Intelligent Guitar Technique
(downloadable eBook)
Product Description
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If you have reached this page by searching for "guitar technique", "guitar practice" or "guitar method" then you have just hit the jackpot. Read on to find out why.
All the information in this book is the result of years of detailed analysis as I placed my playing problems under the electron microscope to reveal new levels of understanding. The insights gained were then used to construct practical solutions, which were tested and revised until they delivered results.
There are three major components to this law:
1. Exert no more pressure than is absolutely necessary to play the notes. Excess force cripples the arms, hands, fingers, and entire body having a devastating effect on the speed and accuracy of your movements.
2. Minimize movements in order to take the shortest path. Unnecessary or exaggerated movements are inefficient, costing time and effort. The shorter the distance, the greater the speed and accuracy.
3. Don’t allow any unnecessary tension to build up in the playing mechanism. Relax your fingers, hands, arms, shoulders, and body at every opportunity.
Although these concepts are easily understood, they require a great deal of effort to put into practice. Chances are you are familiar with this law, either through reading, experience, or being told by your teacher to stop gripping the guitar so tightly and relax a little. Although many guitarists are aware of the law, precious few actually practice like they truly understand it. I know this to be true because I was one of them. Even after becoming acutely aware of the problem of using too much effort, I found I didn’t have a way to judge exactly how minimal my efforts could actually be.
This section will explore the boundaries of this concept and equip you with some very powerful exercises that will have a dramatic effect on your playing.
• It creates greater stability in the entire playing mechanism; any finger in contact with a string will not be waving around in an uncontrolled manner.
• It increases the accuracy of your movements. You won’t place your fingers poorly or miss strings altogether, in an uncontrolled dash to play the notes at the last possible moment.
• It will increase the speed at which you can play the notes because your fingers will already be in place.
• For classical/finger-style players, planting the right-hand fingers in advance will improve your tone. You can ensure that you use the correct amount of nail and flesh to create the sound you require.
All of these factors lead to far fewer mistakes. In fact, if taken to the extreme, it is possible to remove all mistakes. Rest assured, we will be taking it to the extreme.
In the past many people have created simple symbols to represent planting instructions and other movements (as opposed to just conventional fingering information). However, I will take this concept to an entirely different level. I will present the Guitar Movement Language (or GML) which will enable us to choreograph our movements to a level of detail not possible until now.
In addition to the richest set of planting and movement symbols ever produced, the language contains constructs which allow us to synchronize our movements, leading to a much smoother playing technique. If we want to reach the very highest levels of perfection in our technique, in terms of the smoothness of transition from note to note and speed of playing (should the music require it), then we had better get used to the idea that it is often necessary to perform many complex movements simultaneously, as if they were a single unit. And what’s more, we need to be able to analyze any given playing situation to determine the optimum groupings of simultaneous movements so that we can give them the required attention during practice.
We will then take the concept of synchronization to its ultimate conclusion by drawing State Transition Diagrams, a technique used in the field of Software Development. This technique will reveal the true complexity of our movements, allowing us to document and practice them at an unprecedented level of detail.
The GML will be put to use in a number of fundamental exercises which focus on the chromatic scale, the mother of all scales. The techniques you will learn will enable you to play any scale (or anything else for that matter) with much better accuracy, speed, smoothness, and tone. Practicing without this knowledge will only lengthen the time it takes to make real, tangible, and inspirational progress. In fact, without this knowledge, you are unlikely to proceed much further than your natural talent allows. Not only will these exercises have a dramatic effect on your technique, but they will teach you how to analyze and record your movements in order to perfect all the music that you work on in the future.
If you have reached this page by searching for "guitar technique", "guitar practice" or "guitar method" then you have just hit the jackpot. Read on to find out why.
Advanced Guitar Technique for all Styles and all Ability Levels
I have spent a great deal of time studying guitar technique. I have read and absorbed many of the leading works in the field. This book contains the observations that I have made, with respect to technique, as I practiced and taught guitar. My relentless search for the best information possible has transformed my abilities from a struggling beginner, with very little progress from year to year, to somebody who enjoys continuous improvement.All the information in this book is the result of years of detailed analysis as I placed my playing problems under the electron microscope to reveal new levels of understanding. The insights gained were then used to construct practical solutions, which were tested and revised until they delivered results.
The Application of the Law of Minimum Effort
In the field of guitar technique, one of the central themes that occurs time and time again, is the Law of Minimum Effort.There are three major components to this law:
1. Exert no more pressure than is absolutely necessary to play the notes. Excess force cripples the arms, hands, fingers, and entire body having a devastating effect on the speed and accuracy of your movements.
2. Minimize movements in order to take the shortest path. Unnecessary or exaggerated movements are inefficient, costing time and effort. The shorter the distance, the greater the speed and accuracy.
3. Don’t allow any unnecessary tension to build up in the playing mechanism. Relax your fingers, hands, arms, shoulders, and body at every opportunity.
Although these concepts are easily understood, they require a great deal of effort to put into practice. Chances are you are familiar with this law, either through reading, experience, or being told by your teacher to stop gripping the guitar so tightly and relax a little. Although many guitarists are aware of the law, precious few actually practice like they truly understand it. I know this to be true because I was one of them. Even after becoming acutely aware of the problem of using too much effort, I found I didn’t have a way to judge exactly how minimal my efforts could actually be.
This section will explore the boundaries of this concept and equip you with some very powerful exercises that will have a dramatic effect on your playing.
Advanced Planting and the Guitar Movement Language
This section is dedicated to the technique known as planting. Simply put, planting is the practice of preparing your movements in advance. It is often possible to lightly place the fingers of both the left and right hands on the strings before they are actually needed; as opposed to waiting until the moment the note is to be played. This technique brings a number of benefits:• It creates greater stability in the entire playing mechanism; any finger in contact with a string will not be waving around in an uncontrolled manner.
• It increases the accuracy of your movements. You won’t place your fingers poorly or miss strings altogether, in an uncontrolled dash to play the notes at the last possible moment.
• It will increase the speed at which you can play the notes because your fingers will already be in place.
• For classical/finger-style players, planting the right-hand fingers in advance will improve your tone. You can ensure that you use the correct amount of nail and flesh to create the sound you require.
All of these factors lead to far fewer mistakes. In fact, if taken to the extreme, it is possible to remove all mistakes. Rest assured, we will be taking it to the extreme.
In the past many people have created simple symbols to represent planting instructions and other movements (as opposed to just conventional fingering information). However, I will take this concept to an entirely different level. I will present the Guitar Movement Language (or GML) which will enable us to choreograph our movements to a level of detail not possible until now.
In addition to the richest set of planting and movement symbols ever produced, the language contains constructs which allow us to synchronize our movements, leading to a much smoother playing technique. If we want to reach the very highest levels of perfection in our technique, in terms of the smoothness of transition from note to note and speed of playing (should the music require it), then we had better get used to the idea that it is often necessary to perform many complex movements simultaneously, as if they were a single unit. And what’s more, we need to be able to analyze any given playing situation to determine the optimum groupings of simultaneous movements so that we can give them the required attention during practice.
We will then take the concept of synchronization to its ultimate conclusion by drawing State Transition Diagrams, a technique used in the field of Software Development. This technique will reveal the true complexity of our movements, allowing us to document and practice them at an unprecedented level of detail.
The GML will be put to use in a number of fundamental exercises which focus on the chromatic scale, the mother of all scales. The techniques you will learn will enable you to play any scale (or anything else for that matter) with much better accuracy, speed, smoothness, and tone. Practicing without this knowledge will only lengthen the time it takes to make real, tangible, and inspirational progress. In fact, without this knowledge, you are unlikely to proceed much further than your natural talent allows. Not only will these exercises have a dramatic effect on your technique, but they will teach you how to analyze and record your movements in order to perfect all the music that you work on in the future.
