Self Hypnosis and Paraliminals

Hypnosis can be a very powerful tool for dealing with anything in life and guitar is no exception. This is an option that isn't usually considered or even known about because people don't know how feasible it is. Self hypnosis pretty much just involves lying down and listening to a track recorded by a hypnotist. I've used it to deal with everything from stage anxeity to musical creativity and it's saved me a lot of work and frustration. You can listen to self hypnosis tracks either during the day, before you go to sleep or while you hold your instrument (playing will usually be too distracting).

Paraliminals are a special type of self hypnosis that play you two tracks at once, one in the left ear and one in the right ear (you have to be wearing headphones), this is significant because each ear is connected to a different half of the brain and each half processes information in different ways. One channel of the track will be geared towards your creative right brain, speaking in images and metaphors while the other will be optimised for your logical left brain, speaking in concrete academic terms.

Here are some self hypnosis tracks and paraliminals that I've found useful:

Self Hypnosis for musicians:
http://www.sambrown.co.uk/

Paraliminals:

The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar

The Principles is one of the only methods that deal with the subject of guitarist muscle tension in any level of detail. Created by Jamie Andreas, if there's any one piece of learning material that you ever need to have it's this book, it outlines an entire process for building solid and flawless technique. This blog that I write can be considered like an add-on to the Principles method. Just like the Principles will help you use any other learning material you may already own, my tips will help you use the Principles.

More information available at Jamie's website:
http://www.guitarprinciples.com/

Posture

We've all been told many times that we need to sit up straight and how important good posture is but why? When we sit up straight it eventually becomes uncomfortable and good posture shouldn't be uncomfortable.

In reality good posture can never be a static position, the reason for this is that posture's number one enemy, gravity, is a constant force acting on our bodies, slowly crushing our internal organs and spinal columns with our own weight. If we want to counteract gravity, we need to produce an equal and opposite force that acts upwards and to do that we need to use our own muscles. This may seem easy but the most important part of this upwards motion we need to produce is that it has to be constant, just like gravity, you need to be doing it all the time, especially when playing guitar. This will get easier with time, since after experiencing the comfort and power of good posture, slouching will become less comfortable than sitting up straight.

Ok so we know what needs to be done, but how exactly do we do it? Where does this anti-gravity force come from? Well you don't need to think about every muscle you're using, just imagine your head softly floating upwards, like a balloon, this'll pull your spinal column straight and take a whole load off your shoulders (namely, your head) freeing up your sides, arms and fingers for relaxed control.

There are a few things to watch out for while doing this:

-Overdoing it, always do about 80%-90% of what you think you could be doing, exerting yourself will defeat the point of being relaxed.

-Lift your head from the point where it connects to your spine so you'll be looking more downwards than upwards, tilting your head back will pinch an important group of nerves that runs along the back of your spine through your neck and you'll feel pain. Like slouching, most people are doing this all the time, they're just used to the pain and tension that it brings.

-Avoid becoming stiff, every once in a while shake off any tension along your back, movement is good for relaxation provided it's not too violent.

Look up The Alexander Technique for a fuller description and a whole list of benefits that this simple exercise will bring to your everyday life:
http://www.alexandertechnique.com/

Breathing

Here it is, the number one habit to internalise, comfortable and constant breathing, it might sound basic and it is, but most players are restricting their breathing when they play. This tendency causes a lot of problems especially for people who want to sing at the same time. If you don't think you have any problems with this, I urge you to examine yourself and really pay attention during tough sections, people don't realise they're doing this because it has come to feel natural.

Here are some things to think about:

- Are you always breathing while you play? You need to make it happen.

- Use your diaphragm and picture your lungs expanding downwards, you should be breathing into your belly, not your chest.

- Breathe in and out through your nose, not your mouth
(more on this: http://www.breathing.com/articles/nose-breathing.htm)

- Is it easier to play on the exhale or the inhale? Practice each one seperately.

- Do you hold your breath during other daily activities? If you have a stressful job or you spend a lot of time in the same position (i.e. sitting in front of a computer) paying attention to your breath and making sure it flows easily will ensure you don't approach the guitar already tense from a tough day.