Category: left hand drills

Warm Up With Me!

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I’m in the process of creating a new series of guided warm ups for my students. Here is part 1 for Six String Journal readers. In these guided warm ups, I’ll go through some of the most important drills to help you establish a good routine for warming up before practicing your repertoire.

So go grab your guitar and get comfortable. In this first video I’ve set the metronome for quarter = 60. We’ll string cross with single and pairs of fingers and go through a great slur routine with all the pairs of left hand fingers. For the right hand, I simply use p for strings 6, 5, and 4, and then use i, m, and a for strings 3, 2, and 1. Follow along, stay aware of good form, stay relaxed, and stick with it until you can start to increase tempo with a good foundation.

Technique Focus – Boost Left Hand Efficiency

Published on by Leo Garcia1 Comment

When working out the choreography to a new interpretation there are a few aspects of left hand technique that can dramatically improve efficiency. One of those aspects involves a similar idea often referred to as ‘planting’ for the right hand. For example, when playing a rapid and repeated pim arpeggio (like in Asturias), it is common practice to place all three fingers down in a group to stabilize the right hand and to create one efficient gesture instead of three separate actions. The basic rule is that as we move away from p and towards a across string we plant fingers down so the right hand fingers are prepared. Essentially, we stabilize the right hand as we move away from the grounding of p and i.

Applying this concept to the left hand is equally important but the ‘planting’ occurs as we move from finger 4 (pinky) towards finger 1. Theoretically, if only finger 4 is down on the fingerboard, the left hand is not as stable as it would be if another supporting finger were to place somewhere nearby. For example, if we had to play a descending group of chromatic notes 4321 on a string, placing all four fingers before playing reduces the motion to a relaxed gesture of releasing fingers away. If we were to place 4321 down in a sequential fashion, it is not necessarily ‘wrong’, but it would augment the motion of the left hand into many placements and releases, rendering it less efficient. A bit of a mess.

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Advanced Left Hand Training, Part 1

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Need something new to add to your slur studies? Try this series of advanced exercises for the left hand that combine compound slurs and accents. Use them to build endurance, control, and precision. For each of the three levels illustrated keep the following points in mind:

  1. Practice on various strings in various positions.
  2. Practice slowly with great rhythmic intent.
  3. Keep movements efficient and clean.
  4. Play accents clearly.
  5. Keep left hand wrist and fingers as relaxed as possible.
  6. If at any point your hand and fingers feel like they are going to fall off, consider stopping.

 

Level 1

For these exercises use the following left hand finger patterns: 12, 23, 34, 13, 24, 14. The example below uses 12.

Exercise 1

slur12 accent 1 August 2018.jpg

Exercise 2

slur12 accent 2 August 2018.jpg

Exercise 3

slur12 accent 3 August 2018.jpg

 

Level 2

For these exercises use the following left hand finger patterns: 123, 321, 134, 431, 124, 421, 234, 432. The example below uses 124.

Exercise 1

slur124 accent 1 August 2018.jpg

Exercise 2

slur124 accent 2 August 2018.jpg

Exercise 3

slur124 accent 2a August 2018.jpg

Exercise 4

slur124 accent 3 August 2018.jpg

 

Level 3

For these exercises use the following left hand finger patterns: 1234, 4321, 1324, 4231, 1423, 4132. The example below uses 1234.

Exercise 1

slur1234 accent 1 August 2018.jpg

Exercise 2

slur1234 accent 2 August 2018.jpg

Exercise 3

slur1234 accent 3 August 2018.jpg

If your left hand has not been challenged or you’d like to expand the exercises a bit or you DO want your hand and fingers to fall off, use a bar or fix a left hand finger that is not in use to another string and nearby fret.

L

“Il re della chitarra” – L’Stampa

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Mauro Giuliani’s Folias, Op. 45

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A few months ago I edited a new edition of Mauro Giuliani’s Variations on Las Folias de España, Op. 45 and have just made it available. Since I recently posted an article on the value of practicing chromatic octaves to build left hand coordination, I thought I’d post the 4th variation from Giuliani’s great work for all of you to test your abilities!

Screen Shot 2017-07-10 at 11.54.06 AM.png

Precise Left Hand Finger Placement

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The ability to place the left hand in a position to give equal opportunity for each and every finger to fret precisely is essential for playing well. Pinching a fret precisely means pinching a fret while avoiding contact with any adjacent string/s.

There are many instances where the ringing of adjacent strings is necessary.  Think of your Bach fugues!

So here are two exercises I like to show students who are struggling with placing left hand fingers precisely. Some things to keep in mind:

  1. Listen! Keep your ear on the open string to make sure it rings continuously while you play the chromatic notes around it.
  2. Play really slowly to insure absolute legato.
  3. Keep right hand fingerings simple. Try using p and i or m for the open string.
  4. Pay attention to your wrist placement. It should remain relatively flat. Do not push your wrist out in front of the guitar. To create a tunnel for the open string take the bend across the joints in the finger. Think of creating a semi-circle with the finger.

Exercise 1

Chromatic Linear Scale with open 1.jpg

Exercise 2

Chromatic Linear Scale with open 2.jpg

Hope this helps clean up those sloppy pinches! : )

 

How to Improve Coordination – Chromatic Octaves

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Coordination and Right Hand Arpeggios

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One of the easiest ways to improve right-hand arpeggio studies like Heitor Villa-Lobos's Etude Nº1, Leo Brouwer's Etude Nº6, or Francisco Tárrega's Estudio Brillante, or the parts of pieces where arpeggios occur for an extended time is understanding when exactly the left-hand fingers must place or release to prepare for the next note or chord formation. Often, fingers are placed too early or too late, and both situations either overexert the fingers, the nerves, or worst of all, the musical intent. Arpeggios are, after all, broken chords. It is very rare . . .

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Francisco Tárrega’s Technical Studies

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francisco-t-rrega-recording-artists-and-groups-photo-1My usual morning consists of a good warm-up (a combination of left hand movements and slurs, right hand alternation movements and arpeggios, and scales), before moving on to practicing spots in pieces, and finally playing through pieces and working on new pieces. However, there are periods of the year where I have more time to extend my technique practice and to learn new pieces. I’m approaching that period now (yeah!) so I’m experimenting with new finger gymnastics to address weaknesses in my technique and building a hearty list of new repertoire to absorb over the summer.

To this end, I was rummaging through my boxes and shelves of music and found a well-worn copy of Francisco Tárrega’s Complete Technical Studies. I pulled it out and went through it again for fun. If you’re looking to shake up your routine, I highly recommend some of his studies.

Below are two of Tárrega’s left-hand exercises that will surely make your left hand sweat. Tárrega notates using im alternation for the right hand but I prefer to simply assign i, m, and a, to strings 3, 2, and 1, and have p play all the bass strings to preserve my nails.

Exercise 1

Tarrega Exercise 33.jpg

Exercise 2

Tarrega exercise 34.jpg

Try going from 1st position all the way to 9th and back. Also, try the same concept with other sets of left hand pairs: 14 and 23 or 13 and 24.

Hope that gets your left hand going!