You were at the top of your game when you put down the guitar yesterday. After a good night’s sleep you are ready to start where you left off by playing at 4000 BPM. You can still see the smoke rising from the guitar from the last pick you melted and subjected to your sadistic picking torture!
You take a quick look at the guitar and decide to pick it up later on that day. However, that time never comes and the guitar sits with its strings slowly drifting out of tune. Before you know it weeks have gone by and you haven’t plucked a string!
You pick it up after weeks of not playing and quickly realize all of your technique seems to have gone where all of the lost guitar picks go. Your calluses are as soft as a peach and your fingers feel stiff. But is your technique you worked so hard to gain really gone forever?
It happens to all of us. Many distractions can get in the way of guitar practicing. But let’s figure out how we can get our guitar, fingers and mind back in to top shape again.
Have your guitar setup
Before playing again consider having a setup done by a good guitar tech. If the guitar has been sitting for a while it may have adjusted and may not play as well as it could.
When was the last time you had your guitar set up anyway? A basic setup consists of readjusting the guitar’s truss rod and action. After a setup, your guitar will play evenly and be in tune all across the neck. A good setup will bring your guitar back to top performance.
Experiment with your guitars action
While having it set up, ask your tech about your guitar’s action. The action is the distance between the strings and the frets. Each guitarist will prefer to have it set at different heights. Some players like the action to be set higher while others like it lower.
Having the action set high will allow you to play harder without buzzing. Some players feel that a high action allows them to grab notes easier when doing vibrato. But the higher the action the harder it is to play faster lines.
Having the action set low will allow you to play faster runs and let you play with a lighter touch. But with a low action you do have to watch out for fret buzz.
Changing the height of the action only takes a minute so ask your tech if they can give you a few samples. Plug in to an amp and take a few minutes to figure out what is most comfortable for your hands.
Change your old rusty strings
After your guitar has been set up, it’s time for new strings. As guitar strings are played they absorb the oils from our hands. This causes them to sound dull and lifeless over time. Putting a new set of strings on is an inexpensive way to breathe new life in to your guitar’s tone.
Need a new set of strings or a spare set to keep in your guitar case? You will wish you had a set when a string breaks right before your next show.
For your electric guitar, our personal favorite is the
Nickel Wound Balanced Tension
strings by D’Addario. These strings are based on traditional gauges, but optimized for balanced tension.
Balanced Tension sets allow for evenly balanced bending, strumming, fretting, picking, and plucking across the neck. We use D’Addario strings because they are affordable, long lasting and sound excellent!
Not a fan of D’Addario? Check out the many other available brands that Zzounds offers. From typical brands like Fender and Dunlop to more obscure brands like Steinberger, there is a string for you. They even have strings in singles if that’s your bag of picks.
Now that your guitar is ready to perform at its best, time for the fun part.
Just start playing again
The best way to begin to get your technique back is to start playing again. This seems like a simple answer right? But, if you haven’t played in months it can be a bit discouraging since you are unable to play at the same level. For the first few days you will experience more finger discomfort than usual. This is because they also have to get back in to playing shape. The finger tips are not as hard as they were when you were playing every day. so, you will really feel it when you bend strings and slide around on the fretboard.
If you really want to see how soft they have become, play your acoustic. Those steel strings hurt after a few minutes!
Everything sounds rough!
In addition to your newly found finger pain, you will notice that everything sounds sloppy. Your timing and coordination will be off, and you will have no endurance for faster playing.
You will feel like everything you worked so hard for went out the window. But not to worry it will all come back soon! The more you continue to play the faster you will get back to where you once were.
Keep in mind your brain is also having to get back in to shape. All of the neurons that tell your muscles what and how fast they can play are rusty and need time to readjust.
The most important thing to remember though is to take it slow. Trying to play to fast at first could cause you to over work your muscles.
Why you lose your world dominating guitar abilities when not playing
The body uses two categories of muscle groups when performing tasks. Tasks such as walking or running use gross motor skills. While smaller tasks such as playing guitar use fine motor skills.
Gross motor skills use large muscle groups and do not degrade. They do not use precise movements. This is why you never forget how to run.
Fine motor skills like playing guitar use very precise movements and degrade over time. So, it doesn’t matter how good you are. If you take a break your skills will degrade.
Now that you know why this happens you will not be frustrated when you start playing again. And it only takes a bit of time for your body to relearn how to melt more guitar picks.
And speaking of time, this next tip will help you get back to playing shape for that next gig even faster!
Practice with a metronome
Another great way to get your technique back is to use a metronome.
Don’t have a metronome? Metronomes come in many different shapes and sizes. From small square devices that will fit in your pocket, apps on smart devices and even a wearable watch. If you are serious about your playing you need to play with one!
If you are looking for a metronome we highly recommend Zzounds. And with their “pay as you play” plan, you can spread payments out over 4 easy payments. Take a look at the many cool metronomes they offer
you will need to start slower than you used to play things and gradually speed it up. This will build up your endurance again. If you try to go to fast your playing will not be clean and you will not be able to keep time.
It is not only your body that needs to readjust to your guitar playing demands, but your muscles also need time to readjust. So it is a good idea to play slow to avoid muscle strain and injury.
If you have certain finger exercises that you used to do take the metronome down 20 BPM and start there.
Don’t have specific exercises for the metronome? Take a look at this lesson that will show you some very affective warmups you can use to build speed and endurance in only ten minutes a day.
Doing these warmups will allow you to build a massive amount of speed and endurance in a very short time.
Practice these slowly with a metronome as you tend to slow down if you are not used to playing these at a certain speed. After a week or so you will begin to notice a huge difference in your abilities.
Why finger exercises are important.
Finger exercises are important for building speed, endurance and avoiding hand injury. They can be thought of as small workouts for your finger muscles. As with any other workout the more consistent you are the more progress you will see.
It is not the length of time you spend on them that will give you the benefits but it is consistency. It is not recommended to do these an hour a day one day a week. But you should do them 10-30 minutes max every time you sit down to practice.
How long does it take to get back in to guitar playing shape?
It will take about a week of playing every day to get your fingers and technique back to where they once were. You will see that you didn’t lose it after all.
You may wish you had not taken that long of a break. But, a good break is all we need sometimes. A long break will give you fresh creativity and bring back the excitement for the guitar.
When we come back from a break it seems we can play things better than we used to. Sometimes it is better to rest than to continue to play for 3 hours a day.
So go wipe the dust off and pick up your guitar and start playing again. Within a week you will have all of your technique back and more.
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