Any exercises or tips on how to reduce fret finger pressure...?

[Boomslang]

I can't remember when it was when I caught an interview with Bill Monroe, years ago, while he was still with us. I don't recall the context, but he said "don't use anymore (finger) pressure then you need to sound the note..." Undoubtedly, that most venerated master must have had some serious tendonitis, etc develop over the years and was passing on that parentheical "pearl of wisdom" to his followings.
I'm a lefty, now playing at an advanced level, and I absolutely feel that the wasted time and energy of "over" fretting is hamstringing me from the next level.
Ideally, looking to get more out of the pick, and less out of the fret (Hand).
Anybody been here before? Any approach worth sharing?

[abuteague]

Boomslang, I care about this as well. I've over done the pressure to the point of forearm pain and I had to take a break from playing. I'll be following the thread to see what ideas other people have.

I picked up an electric 4 string mandolin. It doesn't need much pressure at all. I practice playing the electric with as little pressure as I can get away with. When I pick up the acoustic later I have to ADD pressure to get notes clear and no more.

I find it easier to ADD enough pressure to get a clear note than reducing pressure. I can think about reducing pressure all day, but old habits are hard to break. The electric surprises me and takes me out of those habits.

That is my 2 cents.

[Boomslang]

Well your comments are justifying the clip-on condenser mic I barely took out of the box yesterday, (PRO 35 Caradioid). Won't part with my Weber, but if I don't get on it, it dosen't give me the projection I need. Didn't ever think I'd go electric...

[SincereCorgi]

I don't know how practical this would be for you, but ever since I've been studying violin (the last five months) it's totally made me rethink my fretting hand's pressure and improved my left hand mobility and lightness. Kind of a drastic solution if you don't like violins though...

[Ivan Kelsall]

If the string height on any mandolin is set to where the mandolin sounds ok & the volume is what the player wishes it to be,then the string tension is 'as it is'.There's nothing you can do about it other than lower the string height at the expense of volume,or,maybe use lighter gauge strings.Lowering the height of the strings will make it easier to fret them,& lighter gauge strings don't need as much finger pressure to fret them,but they will change the tone of the instrument. For most players,we set the string height to where we get the optimum volume & still find the strings easy to fret.
Bill Monroe's comment was about not pressing down on the strings any harder than you need to do,might seem obvious to most of us,but i'd bet there are some players,who,quite unconciously, fret the strings far harder than they need to do.I used to do it when i first started playing banjo,which,of all the bluegrass instruments requires the least pressure.I used to fret the strings so hard it hurt.The high string tension on a mandolin does need quite a bit of pressure in order to fret the strings,mainly at the top 2 frets.That's one of the reasons i hate the key of Bb. Pressing down on that 1st fret,especially if you have large hands,is a PITA !.
If any players are experiencing undue pain of any sort,then other than adjusting the set up of their instrument or using lighter gauge strings, all they can do is back off for a while & rest. Meanwhile,have a close look (feel) to determine if you are using more fretting pressure than you need,
Ivan

[Bauzl]

Hi Boomslang,

one tip I received from a guitar teacher is to try to fret the strings so soft that they will buzz. As I suffer from the same problem, when I first tried, I just could not have the strings buzzing.

Cheers and never let the frets press to hard against your fingers ;-)

[pglasse]

In my experience, for many of us, this happens more often when we're trying to play loud, thus picking harder than we might when practicing solo. For some reason picking harder often makes us tend to press harder with the fretting hand. Even though the practice makes everything (speed, fluidity, fret wear, hand health) worse.

Check it out the next time you're in that loud jam. If need be, ease with that left hand. Just awareness can help.

So, one exercise is to practice playing a given passage at a variety of volume levels while consciously maintaining consistently light left hand finger pressure. I hope this helps.

[Pete Martin]

[Joel Glassman]

I've had violin students who try to mash the string down on to
the fingerboard. We usual do the same kind of exercise Pete
demonstrated in his video. My "pearl of wisdom" for violin:
You can finger a string so that your fingertips touch the
fingerboard, but the string barely does. [Depends on how hard
your calluses are.] Doing this gives a sound very close
to a clean tone. Slightly more pressure is all you need
for a strong clean tone.

[stevehorn]

I've heard many good points here. One mention of string height, another of string weight. I would suggest finding a luthier to set up your mandolin, such as Bryant at Charley's Guitar Shoppe in Dallas or Greg at Little D Guitars in Denton (that's two in Texas within 30 minutes of each other so I hope a good choice is nearby you). The bridge height is one consideration. There is also the height of the nut and the truss rod tension that affects how the instrument plays. A skillful technician can do absolute wonders.

Pain often comes as a result of repetitious motion AND it comes from lack of muscular support of your skeletal framework. Two criterea that might seem to disagree with each other depending on how you think, but each can have an impact.

Regarding muscular strength: are you passionate or a hard worker....do you play only on weekends? There can be much benefit found by playing a little each day, maybe a minute or so if you don't touch your mandolin during the week. As time goes on, add more time but with a goal of regular application, daily or every other day. This helps build and maintain in small increments.

Regarding damage from repetitious action: I find switching instruments (if you can afford more than one) does wonders for me (particularly in breaking bad habits). Going from an instrument with a higher setup to one with a lower setup often gives me "permission" to relax. Dimensions being so small on mandolin, there can be significant differences even in similar instruments. Try an instrument with a wider nut. You may hate it! Also changing strap positioning, height and attachment point may point out that the position of the instrument in relation to your body (short/long, thin/wide). Do you attach to the scroll? Try the nut, try a button at the heel, etc. This puts the instrument in different positions and could require less effort (guaranteed tension) simply to hold the instrument. Similarly, switching the angle of the instrument, alignment of left hand with the neck (are your knuckles parallel or not, try either, switch and see).

Any of these may slow a player down a little or feel like an awkward challenge. Maybe that's a good thing. Sometimes slowing down is the perfect answer as a rocking chair is much better than a headstone. At the same time a challenge can be refreshing if you can relax with it.

Everyone's different so I'm not at all certain this will help.

[JLewis]

Ideally, looking to get more out of the pick, and less out of the fret (Hand).
Anybody been here before? Any approach worth sharing?

Disclaimer: I'm somewhere between beginner and intermediate, so don't have room to pontificate, but...

I had the good luck to find a good teacher. He helped me accept that continually returning to basics (boring at first, but I've come to appreciate their value) is the price of what I want to achieve. Whatever other value there is in scales (major, minor, walking thirds, pentatonic) they eventually become something we can do almost mindlessly. And it's the "mindlessly" part that's important. That's what allows total focus on whatever technique/concern I need to work on this time. In this case, finger pressure. It's worked for me, though I must confess that every now and then I realize, "Oh man, I got to work on that some more."

[mjm1974]

I'm interested in this topic very much so. I've only been learning to play for about 4 months now. I have had a great teacher/mentor. One thing he has told me numerous times is that I mash them strings way too hard. He said that everybody does it in the beginning. I have tried to make myself ease up when I'm playing chords, but when I'm playing the few songs that I know and getting into it, I find myself pushing really hard. My ring finger has string indentions in it and my callous's have peeled 4 times in 4 months. I've got 2 instuments now, and they play differently so I get that post about switching it up.

[John Flynn]

Too much finger pressure is pretty common when you start, and sometimes even later on. It not only messes up your playing, it can really eat up your frets.

I have an off-the-wall thing that helps me. I have a solid-body electric uke strung and tuned like a 4-string mandolin. I use it to practice late at night without making a lot of noise. But it also lets me play with really, really light finger pressure, way less than even an electric 4-string mando. After I've been playing it a while, when I pick up my mandolin again, I almost need to force myself to press harder, rather than having to remind myself to lighten up.

[Barbara Shultz]

One tip that I'm amazed how much difference it makes, is the position that you are sitting (assuming you are sitting) and holding the mando when you are playing it. I have found that if you sit straight up, or even lean slightly forward (no leaning back) and have the mando fretboard either facing straight forward, or even very slightly down, NOT where you can see the fretboard and watch your fingers!), it seems to make a difference in how loosely you can hold the mando, and reduces the pressure you exert when fretting!

[OldSausage]

The best way I have found to deal with this is to play as slowly as I can, and instead of trying to build up speed when I'm learning a new tune, I think about increasing the ease of playing first. Some famous musician once said something like "there are no difficult pieces, they're either easy or impossible". Because there's so much emphasis on speed in the genres we tend to play in, it's easy to go fast too soon, and I'm not saying that you shouldn't ever play fast - you have to if you want to build up speed. But the flip side of this is that if you never learn the tune slow enough to the point where it is ridiculously easy to play, you will never play it well and accurately up to speed.

So, learn some new tunes, learn them as slowly as you can, and when you start to improve on them, don't start speeding them up, instead focus on ways you can make them as easy as possible to play, with light left hand pressure, relaxed posture, and good tone. Think about what you're doing with every part of your body, because it all contributes. Video or audio record yourself to check with reality. Then when you bring them up to speed, you already have everything you need in place.

[mandocrucian]

I've put my 3 cents in on this topic numerous times over the years......

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:...er+pressure%22

[Duff]

This worked for me when I was learning not to press too hard......it only takes a little more pressure to stop the buzz not a lot

[Duff]

oops!

[Javan M.]

I'm glad I've stumbled upon this thread. In the past few days since I Pete's video I've managed to get rid of the pain that's been bugging the first joint of my ring finger by reducing the pressure and can already play a good deal faster. Thanks Pete!