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Easy Beginner Guitar Lessons – Don’t let sloppy left hand technique stop you from playing Guitar
By Mike Hayes | October 7, 2009
Modern guitar players are faced with a different set of problems
than their classical guitar playing counterparts. When a
classical guitarist plays a piece of music they are performing
from written music … someone else’s ideas frozen in time and
placed on paper.
This places the classical guitarist in an safe place, if someone
where to criticize their playing the guitarist could safely lay
the blame on the composer … after all they wrote it!
In contrast today’s guitar player has to face possible criticism
of both their own original ideas as well as the way they technically perform their music. It’s no good trying to blame
Bach, Mozart or Beethoven … it’s your own music, so this time it’s personal.
Here’s what you don’t want to happen …
1. You don’t want any impediments in your technique … when it
comes to performing you want 100% reliable technique.
2. You don’t want to be thinking about theoretical [data]
information, you have to “own” that stuff … everything has to be on autopilot; you need to be concentrating on and reacting to the music, musicians and audience.
3. You don’t want your ideas to get stuck at your wrist, you need
to be able to project your ideas through your instrument to the listener effortlessly.
What to do instead …
The often quoted “practice makes perfect” phrase is only partly true; it’s true that practice does make perfect … you can get really good at practicing mistakes if you are not careful!
If you want to be successful at playing the guitar we need to
make an important distinction … “PERFECT practice makes perfect”.
Without question one of the major musical roadblocks to successful performance is poor left hand co-ordination; in particular the third and four fingers.
Here’s a really neat exercise to get these two lazy fingers
working for you.
Step 1: start with your third finger behind the third fret, first
string and your four finger behind the fourth fret, second string.
Important: make certain both fingers come down on the strings
simultaneously, not two separate movements.
Step 2: flip your fingers around the other way so you will have;
your third finger behind the third fret on the second string and
your fourth finger behind the fourth fret, first string.
Step 3: this time we’re going back to our original shape only
skipping the second string.
Third finger behind the third fret on the first string; fourth
finger behind the fourth fret, third string.
Step 4: time to flip our shape again, third finger behind the
third fret third string and fourth finger behind the fourth fret
first string.
Keep doing this exercise gradually widening the string gap until
you can reach right over to the sixth string.
Tip: practice s-l-o-w-l-y; always remember speed is a by product
of accuracy.
Bonus tip: use your right hand fingers for this exercise not a
pick, strive for equal balance of the two notes … we want them
to blend.
This exercise is not intended to sound musical, it’s an intensive
isometric exercise designed to increase your left hand strength
and co-ordination so you can play your music effortlessly.
I invite you to use these tips and tools when you play the
guitar.
And now I’d like to invite you to get free access to my “How To
Remember 1,000 Songs” eCourse. You can download the course for
free at: http://www.guitarcoaching.com
From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar
System
http://www.GuitarCoaching.com
http://AdvancingGuitaristProgram.com
Topics: Beginner Guitar Lesson, Guitar Fretboard, Guitar Tips | No Comments »
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