Tag: acoustic guitar technique

Essential Right Hand Arpeggios

Published on by Leo GarciaLeave a comment

What arpeggio patterns would you practice if you had a limited amount of time? This is a question I receive from students often. Depending on your level, experience, time, repertoire, there are many answers. To keep it on the simpler side, I propose the following: pim , pmi, pima, pami, pimi, pmim, and finally pimami.

In the following three videos, I talk about how I like to practice these arpeggios. I go over how to warm up, when to use various planting techniques, what I think about as a I play them, what to listen for, how to expand some of them, and how to involve the left hand, hoping to clarify many questions that pop up in lessons.

Get your guitars out to try out some of the ideas as I demonstrate them and let me know if they help.

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Precise Left Hand Finger Placement

Published on by Leo GarciaLeave a comment

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! : )

 

Coordination and Right Hand Arpeggios

Published on by Leo GarciaLeave a comment

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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Pavel’s Left Hand Technique Fun

Published on by Leo Garcia1 Comment

I think I’ve now scoured most of Pavel Steidl‘s masterclasses on youtube. What a treasure trove of advice. I absolutely love him, his creativity, and his masterful ability to teach in such a fun way.

Here is a left hand technique progression that roughly matches what he demonstrates in one of his masterclasses. Pavel recommends at least 30 minutes a day of work for the fingers. Among his bits of advice and reflections, there is a moment in a masterclass where he talks about left hand choreography and how it is connected to the part of our brain that is responsible for, as he puts it, “fantasy and imagination.”

Here is the sequence to explore:

Step 1

Play the top voice as a continuous slur.

Pavel's Fixed Finger Slurs.jpg

Move on to the next step or repeat with the remaining patterns:

02/1343, 03/1242, 04/1232 (slur/counterpoint)

Step 2

Now slur the counterpoint or fixed note as well.

Pavel's Fixed Finger Slurs 2.jpg

Move on to the next step or repeat with the remaining patterns (see above).

Step 3

Add in a coordinating movement in the right hand (try something simple first).

Pavel's Fixed Finger Slurs 3.jpg

Move on to the next step or repeat with the remaining patterns (see above).

Step 4

Explore a more challenging coordinating movement in the right hand (try pami on string 5).

Pavel's Fixed Finger Slurs 4.jpg

Be creative and have fun just like Pavel!

A Way of Thinking of Tremolo

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Tremolo and Sympathetic Motion Awareness

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New Publication: Mastering Tremolo

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Right Hand String Crossing Technique Tip

Published on by Leo GarciaLeave a comment

One aspect of Ángel Romero‘s edition of Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez is that every single scale is fingered optimally for string crossing so that m almost always reaches towards a higher string when blazing through the scale passages (i.e. when going from string 2 to 1, it is fingered i m and not m i). And while you could employ slurs or shifts to maintain optimum string-crossing, if those solutions are not musically in the cards there is a finger standing on the sidelines waiting eagerly to help: a. Using a to switch from im alternation to mi alternation without skipping a beat is an important skill to develop for situations where you would want to maintain optimum string-crossing for the right hand. Here are a few exercises using a to develop this technique.

Keep the following points in mind when going through these.

  1. Maintain a steady metric pulse.
  2. Keep your tone consistent.
  3. Practice rest-stroke and free-stroke.

Exercise 1

Using a to switch direction.jpg

Exercise 2 and 3

Using a to switch direction 2.jpg

Exercise 4 and 5

Using a to switch direction 3.jpg

Go a!

Rafael Elizondo’s Technique Videos

Published on by Leo GarciaLeave a comment

Rafael Elizondo is a fabulous Mexican concert guitarist who has been making wonderful videos for his youtube channel. If you don’t speak Spanish, you may not be at too much of a disadvantage because he demonstrates everything very clearly. This instructional video below is a fine example of Rafael explaining how to use fixed fingers to establish stability and confidence in the right hand.

Here is another great one where he demonstrates 4 finger coordination patterns for the left hand:

Check out and subscribe to his channel. There are tons of great posts.

More soon…

 

Technical Workout for Classical Guitar, Level 1 – Base Building, Part 3 (video)

Published on by Leo GarciaLeave a comment

Here is the third of Six String Journal’s series of technique videos to accompany my recent workbook, A Technical Workout for Classical Guitar, Level 1 – Base Building. This video corresponds to Left Hand Movements, Part 3.

 

This workbook is designed to help late beginners and intermediate guitarists develop a daily routine of movements to strengthen their technical base so that fingers can do their job properly when assimilating new repertoire. Always go slowly with the most control possible. Think of it as writing a program for your brain with no bugs.