riffs when performing. A lot of times, I can't even remember them. So when I practice, I've learned to invest a lot of time in improvising and learning arrangements.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Watch Eric Clapton do what he does. You are Eric Clapton yes you are . No doubt about it matey.

Watching Clapton soloing makes me crazy. He doesn't use his pinky!

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

. . . mix more single note fills between or within chords so there is less of a change from no stress to high stress?

Yup.

. . . How about not playing the solo you practiced and instead have some fun ripping off some licks tied together into a theme?
Or straight up improvise?

Yup.

Again, hard to know what will fell less stressful aside from rhythm not being stressful.
Need a bridge between those two.

Yup.

. . . Maybe allow that it is just another part of the music, no more or less important?

Yup.

. . . Bonus points: play some wrong notes in the solo and call it Jazz.

Yup yup yup yup yup!

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Gogogoch, do you also sing in your band? How is your singing going? Is there anxiety associated with singing?

Since Gogo is fronting the band, my bet is singing is part of the deal.

 

[Ron C]

There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread.

For me, a few oddball tactics help me loosen up and relax when I felt the nerves and the left hand death grip creeping in:
1. Don’t stare at the fretboard. Seems to break some reptilian brain connection to my nerves.
2. Pick lightly (and give yourself plenty of headroom with the volume). The harder I pick, the harder I seem to grip.
3. When all else fails, I close my eyes.

Beats me how much of this is just my weirdness vs. a reasonable and transferable technique.

 

[Stringlover]

Picking lightly helped me, but I can't tell you why I started doing it. You could try lowering your string height if they are on the high side.

I just lowered one of my strat strings and it's amazing.

 

[fenderchamp]

Hi all,
Hope this finds you well.
I’m looking for some advice and support. I’m fronting a new band and playing more solos/lead than I have before, but I’m having an issue with nerves and fretting (left) hand tension. When I switch from chords/rhythm to playing a solo, I find I get nervous, my hand tenses up and then I screw up. It’s starting to really get me down. At home, I practice and practice and practice until I can nail these solos, but once I get on stage or play in front of anyone, the nerves kick in and make my hand tighten up, my fingers don’t move as smoothly and, sure enough, I fulfill my fear and I mess up.

My wife has suggested hypnotherapy, but I figured I’d ask here and see if this great community of players has any tips or suggestions for keeping the fretting hand relaxed. Thanks in advance.

keep practicing. Play them in front of your wife too.

they way forward is practicing.

work on improvising as well so you can fudge through them too.

 

[fenderchamp]

Have you tried beer before a show?

that is a common, but in my opinion, not a recommended approach. It can certainly go sideways on you on any given night.

 

[Grandfunkfan]

Beer, seriously. Not enough to get hammered, but 2 or 3 beers should calm you down enough to let it rip and let it happen. It's only rock n roll, no one cares or probably even know the difference.

 

[ahiddentableau]

There's a great exercise in the classical guitar community that helps with this. You play a scale, but you deliberately fret every note with your left hand with too little pressure so the notes barely choke out. It's a weird sensation at first, but counterintuitively it drills the amount of pressure you need to make a note sound clearly into your head, so when you've done it for a while it becomes much easier to use the minimum amount of clamping pressure to get decent tone.

This guy does it at around 1:00. The video quality is awful but you can see the exercise demo'd.