From: bt979@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jeff Preston)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Subject: Re: squeeze my lemon
Date: 29 Sep 1992 00:52:38 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: bt979@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jeff Preston)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, R_GELINAS@UNHH.UNH.EDU ("") says:

>   Yeah, Jeff, squeezing a ball is usually a good way to get hand
>strength.  There's a number of different types of balls available
>(check out a toy store) that would be better than a tennis ball.
>There's one that's especially soft and squeezable, it feels like a, well,
>my 1 year old *really* likes it, 'though he likes to bite it (ouch!).

  Wow, that must *really* be soft. I don't know if something that yielding
would be helpful for hand strength... is it?  I've never been tempted to
squeeze the real thing that hard (yowch!).
  You aren't by any chance talking about a ball similar to those little
rubber "stress reliever" dolls (oh, talk about giving Carol a FIELD DAY)
that are filled with something akin to maple syrup, are you?  Does anyone
here know what I'm talking about?  I will understand if I see someone say
"no, you stopped making sense somewhere around Fourth St. and Main, but..."

>   Something else to think about is maybe you're not letting your hands
>get warmed up enough.  Going from a 12 oz. curl to a 12 fret stretch is
>gonna hurt, and could cause some damage.

  That could be it. But like I said when the "drugs & music" issue of
Musician was being discussed here a while back, alcohol, guitar and "n.n."
do not mix, so the part about draining brewskis doesn't really apply. The
rest very well may.

>  Maybe you're playing the chords wrong.  Sitting and playing can
>put odd stress on your hands.  Placement of your thumb is important.
>I think you know about those sort of things, though.

  I find that a lot of these chords are easier to play with the neck
held closer to vertical than horizontal. I don't sit and play anymore,
unless someone hands me an acoustic and insists that I mess with it...
talk about yer hand cramps!

>  Holding a barre chord for a long time is just plain tough; see if you
>can release it for a second, or maybe play the chord another way.  You
>might want to give yourself some more time to get that pinky working
>up to speed.  Don't expect a semi-useless appendage to come to life
>overnight, right Carol?

  Ah, but these voicings are what I want!  Unfortunately, some of what I'm
doing requires a well-held chord for a length of time -- I guess that's
really what is the killer. With a lot of "strummy" things, you can let off
the chord rhythmically (still retaining the chord shape), but you couldn't
really apply that here... not with some of these tunes. I will look into the 
ball thang, and see what torture I can devise for strengthening my pinky.
I suspect Leonard's suggestion about scales may be helpful, since that's
one area in which I've never quite been able to bring my pinky into play.

>  Or, you can just give up on that fusion crap and play some real music, like..

  Heh!  I play rock 'n' roll, just like the rest of you slobs. It's just 
not bar band material. At least that's the way *I* see it...  ;)

  Jeff ("n.n.")

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