i keep holding my breath

Help!I'maRock!

Help!I'maRock!

Mediocringly Derivative
since i started working out of the Foundations and Mel Bay books, i've noticed that by the time i'm done with the piece i'm working on, my heart is racing. i just figured out what it is. i'm holding my breath when i play. this is causing me to mess up and keep playing the same piece over again. its also making me keep a lot of tension in my shoulders.

so now i'm going to focus on breathing while i play. letting it flow and not tense up. i notice onstage that i grind my teeth a lot and generally look pissed off.

but how do you relax while reading the music, keeping up with the metronome, and generally trying to just get through it? i've already turned down the tempo, and it just makes me hold my breath longer!
 
Whats funny is that I learned that in my piano class in college. I kept screwing up performances and finally the teacher asked me if I realized that I would stop breathing while I played and when I finally had to breathe I would screw up the piece. Next performance I sat down at the piano, made sure I took a deep breath and tried to breathe where the music breathed.

If you think about it, most music happens in complementary phrases - the "question and answer" stuff that I beat to death in the video lessons on my site. You play the first part of a phrase and breathe. Play the answer and breathe. Just like when you sing. Get used to taking a breath every once in a while during the piece.

Then just forget about it. If you think too much about breathing you are not thinking about making music...you just want to get the feeling of breathing while you play.

Also try practicing standing up. When you stand the instrument falls where it should on your strap and instead of slouching over yourself your body has to balance itself to stay upright. For many of my students this simple thing gets them out of many bad habits...especially holding the guitar differently practicing then when you are actually standing up and playing....if you put the guitar on your lap and play sitting down chances are that the strap is not putting the instrument in the same place when you stand up, changing your technique and also causing you to not hold the instrument very ergonomically, causing tension as you try to address the instrument...
 
i'm on the Mel Bay book right now, and i've been playing those exercises/pieces with my classical guitar. i'm only using my thumb to pick, and holding it like i would a regular guitar, instead of in the standard sitting position. so obviously those are wrong, but i also can't stand up with it as it has no strap buttons.
 
Can you try classical guitar posture?

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i could, i need to find something to put my foot on though. got any ideas of household items that are the right height? i really don't want to buy a footstool.
 
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