| At a recent guitar workshop, I Was Reminded of Why I Wrote "The Principles"!
Why Is This Student's Teacher Allowing Him to Play With Such Handicaps??!!
Recently, I did a workshop where players of all levels and styles attended. As usual, everyone was full of deep seated technical flaws in their playing, flaws that would severely limit their ability to get better.
There was a workshop attendee who volunteered to demonstrate a G major scale. As he played it, I saw all the usual problems. I asked him if he was taking lessons. Yes, he was. That means that his teacher is allowing him to play and practice with many flaws in technique.
Perhaps you can relate to this story, which is good. My whole point is to make you aware of what good technique is, and what bad technique does to you. And also, to make you aware of the fact that it is very common that someone is suffering from this, and doesn't know it. And his teacher doesn't know/care either.
The World is Full of Guitar Students In This Condition!
Yes, very sad. but very true. It is doubly sad because there is a solution. Teachers who have students with these technical problems have the responsibility to find out how to fix them.
This scale should never be given to a student until other fundamental skills are trained into the fingers, as well as a basic knowledge of how to practice without BUILDING TENSION in to the body. You can take a look at these fundamental finger skill which should be learned before scales by taking a look at THE WALKING EXERCISES from "The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar".
If you would like information on how to get your copy of "The Principles of Correct Practice For Guitar" and start changing your playing technique NOW,
click here!!
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It is important to realize that even though he managed to get 80% of the notes, if he tried to play any faster (as would be required with much music) he would tense more, and more notes would be missing. So, he has a self imposed "speed limit". Also, in any performing situation, this tension would double (at least!) |
What He Was Doing Wrong...
 His pick hand pinky was pressed on the guitar; this severely limited the ability of his arm to move the hand in position as it moved across the strings. In fact, there were many notes "missing in action" as a result, especially the bass notes of the scale the player was not able to reach. (The answer to this problem is Foundation Ex. #3 "The Right Hand String Shifting Ex.)
There was a gradual build up of tension through the arm, as well as ineffective picking, going up or down whenever it felt like, instead of being trained to alternate pick throughout.
The notes the player did manage to get were very weak, and anemic. Part of the cure for understanding how to deal with this is outlined in my Technical Tip #7. However, this player's technique really needs a complete overhaul, he needs to start over from the beginning, and learn how to practice so that his entire upper body is not locked up with tension.
His left hand was rather painful to watch, as the pinky flailed around trying to reach it's notes (violating the Economy of Motion Principle, for starters).
Even when it got the note, the whole arm tensed in the effort. (The answer to this problem is the Walking Exercises from "The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar".) |
