Shoulder

The primary problem, and one that is, to varying degrees, unavoidable is the displacement of the right scapula as the arm reaches forward over your guitar. The classical position is undoubtedly the best way of avoiding this scapula displacement, unfortunately as the guitar has evolved it’s become less practical to always play it this way and we’ve been forced to adopt a less ergonomic position. The photo gallery shows some of the problems that we now face in positioning our right shoulder.

Throughout the relaxation program you learned to switch off areas of tension and allow your body to readjust it’s shape accordingly. That’s what you’ll do again here. Your guitar will provide a distraction but that should be all, the same principles will apply:

• focus on a certain area
• breathe out any tension
• allow your body to reshape itself

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Open the chest

The rhomboids originate on the upper thoracic vertebrae and run obliquely onto the medial border of the scapula. They share a fascial connection on the inside of the medial scapula with serratus anterior, the lower serrations of which extend this oblique line onto the side of the rib cage.

Pectoralis major is the large muscle at the front of your chest. It attaches to the medial part of the clavicle, the sternum and the medial part of the lower ribs and inserts onto the upper arm where it forms the anterior wall of the axilla ( the front of the armpit).

Pec minor's insertions onto the ribs make it a secondary respiratory muscle. When the lungs need extra capacity it pulls the ribs up to increase the space in the chest cavity. If you breathe high up in your chest all of the time, rather than allowing your diaphragm to pump the lungs up and down, you'll be overloading pec minor (see the breathing section in the relaxation pages).

Subscapularis is the large flat muscle that covers the anterior surface of the scapula, attaching on to the front of the humerus. Teres major originates near the inferior angle of the scapula and forms part of the posterior border of the axilla as it rises up onto the front of the humerus. They both medially rotate the arm at the shoulder joint.

Levator Scapulae is situated at the back of your neck, it originates at the first four cervical vertebrae and attaches on to the medial angle of the scapula. At the top it lies under the sternocleidomastoid but most of it is deep to the large trapezius muscle.

As its name suggests it's primary action is to elevate the scapula. It's involved, along with the upper traps, in lateral flexion (unilaterally) and extension (bilaterally) of the neck. It also acts to stabilise the scapula.

Infraspinatus and teres minor lie at the back of the scapula and reach out onto the back of the humerus. Infraspinatus is the big one, covering most of the infraspinous fossa and teres minor sits just below it. Together they rotate the arm laterally. If you stand in the anatomical position and turn your arms so that your palms face the front then your contracting these two muscles.

These two muscles share pec minor's attachment with the coracoid process at the front of the scapula. Bicep brachii is so named because it has two heads, the more lateral long head attaches on the top of the humerus while the short head and the coracobrachialis muscle originate on the scapula. Coracobrachialis lies underneath the bicep inserting onto the inside of the humerus about half way up while the bicep heads converge and insert on to the radius.

Trapezius is the large external muscle that covers most of the back of your shoulder, neck and upper back. It's upper fibres run from the back of your neck down on to the scapula, they are active in shoulder elevation and lateral flexion of the neck. When you grab the large mucle on the top of your shoulder you've got the upper trapezius. The middle fibres pull your shoulder back while the lower ones pull it down and are involved in scapula rotation.