Sunday, September 26, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
HOW you practice guitar is EVERYTHING
HOW you practice the guitar is the single greatest factor that determines whether you will become a good guitar player, or struggle endlessly to play. "Good" practice makes you better at being a good guitarist - "bad" practice makes you better at being bad guitarist!
"Practicing" the guitar essentially means "training" the fingers. Like training a dog, the fingers are very capable of learning new skills, but they must be taught on their terms.
The most important thing to do when we practice is to teach the fingers to move with relaxed control. If we do not know how to train the fingers to have relaxed control as they move, we will not play well, it is as simple as that.
The muscles that operate the fingers must be taught in a certain way in order for the fingers to move smoothly and easily on the guitar. That is because the muscles and nerves of our body follow certain "laws" when it comes to learning new movements. If you do not follow these laws when you practice, your muscles, and the fingers they are connected to, will struggle to play the guitar. They will struggle for one very simple reason:
Bad practice on guitar ties up your fingers, and all the muscles needed to play (which means the entire upper body) with tension - and the fingers simply cannot operate when they are full of crippling tension.
The following video will go into a bit more detail......
Thursday, September 9, 2010
The G7 Chord On Guitar: Tips
This supposedly "easy" chord can be quite a challenge to do easily. It requires the first finger to be flexed back all the way to the 1st string, while the 3rd finger is stretched out to the 6th! This is not easy to do for most beginner fingers!
Here are some tips for doing this chord.
Keep in mind that the best thing for any guitar player is to develop the muscles and joints of the hand and fingers properly, then everything will get easier to play on the guitar. The best way to do that is to practice the "Foundation Exercises" from "The Principles Of Correct Practice For Guitar".
First of all, realize that the position the hand needs to assume for this "simple" chord is quite demanding. The most important things are to have the hand and wrist out away from the neck, not hugging it, AND, the distal joints (the last joint of the finger). Those distal joints, especially on the 2nd finger must be VERY flexed, in fact, about a 90 degree angle for that 2nd finger.
Now, it does depend on the type of guitar neck you are playing on. I am doing it on a classical, so the neck is wide, and the distal joint must be very bent. Lack of bend in the distal joints is common, and is a basic flaw in "form" for many people.
Also, some good news. You don't HAVE to do that 2nd finger note on that chord, I usually don't. It is the "3rd" of the chord, harmonically speaking, and is already present in the open 2nd string, so playing it actually adds nothing to the chord (you only need one 3rd).
Of course, you will need the same finger ability for other things, so you should still pay attention to what I said, but if you need the chord for a gig this Saturday, I'd take the easy way out it I were you!
Here are some tips for doing this chord.
Keep in mind that the best thing for any guitar player is to develop the muscles and joints of the hand and fingers properly, then everything will get easier to play on the guitar. The best way to do that is to practice the "Foundation Exercises" from "The Principles Of Correct Practice For Guitar".
G7 Chord with 3 fingers Notice the extreme bend in the distal joints (tip joints) which allows for clearance of the adjacent strings. |  |
G7 Chord with 2 fingers Here the 2nd finger is above the strings, we don't really need it for this chord. |  |
First of all, realize that the position the hand needs to assume for this "simple" chord is quite demanding. The most important things are to have the hand and wrist out away from the neck, not hugging it, AND, the distal joints (the last joint of the finger). Those distal joints, especially on the 2nd finger must be VERY flexed, in fact, about a 90 degree angle for that 2nd finger.
Now, it does depend on the type of guitar neck you are playing on. I am doing it on a classical, so the neck is wide, and the distal joint must be very bent. Lack of bend in the distal joints is common, and is a basic flaw in "form" for many people.
Also, some good news. You don't HAVE to do that 2nd finger note on that chord, I usually don't. It is the "3rd" of the chord, harmonically speaking, and is already present in the open 2nd string, so playing it actually adds nothing to the chord (you only need one 3rd).
Of course, you will need the same finger ability for other things, so you should still pay attention to what I said, but if you need the chord for a gig this Saturday, I'd take the easy way out it I were you!
Monday, September 6, 2010
How to get better at Shifting Positions On Guitar
There are five chapters in “The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar”, and each one begins with a statement that practicing guitarists would do well to keep in mind. One of them is
The point of this statement is this: there are many things about playing the guitar that are taken for granted. They are ASSUMED to be “easy”, so they are never thought about, never investigated, never paid attention to. These movements are never studied as to what is REALLY going on in the body when they are done, and so, many of the implications of these movements are never appreciated, or even noticed. So, all kinds of bad things can be happening to you as a player, simply because you don’t know that the thing you are not paying attention to, is CAUSING these bad things.
One of the biggest candidates for this “lack of appreciation” is the physical act of shifting positions on the guitar. We all learn to shift up to the higher positions on the neck somewhere in our development. Maybe we learn it in a method book as part of learning to read music in the higher positions, or maybe we learn it as rock guitarists playing pentatonics around the neck. If we are lucky, somebody will mention the idea of guide fingers, so at least we’ll know enough to leave a finger on the string to guide us into the new position, but that is as far as any intelligent examination of the subject will go. And because of that, we will have a world of problems waiting for us in our playing years that lie ahead.
It must be understood that the arm is quite a big piece of meat! It weighs a lot, and it takes a lot of force to set it in motion, and to stop it once it is in motion. It gathers quite a bit of momentum as it moves, especially if it moves fast. When we come to a stop in our new position, all of that force must be opposed by the muscles responsible for the OPPOSITE action on the bones that just moved, in other words, we must slam on the brakes!
After appreciating the fact that a shift of position on the guitar is a “large” move, made with the whole limb, (as opposed to “small” moves of individual fingers), we need to notice and appreciate another basic fact of playing the guitar: a movement from the upper frets to the lower frets is MORE DIFFICULT than a move from the lower frets to the higher frets (in general, some circumstances could reverse this). This is because in a move from higher position to lower, the arm, with all its weight, is moving AWAY from the body. As all that weight moves away from the body, it needs to be supported skillfully, and most often, it is not. Most often what happens is that the opposite side of the body, usually the right side doing the sounding of notes with pick or fingers, will merely TENSE UP in a feeble attempt to deal with the stress of the outward moving arm. Of course, control of the pick or fingers is severely compromised after this happens. That is why you will notice, if you pay attention, that very often mistakes will occur after a quick shift down the neck, from high to low positions.
Here are a few things to do in order to improve your Shifting ability:
“When you see the complexity of what you think is simple,
you will see the simplicity of what you think is complex.”
The point of this statement is this: there are many things about playing the guitar that are taken for granted. They are ASSUMED to be “easy”, so they are never thought about, never investigated, never paid attention to. These movements are never studied as to what is REALLY going on in the body when they are done, and so, many of the implications of these movements are never appreciated, or even noticed. So, all kinds of bad things can be happening to you as a player, simply because you don’t know that the thing you are not paying attention to, is CAUSING these bad things.
One of the biggest candidates for this “lack of appreciation” is the physical act of shifting positions on the guitar. We all learn to shift up to the higher positions on the neck somewhere in our development. Maybe we learn it in a method book as part of learning to read music in the higher positions, or maybe we learn it as rock guitarists playing pentatonics around the neck. If we are lucky, somebody will mention the idea of guide fingers, so at least we’ll know enough to leave a finger on the string to guide us into the new position, but that is as far as any intelligent examination of the subject will go. And because of that, we will have a world of problems waiting for us in our playing years that lie ahead.
It must be understood that the arm is quite a big piece of meat! It weighs a lot, and it takes a lot of force to set it in motion, and to stop it once it is in motion. It gathers quite a bit of momentum as it moves, especially if it moves fast. When we come to a stop in our new position, all of that force must be opposed by the muscles responsible for the OPPOSITE action on the bones that just moved, in other words, we must slam on the brakes!
After appreciating the fact that a shift of position on the guitar is a “large” move, made with the whole limb, (as opposed to “small” moves of individual fingers), we need to notice and appreciate another basic fact of playing the guitar: a movement from the upper frets to the lower frets is MORE DIFFICULT than a move from the lower frets to the higher frets (in general, some circumstances could reverse this). This is because in a move from higher position to lower, the arm, with all its weight, is moving AWAY from the body. As all that weight moves away from the body, it needs to be supported skillfully, and most often, it is not. Most often what happens is that the opposite side of the body, usually the right side doing the sounding of notes with pick or fingers, will merely TENSE UP in a feeble attempt to deal with the stress of the outward moving arm. Of course, control of the pick or fingers is severely compromised after this happens. That is why you will notice, if you pay attention, that very often mistakes will occur after a quick shift down the neck, from high to low positions.
Here are a few things to do in order to improve your Shifting ability:
- Practice all shifts EXTREMELY slowly a number of times during each practice session on the material containing the shifts. Focus on the large muscles of the upper arm, chest, shoulders AND upper back. This is where all the muscles are that are moving the bones we call our arms. For book users, that means using NO TEMPO PRACTICE and POSING.
- As you move slowly, feel that arm weight going into and through the body, and then into the chair and floor. That is how the weight should be supported, instead of by hardening the muscles.
- MAKE SURE you do not RAISE your shoulders at all during a shift.
- Try to maintain contact with a finger on a string, or the side of the hand grazing the neck (extremely effective) as the hand/arm moves down.
- Focus attention on the neck and shoulders as you make your shift, the slower you practice the movement the better.
- Focus attention on your breath as you move. It is common to hold the breath on shifts!
- Analyze your starting and ending positions. Find any common fingers you can leave on the string as guide fingers. If there are none, create an “artificial guide finger”, by placing an unused finger on an unused string before or during the shift, to act as a guide finger.
- Before you make your move, visualize the new position, whether it is a chord or one note, AND begin to form it with your fingers AS SOON as you release the note or notes that make up your starting position. Have all fingers READY by the time you arrive at your new position. Very often, the problem with a shift is that the hand and fingers get to the new position, and THEN they start to scramble for their notes. They need to ALREADY be in position, close to the string and note they are to play, AND in their proper state of readiness for the notes they are to play.
- WATCH the fingers as you practice the move slowly. Take a peek at your right hand from time to time also; make sure the pick or fingers are not floating away from the strings (a sign of tension in the upper arm).
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Are You REALLY Getting Better On Guitar?
As the years go by in the life of a player, there are two kinds of growth we can experience. Both are necessary for our development as musicians and guitarists. I call them Vertical Growth, and Horizontal Growth.
Here is a common scenario. A person comes in for lessons after already playing for awhile. Maybe they have played for a year, maybe a few years, maybe many years. I say, "play something for me, something you are comfortable with". Now a few different things may happen. They may play nicely, strumming and singing, maybe even throw in a few runs. So I see that for the level they are at, they play well. I then try to find out what they are here for. "What do you want to do, that you find you can't do."
They may say "Well, I play lots of things, but I play them all the same way. I want to learn how to do chord melody solos, more interesting chords and strums, and also improve my fingerpicking so I can try some classical.". In other words, they want to move to a higher level as a player. They want to make VERTICAL GROWTH.
They don't want to continue to learn new songs and play them the same way. That would be HORIZONTAL GROWTH. Everyone can always make Horizontal Growth, even on their own. You just learn more material, but you don't actually play any differently, musically or technically. Vertical progress as a player is the tough one. It requires what is usually considered "work", although I have always found it enjoyable, although challenging.
Here is another even more common scenario. Someone comes in for lessons after playing for awhile, and when I ask them to play, they make a couple of excuses, and then they play really badly! Then I ask them to play something else, and they play that really badly! This is the person unable to create Vertical Growth.The reason they cannot raise their level as a player, is because they don't know how to practice to solve problems and achieve results. Also, because of this, there is no solid foundation of technique for Vertical Growth to be built upon. So there is only Horizontal Growth, more things played the same way, in this case, badly. Do you know how many young players I've seen who play only the beginning of a hundred songs, and play them badly? A whole lot!
Or, how many people playing classical who go from piece to piece, struggling with and mutilating pieces as they go? Lots. It is sad, and unnecessary.
If you love the guitar, and are dedicated to your own development as a player, if you are dying to play the way the guitarists you admire play, you must know how to create Vertical Growth. This is done through an understanding of HOW TO PRACTICE. I am of course talking about REAL PRACTICE, not repetitive "run throughs" that only re-enforce the muscle tensions causing the problems you already have.
From my experience as a player and as a teacher, it is extremely difficult to create Vertical Growth, once bad, or insufficient practice has locked in tension and bad habits. The good news is, it is not impossible. In fact, the word difficult is not the best word. I use it only because we have such a tendency to under-estimate the intensity of concentration it takes to undo past damage. A better word is challenging. And if you want to keep getting better and better as a guitarist, you had better learn to love challenges! As Mark Twain said "Life is one damn thing after another", and that is what playing and practicing are. One damn problem to deal with after another. But as we learn to actually deal with and solve those problems, what a sweet reward we earn.
In fact, it is not the problems we face in our playing that are really the obstacle to our growth. It is the growing feeling of frustration and helplessness we experience as time continues to go by, and we see no fundamental improvement. We start to feel helpless. We may not admit this feeling to ourselves, we only notice that, for some reason, we are beginning to lose our motivation to practice.
When we learn how to really practice, we start to feel powerful. Problems and challenges don't frighten us, they excite us. Because we know that we can look forward to those problems getting smaller and smaller, weaker and weaker, as we continue to apply The Principles of Correct Practice. It is important to realize that the quality of our Vertical Growth determines the quality of our Horizontal Growth.
Any ability we have gained as players has been because of our Vertical Growth. If our Vertical Growth has been shaky, with weaknesses built in, (which was true of myself, and I think, most players), that shakiness will be in everything we play, so our Horizontal Growth doesn't do us much good, it just keeps us busy, feeling like we are making progress because we are learning a new song or piece. This is why so many teachers turn the page and assign new material to a student, even though the student can't play the material from this week. The teacher doesn't really know how to create Vertical Growth, and so is trying to keep a feeling of movement going. Most students, if they are paying attention, will catch on to this.
If Vertical Growth is strong, then all new material learned will be strong, and will help you grow as a musician, as you absorb new music, and are able to play it well. This is the kind of Horizontal Growth we want.
If you want to learn how to have this Vertical Growth as a regular experience for you, I invite you to look around Guitar Principles website for more information about "The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar" . It is the approach I have found to work for myself, for my students, and anyone else who uses it.
They may say "Well, I play lots of things, but I play them all the same way. I want to learn how to do chord melody solos, more interesting chords and strums, and also improve my fingerpicking so I can try some classical.". In other words, they want to move to a higher level as a player. They want to make VERTICAL GROWTH.
They don't want to continue to learn new songs and play them the same way. That would be HORIZONTAL GROWTH. Everyone can always make Horizontal Growth, even on their own. You just learn more material, but you don't actually play any differently, musically or technically. Vertical progress as a player is the tough one. It requires what is usually considered "work", although I have always found it enjoyable, although challenging.
Here is another even more common scenario. Someone comes in for lessons after playing for awhile, and when I ask them to play, they make a couple of excuses, and then they play really badly! Then I ask them to play something else, and they play that really badly! This is the person unable to create Vertical Growth.The reason they cannot raise their level as a player, is because they don't know how to practice to solve problems and achieve results. Also, because of this, there is no solid foundation of technique for Vertical Growth to be built upon. So there is only Horizontal Growth, more things played the same way, in this case, badly. Do you know how many young players I've seen who play only the beginning of a hundred songs, and play them badly? A whole lot!
Or, how many people playing classical who go from piece to piece, struggling with and mutilating pieces as they go? Lots. It is sad, and unnecessary.
If you love the guitar, and are dedicated to your own development as a player, if you are dying to play the way the guitarists you admire play, you must know how to create Vertical Growth. This is done through an understanding of HOW TO PRACTICE. I am of course talking about REAL PRACTICE, not repetitive "run throughs" that only re-enforce the muscle tensions causing the problems you already have.
From my experience as a player and as a teacher, it is extremely difficult to create Vertical Growth, once bad, or insufficient practice has locked in tension and bad habits. The good news is, it is not impossible. In fact, the word difficult is not the best word. I use it only because we have such a tendency to under-estimate the intensity of concentration it takes to undo past damage. A better word is challenging. And if you want to keep getting better and better as a guitarist, you had better learn to love challenges! As Mark Twain said "Life is one damn thing after another", and that is what playing and practicing are. One damn problem to deal with after another. But as we learn to actually deal with and solve those problems, what a sweet reward we earn.
In fact, it is not the problems we face in our playing that are really the obstacle to our growth. It is the growing feeling of frustration and helplessness we experience as time continues to go by, and we see no fundamental improvement. We start to feel helpless. We may not admit this feeling to ourselves, we only notice that, for some reason, we are beginning to lose our motivation to practice.
When we learn how to really practice, we start to feel powerful. Problems and challenges don't frighten us, they excite us. Because we know that we can look forward to those problems getting smaller and smaller, weaker and weaker, as we continue to apply The Principles of Correct Practice. It is important to realize that the quality of our Vertical Growth determines the quality of our Horizontal Growth.
Any ability we have gained as players has been because of our Vertical Growth. If our Vertical Growth has been shaky, with weaknesses built in, (which was true of myself, and I think, most players), that shakiness will be in everything we play, so our Horizontal Growth doesn't do us much good, it just keeps us busy, feeling like we are making progress because we are learning a new song or piece. This is why so many teachers turn the page and assign new material to a student, even though the student can't play the material from this week. The teacher doesn't really know how to create Vertical Growth, and so is trying to keep a feeling of movement going. Most students, if they are paying attention, will catch on to this.
If Vertical Growth is strong, then all new material learned will be strong, and will help you grow as a musician, as you absorb new music, and are able to play it well. This is the kind of Horizontal Growth we want.
If you want to learn how to have this Vertical Growth as a regular experience for you, I invite you to look around Guitar Principles website for more information about "The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar" . It is the approach I have found to work for myself, for my students, and anyone else who uses it.
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