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The
Principles of Practice
Based on "The Principles of Correct
Practice for Guitar"
by Jamie Andreas
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| IN
THIS ISSUE |
August
20, 2001 Volume 56
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A Lesson on Chord Melody
A few weeks ago, I published an essay on Chord Melody in the newsletter,
and many of you wrote to tell me that was exactly the thing you
had been looking for. I have put together a little lesson that will
give you the experience of playing a song in chord melody style.
This lesson will be good for all levels of player. If you are a
beginner, you can follow the tab, and beginner or experienced players
will benefit by following the practice guidelines I have provided.
Playing music "chord melody" style is one of the most
satisfying ways to render a song we love, because we get to hear
the melody as well as the background harmony. Even if we are singing
the melody to the song, it is really nice to be able to throw in
a chord melody "break" in the middle, and then come back
and sing the last verse. It's also nice because people are always
impressed when they hear someone do a chord melody arrangement.
It immediately puts you a cut above the "strummers".
So, whether for musical reasons, or to get that little "ego
boost" we all need from time to time, check out this little
introductory lesson. I have kept it simple; a simple song and a
simple arrangement, just to get the point across, and give even
beginners a chance to experience the style.
We have an easy key here on purpose. And what that means is that
it is a key that allows us to use a lot of open strings. "Happy
Birthday" is put in the key of G. On guitar, merely strumming
the 2nd , 3rd and 4th strings is in itself a G chord, because those
notes (D,G, and B) ARE a G chord. This makes it easy for us to do
the thing you need to do in order to play chord melody; and that
is to put the necessary melody note on top of the necessary chord.
Make sure you follow the Practice Guidelines also. By doing so,
you will make sure you avoid bad habits in the movements required
to play the music. I recommend strumming through the arrangement
with a pick. You could use your thumb instead. the important thing
is to make sure that for every chord you strum, you bring out the
top note (the last string sounded in the strum) clearly, because
that IS the melody we want to hear ring out from the chord underneath
it.
By the way, this is a good key to sing "Happy Birthday"
in, so think of someone who has a birthday coming up, and plan to
surprise them with your new chord melody arrangement!
Get the lesson here.
A Teacher Discovers the Principles
Hi Jamie,
I've been teaching guitar for 20 years, but your book revolutionized
the way I teach. I'd been teaching and applying many of the Principles
already (e.g. Muscle Memory) but your book really set out new tools
for getting the concepts across. I recommend it to all my students.
Here's my question - From time to time, I'll have students with
apparently intractable physical difficulties - huge hands, where
a fingertip cannot avoid touching two strings at once, short fingers
that can't reach across the fretboard, etc. One student had a pinky
that simply could not curve - reaching up to the 6th string, all
the knuckles locked except the distal joint. The finger looked like
a garden hoe. She could not fret with the pinky on the 6th string
without damping the 1st and 2nd with the flesh of the finger near
the proximal joint. What would you do in that situation? And more
to the point, what is the First Principle for deciding whether a
student's difficulty is related to a mechanical problem rather than
just tension?
Corrie Bergeron, Jr.
Hi Corrie,
I am very happy to hear you are using The Principles in your teaching.
I am hoping to see a lot more teachers do that. Now, to answer your
questions.
Big Hands: Personally, I have never seen hands that are too big
to play the guitar. I have seen pretty big hands that are very clumsy,
and not very flexible, but these hands are trainable, they will
change with continued correct practicing on the Foundation Exercises.
It is amazing how differently things feel in the hands as the hidden
tension is reduced in the arms and shoulders. Also, the ability
to really get the hand "out" from the fingerboard, coupled
with the ability to separate the fingers results in a lot a "clearance"
between fingers and between fingers and adjacent strings. If none
of this seems to be happening after awhile, and If the fingertips
are really that big, I would switch to a nylon string which gives
more space between the strings. Maybe later, a steel string guitar
would feel okay.
Locked Distal Joint: This one I have seen a number of times, usually
in women. In fact, my student Mary (profiled on my site) had this
problem. It has to be worked with very carefully. It is because
of weakness in the proximal joint (the "knuckle joint")
and the muscles attached. The problem is that when the fingertip
contacts the string, and then applies pressure, the joint "collapses".
The first step is to achieve the ability to flex the finger without
the joint collapsing, and that must be done with NO pressure on
the joint, since any pressure causes the collapse of the weak joint.
The student must experience the feeling of flexing the joint with
no collapse (no pressure), and then there must be the gradual introduction
of pressure as the joint gets stronger. Here is what to do.
Practice bending the finger away from the guitar. Watch that knuckle.
Also watch the other two joints. If the tip joint is bent first,
it is easier to get the finger to flex with equal bend in all three
joints. If it is still not possible, have the student to this while
placing a finger on the underside of the joint (palm side of hand),
and push slightly with that finger as the joint is bent, thereby
opposing the collapse inward of the joint. After doing this many
times, try again without the opposing finger, until the finger can
be bent at all three joints, and none of them lock.
Next, have the student do String Push Downs on the 1st string. We
use the 1st string, because the finger is most naturally flexed
as it plays on the 1st string, making it easier to avoid the "joint
collapse" that happens as the finger extends more to play the
bass strings. Do these String Push Downs EXTREMELY slowly, going
from no pressure on string (finger just sitting lightly on string)
to ever increasing pressure, slowly pushing the string down to the
fret. At any point, as soon as the joint begins to collapse, back
off the pressure and re-try. Keep repeating the whole process with
great care, until the joint begins to strengthen.
After this can be done on the 1st string without the joint collapsing,
repeat the process on the other strings, going to the 2nd, the 3rd,
etc.
This condition CAN be fixed, I have done it with a number of people,
but it requires a lot of perseverance in using the approach I have
outlined. It could takes weeks to months to fix, but so what, it's
always something! By the way, you ask the First Principle for deciding
if a problem is inherently mechanical, and can't be changed, or
a result of tensions or insufficient development and can be worked
on and changed. That Principle is EXPERIENCE and EXPERIMENTATION.
And I have given you the results of mine.
You Should Write For Acoustic Guitar Magazine!
Hi Jamie,
I was reading the "technique" messages on the message
board (forum) of the Guitar Salon International website. There is
a message posted by one of your students about "measuring your
progress". It made so much sense to me that I immediately went
to your website and spent the next 2 hours (and a few more hours
the following morning) on your site with my guitar in my lap. I
have played steel string for 30 years. This summer I have begun
teaching myself classical. I have been so confused and frustrated
-- mostly by the hand positioning.
The classical instruction books describe "left hand gripping" as incorrect and a bad habit. Yet,
that is what I often need to do on the steel. I was ready to give
up on classical because I began to think that I could not do both
without messing up my technique on one or the other. You can imagine
the excitement I felt when you described the TWO left-hand techniques!
I'm looking forward to receiving the book.
I have subscribed to Acoustic Guitar Magazine for the last few years,
only. Perhaps you have advertised or done an article with them already.
But, if you haven't, you should consider that. The guitar has grown
so much and become so diverse, yet the ways to practice are the
same for every style (this is what I have gotten thus far from your
site). I think the readers would learn a lot from an article by
you. I already have just from soaking up every word and sound on
your website.
Donna
Well thank you Donna for all those kind words, and I am very glad
that so much confusion was cleared up for you by reading my site.
As far as getting an article in Acoustic Guitar Magazine, I have
to tell you that I tried quite hard to bring my book to their attention
when I first began marketing it. I advertised there, I sent them
a copy of the book, I spoke personally and at length to the editors
(who are also players), and I let them know of the overwhelming
response to The Principles among players, presumably the readership
they are serving. I gave them a very good idea of the unique nature
of my work, and also the absolute need for it among players (which
gets confirmed daily with letters like yours).
My experience in trying to get some attention from Acoustic Guitar
Magazine was basically the same experience I always have in trying
to convince the "gatekeepers" of the value of what I do.
And that experience is that every group is extremely "cliquish".
They are not really open to people who are not in their circle,
and their real motivation is not to find resources that are of great
value to players, but rather, to promote their own work (don't forget,
these people are all player/writers). For months of effort, I got
nothing but a lot of half hearted promises to look at my book or
website, which never happened.
I found after awhile that I could spend hours of my time on a regular
basis trying to get somewhere with Acoustic Guitar Magazine, and
similar "gatekeepers", or, with the Internet, I could
take my case DIRECTLY to the players, which is, of course, what
I have done. I have never regretted that decision. I am really not
a person who is very happy going around and "begging"
someone to give me a listen. If you can't see the value of what
I am offering, or are not really interested in even checking it
out, then you are probably not a person I really want to talk to!
At this point, with the overwhelming reaction to my work that is
communicated to me on a daily basis, and with the many plans for
growth and expansion that I have, my plan is to simply wait until
enough people like you get the message across to AC magazine et
al., and they come looking for me, rather than the other way around!
In the meantime, I will do what I have always done, work to grow
in my own abilities, and to help other people do the same.
All
material copyright © 2003 by Jamie Andreas, GuitarPrinciples.com |
