Article: The small muscles at the base of your skull right above where your neck meets your head are your occipital muscles. Tightness here is responsible for a lot of pain and tension, and sometimes headaches and dizziness. The best way to relieve these muscles is with ball massage. Use a tennis ball, racquetball, small foam roller, or anything with a similar shape. Lie flat on your back face up and place the ball under your neck right at the base of your skull on either side of your spine. Turn your head side to side to roll over different areas. Do this for about 5 minutes, and be sure to massage both sides. Stand up straight. Tilt your chin to your chest. Interlace your fingers and place them behind your head. Do NOT pull downward on your head, but allow the weight of your arms to apply gentle downward pressure on your head and stretch the back of your neck. Hold for 30 seconds. Repeat 3 times or more. Stand or sit up straight. Keeping your nose facing straight ahead, bring your right ear to your right shoulder. Rest your right hand on the side of your head and allow the weight of your arm to gently pull, stretching the left side of your neck. Again, do not actively pull on your head just let the weight of your arm apply gentle traction. If your shoulders slump forward, bend your left elbow and place your left arm behind your back with your palm facing outward (when your head is tilting to the right). Do this for 30 seconds on each side, repeating 3 times. Your sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscle is that strong, thin muscle that stretches from right behind your ear down to about the middle of your throat (it connects to the end of your collarbone close to your midline), creating the little V-shaped divot at the front of your throat. You should be able to feel this strong band of muscle. Find it and gently massage it by pinching and rolling it lightly between your fingers. Go up and down the length of the muscle. Don't push too deep into your neck where you might hit other tender places. The massaging motion is like gently pulling or lifting the SCM away from other structures in your neck. It might help you find and relax the muscle by turning your head in the opposite direction, i.e. turn your head to the left with your nose staying straight ahead to feel your right SCM. Walk into an open doorway. Place your right arm against the right side of the door with your palm facing the door. Bend your elbow so that it is in a 90 angle, with your forearm flush with the side of the door. Take a small step forward with your right foot. Keep your forearm touching the door. You should feel a stretch in your pectoral muscles at the front of your chest near your armpit. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds and repeat on the opposite side. Chiropractors and massage therapists are experts at understanding how posture problems cause pain, and how to fix them. See a massage therapist or have a chiropractic session and ask about stretches and exercises you can do at home.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Relieve your occipital muscles with a massage ball. Regularly stretch the back of your neck. Stretch the sides of your neck. Release the SCM muscle at the front of your neck. Stretch your chest muscles. Speak to a professional body-worker for advice.
Article: Tighten the capo as close as you can to the fret without being on top of it. This will prevent your capo from pulling your strings out of tune. Tightening the capo too much can cause a buzzing sound and will pull your banjo strings out of tune. Instead, tighten them just enough to get a clear sound out of your strings when you play them. Strum a string as you tighten the capo until you get a clear sound from the string. To use a sliding capo, turn the small screw on the top of the capo counter-clockwise until it's loose. You can then slide the capo back and forth until it's on the fret that you want. A Shubb sliding capo must be installed by a professional and requires screwing into the neck of your guitar. Screw capos work like sliding capos, except they don't slide across the neck and must be manually moved. Position the screw capo where you want it, then tighten it by turning the screw on the top of the capo clockwise. Reagan capos are small moveable capos that you can adjust with a screw on the top and require no installation. A clamp capo is held together by tension from a spring. To open the capo, squeeze both of the handles in your hand until the front of it opens. While it's open, position it onto the neck of your guitar on the fret that you want to put it on. To use the railroad spikes, pull the fifth string under the railroad spike so that the spike rests on top of it. This will hold down the string at the railroad spike and change the note that you're playing on your fifth string. Elastic capos will have a hook that fits into the hole on the capo to tighten it. Wrap the capo around your desired fret, then take the hook on the capo and loop it through the hole. When applying this capo, make sure that it's tight enough to hold down the bottom four strings on your guitar.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Put the capo close to the fret. Don't tighten the capo too much. Unscrew and slide a sliding capo. Turn the screw on top of the capo clockwise to tighten it. Squeeze the handle on a clamp capo to open it. Pull and position the fifth string under a railroad spike. Wrap an elastic capo around the frets.
Article: To make a fan fold, you will need a pressed square napkin, a flat surface to work on, and either a glass or plate. You can either place the finished fan fold on a dinner plate, or in an empty glass. You can use either cloth or paper napkins, though cloth will look more elegant and refined. Cloth napkins are also reusable so you can continue to use them for other special occasions. The bigger the napkin, the larger your fan will be. Smooth the napkin out by hand so there aren't any wrinkles. The napkin should now be a rectangle. Orient the open half where the two edges meet towards you. Starting on one end, take approximately two inches of fabric and fold it in towards the center. You will continue folding the napkin like an accordion, taking two inches of fabric and folding it towards the center of the napkin. Stop folding when you have approximately four inches of unfolded napkin left. Now, fold the napkin in half horizontally bringing the two bottom edges of the fan together. Your fan should now be folded in half with the extra four inches of unfolded napkin hanging on the inside fold of the fan. If the unfolded napkin is on the outside of the fan, unfold the fan and refold it the opposite way. Take the unfolded corners that are part of the four inches of unfolded napkin section. Tuck the top corners unfolded napkin section into where the two halves of the fan meet. This will make a triangular edge along the unfolded section. Make sure to tuck it securely to make a sturdy base. Let the napkin fan out into a semi-circle. The base that you've created from folding the unfolded corners of the napkin will act as a base to keep your napkin fan standing. Be aware that this fan is delicate. The fan may fall and unfold if you try to move the dinner plate that it is resting on. You can use the same basic technique of the standing fold to create a fan that can be placed inside of a glass. Rather than leaving four unfolded inches, fold the entire napkin like an accordion. Now that the napkin is fully folded, take one end of the fan and fold approximately one inch over. Allow the fan to open up. Place the folded end of the fan into your glass and spread the rest of the fan out. This technique is called the goblet fan.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Collect your materials. Set a pressed square napkin onto a dinner table. Fold the napkin in half horizontally. Fold the napkin 2 inches in from the side. Grasp the fan on either edge. Grasp the unfolded corners of the napkin. Set the base of the fan on the plate. Modify the fan, if desired.