Around The Neck

Many times it is frustrating to keep hacking away at the guitar without taking a step back and asking what the underlying problems in our playing are restricting us from moving forward. There are countless exercises to asses problems in our hands, especially our left hand. But without an understanding of how and why your hands move is sometimes more imporant than the actual exercise you are working on. It is important to pinpoint the problems rather than run through an exercise trying to constantly improve while making movements that have no benefit in the long run. You can make your hands do anything, even bad movements, and they will remember and execute them just as they have programmed.

In other words, creating a solid, agile fretting hand begins with getting comfortable with the way that the muscles in your hand work:

• The muscles that close your fingers into a fist are called “flexors.”
• The muscles that straighten your fingers are called “extensors.”
• When you use the flexors and extensors at the same time, your muscles work against each other and unnecessary tension is the result.
• The goal is to make sure that in as many cases as possible (there are always exceptions to a rule) only your flexors are used when fretting a note, and only your extensors are used when releasing a note.

The most common problems that cause both the flexors and extensors to be used at the same time are:

• The old rule of holding unused fingers above the frets for your next movement in a very rigid fashion is not always useful. Drop this rule whenever it is causing excess tension and never look back. It will only cause you problems. Looking ahead to what notes you will be playing and adjusting your hand and fingers accordingly is one thing, but holding your fingers in place just to hold them there makes no sense.
• Not releasing with the flexors before using the extensors to lift a finger off the fretboard.
• Watch that thumb and avoid putting it in a position that causes tension in the rest of your hand. Your thumb will more than likely be comfortable “outside” your fretting hand (try this without a guitar and see what I mean). The more you move your thumb towards your pinkie finger, the more tension you will build.
• Not putting your hand in the most comfortable position for whichever finger happens to be fretting a note at the time. This can be over or under rotation at the elbow, tension in the wrist or shoulder, etc.

Now it is time to spend a bit of your practicing by focusing on your muscle movement. There is not need to actually play any music when you attempt to begin this type of practice. The whole point is to understand and begin to “feel” how your muscles were meant to move in order to use that movement to effectively and effortlessly play the guitar (not that it does not take effort but as effortlessly as possible). The more you focus on the movement rather than the actual music the more you will begin to discover that the music is actually in the movement itself. With this knowlege it is only a small step to improving that left hand technique over an extended period of time as you focus on the movement rather than the song itself.

You might be thinking that this is going to be an post about effect pedals, pick-up selectors, or string gauges. However, this is about finding the sound you actually like to play. And, it may not be as easy as you think.

Many of us, including myself, came to guitar because we wanted to play a certain type of music. For me, I wanted to be a rock star. Let’s face it, in the back of my mind I wanted the rock ‘n roll life of fame and fortune. I am glad that my conscience lead me down a better path. As I began to play rock and roll, my ambitions were high and I worked hard at it. However, after a while I realized that I really didn’t love to play rock as much as other styles of music. I enjoyed listening to the rock more than actually playing the rock. I found that I enjoyed the nuances of fingerstyle for my playing and I enjoyed the energy of rock for the weight room.

You see it took me a while and a lot of experimentation to find out that I really loved fingerstyle. I was in college when I began the guitar and I had to play fingerstyle for my degree. But outside of the college work, I worked on the rock ‘n roll, studied with jazz players (guitar and other instruments) and through it all found that the fingerstyle playing is where I wanted to land. I can play rock and jazz using fingerstyle but it is in arrangements and pre-composed pieces for guitar that really intrigue me for my own playing.

I still love the occasional jam session on electric guitar, but on a daily basis it is the fingerstyle acoustic (and mainly nylon string) that I find myself leaning on. All of this is to say that you may need to go through a few different styles and genres and even techniques to find the one that best suites you as a player. It does not mean that you cannot enjoy other music, but it means that you probably lean toward a specific style more than others. Pay attention to that intuition and your playing will be rewarded because you will have greater joy through the occomplishment of your innate inclinations.

I have to say that re-committing my time to playing has become challenging in just the first few days. Yesterday I had to squeeze every thirty minute time slot out of my day. I, unfortunately, had some down time during teaching yesterday and decided to not waste the time and put in the hours I need to get back to par. My hands are feeling quite good and I am amazed at how much I have not lost due to the time gap between now and the last time I prepared for performances.

I have found that having a baby boy, a business, and a lovely wife to fill my time has presented challenges. I many times want to be with my boy rather than just pick up the guitar. Here are few things that I keep in mind:

1. I know my goal. I can see where I need to be in 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days. This forces me to always ask, “How am I doing and what do I need to do today to meet those goals?”
2. I know my plan. I have a plan written out. I know what pieces I want to have finished and polished by a certain date. I have measures and tempos to meet by certain times. If I don’t meet them, then that’s o.k. But I will still be closer to my goals.
3. I am preparing to perform. My goals are all focused on presenting new videos online. Therefore, I am, in essence, working towards a performance. There is no more driving factor than having to perform for others. In this case, I am not in front of them in time, but rather a recorded time.

Like I mentioned before, I may not reach these goals in the time specified. Even so, I will have made it one step closer to their accomplishment. As for you, make some goals, make a plan, and try to reach them on a daily basis. It is the only sure way of somewhat predicting success.

Last night was my first night seriously practicing in a couple of years. I have spent my time really learning how to teach the guitar effectively in the meantime. But in my inner most being, I still desire the joy of playing and performing. Therefore, I have chosen to resume my practicing and given myself deadlines to persue for performances.

Returning to a three hour practice session was quite interesting to say the least. Sitting for three hours with a guitar in my hands felt wonderful. However, I had to take a few precautions to ensure that my hands made it through the session and did not hurt this morning. I stretched very slowly before and after the session. I also took a few breaks throughout. I made myself get up every 30 minutes to stretch and refocus my mind (or to let it rest after deep concentration).

All-in-all, I enjoyed the three hours. I worked 30 minutes on technique and spent the rest of the time on new and old repertoire. I always encourage people to work on sight-reading but my goals have a different purpose at the moment. I feel that my time teaching has greatly benefited my sight-reading to a point that I am much better than when I first began teaching seven years ago.

I have much to work on, but I am delighted to see that I still have quite a bit of movement in my hands after such a long hiatus from practicing. It’s not that I have not played entirely for the past couple of years. I have spent many hours playing in lessons. But the difference, of course, is the focused work that can be accomplished during practice to reach a desired performace.

I feel good and look forward to keeping you updated as I return to my performing form.

Suggested Resources:

A Guitarist’s Guide to Better Practicing by Pete Huttlinger

I thought it was about time to get the videos onto the site of my playing. Currently, I only have those videos that I created to help some of my students in understanding certain pieces. They are full performances, but are centered on demonstrating easier pieces for some beginning to intermediate players.

I am in the process of beginning my journey back into performing. My practice schedule is set and by the end of the month, I hope to have four more videos ready for viewing. I hope you enjoy them. Below is the famous piece by Brouwer, Estudio VI. You can view the others through the video page tabbed at the top of this page. I am using Cooliris to show them interactively and a former student of mine is now working for them. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on the upcoming videos.