Precise Fingering

[Del Nilppeznaf]

So, I recently posted a reply stating i was having trouble with the Hummingbird.

I'm glad to say after a couple of weeks playing my Seagul..then returning to the 'Bird..and thinking...I need a different guitar

 

I am back completely in Love with the HB :) her tone is just wonderful

 

Something has happened over the last few days of playing her.. I have been practicing hard..and I mean practicing not faffing about. I have 3 or 4 complicated finger picking tunes I have been playing over and over..and it's beginning to pay off.

 

As some may gather I'm a bit of a gypsy..and travel around a fair bit.. but I have also worked in the business world a few times. about 2 and a half years ago I was working for a Multi-national in Dublin..high pressure sales environment, this is the well paid work i have done in the past.

Anyway I made a descision..once and for all that ..that life wasn't for me..and i would really try and learn how to play the guitar.

So for those 2.5 years i have been serious about becoming a better player. I have played guitar for over 20 years,,,but it is only in these last couple of years I have REALLY put the effort in.

 

anyway

 

I feel I have had a sort of epiphany..and it really feels like it has happened suddenly..in just the last few days..and going back to the HB.

 

My fingering in becoming very precise...after many years of cowboy chords..and the same old little blues shapes... with the new styles and shapes I am practicing..my hand position and actual fingering is changing ..almost radically.

 

i can only describe that I am now using the very tip of my fingers to fret the notes...and it just feels so right... When you watch a true musician play..it looks effort less..esp guitar as that is what we know here.

 

it looks as if the are hardly touching the strings.. and there fingers are loose and just going to the exact position.. no need to have the vice grip as your fingers are just there.. no need for all the pressure.

 

I feel the Hummingbird..as really helped me along this path..in many ways.. one being her beautiful tone..and the other her playability..when played correct :)

 

Has any one else had such an experience ?..

 

I know if I don;t practice for a day or two..I go aback to my old ways... with bad habits.. but I also know if I keep on with this..I will become such a better player.. I have given my self 10 years..God willing ..haha

 

I would like to know members thoughts on actual fingering... do most of you use the very tip of the finger ? ( to do this..my finger at the first joint has to be bent almost 90 degrees..)

 

Anyway.. just fancied posting about guitars and practice..and how its a wonderful thing :)

[BluesKing777]

Some good thoughts there!

 

 

I practice quite a lot, and it goes back to when I broke my right hand and was totally determined not be depressed like everyone who knew how much I played thought I would be! So from thinking I was weird guitar player to see me still playing with a cast on my hand and my Thumb sticking out with a thumb pick, well.....I learned how to play 'bare thumb strumming' which is real handy for playing pop tunes and singsongs.

 

I did some jazz lessons before the teacher realized I was a bloozer secretly and told me to....you know, but before that he kept saying: "Arch Your Fingers, Arch Your Fingers, Arch Your Fingers, Arch Your Fingers......"

From the blues fingerpicking on a narrow neck guitar, I HAD started being lazy and NOT arching my effin fingers, and it took many years to get out of it...

 

A few years back I started getting Gibsons with wider necks, culminating with a beast of a '35 L50 with a huge V neck. After playing that guitar for a few months where I HAD to arch my fingers quite high to pay the Blues Fingerstyle basic chords, I found that I keep doing that on narrow necked guitars when I play them. Bizarre, eh? I need to ring the ole teacher and tell him I am arching..........................

 

So keep practicing, but also keep looking for other stuff to practice, if that makes sense?

 

 

BluesKing777.

[flatbaroque]

That's a good post Del.I think most of us can hear the results you are getting and realize that you put in a lot of work to get that happening.Same goes for BK777.

I'm nowhere near that but happy to get the occasional small good thing happening within my limited practice/playing regime.

To get those complex fingerpicking pieces down as you guys do takes a lot of determination.kudos to ya's. keep it rolling.

[kidblast]

It's really true that practice makes perfect! At first, the heavy practice/focus never seems to pay off, then one day, you just find your self doing things you've struggled to get right in the past, then out of nowhere, without even thinking about it -- it's working.

 

This is what Muscle Memory will do... Without you even realizing it, you've master a small piece of the puzzle. it just happens in a very slow, day by day process.

 

I have a number of finger style / alternate tuning pieces I've learned over the years, I do a lot of this kind of playing, and as flat says, these take time to master and they require a lot of focus and a lot of repetition. especially the alternate tuning because all the standard chord shapes we're used to go out the window the minute you start playing. I find that when I revisit some of them after a long break form playing them, if I try and remember the parts in my head as I play them, never works well.. I just let my hands go there, they seem to remember better than my brain does. Keep at it, Leo Kottke aint go nuthin on you!!

[Del Nilppeznaf]

he kept saying: "Arch Your Fingers, Arch Your Fingers, Arch Your Fingers, Arch Your Fingers......"

 

BluesKing777.

 

yes,

 

thats exactly what I mean BK..haha

 

I have never had a lesson..and this is exactly the kind of advice which can be invaluable..and you just don't get from books..or even watching videos

 

so may guitarist are self taught..but I think a lot of the really good ones have learned from someone also...be it lessons..or such like.

 

cheers fellas

[ParlourMan]

I feel some times the mental aspect of the puzzle is solved or absorbed while away from the guitar, I've had phases of trying to learn a piece, countless repetition, countless fluffs, only to not play guitar for a few days or a week due to work or holidays or something, come back, pick the guitar up and be able to play what I couldn't play before.

 

I also tend to notice that over-thinking can be part of the routine, ending in many repetitions with the same mistakes etc... when I step away, clear my mind, then come back have small bursts of progress with less mistakes.

 

Re: 'playing with the very tips of your fingers', have you changed seated position, Del? I reckon some runs or whatever with the very tips of the fingers might need a more classical approach to posture than the typical guitarist employs.

[Del Nilppeznaf]

I feel some times the mental aspect of the puzzle is solved or absorbed while away from the guitar, I've had phases of trying to learn a piece, countless repetition, countless fluffs, only to not play guitar for a few days or a week due to work or holidays or something, come back, pick the guitar up and be able to play what I couldn't play before.

 

I also tend to notice that over-thinking can be part of the routine, ending in many repetitions with the same mistakes etc... when I step away, clear my mind, then come back have small bursts of progress with less mistakes.

 

Re: 'playing with the very tips of your fingers', have you changed seated position, Del? I reckon some runs or whatever with the very tips of the fingers might need a more classical approach to posture than the typical guitarist employs.

 

I know exactly what you mean PM.. and that is a very good observation.. "ending in many repetitions with the same mistakes etc."

 

Its definitely good to step away from just playing/practicing the same things constantly.. and I think BK's advice on to also find other styles/things to practice..is very sound.

 

The 'arched fingers' is somewhat classical.. I think.... but my style 9 or what i'm aiming for ) is mixed with over the top thumb and bluesy slides/bends ect

 

the arched fingers..you just hit shapesd and notes so much more accurate..and sweetly

 

I had trouble even making a sweet D chord for many years..i mean I could obviously play one..but to get that ..sweet tone..i always had trouble..i actually spent about a month last year just really concentrating on being able to hit a sweet D..haha

[ParlourMan]

Fair play... I'm a firm believer in flawlessly executing the fundamentals being a more desirable skill than hitting a 30 note flurry at 200mph

[duluthdan]

Wider fretboard and wider string spacing on 2 of my recent guitar acquisitions has enabled me to finally get some fingerpicking patterns into the mix without being sloppy. But I still fret to hard, gotta work on that, but there's a physical challenge with my left hand, very little tactile sensation. I have a friend who plays incredible guitar, lots of jazzy stuff, and he says to finger the strings as if you are pressing on a butterfly's wings, so as not to damage them. His left hand just flys across the strings.

[zombywoof]

Richard Thompson once said something like he was glad there were so many players out there pursuing technique as diligently as they can because it left this whole other area open to people like him. While I ain't about to call Thompson a slouch when it comes to technique I do get where he is coming from.

 

I admire your ability to sit down and work on what it is you want to get down. After 50+ years of playing I remain pretty undisciplined when it comes to practice and learning stuff. I cannot seem to sit down and work out anything note for note and then repeat it enough to get it down pat. But I also never give my left hand much thought anyway. For me it is all about the right hand. If your blues is bland it probably has less to do with what chord shapes your using than what your right hand is doing. One thing I have learned is a right hand thumb can be one heck of a weapon in anyone's arsenal of musical tricks. The other - the notes you don't play are as important as those you do.

[E-minor7]

Not sure if I can spike in on the details of rehearsing as I see it as such a subjective thing. But I dig the post and your spirit.

 

My thought in general :

Enjoy the level you are on without avoiding to transcend it.

Try to improve without forgetting the achievements you already made.