Chapter 32, Practice Plans Weeks 1-8
Chapter 32, Practice Plans Weeks 1-8
Next you’ll find three points for positioning the left hand. We’ll first review the left hand check learned earlier in the method, then we’ll apply slight flexion to the fingers and finally we’ll learn to position our thumb.An important consideration for my left hand technique is how the less coordinated 3rd and 4th fingers are accommodated. This is accomplished by learning to place the thumb, on the back of the neck, between the 3rd and 4th fingers. This results in the fingers approaching the fretboard in a flexed position, similar to how the right hand fingers approach the strings. Throughout Part 4 watch that the 4th finger maintains this flexed position.
1. Left Hand Position Check
Review the points of your sitting position. In particular, make sure that the neck of the guitar is angled towards a vertical position, (don’t let the headstock drop too low). Also make sure that the neck is angled outward, away from the body. These two positioning points will allow for both a better left hand position and greater ease when shifting.
Now bring the left arm up in a bicep curl type movement. If your guitar position is correct your fingers should naturally come to rest within the first four frets. If need be, at this point, adjust your guitar’s positioning, in particular the height and angle of the neck.
Your left arm should now be perpendicular to the ground. It might help to imagine a weight attached to your elbow. It’s also worth noting that your left hand should mirror the positioning of the right hand with regards to alignment and an arched wrist.
Positioning is the critical first towards a working technical foundation.
The classical guitarists repertoire has a finite number of movement forms. Applying the principles of positioning to these movement forms creates a consistent technical advancement.
Chapter 5 – Principles of Movement
Chapter 6 – The Free Stroke
Chapter 7 – Alternation
Chapter 8 – Sympathetic Motion
Chapter 9 – Tremolo
Chapter 10 – Compound Motion
Chapter 11 – Left Hand Patterns
Chapter 12 – String Crossing
Chapter 13 – Scale Bursts
Chapter 14 – Rest Stroke
Chapter 15 – Primary Skills Exercises and Practice Plan
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Chapter 16 – Left Hand Positioning with Sympathetic Motion
Chapter 17 – Shifting with Scale Bursts
Chapter 18 -Shifting with Complex Alternation
Chapter 19 – Left Hand Chord PositioningÂ
Chapter 20 – Mapping Range of Motion and Alternation
Chapter 21 – Mapping Sympathetic Motion
Chapter 22 – Mapping Mixed Patterns
Chapter 23 – Mapping Popular Repertoire
Chapter 24 – Fingering Guidelines
Chapter 25 – Integrating Mapping into Repertoire
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Chapter 26 – Extended Scale Forms
Chapter 27 – Scale Speed Development
Chapter 28 – Arpeggio Speed and Development
Chapter 29 – Studies Supplement
When you see this fermata inside a light bulb it means that it would be a good idea to pause and read the content attached!
2. Slightly Curled (Flexed) Left Hand Fingers
Left hand strength and accuracy will be increased if you slightly curl or flex the left hand fingers. Since the direction and angle of leverage is different for both hands you’ll want to decrease the angle between the finger’s knuckle and tip joint on the left hand.Â
3. Thumb Placement
Most players place their thumb behind the 1st finger, where its needed least. Doing so will likely result in a weakened position for the 4th finger, where the finger is too extended which negates the leverage we want to achieve.
If the thumb rests behind the 1st finger, all the remaining fingers will have to work harder to get into position, making shifting much more difficult. Placing the thumb behind the 1st finger usually causes the thumb to drag along the neck. Shifting from one awkward position to another, dragging the thumb, creates and accumulative tension that deteriorates ones playing.
Resting the thumb between the 2nd and 3rd fingers of the left hand will provide the necessary leverage to the 4th and 3rd fingers.
With a properly positioned thumb and left hand, shifting takes place from the thumb, not the fingers. Think of it, you can move the fingers much farther without the thumb than you can move the thumb without the fingers. In fact, on almost all shifts, I’m watching my thumb, not my fingers. The advantage of shifting from one relaxed position to another (over one tense position to another) should be obvious.
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Left hand thumb placement is also a critical component of left hand positioning in shifts. The thumb should be placed on the neck in such a way as to support the 3rd and 4th fingers. As a result of the exercises in Part 4 you should notice that your 4th finger comes into contact with the string in the middle of the finger pad while the 1st comes to rest slightlyon the left side of the finger’s pad. This component, along with a ‘weighted’ elbow that places the arm in a perpendicular position, becomes our base, or optimal positioning.Â
The latter I try to keep to a minimum. Remember, the more you move the elbow outward, the more you’ll pull the 4th finger out of position.