ok, so every now and then ill read how isometric tension or whatever they call it, can hinder your playing. Obviously I am not naive enough to believe that this is a solution to my current playing problems lol, but i do get curious. There will always be some video, where some guy is saying how "look how little pressure it takes for me to fret this note, or this chord" then i do that very same thing, and notice that it takes ALOT! lol they say they barely have to touch their thumb to the back of the neck, i just dont get it. i can stand my guitar up against the couch, and push on a fret and try to get the note to ring, and its a fair amount of pressure with an acoustic guitar around the 5th fret, and my action is not incredibly high(i lowerd it). Now when i put the guitar on my leg, that same amount of pressure must come from somewhere, it is SUPPOSED to come from your thumb and fingers right? not from pulling on the neck of the guitar with your arm, and holding the guitar fixed against your body with the arm of your picking hand.. I know this sounds like a very newbie kind of question, but ive seen a video where a guy frets a barre chord up at the top of the neck, and doesnt even use his thumb, and the only way to get that kind of pressure(at least on my guitar) is to like wrench your guitar against your body, and i just cant imagine that its good for a guitar to do that, i know theyre pretty well made, and actually pretty resilient instruments but, i use my thumb alot, and i was watching this thing where the guys says its bad to use squeeze on the guitar because of tension. just hoping someone could link me to a good article and straighten this out for me

for playing scales and things, i use very little pressure, but for the bar chords it just worries me because this guy is playng bar chords with no thumb lol, mine wud sound like garbage, as i think 90% of the pressure comes from my finger and thumb

This post was edited by blunderwonder2 on Aug 31 2011 03:27am

it takes time (even years) to build up the muscles in your hand to make thick chords effertless push and so you dont strain your hand, i find it also depends on the guitar neck radius and style makes a big diff to me, so i stick to ibanez altogether after i found out the difference b/c they just rule to start with,ha and they have a flat neck so its easyier and more comfortable to play and move around, but thats my pref. i havent had thumb pain sence to stoped playing round or d shape necks, wizard style necks for the win

keep practicing and you'll notice a difference over time.
or try a lower gauge of strings, 9-46, then set your action.
tom hess web site has an article about hand tention and minimizing force useage you could check out.

When you buy a guitar, it's an important thing to look at.

Also the distance from the fret board to the strings.

thanks for the responses, i have 2 guitars, and i dont really notice muh difference even though they have very different neck shapes. The "tension" i was refering to is not guitar related i think though, i just mean, in these artilcles people will tell you your neck needs to be relaxed and your shoulders and your arms etc.. that kind of tension, like in your body. Im just curious because i play guitar in a very weird position, i play it in my computer chair, so i play it like classical style but with a twitst lol