Technical Workout for Classical Guitar

Technique Focus – Boost Left Hand Efficiency

Published on September 1, 2020September 1, 2020 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.

Subscribe to get access

Read more of this content when you subscribe today.

$5.00 Contribution

Some related posts:

Six String Journal’s Complete Technique Course

NEWS! Complete Technique Video Course Launch!

Published on May 25, 2020May 25, 2020 by Leo Garcia2 Comments

Six String Journal just seconds ago launched the online video course Complete Technique for Classical Guitar! To celebrate the launch I’ve discounted the course for Six String Journal readers by 25% discount for the next 30 days. If you are looking for a way to up your guitar game, want a massive project for the summer (seriously, what else are you going to do?!), and want to support our site, this is for you.

About the course:

Six String Journal’s Complete Technique for Classical Guitar Course was developed for the advancing beginner with some experience, the advancing intermediate guitarist, and will even benefit those with lots of playing experience. Though music theory isn’t necessary, a rudimentary understanding of rhythm is helpful.

The course consists of primary movement videos where I will teach the foundational movements that you’ll need in order to master classical guitar. These videos cover topics such as free-stroke, rest-stroke, arpeggios, alternation, scales, hand coordination, slurs, and shifts. These are followed by several series of secondary videos where I’ll apply the techniques and movements in various ways to help you engrain them into your own practice. Stringing the secondary videos into a sequence will teach you how to form an effective practice routine that will maximize your results and get you closer to your musical goals.

Course Includes

Hours of focused technique lessons with an award-winning classical guitarist, the founder of Six String Journal, and sought-after educator.
Over 50 extensively detailed but digestible videos demonstrating essential foundational movements, technique tips, exercises, routines, and how to implement them into your practice, carefully edited in small bite size videos for easy assimilation and viewing.
Printable PDF summarizing the entire course with a condensed visual of the material presented.
Loads of bonus content from Six String Journal’s Mastering Diatonic Scales.

Active Practice Techniques to Improve Tremolo, Part 4

Published on September 5, 2019September 5, 2019 by Leo Garcia1 Comment

Aural Refocus

This is an interesting technique that I have found truly helpful for developing speed and the correct rhythmic feel across whatever pattern you are practicing, and since I have not found any reference to it in the literature, I refer to it as aural refocus. Its purpose is to refocus your hearing on the larger beats within a pattern or movement, and then “feed in” the rest of the notes while retaining attention on the larger concept and rhythmic feel.

In theory, we want to perform the larger movements in time—but in practice we rarely do so because we feel limited by all the minutiae that a particular movement demands. With a lot of work, patterns that undergo the aural refocus treatment will get a boost in speed while retaining their rhythmic integrity and stability.

Here are three exercises for applying aural refocus to tremolo. Before you begin, set the metronome to an ambitious tempo (72–88+ bpm per half note) and keep it constant through each exercise. Play only the fingers indicated, do not play the small notes in the following exercises and feel the larger beat in the right hand. Play through each line for at least a minute. Then alternate freely between the lines, coming back to the first line often to reestablish the longer sense of pulse and technical ease.

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Aural Refocus Tremolo 2.jpg

Exercise 3

Aural Refocus Tremolo 3.jpg

There you have it!

For more active practice techniques, check out: Mastering Tremolo.

Heitor Villa-Lobos Etude Nº1, Part 2

Published on July 27, 2018 by Leo GarciaLeave a comment

The image I hold while playing Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Etude Nº1 is one where I am sailing above the canopy of the amazon rainforest as if it were an endless gentle green ocean. Putting this image into practice presents many challenges for the guitarist but simply having an image helps to move the fingers smoothly and with little resistance. Commanding the right-hand to execute the arpeggio to comfortably create the waves of this amazonian ocean, the crescendos and decrescendos, requires some persistence, though. And to truly master the image, it is equally important to investigate how the left hand moves from harmony to harmony, how softly we transition from chord to chord, and how the right hand waxes and wanes over the strings. Ocean waves have an inherent softness to them. To approach this quality in both hands, I’ve brainstormed a bit to list some key tips that I’ve focused on over the years:

LEFT HAND

Release the finger responsible for the first note of the next harmony either at the fourth quarter note or last eighth note of the previous measure.
Practice the transitions from the end of each measure into the following measure. For example, practice the last 4 sixteenth notes of a measure with the first four sixteenth notes of the following measure.
Do not think block chords! Instead, imagine the left hand placing fingers more subtly. When possible, prioritize the left hand finger placement in the order that the notes are plucked.
Work on avoiding finger noise in the second part of the etude by lifting slightly or shifting on the softer parts of the fingertips.
Release pressure on inactive fingers to keep the left hand light.

RIGHT HAND

In order to build endurance for the right hand, practice it alone while visualizing the left hand. What does it feel like to play the arpeggio with rhythmic precision 48 times? This is the amount of times you would play it in the Etude before getting a break with the slurs.
Once the right hand feels locked in, bring the left hand back. Are there pauses to adjust for the left hand?
Think of the right hand in eighth notes, quarter notes, half-notes, and whole notes.
Practice bringing out upbeats.
Explore dynamic schemes to develop your own interpretation.
Use aural refocus to think in larger gestures.
Use rhythms to develop a thorough understanding of the patterns, transitional strengths, and transitional weaknesses.
Practice planting a from the beginning and then a quarter note after it is played for right hand stability.
If you use the standard right hand fingering, try planting both m and a.
Use other right-hand fingerings to extract more insight from this wonderful etude!

Hope this helps.

“Il re della chitarra” – L’Stampa

Published on August 9, 2017August 9, 2017 by Leo GarciaLeave a comment

“The king of guitar.” – L’Stampa

If there ever was an argument for practicing rest stroke scales, I think Marco Tamayo would settle it. Though the video below is casually shot by a student asking about fingering solutions to Joaquín Rodrigo’s Aranjuez and Joaquín Turina’s Soleares, there is gold in it. Just observing the complete ease and extreme mastery of Marco’s approach reveals how much care and thought has gone into every single action.

Here is another valuable video where Marco gives us details on nail shaping and filing. Again, probably one of a handful of videos that are worth watching on the subject.

Check out his newly published Principles of Guitar Performance. Or, if you are looking for a start into building a technical routine check out the Technical Workout Workbooks on Six String Journal’s publications page!

David Russell Technique Talk

Published on May 3, 2017May 3, 2017 by Leo GarciaLeave a comment

David Russell is a guitar hero for many reasons but one of them is for his ability to make everything he plays look effortless. Here is another masterclass snippet where he provides insightful guidance on the importance of a proper warm-up routine. He makes the analogy to sports, where warming up the muscles for practice helps to refine the motion and muscles necessary to perform efficiently. If muscles are not warmed up, larger muscles take over causing imbalance and tension.

Even if you do not speak Spanish, you can follow David’s crystal clear and carefully conceived approach to warming up. Nevertheless, I’ll summarize a few key points:

Start with very simple movements in the left hand like ascending slurs with all the pairs of fingers (12, 23, 34, 13, 24, 14).
Move on to the right hand and work on perfecting a single finger free-stroke with each finger (i, m, a, p)
Go back to the left hand and work on descending slurs (21, 32, 43, 31, 42, 41).
Back to the right hand to work on alternation between pairs of fingers (im, mi, ma, am, etc.). During this time, focus on the effort and resistance it takes each finger to pull through the string. Adjust nails as necessary to create equal resistance. Otherwise, there is imbalance and this will compromise your fluidity. Also, moving from i to m may be easier than moving from m to i. Your job is to make both directions feel as equal as possible.
Move on to imi, mim, ama, mam, etc., then incorporate slight accents imi, imi, ama, ama, etc…
Back to the left hand to try compound movements (121, 212, 232, 323, 343, 434, etc…)
Back to right hand to work on imim, mimi, amam, mama, etc… then try doing these movements cross-string.
Then bring the warm-up to a close by spending 10+ minutes coordinating both hands with scale fragments: im with 12, 23, 34, 13, 24, 14, mi with 12, 23, 34, 13, 24, 14, etc…

If you’d like a bit more detail and a program that follows this approach please check out my recent publication, A Technical Workout for Classical Guitar.

Cross-Rhythms and Tremolo

Published on April 18, 2017 by Leo Garcia2 Comments

One of the practice techniques I write about in Mastering Tremolo is practicing your preferred four-note tremolo pattern (or a variety of them) with the following two cross-rhythmic manipulations as another great method for developing evenness because the finger performing the main beat is always rotating.

When practicing the following four exercises try the following practice approaches:

Use the metronome and start very slowly. Set the metronome to one click per note but try to retain the feel of the overall beat as you play.
When playing slowly focus on the quality of the space between the notes. Is it even or erratic? Are you consciously planting to prepare and thus silencing the note? If so, make sure that the plant is timed evenly for each space.
Try spending an intense 2 minutes on one exercise and then deliberately resting your mind (take some deep breaths, look out a window for a change in scenery, stand up, etc…) for 30 seconds before moving on to the next exercise. Focus for 2 minutes, rest for 30 seconds. Move on in this fashion until you’ve completed all 4 exercises. Then push the metronome beat up a few clicks, and go for another set. Complete 3 more sets for a total of 4, each with a slightly higher click rate on the metronome.

Exercise 1

Rhythm 2 Tremolo 2.jpg

Exercise 2

Rhythm 2 Tremolo 3.jpg

Exercise 3

Rhythm 2 Tremolo 1.jpg

Exercise 4

Rhythm 2 Tremolo 4.jpg

Artist Profile: Denis Azabagic

Published on April 11, 2017April 11, 2017 by Leo Garcia1 Comment

“Denis Azabagic demonstrated his unbelievable guitar playing skills, sincere love for music, professionalism and passion…” – CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM

A GFA winner, seasoned concert artist, accomplished chamber musician and recording artist, Bosnian guitar great Denis Azabagic, needs no introduction to the classical guitar world. But, what often escapes even the most devoted afficionados may be the hidden gems among the pile of guitar videos on youtube.

I recently came across Denis’ Mastering Guitar Technique Series [scroll down a bit after linking]. Though you have to pay for each video, the lessons range from slurs to tremolo to scales and in my opinion are worth hundreds time what he is charging ($1.99!). Each video has a tremendous amount of insight and practical advice. If you’ve not heard Denis play, check out the video below of him playing brilliant renditions of standards by Sor, Bach, and Asencio, and then check out his technique series!

Left Hand Warmup: Slurs, Fixed Fingers, Open Strings, and Tunnels

Published on March 11, 2017March 12, 2017 by Leo GarciaLeave a comment

Lately, when starting my practice I will start with an assortment of left hand movements. I go slowly with attention to the fluidity of the movements. While I do this, my ear starts to focus. The easy pace is ideal for adjusting tone and exploring left hand movement before moving on to arpeggios, scale fragments, and spots in pieces.

Here is a slur sequence I really enjoyed focusing on yesterday. It involves playing slurs with a pair of fingers, slurs to and from open strings, all while requiring the precise placement of the fingers to create tunnels so that adjacent strings remain unobstructed. Fun!

I immediately thought: BLOG POST!

Here’s the outline of the movement using fingers 12 but you should try all pairs (23, 34, 13, 24, 14). You’ll get more out of the exercises by repeated each slur many times and of course, play them across all strings and positions.

Method of Practice

Fixed Finger Slur Exercise 2.jpg

Exercise 1 – Ascending Slurs

Fixed Finger Slur Exercise.jpg

Exercise 2 – Ascending Slurs 2

Fixed Finger Slur Exercise 3.jpg

Exercise 3 – Ascending and Descending Slurs

Fixed Finger Slur Exercise 2a.jpg

Exercise 4 – Descending Slurs

Fixed Finger Slur Exercise 4.jpg

Exercise 5 – Descending and Ascending Slurs

Fixed Finger Slur Exercise 5.jpg

Go give that left hand a workout!