There is nothing like having a clenched muscle in my right shoulder to make me feel like resigning quietly from all forms of human interaction and activity. It’s a permanent reminder that something is wrong, that I haven’t fixed, as well as that I did something dumb, that I don’t know what it was.
Yes, I’ve had a massage. The poor girl had to take a break from digging her elbows in to the concrete slab that is my back if I leave it too long.
No, the massage didn’t make it go away. It was only a couple of days later I realised what had brought it on.
I’ve been playing the guitar standing up. With a strap. And I’ve been tightening a muscle in my right shoulder to stabilise my right arm, which is the one attached to the plectrum. That’s what suddenly went clench at the weekend. It’s a sod to get to, and was just one of many tight muscles that the masseuse was dealing with.
There are reasons for standing up and playing an electric guitar, mostly to do with access to the frets above the twelfth. When sitting down, the body blocks the left arm from reaching the higher-octave frets comfortably.
The trick is to learn how to hold one’s right arm without clenching any muscles, and also to get the right hang height and angle for the guitar.
The angle matters. The more towards the vertical the fretboard, the greater the difference in distance from the bridge one picks the strings: the 6th E string will be twangier than the 1st E string.
It also affects the angle at which the left arm and wrist need to be to make barre chords.
And you thought this was simple. You know, pick up my guitar and play.
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