Guitar Technique Tip of the Month
Your Personal Guitar Lesson
Are you searching for the secrets to playing with a relaxed left hand?
THE BEST PLAYERS DO NOT PLAY WITH A RELAXED LEFT HAND.
They have EFFICIENT left-hand techniques that use only the effort needed to execute a passage of music.
The goal is to apply minimal effort for maximum efficiency. I explain how you do it.
This is Part 1 of 2.
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SECRETS TO AN EFFORTLESS, RELAXED
LEFT-HAND CLASSICAL GUITAR TECHNIQUE
Part 1 of 2
By Douglas Niedt
Copyright Douglas Niedt. All Rights Reserved.
This article may be reprinted, but please be considerate and give credit to Douglas Niedt.
Are you searching for the secrets to playing with a relaxed left hand?
THERE AREN'T ANY! THERE IS NO SUCH THING.
THE BEST PLAYERS DO NOT PLAY WITH A RELAXED LEFT HAND. They have EFFICIENT left-hand techniques that use only the effort needed to execute a passage of music.
The goal is to apply minimal effort for maximum efficiency.
Note: "Left hand" in this article comprises left hand, left-hand fingers, left forearm, and left shoulder.
You are Totally Relaxed Only When You Are Unconscious!
Playing the guitar while unconscious just will not work. And, sorry to break this news to you, but playing any instrument is NOT a relaxing activity. Playing the guitar requires constant muscular effort and tension, sometimes quite a bit of it.
Even in piano pedagogy, which is far more developed than that for the guitar, relaxation theories (now discredited) used to be very popular. The problem is that the teachers had it backwards. They thought relaxation led to efficient, effortless playing. In reality, it is the application of the correct types of movement and tension that leads to what appears to be relaxed, effortless ("He makes it look so easy") playing.
This may seem like I am splitting hairs, but the bottom line is that if you try to follow a teacher's instruction to relax or tell yourself, "Relax darn it", you will not get good results.
You must train your hand to make efficient movements with minimal effort which results in what feels to you (and looks to others) to be a relaxed hand. Only then, will you begin to "make it look easy".
Functional and Dysfunctional Tension
The trick is to use only functional tension (tension which is helpful to accomplishing a task) and eliminate dysfunctional tension (tension that does not help and sometimes hinders accomplishing the task). Broadly speaking, using functional tension is using good technique!
Common Examples
1. Squeezing lightly between the thumb and fingertips can be functional tension. It can help to play a fretted note. Excessive squeezing is dysfunctional tension.
2. Leaving a finger down as a pivot finger or as preparation for a shift is functional tension. Leaving a finger down as you place another finger on a higher fret on the same string is dysfunctional tension. Example #1.
Watch me demonstrate. Video 1. Be sure to watch full screen.
Tech Tip Relaxed Left-Hand Video #1: Lifting Fingers
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