okay, so... recently i've really become interested in my technique, well, lack of technique. okay, that's not fair, i have technique, it's just complete trashgarbage. i've sort of come to the realization that being self-taught i've developed some really awful habits that are not helping or are directly impeding progress... and in some cases, just causes pain. so let me explain.
back when we all first got into music and got our grubby little hands on some instruments we just played. we had a pick or whatever and just went at it and it was fun. there was no knowledge of technique, good or bad, just show me the riff. and that's really part of the allure of popular instruments, right? you just get one and start playing and that's it, you're doing it. the problem is since you're working off of whatever feels right, feels okay, doesn't hurt as much, or whatever works, you can develop some awful life-long habits. they may not be all that bad, quirky, can stand in your way of progress, or cause injury. wuuff.
about 2 weeks ago i was on the youtubes watching gear videos. i take them all with a massive grain of salt and usually watch them for feature overviews rather than sound bites. but i was watching this one review and the guy was playing well enough but he had this really annoying klikky-klakky sound, and not in a slap or high-gain context, just klakky normal playing. i thought to myself, "yikes that sound terrible... he's got a really bad bug in his technique and probably doesn't even know it"... *ahem*.
so the next day i sit down to start my daily practice and DOUBLE YIKES i had that same klakky sound and i had never noticed it before. well, this got me thinking about it for the rest of the day at work. one thing lead to another... if this was a bad habit that i had been playing for probably since ever, what else in my technique was terrible and causing unknown problems? likely everything. so it was straight to the drawing board with this one.
i started from the bottom, super basic stuff that obviously get now thought like i dunno... how to use my hands, for starters. it's easy to overlook, i use my hands almost everyday and sometimes a few times a day. opening doors, scratching things, waving at cats, etc. it seems reasonable that i'd know how to use my hands to interact with an instrument but it turns out, not really. once i became aware of one thing so many other issues began to appear. for example i carry a lot of tension in my right shoulder when i play for absolutely no reason. when i start playing it tenses up subconsciously and then i start tensing my left hand. then i start doing weird things with my left hand to work around the tension and i start sitting strangely to counter the tense should. what a mess.
so i've started the long and difficult task of correcting all of the trashy behaviors. i know it can be done but it's a lot of deprogramming and reprogramming and that can take a while. the trick will be to make the correction and not slide back into what has been the default. if i can program a new default i'll be in business. so as i've been working on these things i've realized i can't play the stuff i've been playing because i only know how to play them with shit technique. this was a bit...of a tough pill to swallow. i literally feel like i'm starting from day 1. but i think that's okay, becasue the old ways of doing things were not helping or were straight up impeding progress. if this new foundation corrects these problems and sets me up for better playing down the road then i think it's worth it.
