Here is the second installment of our right hand technique series. After a solid warmup of the larger muscle groups and gross motor skills in our right hand through chords and rasgueado (see Part 1), we’ll start building movements in the right hand from two finger movements up to four finger movements.
To start we’ll use movements involving the thumb with one other finger (pi, pm, pa) and movements involving the thumb with two other finger movements (pim, pmi, pma, pam, pia, pai). The primary goals with the following drills are to develop a strong sense of how the fingers fall across the strings which will reinforce our default right hand position and to develop a strong sense of independence from finger to finger (i.e. the movement of one finger or stroke should not displace the hand from this default position).
Step 1 – Thumb with one finger movements (pi, pm, pa)
The fingers of the right hand not involved in the movement should passively rest by very lightly touching their respective string. If this is too difficult at first, have them float as close as possible above their respective string (p=4, i=3, m=2, a=1).
Step 2 – Proceed to alternation
Step 3 – Proceed to work on the following thumb with two finger movements (pim, pmi, pma, pam, pia, pai). Note that each line contains six different movements to develop.
That should keep you all busy! Stay tuned to Part 3.
Six String Journal 