When playing descending slurs (pull-off for you rockers), do your best to have the left hand fingers in position on all the notes before the articulation of the note takes place. This is extremely important when you must play a trill and the slur will be played rapidly and repeatedly.
There are three types of slurs: resting slur, lifting slur, and hybrid slur. The resting slur is like a rest stroke with your left hand. When playing the slur, the left hand finger pulling off the string will come to rest on the adjacent string (with exception to playing a slur on string one). The lifting slur is what beginners ususally try to do. They just lift their finger off the string. However, this type of slur creates a very passive sound. It should be used sparingly and in a line that is decreasing in volume. The final type is a hybrid between the two previously described. It grips the string on the top edge as to create resistance and pulls off the string but avoids hitting the adjacent string to create a more solid sound than that of the lifting slur. This is by far the most difficult to master but the one used most often in music. It allows for the adjacent string to keep ringing while the resting slur would stop any tone coming from the adjacent string by resting on it.
You must also experiment and learn how to vary the amount of strength used in the right hand while executing slurs. You may need to increase the strength of the attack when the melody needs to stand out, and simultaneously decrease the attack in the parts of the accompaniment. I find that many students fail to recognize the strength in their right hand attack can effect the slur just as much as the use of the left hand.
Many students struggle with finding the notes on the guitar…especially those in the higher positions. The interval between the 1st and 2nd strings is 5 semitones away. This is true for all the strings with exception to the distance between the 2nd and 3rd strings. This distance is 4 semitones. In order to find a note to be played in a higher position on a lower string, add together the fret number where it is found on the upper string to the number of semitones, or frets, between the the two strings.
For example, to find the position of a note on the 2nd string, add 5 semitones (frets) to the position where it is located on the 1st string. Or to find the position of a note on the 3rd string, add 4 semitones (frets) to the position where it is located on the 2nd string. This also works in compound.
Let’s try to find the D tone on the 2nd string located on the 3rd string. The D tone is played on the 3rd fret of the 2nd string. Now, add 4 semitones (frets) to 3 and you get 7. This means that the D tone on the 3rd string is played on fret 7 of the 3rd string. We could go further (compound) and find the D tone on the 4th string. Take the 7 from the third string location and add 5 semitones (frets) to it and you get 12. The D tone can now be found on the 12th fret of the 4th string.
Obviously, if you are an electric player you know about experimenting with tone. This is because we are constantly fiddling with all the gadgets in our collection to get that “sweet spot” in our tone. But fingerstyle players don’t have it that easy.
When playing fingerstyle you should try to exstablish a “base” or “primary” tone in your playing. The warmest sound comes from relaxing the hands and finding the contact point where the nail and flesh of the finger meet to touch the string. This can be very time consuming. To a fingerstyle player, as well as an electric player, tone is everything. I remember it taking me about three months to finally get the “base” tone on my ring (a) finger. When I found it, I sat in the concert hall of the school and just played an open E string for about 30 minutes just to make sure I didn’t lose it.
After the “base” tone is established, then it’s time to start experimenting with ways of changing your tone and still be able to return to your “base” tone at any time. This can be moving up the neck, sul tasto, or toward the bridge, pizzicato. The former gives a much warmer sound while the latter gives a harsher more metallic sound. To go even further you can begin to change the exit point of your fingers from the strings. Leaving the string more perpendicular to the string will increase the brightness while moving at more of an angle parallel to the string will make a more mellow sound.
We have not even discussed the shape of the nails here. And, that would take entirely too long for this small blog entry. I’ll will say that the nails need to be experimented with quite extensively to get a good “base” tone with the right hand.
I have many students that work on sambas and bossa novas. I figured it would be good to feature an excerpt from an article on the subject by Roger Hudson in Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine No. 61.
Years ago, I remember asking a friend of mine (a classical player) about playing solo fingerstyle arrangements of Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luis Bonfa tunes. Her response was “That’s pretty hard! You have to be good to do that stuff!” Undaunted, I set out to learn some arrangements of this music–music that I consider to be among the most beautiful ever composed. It truly is what I cal “new world” music; in the same category as jazz, blues, fusion, rock, raggae etc. Likethe other styles, Brazilian samba and bossa nova are “feel” based. That is, they are sensual and require a certain intuition or instinct from the performer. I have ofter heard it said that if a person could play classical music then they could play anything. I personally don’t believe this to be true It may be true from a solely technical/physical perspective, but I can’t tell you how many classically trained musicians I’ve heard struggling, unsuccessfully, to play convincing jazz or Latin rhythms. In some ways this is all about accents; like learning a language or dialect after hearing it often. The point is that the intuitiveness can be learned–in a sense. One thing that I have noticed that could be part of the problem for students wanting to learn fingerstyle arrangements of Brazilian music is that many of the arrangements can be pretty difficult. Yes, you do “have to be good.” Simpler arrangements of Jobim, for example, can seem pretty empty and unflattering to the original.
A student of mine, thanks Gaurav, sent me this video of Bobby McFerrin at the World Science Festival 2009. He is apart of a talk called, “Notes and Neurons: In Search of a Common Chorus.” Draw your own conclusions and be amazed by what is actually occuring in the room with the pentatonic scale. As you will see, it is more natural to cultures than even the major scale.
I have found that no matter what stage of guitar I find myself, I need to have a set schedule to practice. This helps me stay organized and helps me get my goals accomplished. With everything else that I have to keep up with, I believe that I can only focus on three to five things per day on guitar. Therefore, I only require that of myself. When I finish I feel that I can be free to focus on the other things that are pressing to my time.
I use a practice sheet to keep track of my day’s work on the guitar. You can download a sample here. On it you will see that there is space for five items to practice throughout the week. You will also notice that I have only inlcluded five days of practice. I know my schedule and how busy it can become. I only give myself five days of work to do and allow the other two days to be free to practice or not. The idea for the sheet can be modified to fit your specific purposes for guitar. If you are trying to become a professional level player, then you need to create one that allows for more items to be added. You will definately be inlcuding more than five if you are working towards that level of playing.
As guitarists and musicians, there is more music to work on than a lifetime permits. How do we make sense of it? Or do we keep working on as many songs and styles as possible? Hoping that down the road, it will all pay off.
Not really. Your time has to be very focused and you have to finish what you start. This is a problem not just in guitar but in our world in general. There are many options, new and old, that present themselves to us every day. Do I work on blues? Is classical my thing? What about that stuff Chet Atkins used to do? Pick one and do it!
I don’t mean to say that you cannot change your plans, but you do have to finish what you have intended to complete or you will be no further ahead than you where when you began. In everything you decide to work on, ask yourself what you want to achieve. Set a goal for it and you will know when you have achieved it. If no goal is set, then you have no objective standard to tell you that you have been successful.
For instance, say you want to play a song by Bob Dylan. A good goal would be to play the chords and get them in time when they change. Maybe you are more advanced and want to put a strum pattern to it. If you can strum and change with the pattern you decide, then you have reached your goal. Or maybe go further and learn his finger picking pattern. If you do that, then you have set a high goal of playing through the chord changes while using his pattern. Then, try adding the singing. All of these elements can be broken down depending on what your level of playing is. You know when you reach the goal that you have completed what you started and can move on to whatever you choose to do next.
This idea of goal setting and completing what you start can be applied to any style of music for the guitar. Classical, rock, blues, jazz, and folk players can all benefit from choosing a goal and finishing it before moving on to the next. Just make sure you are shooting for something that you can achieve at your current level of playing in a short (two to three weeks) amount of time. Continued success is the greatest motivation for long-term achievement.
We all want to know, how do I play faster? Well, play faster. It really is that simple. Yet none of us really wants to take the time to make playing faster a habit. Let me explain.
Everything we do in life and on the guitar is related to habits. Playing faster is no exception. Let’s say you begin to play a piece and already have good technique and have analyzed and prepared all the fingerings for efficiency. Then you get the piece memorized. There is no way you can play a piece well without some memorization. From there, you begin to use a metronome and try to work things up to tempo. But, it seems to be falling short.
Keep working! Your repetition has just begun to place not just the fingerings into habit but also the speed at which you execute the fingerings into habit. If you can play the piece perfectly at 60 beats per minute (bpm), then you need to move to the next highest bpm and let your fingers learn the habit there. The problem comes when you move to the next bpm without ever “really” habituating the speed of execution at the current level of speed. You have to stay at a place long enough to make it a habit. Then, and only then, can you expect to make the next bpm a habit as well.
We all do it. We hear a great player or friend perform and immediately human nature kicks in and the comparison begins. Looking at what other people have accomplished can be inspiring. They can drive you to play more and practice more. However, 9 times out of 10 this becomes an obstacle to our own development psychologically and physically.
Where does all this come from? Well, isn’t it obvious? It’s competition, especially for the male players out there. There is no denying how competitive we males can be. When we see someone doing something better than us it makes us want to “one up” them. A healthy dose of this is o.k. but it should not be the stick by which we measure our own success. Physical prowess on the instrument does not neccissarily mean we make great music.
There is a need to be proficient. But this only goes to the degree at which we are required in any given circumstance. Therefore, it is important to keep our competitive spirit alive to push the bounderies of our performance and technical ability. However, futile comparison in order to be the fastest are more of a hinderance to musical production than an aid. We must realize that we are only truly competing with ourselves.
If you own more than one guitar, then you need to make sure you keep playing them. This also goes for buying a new instrument. Every time you pick up a new instrument or one you have not played for a while, your brain has to make subconscious adjustments about the neck width, fingerboard, string spacing, fret height, scale length, and many other aspects of this particular instrument. Basically it has to get used to its new surroundings.
When you have more than one instrument, each one has peculiar aspects. These can cause you to miss things that you would otherwise execute flawlessly. Even within the classical guitar world, the neck profiles and fret thickness can differ causing missed fingerings for both the right and left hand. As far as moving from a nylon, to steel, to an electric, the differences are magnified! Your hand has to get used to each one in a different way. Not only are the fundamental measurements different, but also the feel you have to use to get the sounds you want from each box or amp.
My advice is to keep each instrument in a rotation. If you have five instruments, then try to play on each one once a week for an hour. This will help remind your brain of the differences. Also, if you are looking for a new instrument keep in mind that the one that is closest to an instrument you are already familiar with will be the easiest and feel the most comfortable. That does not mean that it is the one you should purchase. Your hands can adjust if the instrument has the tone or other characteristics you like.
