Unlocking Shred Potential by finding the Pressure Point
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MusicTranscript
00:00Alright, so today we're talking about this guy, the fretting hand, and we're going to
00:15talk about what you can do to make playing more efficient, to make it easier, to make
00:21it faster, and hopefully how to help your hands last into old age without having too
00:27many problems due to over-tensing.
00:32Alright so before we get stuck into it I just want to remind you all that my Yngwie course
00:38is still at half price as a pre-sale, it's coming out in December, so if you want to
00:43save some cash on that one you can buy it now for half price.
00:46I'm going to be talking about the same principles we're talking about today but in a little
00:50bit more depth, as well as many other aspects of Yngwie's playing and setup.
00:55Alright so what we're talking about today is something I got from a book called Effortless
01:00Mastery by Kenny Werner, I highly recommend you read it, and I'm going to teach you the
01:05core concept from that which is how to play effortlessly, and I guarantee if you're not
01:12already doing this it will change your guitar playing life, you'll find that you can really
01:17unlock your playing, you'll be able to play faster, it will be easier, there will be less
01:22tension, and your fingers will do what you want them to do for once rather than do what
01:27they want to do.
01:29Alright so let's talk about the basic principle.
01:33So I'll get you to play a note for me, so I'm in E flat tuning, I'm going to play this
01:376 here, so if you're in E standard you can just play the 5th fret, it doesn't really
01:44matter what note it's just the concept.
01:48So what we're going to do is we're going to find the perfect amount of pressure to
01:52put on for this note, so we're going to just keep the plucking hand going, and we're going
01:59to gradually release the fretting hand until the note chokes out, alright, and when you're
02:04at that point you gradually put it back on until it starts to bite, right there, you
02:10hear that?
02:11I'll do it again, okay right there, that amount of pressure, that's how hard you should push.
02:19So from 98% of guitar players that's going to be a big aha moment, Tom are you saying
02:25that I can play that lightly and still get the note out?
02:28That's what I'm saying, and more so if you put any more pressure on than that, it's a
02:34waste, you're wasting energy, and not only is it not good, it's actually also bad because
02:39it's going to slow your playing down, because instead of walking across the swamp like a
02:43spider crawling along the surface, you're going to be like a hippo trudging along, getting
02:49stuck with each step, and that's what most guitar players who want to play fast but can't,
02:54that's what they do, they tend to really force their way through and do, you know, that kind
03:00of look, where they're fighting the guitar and they're fighting themselves, so you really
03:06don't want to do that, and what we're going to go into today is how to take this concept
03:11and apply it not only to licks and lead playing, but also to your chords.
03:16If you're enjoying this, don't be afraid to boop that like button and help me achieve
03:20world domination status just that little bit faster.
03:25So let's start with a lick, so I'm going to do this lick, it doesn't matter what lick
03:28you do, it might be good just to do a four note lick or a six note lick, so we might
03:33go...
03:34So that's what I'm doing, it doesn't matter what lick you play, as long as you apply this
03:43concept to it.
03:44So now let's play the lick, and instead of going through each note and finding the pressure
03:48point like that, let's play the whole lick so lightly with this hand that we actually
03:54mute all the notes like that.
04:00So let's play that a few times, and then gradually push down a bit harder, and then if you think
04:14you're putting on too much pressure, just relax it, ease it back on, and that is the
04:24right amount of pressure to put on.
04:26And so the trick is then to get that fast, and that takes a little bit of practice, that
04:31just takes repetition.
04:38So as I said, you can apply that to any lick, it could be this lick, or whatever you do,
04:49just practice doing it really lightly.
04:53And you might say, well, Tom, that's great, but it makes my playing sound really lame,
04:58it makes it sound like I'm not trying, there's no energy there, and definitely, I would agree,
05:05it does until you go to do your bends, and when you do your bends, or vibrato, that's
05:12where you want to dig in, that's where you go 100% effort, don't spare an effort at all
05:17Dig in and be soulful and passionate.
05:23All I'm saying is that when you go to play a lick super fast, that's when you want to
05:27focus on relaxing your hands and not digging in too much.
05:37Now the beauty of this particular guitar is obviously it's got scalloped frets, and it's
05:42in Eb tuning with 8-gauge strings, so it's super light, so it really rewards you for
05:47playing lightly, and it makes it easier to play lightly, whereas say if I grab my steel
05:53string acoustic, to get that minimum note, it would be a lot more relative pressure.
06:00But even then, there's still only a certain amount of pressure you need, and any more
06:04pressure than that is what's creating all the problems in the hand tension.
06:16Now as I said, we can do the same thing with chords.
06:19So if we take this Bb major barre chord here, and then we relax it so much that we kill
06:29all the notes, what you might find, especially if you're a heavy-handed player, is your middle
06:34finger, generally, and these fingers, but most of the middle finger, tends to want to
06:38keep pushing down.
06:42And so to switch that one off, that really tells you, that's a real red flag that says
06:47this finger really pushes down too hard, because even when you switch everything off, this
06:51one's still switched on.
06:53So you want to play it so lightly that all the strings are muted.
06:57So say if you have a tricky chord progression, it's good to take that, and do this whole
07:03concept with.
07:08And then, gradually put more pressure on, until it starts to ring, until you're happy
07:21with the sound.
07:41So it's just the same idea again, it's start light, then get heavy.
07:46Don't do what all guitarists seem to do, which is start heavy, and then complain why they
07:50can't play fast.
07:52Starting heavy and going light, that's hard, but starting light and going heavy, that's
07:55quite intuitive.
08:00So at the start of a gig, when my hands maybe are a bit cold, or I'm not warmed up, and
08:05I feel like I need to calibrate my hands, what I'll do is I'll play the songs we do,
08:11much like that little thing I just played, like a good example is Faith.
08:17The George Michael classic.
08:19What I'll do while playing that is actually risk some of the chords being dead.
08:27Just to find that sweet spot, to find the pressure point, to calibrate my hands at the
08:31start of the gig.
08:34Because that means towards the end of the gig, when I have to blaze and shred and do
08:37all that stuff, my hands are probably going to be more coordinated, whereas if I spend
08:43the whole gig pushing down really hard, that's when you get to the big solo and your hands
08:47are cramped up and they're not very agile because you've been pushing down so hard.
08:53So finding the correct amount of pressure to push down is a real art, but you get so
08:57much better at it with practice.
09:04And the best part about it is it seems to make your fingers more compliant.
09:08Because you're not having to force them to do what you want them to do, you're just letting
09:12them do what they're supposed to do.
09:15They tend to be more pliable and more compliant.
09:19And then people will start saying, well, you're playing so effortless, you make it look easy.
09:23Well, the truth is when your fingers are doing what you tell them to do, it is easy.
09:28So it's all about how you train them.
09:33And look, all the big shredders of our time were all masters at this.
09:38Yngwie Malmsteen, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, you watch them play and there's an effortlessness
09:44to how they play.
09:46Yes, there's energy there and there's an intensity.
09:49But when they really blaze, you can tell they're not pushing down any
09:54harder than they need to.
09:56There's a real efficiency of motion.
09:58Whereas if you see a beginner guitarist who just started learning last week, try and play
10:01something, you notice they really wrestle the guitar just to try and get a damn note
10:06out. And that's fine.
10:07We all start that way.
10:08We just want to get the damn note out.
10:10But the problem is we never stop trying to get the damn note out.
10:14But if you're willing to risk the notes being a bit dead for a moment and then dial
10:18in the pressure, you can get some really exciting results with your playing.
10:24I remember I actually did this exercise with a student back in 2010.
10:28I did it by accident, too.
10:30The student was working on some Iron Maiden song.
10:33I forget what it was. And there was this big solo run in it and was sitting there trying
10:37to to get him to be able to play it.
10:40And he tried and tried and it kept kind of collapsing on itself.
10:44And I said, OK, let's try and play it so light that all the notes are dead.
10:47You know, let's say if the lick was something like this.
10:56Let's say it was a lick like that and he was struggling with it.
11:02He would have been about 16 years old at the time.
11:04So, you know, teenager, teenage boys tend to push down really hard on the guitar, I
11:09find. Or that testosterone.
11:15So what I said is, well, let's try and play it so light that all the notes are muted.
11:20And so, OK.
11:21And he went.
11:25And it's weird because he failed.
11:27He he didn't succeed at playing the notes lightly, but what he did succeed at was playing
11:32the lick that we're trying to play.
11:33And we both just stopped and looked at each other like we just discovered fire or
11:38something. It was an amazing moment.
11:40And it's one that really changed my guitar playing forever.
11:44All right, Shredders, so if you have any questions about this, please leave it in the
11:48comments and maybe I'll make some more lessons about this subject in future.
11:52And just another reminder about my Yngwie course that you can pre-order.
11:55It's coming out in December.
11:56You can pre-order it and get it for 50% off.
11:59Now, this tone I'm using today is a Helix preset that is available on my website.
12:04So you can get that. You can get my Brian May tone.
12:07You can get my numerous Eddie Van Halen tones.
12:10It's all there waiting for you.
12:17All right, Shredders, thanks for watching.
12:19I'll see you next time.