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COI{TEIVTS

PART Oi{E
The Art of Practising...Page 4

PART T14iO
The Exercises...Page

PART THREE
The ideal basic Position,
and a list of problems to
watch out for...Page 20
I

Left Hand
Fingers and Nails,
Hand and lVrist,
Arm and Shoulder...Page 20

Right Hand
Fingers and Nails,
Hand and lVrist,
Arm and Shoulder...Page 22
Torso and Sitting Position
Holding the Guitar
The Guitar Itself...Page 24

t--

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B

ffi.

PART ONE
THE ART OF PRACTISING
Since how one approaches the arj
gf pra-ctising, and what one thinks about while doing it. are
a great deal more important than simply how fast
a,i; which *utr;;;;lu* on*,, fingers about,
I hope the reader.will forgive my prefacing the actual technicar
execises i, ti,i, book with a discussion of what one's brain is suppoied to b doing
*iiii.
on"
practises these or any other technical
material' This book is intendd- to help g"itaiiri? io'i.u.tir.
as effectively as possibre-tc iearn to
develop the fughest degree of precision and
in
the ,t orit amount of time. It is
iossible
-efficiency
meant not only as a catalogue of patterns from
wrricrl the studeni ;;;';l;"re and build execises
most suited to overcoming his particular lrrrculties,-uut
atso stroriJ i..r. u, a guide to help the
student anaiyse his own faults and difficulties
unJ .nuui" him to
*rrut exercises he needs as
wisely as possible, and use them as economicalty
as possibl". Some"rror"
of
patterns given here are ol
the
the sort that any guitarist who has a fast an
lrricieni
iectinique
has
certainly
ivorked on to some
degree' (And

thee is usually a direct relationship belween

the reiative amount of this sort of
practice and the degree of virtuosity
attained) M*V teachers uiro oii., ,Jme of these
patterns to
their students in some version or other, with
words to ine effect that if one practises them fairhfully
tbr fifteen minutes a.day (or thirty minutes, or an hour,
or whatever) all one,s probiems will
disappear' And sometimes they do work that
way.
Bit
usuatty
the patterns given out or printed
in books are only a vefy small faction of the poisibilities
which
could be derived from the same
basic idea' and usually neither these other po.iiultlti.r,
nor
the
concept
of deriving from them a
further almost endless stream of variants, ir. ru",
mentioned.
nut
it
ls-ttris
con.cept of many
permutations and variants which can enabie
one to zero in precisely on a particutar difficulty,
and
can enable one at the same time to avoid
the boredom of a iteaoy l*i oi ii*, group
of
-u..u*rtut"often
only
vagueiy understood exercises' For
students gradually
,o many individual
3uny
exercises' each of which is to be done for
a certain fixeo"-numbe of minutes per
day, that they may
lose track of any goals'other than getting
through un irou or more of tedium. (..Let,s
see-forty
minutes of segoa scales (ten minu-tes
of rr..igrrt hand fingerings), ten minutes of Giuliani
arpeggios' five of an Aguado fude, eight
"u"h
minut.r oi r?"t.hing exercises, ten minutes of tremolo,
flve minutes of chord changes' four minutes
of barr
six minutes of that nasty littie
exercise that so-and-so says is so good,
"x"."ises,
and ten minui"s'or
the
even
nurti., on. that whosit says
Bream does every day, an no*-trrt.heuu.nr-i
lu,i;t
on
to
the
pieces,,).
In this case a rot of
time is spent' usually without *u.h iirorght
or
.on..nirutron.
The
aim
of
this
book rs to enabre
the student to spend less time, but use a great
deal more thought un .on""ntration, and end up
with a lot more progress' (In fact I have f.o.
ry ;i,h ;;;.if and my own students that even as little
as fifteen or twenty.minutes a day of
really intense .on".rtrution on some of these
exercises can
have a quite dramatic effect'
uit.,
only
a
ferv
days,
and
that
the
more
one
iearns
to think
analytically' the faster one can
"u.
expect results from whatever amount of practising
one does).
one problem is that neither fingers, nor the
muscles anrl nerves which control them, come in
standard shapes and sizes' If Bream"does
a particular exercise every day, this does not
necessarily
mean it will benefit everyone to do it' ri
may rr"rp ro*.one else, but it lvill be of use only if the
problem Bream designed it to correct is
shae uy irre ril;#,;i;;.";io'j.;';itne
proot"m causing
the difficulty is the same in both cases,
and if the student knows exactly what that aspect
is and is
aware of exactly how the exercise was designe
to correct the fauit. There are many potential
reasons why a student may have difficulty
*Iti, u.,v pu-"uru. passage he may artempt, and only a
few of these reasons may appiy in any given situation,'-J
possibilities wiil help correct-the prouie"m.-" --'"*'v! srru rrno amount of practising any of the other

Nor wiil simpiy,pla.ying the passage badly for.a long

time improve it. It has always amazed me
that people seem to ueiilve-ttrat lr ilr do
anything, ,i .n"u. how badly, for long enough,
it wiil
improve' why on earth shouid it? ti t play u ,"ui"
with an imprecise rhythm and a few messy
spots' and do it 682 times, I have only tugirt
my fingers very emphatically, how to play a scale
with an imprecise rhythm and a few *.rry spots. If
l-piay a mistake 539 times, the idea that the
540th time' by a miracie, will be oK is sheei lunacy.
onr".sely, if I play a piece (at no matter
what speed) per'fectll
times, there is every chance that the 540th ii ,uirr
be perfect alsoEVEN if there are 2000-539
eyes watching ano 200o earsristening that
540th time.

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4

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I

ii

7
The art of analysing one's own technical probiems and prescribing remedies for them is not
simple, but it is one of the things that makes the guitar such a fascinating and challenging instrument to play. There is SO much that can go wrong. (Also, needless to say. there are so many
infiniteiy variable things that can go right-things which give the gutar such tremendous flexibilit.v
and expressiveness). In part three you will find short discussions of some of the basic principles ol
how one may best wrap oneseif around a guitar and produce reasonable sounds out of it, combined
with a listing of many of the more usual things that can go wrong, and why, which may be of some
help to the student wishing to track down some of the sources of his difficulties.
(Please refer to Part Three at this point if you have any questions about holding the guitar,
ideai playing position, use of hands, fingers, etc).

This list is certainly not complete, but a complete description and discussion of every possible
probiem would take up a volume of encyclopaedic proportions, which few people would wish to
iead, and which I am sure I would not wish to have to write. In any event, many of the lactors
mentioned do not lend themseives to mere explanations on paper anyway, and the student who
finds himself in need of a full explanation and demonstration of any of the principles and ideas
mentioned wouid be well advised to go to the best teacher he can find for any further elaboration.
To the guitarist who basically does know what to do, however, this may serve as a sort of check list
to go through in seaich of reasons why he may be having ditTicuities with any particuiar passage or
vith his technique in general.
can go wrong is reaily only a discussion and analysis of position and
of finger and arm mechanics. But there are a lew more factors which should also be borne in mind
when lractising. One of the most important things for players of any instrument to remember is

Of course this list of what

that Distance iqtrals Time. The more movement a finger must make to do agiven job, the longer
it will take. and time is one thing in music that one cannot afford to waste' In a slow piece,
inefficient use of time will spoil the smoothness of the phrasing, and in a fast piece, it will not only
make the playing choppy, but may even cause notes to be missed aitogether or rhythmic exactness
to be sacriliced. afs, if too much time is used just arriving af lhe note at all, then no leeway is
left for subtleties of touch, voiume, or tone colour, not to mention precision, In fact one of the
most usual reasons for a player's faiiing to attain as high a speed as he might like, is simpiy a lack of
synchronization between the two hands, or rather between each pair of fingers-one from the right
hand ant1 one from the left-responsible for each note ol the passage in question. And of course
any fault in syncfuonization is neariy aiways a result of the unhappr fact that if a ieft hand finger
an a right hind finger have to travel different distances to reach their goals, and if they both start
to move on .o**u,id. they will obviously arrive at different times. (Even if the distances involved
are as small as a quarter of an inch (.6 cm) versus one sixteenth of an inch (.15 cin), that still would
mean that one finger wouid have to move four times as fast as the other in order to arrive on time,
and thts is a great deal). Of course the faster one tries to play, the greater the percentage of the
total note value ttris discrepancy rvill take up. So a great effort should be made at ail times to keep
all fingers of both hands ai close to the strings as possible. so as to have to move them as little as
possible.

The other factor one should keep in mind at ali times is the importance of Absolute hecision
in placing the fingers. If one's goal for the ieft hand is only to place the finger somewhere between

tw neighUor-rring frets. tliis leaves the finger quite a remarkably iarge space from rvhlch to choose a
point t land upo. However, il the iinger gets usecl to having this large leeway when one ispractising comfortabiy in one's own living toom, the finger will never develop a really solid idea of
where any fret is. Ten tvhen suddenly one is faced with 2000 eyes watching,and 2000 ears listening, the fingers may begin to leel a bit wobbly ancl the brain may get a bit less reliable, and that
as
leeway which the finger was ttsed to (which. in the privacy of ones home' was maybe as much
the
that
so
quitelarger
distance,
an inh or so (1.5 .,",)on the lower frets) may easily grow into a
toai
finger may start to land in all sorts of ocicl piaces causing everything from minor buzzes to a
finger
any
allows
never
one
coilapse of the piece. If, however, when one is at home and relaxed,
no
to land in any bLrt the most exact and consistent way. exactly behind the reqr:ired fret, with
is
one
when
then
microscope,
more leeway than that wllch wotrlci not be detected by an electron
that
deterioration
deteriorate.
precision
may
f'aced with those 1000 eyes ancl ears, though one's

-7

will be much 1ess. For since, in this way, the finger has built up a very reliable and consistent idea
of where any particular fret happens to be, even at worst, the deterioration is very unlikely to
amount to even a sma1l fraction of the actual space between two frets.
These are the sorts of things that have to be practised r.rsing only very simple material. It is no
good trying to work on making small movements. or deveioping precision, or working to correct
some fault that one has discovered one has, by-trying to keep these factors in mind rvhiie clawing
one's way through a Bach Fugue. Even most Etudes are basically too hard, and keep too much of
the minci occupied with their complexities, to be reaily good material fo use in trying to correct
problems o in reaily working on improving one's technique. What one needs is something so
simple and so basic that one can immediately play it ABSOLUTELY right with everything exactly
correct. It may seem at first rather silly to be asked to play a chromatic passage such as the
following:

to have the suggestion made that even THAT be done very slowly. But try now to do
that. keeping both hands very correctly piaced, with the left hand lingers hovering exactly overthe
four frets, and precisely over the second string, and not more than a quarter of an inch above the
flingerboard, with none of the fingers touching the first string, and with the tip joint of each flinger
perpendicular to the fingerboard. Only the fingeractually playing should be touchingthestnng at
any time, and all the others should be kept perfectly still jrist hovering right above the string.
Unless you are already quite a good player, you will probably nd that at least some of your fingers
aren't very happy hovering exactly over the correct position ever so slightly behind each of the four
frets, and in fact, one of more fingers may refuse to stay there at all unless pressed down stopping a
string. If this is the case. it means that you are using friction against the stnng to keep the finger
in piace rather than using the muscles in your own hand. It also means you are needing to press a
lot harder than necessary just to make the finger stay in place. (Peopie often go to a concert ol
some virtuoso. and go out saying "Oh, it looked so easy when he did 1t". Well in fact they arc right
-it was easy-or at least was relatively so. If it were not, that virtuoso would not have been able to
do such feats. No one coLrld play difficult pieces if they had to press down as hard as the average
beginner often does). You may also notice in cioing just this very simpie four note chromatic scaie,
that when one finger is pressed down, some other finger may seem to have an irresistible urge to pop
up. Most people's fourth fingers do tlts at first, and other fingers may try it as well, and this is a
thing that has to be eliminated. It is no good catching it after it has already popped up, and bringing it back down into position-it must be stopped from even making the siightest attempt at popping up. And then there is the right hand to be considered. It should be relaxed and shouid hang
with the fingers nearly touching the strings when not plucking, the stroke must be absoiutely
efficient, and absolutely synchronized with that of the left hand. and lhe tone of eachof the four
notes should be as close to identical as makes no difference. If you can get all that absolutely
perfectly right the first time at high speed, then you don't need this book. But aiso, if you can do
ail that absolutely perfectly the first time at high speed, i wouid be willing to hazard a guess that
your name is Andrs Segovia, Juiian Bream, John Williams, or some such thing.
and even so,

Since the chances are that your name is not Andrs Segovia, so the chances ae also that you
by now realized that to do even this simple pattern ABSOLUTELY correctly, you have to do
it quite siowly, and this is the most important lesson you could ever learn. Because anyone can
piay almost anything perfectly if he does it slowly enough, and if someone does a thing perfectiy
enough times at whatever speed, then he wiil eventually iind it possibie to do it perfectly at pretty
much any reasonable speed. The virtuosos who go sailing through passages of transcendani speed
a)rd difficulty in concert are the ones who sit for hous at home piaying things at a snail's pace and
watching their fingers like a hawk for the slightest sign of inefficiency or lack ol precision. But
the people who practice at more normal tempos are the ones who keep finding that somehow they
never seem to get much better, and that the piece that they couidn't quite manage to get though
some years ago, they STILL can't manage to get through now.
have

k
is a good idea to lse a metronome on all technical material you may work on. Not only
will this help to develop a sure feeling for metre and rhythm, but it will help to keep the speed of
any exercise steady. Often without a metrononte, one may start to play at a slow speed and then
accelerate without noticing, or one may slow down in the hard spots without reahzing it and so may
have a quite untrue idea of what speed one can really play a certain thing at. This also freqtrently
may happen in pieces, so that the hard parts of the piece may end up being played at a slower
speed and the easier parts may go a lot faster, and this can completely destroy any sense of tempo'
Ii however, one gets irsed to keping strict tempos both in exercises and when practising techruc-al
difficulties in pices, by using a metronome, then one becomes better able to control speed' In

It

doing pieces, a good idea is to vary the speed at which one practises from quite slower than the true
tempt-to ,o***hut faster, for in this *ay on" rvill build up flexibility and not become locked into
only one possibie speed for a given piece. Ironically, it appears that working a 1ot with a metronom, rathr than mking peopl -or lik"ly to play stiffly and "metronomicaliy" usually gives them
such a greater contol o'rer ttrel, rhythm nd tmpo that they are lreer to use more rubato and to
play mre sensitively. Those who don't use a metronome, fearing it will make their playing too
severe and mechanial, often end up playing the most mechanically, since they ollen have such a
vague sense of time that they must expend a lot of effort just to keep any sort of tempo at all' Or
if they do not expend that effort, they may play so unmetronomically that no one can even guess
what rhythm they are trying to do. So the main things to bear in mind with these, or any,
exercises are:

Do them SLOWLY.

Do them ABSOLUTELY PRECISELY, both in terms of precision of finger placement, and in

terms of rhythmic regr-ilarity and exactness'
Do them with as little rvasted motion as possible'

Do them always with a GOAL in mind, knowing ahvays exactly what particular problem you
are trying to correct.
Do them PERFECTLY. Anything that would not do
means you are going too last.

ECI]EI NACIONAL DE MUSrrll

BIBf., IOTEC...

as

is for an LP recording in no good. and

PART TWO

THE EXERCISES

To begin with, the simplest thing you could ask lor in an exercise is a chomatic scale of lour
nores. If you want to use each left hand finger in every possible combination with every other
finger (so ihat ay possible pattern of movement from finger to finger you could ever find in any
youget the
pie"ce would have-aiready been practised before you eyerstarted working on the piece)
foliowing 24 Patterns:

1234, 1243, t324.

34:. 423. 1432

1

.r",

2131, 2143, 2314, 2341, 2413,

2!3"_!"

3124. 3142, 3214, 3241, 3412,

3421

4123, 4132,

!.?_t_2,

4231, 4312,

4321.

If, for instance. you wished to rvork on the first pattern in its simpiest form, you could

stat
up
perhaps
move
then
anywhere on the first string and work your way down to the sixth string, and
slower).
or
=48
one fret and work yor. *uy back to the first string. SLOWLY. lmetronoms)

,o

,o--------,

/;\
g/1

and then
In this way you can work yoLlr way up and down the fingerboard, going across each fretstretching
your present
shrfting up or down one tr"t u.d oing back the other way. If you find
a correct hand posrtion
be
with
should
as
il
exactly
tinger
piace
each
you
to
ability does not permit
untii your stretch
when playing on the lower frets, then don't 1ry to piy at all on the lorver tiets
cieariy
improves. Go only as far tlown as you can do perfectly. if you try to do something
point
of the
the
impossible lor your fingers, you will only teach thm to compromise and destroy
exe rcise.

The simplest way to pluck these patterns

ls

to use the right hand patterns of two

im, ia,

ma

lni. ai,

am

tingers:

that, as the
Do not be looled into thinking ihat im and mi are identical. They are lar from
patterns'
the
accenting
practise
yor"r
if
case.
and
each
in
right harrii has to change strings difierently
for
easiest
are
the
hands
patteins
of
both
whatever
try
the accents wiii be different as we11. At fiist
a
you and watch both hands to rnake sure you aie doing everything nght' Then while stiil keeping
the
patterns' and when
simple right hand pattern, you might try some *o." o*pcated left hand
hand fingerings more
right
the
y-ou
can
try
making
pattern.
left hanJ gets fair automtic for any
right hand is really
the
that
sure
and
make
at'first,
complicri:ted. Do be very careul, ..p.Liully
given pattern, and then'
doing the pattern you told it to. Many rigirt hands wiil start off '1oing a
strings of
the minute one iooks the other way, they'wiil start doing anything they like, including
iiiiiiiiiis and mmmmmmmmms'

7
[*
h

l.
Nolv you have the simplest version of the sort of erercise this book is a.bout. Where do you go
frorn there? lost people will think of getting out their pocket calculators to figr-rre out that so
many patterns times so many other patterns times so nlany minLttes per pattern equals so much
time, and the total they are likely to corne Llp with is liightening enough to make anyone give up
right there. But this is exactl,v what NOT to do. Because the main point of this book is that these
exercises are to be iooked upon as merely a catalogue of possibilities from which one may select
only what one needs, and lrom which one can design furtherexercises made to fit just the probiems
oI one's own iingers.
So how cioes one select? At first just doing anl,tiring at a1lreally correctl-v may be enotrgh of
a problem that one should just stick with the simplest possible versions for a while, untii the hands
become used to working rvll. After the fingers get more accustomed to doing very simple things
well, then one should start to notice rvhich patterns of the left hand are the hardest. Not only
shouid one rnake a note of the t',vo or three or four hardest patterns, but one shouid try to tlgure
out why they are hard and perhaps what they have in common. Maybe every time you have a 34,
the 4 tends to ieap 1-,p *or. than usual. Maybe if 4 follorvs a 1 , it is less sure of landing correctiy
than if it follows some other finger. Nlaybe 23 is hard because 3 can't stretch away liom 2 very
weli. Whatever your worsr problems are, write down r,vhat they are. and set about doing any
patterns that have the difficriit combinations in them, IvIAKING the fingers do uorrectly rvhat
ihey don't want to do. Then if you don't find enough diflerent versions of what your fingers like
leasi in the patterns ol four fingers, you may want to look through all the possible ways you can
play six nots rvithor-rt repeating-anv iinger and using two groups of three lingers to make up each
patiern. These are listed under headings telling how many qf which fingers are used in that grollp
of patterns, to make searching for particular combinations easier.

Tlvo

13. 132 3,
23t 13t , 23132t .

23

1s,

two ls, and tlvo

123132.

23

I 2 I 3.

31:312, 31232t, 312132,

I

Two

1s,

two

2s and

3s.

321321

321131,

321312.

r 1a

1Jl1-J.

132312, 132132,

l1?lr?

11211t
.
_ 1J-J

1l?r1i

! aa

trvo 4s.

121124. 124214. 124142.

L)1a41

A11A11

421421,

?.4t241, 241421, 211214.

t 42t24,

1 4 I l')

142142,

411412. 412421. 4t2142

214124,

214241.

214214,

fwo

1s, two 3s and two 4s.

134134. t31314. 134143.

431341.

431.1i 3,

431131,

341341, 341 43 i . 34134t ,

143134.

143413.

143143,

413413, 413.131, 413143.

314134.

314341

314314,

l. .i. and 4 onlY, two

of each per Patfern.

234234. ?34324. )34243"

432342. 432123, 432432,

34:341. 34:43:.

3423:4.

324231. 324342,

4?3423. 423432.

4232.43.

113234. :43423. 243243,

9

324324,

Two 2s, two 3s and two

111),
!
,t

1234t2,

123214, 123142,

)?1141

231421,

312124,

4s.

7)11a1

321412,

32142t,

231214,

1?)1)4

132412,

132142,

312412,

312421, 312142,

)111)4

213241,

)1?4)t

213214,

124123,

1)471)

124213, 124t32,

42123t,

421312,

421321,

421213.

241231,

241321,

)^1 1l?

142t23,

t42312,

142132;

412123,

412312,

412321, 412132,

214123,

214231,

214321,

1
a

-v

123413,

l23t 43,

231341,

231 413,

231431,

312134,

31234t,

I 34123,

ll,

3212t 4

214213,

two 3s, one 2, and one 4.

Two
123134,

JL,L

321341,

321431.

)LJt+,

2313t4,

132134,

132413,

132314,

132143,

312431,

31231 4,

aTalaA

_lJrJ+,

2134t3, 213431,

2131 43,

1343t2,

t34213,

431231.

/-t
a1a
+JtJI,

43132t.

431213.

341231,

341312,

341321,

143123,

143213,

143132,

4t3123.

41323t,

413213,

314231,

314312.

314321,

1^1

"1

413t32,

Two is, two 4s, one 2, and one

3.

t24134,

t24314,

124143,

241341,

241 413,

241431,

241314,

142t34,

412341,

4124t3,

412431,

412341,

214134,

r34124,

134214,

1341 42,

341241,

?.1 41

4t3241,

413412,

a)

1 2,d1

421413,

L1 1 411

1423t4,

| 421 43,

) 1 42,41

)1.?ll

214143,

431241,

43t412,

431421,

42413,

341421,

341214,

143124,

| 43412,

| 43214,

41342t,

413142,

314124,

31 4241

31

One 1,

) ?4?1

123234,

123423,

?1 1?.

231423,

231324,

3t2342,

312432,

312324,

234123,

234231,

)?a?1

342312,

342321,

342132,

423t23,

423231,

423213,

two

) ?)

314132,

4214,

4?l 4)

314t42,

3s, and one 4.

2s,

,2,

231243.

321234, 321342, 321432,

321324,

132342. t32123, 132432,

132324,

213234, 213123,
234213,

432123,432312,

4?)1)

243t23,

),")1?

243231,

324231, 324312,

423132.

10

1)

47)

432132"

324132,

One 1, two 2s, one 3, and two 4s.

::l-:

j.

':14342, 124324, 124243,

421342, 421423. 421432.

421243,

:j: :-i. :11423, 241324, 241243,

:::-: ':. 112423, 412432,

142342. 142423, 142432, r42324.

:::: lj. :34241, 234214,

.il: :4. 34241 , 342421 ,

4324t2, 432421,

214234, 214324, 214213,

432142,

3421 42,

243124, 243241, 243421, 243214,

:3:41, 423412, 423421, 423142.

324124, 324241, 324214, 324142.

One 1, one 2, two 3s, and two 4s.

:34134, 234341, 234314, 234143.

432341, 432413, 432431, 432143,

342314.
423413, 423431, 423143.
134234, 134342, 134324, '134243.

243134, 243413, 243431, 243143,

3414:..3.
413423, 413432, 413243,

143234, 143423, 143432, 143243,

342134, 342341, 342431.

341234. 341342, 341432,

324134, 324341, 324314,

431342, 431423, 431432, 431243,

314234, 314342, 314324,

Before getting too invoived in the left hand though, you should test the right hand as well and
perhaps ior
see in which ways the fingers work best and fastest. Yor-r probably already know that
play
scales.
But
to
way
comlortable
a
or
is
not,
is,
you, imimi is faiter than mama. or that iaiai
the
i-on
to
from
m
or
i
to
from
m'
go
instance,
faster, for
iest yourself and find out if you can
things,
all
these
you
tned
have
versa.
visa
Ater
same string-from a lower ttring to a higher, and
you shoul have a pretty good idea what you need to work on improving, and which combinations
f fing*r, need extia pr"ii.".. When you have found wfuch directions, and from rvhich finger to
which. give you the most trouble. .,-ou might try practicing the worst combinations with both
accents and clotted rhythms. For instance if you find you can generally go quite fast from a to m'
but not so fast tiom m to a. you rnight try accenting the a in any ma combinations you praclice'
Or you might try rloing both the rna and am pattems with the following rhythms:

nl ama

alnamanam

This can be done quite siowi-v and still f,orce speed on the siuggish finger if the dotted rhythms
are kept tight enough. It is aiso easier in this sort of exercise, to keep from getting tense hands and
fingers, thin if on. *... to tr-v to simpl-v play everything quickly, and one also has pienty of time
to ttrinL about what one is doing during the a to m interval so as to be well prepared for the quick
m to a interval. This sort of thing shouid nor be done at first in combination with a compiex left
hand pattern. In lact it might not be a bad idea to try just using ihe right irand aione at the very
beginning, and then trying next several repeated notes in the right hand for each left hand change,

7'

In order to sharpen your sense of rhythm, yor-r might aiso want to try sometimesusinga
rhythm. anci contrasting it with

the ,l

))

N\

'

,\ ,l ,\

left hand patterns ol lour notes behaving reasonably well, and wish to
complicate matters further rvith the right hand. you might try doing those same patterns oi four in
the left hand using the following patterns lor thee fingers of the right hand:
When you have got the

ima mai aim ami mia

So, for instance,

with

a pattern

of

iam

1324 in the left hand and mai in the right hand, you could get the

foilowing:
tn
1

tn

a irn

mA tma
32 413

@ ,o ,@ @

0l

m a
2\ 4

m
L

,2

lt

m
1

o-------,o

Trl first accenting the flours, and watching the right hand caretllly to make sure the patterns of
threes aren't thrown off. Then you might try to put accents on the first of each three notes and
make sure the left hand doesn't fall apart. With ali of this, particuiarly at first, GO SLOWLY.
Don't charge in at high speed. and after piles of mistakes and garbled patterns, finaily resign yourself to going s]ow1y. Play any ol these exercises at a speed at which. the very first time you try any
combination, you can do it perfectly, and never buiid up the speed beyond a point where you have
enough time to think about everything sufficiently to get it right.

you may ask rvhy one should be able to play four left hand notes against a pattern of nght
hand fingerin in threei. After a1i, one is rarely requtred to do that in pieces. But one does often
have lefi and right hand fingerings that are completely independent of each other. and which
reqr:ire completJ independence of the two hands. One has to be able to teil a hand to do some
ofien fairly omplicated pattern, and be able to reiy on it to continue to do that pattern without
much supervision whiie changing strings, often illogically as far as the ilngers are concerned, and in
spite of ihut.r.r the other hand may be doing. So any exercise that will get the fingers of one
hind maintaining a pattern against a conflicting pattern in the other hand will help develop this
capability.
Of course there are many ways a given left hand pattern may be used other than the mos
obvious already given. For a start you might try skipping strings and doing the p-attern on the
first string, thn the thid, rhen the fifth, then the sixth, fourth, second, then first again on
another fuet etc etc. Or you might go from the first to lotirth to sixth to third, and then start
ve on a new fret. Or you might try shifting a given pattern up and down different distances on
the same string. Or periraps you mtght want to try shifting up or down a fret after playing each
pattern on one string only-for instance:

@- ,@

OA)
-1
.'.-)

),4
I \r/

t2

| 'tJ)

,o

v
Or yorr might try shifting within e pattern in any of, many rvays, for instance

@coo

/1\
\.1./

Or:

o
The possibilities are endless.

You would probably choose to do any of these, or any other variants, depending on what you
found your fingers needed to work on, or what problem you found in a piece that you needed to
practise. If you found, for instance, that you had trouble keeping a consistent hand position when
reaching from one string to another with the left hand, then some of the string skipping variants
would probably help. They wor-rid help also with any problems of accllrac.v in the left hand. If
yor-r feei the need to narrow down the probiem even more, yoLr might break clown this idea lnto
some exercises using only two lingers at a time in the following fashron:

il)
v{
431
I

,a)

0-L
or even

etc.

2+

(l\

I
I

'r2

The possibilities for this sort of thing on all lrets and stringsare endiess also, but don't kili yourself
working too f'anatically on the hardest ones you can make up. Developing a stretch takes time
after all, and the world is fu1l of' people who can't reach the sixth string rvith their fourth finger
when their third finger is on the f,irst string. But lvhichever combinations you try, make sure that
your wrist stays quite still as well as your elbow, so that it is the fingers that do the work. There is
no point in pr-rtting your shouider out oi joint rvhen what you are trying to do is move two fingers.
Also make sure in any of these reaching or skipping exercises, that the fingers come down straight
onto the strings, because if they iand at any angle from the perpendicular, they may tend to pr-rsh
and puil the strings sideways towards or away from the hand. This not only causes the note being
played to be out of tuuc, but will also destroy the possibility of developing in the finger a true sense
ol where the string actually is. (If you suspect you may be shiiting the strings aroltnd in this
manner, yotr migirt try io watch yourself in a mirror srnce it is much easier to see rvhat you are
doing this way).

If you find tirat you have difficulty shifting, or il you find that some fingers are unreliabie to
land on after a shift, then yor-r might want to choose some of the shilting exercises that emphasize
the things you find hard. Any combinations of left anci right hand patterns may be used with shifts
and skips of any sort. Siurs may be added to any patterns in any ways. as may any sorts ol trills
etc. Or perhaps yoll simply find that your stretch is inariequate, and doesn't ailow you to keep a
good position on the lower frets. Or perhaps some -ingers stretch better than others. In this case,
not only can you practise stretching by simply doing any left hand patterns on as lorv lrets as
1J

possible without compromising, but you might also want to try leaving an extra fret's space between
any trvo adjacent tlngers in any patterns you practice. For nstance, if -v'-ou wished to do a 1432
pattern, you would get the following possibie variants:

Such spaces can be added to any patterns and worked up and down the fingerboard in any manner
you may wish. Not only that, but if you want to get fancy, and if this seems to be a thing you
need to work on, yon could combine some stretching variants with the string skipping and/or shifting variants in any way your imagination can devise.

Most such variants will probably be suggested to you by actual problems you may have in
pieces. In fact whenever you encounter a difficuit spot in a piece, a good idea is to figure out why
it is difficult, and then take whatever that difficulty is and work it into some chromatic pattern, and
then practise it up and down and across, all over the fingerboard. Whatever you may have to
do in a piece that is difficuit can always be reduced to one finger's doing one particular job,
followed by another finger's doing something else, and once that sequence of motions can be
isolated, it can be made into an exercise.

For exampie if you play Sor's Sonata Op.15 Number 2,you will encounter the following spot:

A nasty little thing to piay and containing quite a number of difficulties which can be isolated and
worked on separately. First there is simply getting up to the B with 4. For that you could just try
lots of patterns of 3214 with a shift up to the 4, such as:
4

fftoy
I
2
/-\
,4)
@ a,
3

turn
into

oo

@i

FI

etc.

+b+rrl

B2
--_-_f.-/:\
fry

\2

Then you may realize that the problem is not so much getting to the B, as getting there fast enough
and solidly enough that you can manage to get right off again into the slur, which will lead to the
following sorts of things:

t1\

Nfaybe by now you have discovered that the 4 will land pretty weil if the whole pattern is done on
one string, but if the 3 is on a iower string it makes it harder lor the 4 to reach back to the flrst
string. That idea wiil give you not only the following exercises:

l4

,7-

ol

-rl ., I .t , at,
4r*=it4-=1
l

4-l+

"1

dC

nl
^l
+-i

etc., or
I

\,

exercises of two fingers

but will also probably get you running back to the previously mentioned you may find thatafter
continue,
to
strings.
Or
two
jumping back and forth"attmately between
from B to A, it is too exhausted
the 4th finger has made the supreme effort of gettinglhe first siur
slur' The tlrst thing to
the
following
do
to
the
A
get
t
back
or too out of position to be abie to
foilowing patterns of
there would be simply repeatmg 4) slurs, so you might try doing the

tackle

1&3, ttZl{2, t'tZS' Z{Z't'

Or if vouwant to make
t"t&., izEizt, {zst., z{Zztz. t{zt&., .ztzz. ana Czttzt'
get another pile of possibiiities'

six notes all over the place with siurs on the 42s: .1ZCZ,

life more interesting, you could try combining 4js with tne CZs and
chord which not
Try these with som ,rufting ad in relevint spots. That gets you to the last
finger, but not
4th
the
piayed
by
oniy must be landed on, bui needs an added A on the first string
So first you
measure'
next
the
pt,-it., in order to stp the open E fom sounding on throughout
have the chords to practise separately: III ---r

string to
reriable. Then you have the fun of getting from the F sharp-on the first
of
aspect
probiem'
Each
is
a
this
if
the second chord which wiil give you more patterns to work on
if
necessarv
on
rvorked
passase
and
each nte can be seiarated from the
;H;"i;;il';;;
doesn't have anything too
Then there is the right hand. In the previous passage, the right hand
from the first string
finger
i
getting
the
on
horrendous, though even so you might want to work
or you might
strings,
third
play
the
to
needs
into rhe middie of the chord which iollows, in which it
simultaneousabsolutely
notes
get
three
the
find you needed to practice the first arpeggio pattern to
ly. But in things like the following putig" iro* o Dland Fancy' the right hand certainlv rvill
benefit from being practised alone:

unt they

are very

C=r

tn m
etc.

,r
p

3*

lrr
eb

.J

tW
I
I

')

you-may find' incidentBy doing this you will get a better rdea of where the troubie spots are, and
(lf this is the case' it
together'
hands
two
play
the
than
to
ally, that the right hanJ alone is harder
the right hand through the
means that your left hand has been expending-a iot of effort in draggng
hand wiil
piece, anci you wiil find that once the righi hand thoroughiy masters its part, the left
seem a lot easie as weil).

O=rit

plo

mimimim

'19
ia
pt lq

Dl

i5

v
Nfost of this is simpiy a matter of doing aimi through thick and thin, and should be practisecl as
such. Once that aspect is under control. the only remaining problems will be getting iiom i on tire
for-rrth string up to mirni on the first strlng and back down to mim on the thircl. whicir can easily be
made into a simple exercise. Most right hand ditficulties will resolve themselves in this way, and if
you lind a certain part of a piece hard. don't just assume that the problem Lies in the left hand, since
as often as not, it will be the right hand that is sabotaging the passage. (Though these examples
from pieces are both quite difficult. this method of analysis may be applied to the srmpiest pieces
any beginner might attempt, as wel1. Anything you play tltat you find difficult should be rvorked
on in this manner).

This Dowland passage may serve as a reminder that there are still the right hand patterns ol
four to be considered. They are:
:t,!o--\
.',J

lmam, maml,

amlm,

mrma

imia, miai,

iaim,

aimi

lama, amal ,

mala

aiam

d ' --o"

,"
.*.
a- t -.rE'
,'
\u-y'
f9

LSI+

These can be combined with the left hand patterns of six if you reall-v want to drive yourself crazy.
They can also be useci merely wrth the left hand paiterns of four, or with any sorts of scales. (They
are also, once they have been practised enough to be reasonably automatic, soine of the most
efficient ways of fingering last passages in pieces-such as that Dow,land-as are the right hand
pattertrs of threes also). They may be done as repeated notes on a single left hand note, if it is the
right hand that is to be worked on particr-r1ar1y. Rhythms and accents may be added ol course.

Then to take a different tack, the left hand patterns may be tansformed into nght hand
patterns (this ttme including the thLrmb) which may be used not only in running passages, bnt
also as arpeggio e.tercises. For instance 1234 may, be substituting p for 1. i lor 2, m for 3 and a for
4, become pima. The patterns of sixes are particularly good for this ptlrpose, with the'ones using
all for-rr lingers and having oniy one 1 1ie one p) giving the most generaily useful patterns lor

arpeggiation.

Or tlie patterns of fburs in the left hand may then be developed into patterns on two strings
at once giving a multitude cl possibilities for exploitation, many of which are some ol the most
valuable exercises i know of. The basic patterns of fours on two strings are:
1

2
I

3?.4314211

| 4 32.23
-)
-)1Jtl1L
41 3 213
2 3.1 4.4
314221

4111?l?)

234214314
4,12,43,21,32,
2:t
43 3413
3. 3 +. I l. I t, 4

2,

a/i--!

For instance, the first of these would mean that the firsr linger should play on a higher string while
the second linger wouid piay a lower string, and then this should be followed by the third linger
playing on a higher string r.vhiie the fourth finger wouid take a lower string. Within those limits,
anything is possibie-for example:

@--

6)

-r

etc

etc.,

or

or
2

l*l,
,

t6

lL.

to try should be done across ai1 frets and up and

down the entire fingerboard, of colrrse. Be very carefui to place each pair of fingers exactly together, and to lift the other pair exactiy at the same time. Care must be taken not to use one pair
of lingers as a sort of pivot, or as a means of hanging on to a given place on the fingerboard in order
to help the other two fingers to align and piace themselves. The fingers should all hover over the
places upon which they intend to alight, and they should be made to maintain this position by
themselves. Also the two fingers of a pair must come down together, and if time must be taken to
place either one, the other should wait in the air over its position until the problematic finger is
ready to be placed, so that the two may alight in one motion. Be particularly careful with these
exercises that your fingers don't displace the strings sideways. It is often quite difficult to avoid
doing this in exercises with some of the more difficuit stretches, so il you find you have a tendency
to do thi.s, try practising in front of a mirror. Watch also for changes in hand and wrist position, as
well as movement from the elbow. There should be no marked movement except in the fingers.
These and any other possibilities you may wish

Of course slurs may be adcied to any of these patterns, as may also spaces ol an extra fret
between any two adjacent fingers, as.may rhythms, accents, shifts, or anything else you can think
of doing, or which occurs in a piece and seems iike a good thing to work on. For the right hand,
you may simply use any two fingers you wish, or you might try practising your tremolo (with
various variant fingerings also if you like) or your two string tril1s, or you may take any of the right
hand patterns of four and use them. You may also wish to use these patterns to work on some ol
the problems of coordinati.on that may ffop up in pieces of complicated countepoint, and play the
notes of each pair one rfter the other, holding each note over untii the next note on that string is to
be sounded. This will give the following sort of thing:
r'l-\

,J

---------ua *1)

o____--_____-_-__,

(l)
)21

etc.,

or

\-/

\ lt

o,

Lastly, if you take the patterns of fours and double them and assign one set to the thumb and
one to the fingers, you get the following dotrble arpeggios which can help develop greater independence for the thumb, and can aiso heip one in tinding -the most efficient possible right hand and
wrist position. These patterns are as follows:

imia imia imia imia imia imia imia

6545 5456 4565 s6s4 4546 5464 4645

imia
6454

miai miai miai miai miai miai miai

654s s4s6 456s s654 4546 5464 4645

miai

6454

lm1a lmla

lmla

1mla

646s 16s6 6564

5646

miai miai miai

miai
s646

646s 4656 6564

iaim iaim iaim iaim iaim iaim iaim iaim iaim iaim iaim
6545 5456 4565 5654 4546 5464 164s 6454 6465 46s6 6564
aimi aimi aimi aimi aimi aimi aimi aimi aimi aimi aimi
6s4s 54s6 4565 5654 4546 5464 4645 6454 6465 4656 6564

raim

5646
aimi
5646

mlma mlma rruma mlma mlma mlma mlma mlma mlma mlma m1ma mlma
6545 5456 4565 5654 4546 5464 4645 6454 646s 4656 6564 5646
lmam lmam rmam lmam lmam imam imam imam lmam lmam lmam lmam
6545 5456 4565 5654 4546 5464 4645 6454 6465 4656 6564 5646
mami mami mami mami mami mami mami mami maml maml maml maml
6545 5456 4565 5654 4546 s464 4645 6454 6465 4656 6564 s646
17

amrm arT[m

6545

amlm
5456 4565

amai amai

6545 5456
mala

6s45

mala

5456

amai

4565

mala
4565

amlm amlm amlm

amim amim amim amim

amai amai amai amai

s6s4 4546 5464 4645

amal
6454

5654 4546

mala

5654

mala

4546

amlm
5464 4645

6454 646s 4656 6564

amim
5646

amal amal
4656 6564

5646

amal
6465

amal

maia maia mala mala maia maia

4645 6454 6465 4656 6564 5646

mala

5464

aiam aiam aiam aiam aiam aiam aiam aiam aiam aiam aiam aiam
6545 5456 4565 s654 4546 5464 4645 6454 6465 4656 6s64 5646
iama iama iama iama iama iama iama iama iama iama iama lama
6545 5456 4565 5654 4546 5464 4645 6454 6465 4656 6564 5646
The first one for instance, imia over 6545, would be pla yed in the following manner:

co

Of course this is assuming that one assigns to p the iower three strings and to i the third string, to m
the second string, and to a the first string. You may wish to vary this, especially which strings the
fingers play. giving all sorts of nasty combinations that will make anything the right hand may have
to o in any pieces seem like child's piay by contrast. A few examples followr:
I

etc.

In any of these exercises. the only limits on what you can cio with them are the limits of your
own imagination, and hopefully your imagination wiil grow more and more with the practice of
working out new and diflerent ways of using this material. All the pattems and ways of using them
in this book are rnerely suggestions. Certainly you will not want to try everything mentioned, as
even doing a srnall flraction- of the things suggested would take hours to get through. So don't
panic at .il tl-,. rnultitude of possibiiities. but just go carefully looking through to see what tr,vo or
ihee ideas wousd be the mosl usefui at first. or examine your fingers to find out what groups of
technical problems are most urgently in need of practice. Do some of the simplest patterns and
let whatever else you do come as a result of any problems you may encounter' Or go ihrough
a piece yo a"re working on and search out any difficult spols. When you have found them, take
them apart ancl break them down into a piie of simpie little 6asic exercises to be worked on. Also
just that one thing for
bervare bf pi"6*g out the hardest thing you can devise and working hard on
before, or causes any
have
used
much
you
not
may
hours. Any tectrnical thing that uses muscies
it is not accustomed
a
way
in
frequent
movements
and
muscle or tendon to have t nlake very rapid
of the muscie first'
potential
the
up
buiiding
without
much
to doing, may be dangerous if done too
eise for a while,
,cause
try
something
that
and
tired,
stop
get
very
or
nitrscles to hurt
If an exercise
18

7
ietting the tired muscle rest meanwhile. And above all, if you get serious pains anywhere when
practing, you are doing something wrong, and should find out what it is before going on, as some
iinds oi muscle and nerve damage can be very lasting. So get into the most dificult thtngs
gradually, and give yourself plenty of variety'

But the one thing to be avoided at all costs is the idea that these are a set of exercises to be
one is thinking of anything
done dutifully, exactli as described, for set periods of time-done while
become entirely your own
good.
must
They
were
they
said
else-done mrely becuse Aiice Atzt
eye towards searching out
exercises, done with great concentration, and done with a constant
specific forms of any
and
more
more
devising
and
faults you can find-in"yorr o*r, technique,
should come up
book,
this
from
peopie,
working
two
patterns, taiiored to yolr own needs. o
level, with
a
similar
peopie
of
two
Even
on.
with anything like th same exercises to concentiatJ
be very
would
spots'
hard
same
the
with
same
music
the same teacher, working on some of the
yourself
bored
with
you
find
if
all,
above
But
uniikely to end up with eiactly the same exercises.
to
to
add
what
new
wrinkles
some
of
think
and
get
work
to
too much repetitin, you have-only to
you are doing, or to ihink of some diffrent aspect of a problem to attack. If a problem doesn't
quickly succumb to whatever attack you have made upon it, then vary the attack' or rethink
because a few
what the cause of the problem may be. But above all keep thinking and analysing,
as well'
interesting
great
deal
more
guitar
a
minutes of thought make practising and playing the

i9

PART THREE
THE IDEAL BASIC POSITION, A{D A LIST OF PROBLE\,IS TO WATCH OI.'T FOR

LEFT HAND
Fingers and nails

When stopping a string the fingers shouid be placed very accurately just behind the requrred
fret,
and at rest (ie when not stopping a string) all four fingers should naturally hover idealiy not
mor
than a quarter of an inch (.6 cm) above the strings and each exactly orr it, proper stopping position behind each of four adjacent frets on any one string. The fingeri should be piaced p"ipeirlcutar to the fingerboard. The pressure of the fingers on the strings should be even and cnsistent,

and not excessive. The thumb shouid be placed riear the centre of the back of the neck'of the'
guitar under the center of gravity of the hand, and should not be under tension.

koblems

1.

Nails may be too long making

2.

The tip joints of some fingers may be double jointing because of weakness of fingers and poor

it impossible fo the fingers to be placed properly.

hand position.

3- The fingers

may not be curved enough in ail their joints because of poor hand or wrist position.

4.

Some fingers may be curved more lhan others due

5'

Some fingers may be lying too much on their sides due to poor wrist and elbow position.

to poor hand and

r,vrist position.

6- The fingers, when equaliy curved and at rest, may not be lined up along one string, so that
more reaching is required ol some fingers than of others, caused by poor hnci wrist ud.1bo,
position.
l. The fingers may be too flat and straightened out due to placement of the palm of the hancl tco
far from the fingerboard, usually due to insufficient stretch etween the iingeis, and causing weakness of pressure' inefficiency, and often the damping of strings higher thanlhe one being stopped.
i

8.

The fingers may lack sufficient stretch to allow them to rest comfortably on adjacent frets.

The fingers may be pulling the strings sideways from their proper positions due to tension, lack
angie of fingers, and causing out f tuneness and encouraging further

of accuracy' and irnproper

inaccuracies.

10' Too much finger pressure may be used, usually as a compensation

acclrracy. or improper thumb position.

1l'

for lack of stretch. lack of

There may be more ease rn stretching between some fingers than between others, causing
t inaccuracies.

co nsisten

12. Too little

l3'

Pressure

pressire may be used due to weakness or instability.

of sorne fingers may differ

causing inconsistency

of touch and instabiiity.

l4' The thumb may be placed wrong and may not be counterbalancing ihe pressure of the fingers.
often causing the gultar to siide around on the lap.
l5'

The thumb may be tos immobile and may tend to stay in one position when it should

moving with the hand. and thus may cause distortions of hand position.

l6' The thumb may be too mobile and may not stay
of stability to rhe hand.
20

1n

be

any position long enough to lend any sorr

11

'

The tip joint of the thumb may be bent imparting tension to itself and to t he hand.

18. The thumb may be improperly positioned, pulling the fingers and hand down into an awkivard

position and effectively shcrtening the usable finger length, and causing contortions of

position.

hand

Hand and wrist

The palm of the hand should be in as close to the fingerboad as possible whiie stiil not touching the
first string, and should be basically parallei to the fingerboard. (Since the fingers should all curve to
the same degree, their relative lengths will dictate the relative distance of each side of the palm of
the hand from the fingerboard. A shorter fourth finger will require the part of the palm which it
joins to come closer in to the fingerboard than a relatively longer fourth finger). The upper part ol
the palm (where the fingers join the hand) should be high enough that the ngers can ail reach the
sixth string withoui altering the hand position, and tfus position should be kept no matter what
string is being piayed so that the fingers can do most of the movement in changing chords etc., whlle
the hand and arm remain almost immobile. The wrist should hang dorvn naturaily from the hand
and should be under no tension.
Problems

1. The angle of the paim of the hand to the neck of the guitar may be wrong causing uneven
curvature of the fingers, inaccurate placement of the fingers, and usuaily caused by a poor elbow
position.

2. The hand may become tense usually due to weakness and poor position and imparting ttr-is tension to the fingers, often resulting in the fingers stiffening and refusing to remain in proper
position.

3.

The wrist may be held too high causing double jointing, weakness, and instability.

4. The palm of the hand may be held out too far, usually due to a poor stretching abiiity between
the fingers, causing the fingers to become too straight and to land on the strings in a flattened
position, causing weakness of pressure, inefficiency, and often resulting in the damping of any
strings above the one being played.
t

5. The wrist and paim may be held in and under the neck of the gr-ritar too far, caused by weakness
and incorrect thumb position, and causing an effective shortening of usable finger length and
making proper finger placement impossibie.
6. The palm and wrist

may jump around to compensate for tnadequate stretch and finger

movement, thus causing poor position, loss of precision, and requiring much extra effort.
Arm and shoulder
The shouider should rest in a naturai relaxed position, and the arm and eibow should hang from the
shouider at one end and tiom the hand at the other in a completely relaxed and natural way.
Problerns

1. The elbow may be held out too far, caused by lack of fingerstretchand mobiiity, and causing
poor hand and finger position.

2.

The elbow rnay be dug into the body too much causing a cramped position and tension.

3. The large upper arm muscies may, with nervous tension., (and if not countered by sufficient
left hand thumb pressure) contract, pulling the guitar neck towards the body and often causing it
to start to slip off the lap.

21

7
RTGHT HAND
Fingers and nails

The nails should be very smooth and shaped in accordance

with the shape of the tingers and with
the angle of attack to be used. The lingers should be gentiy
curved
first touched by the nail at either its right or left side. The nail ,rJ rgl. so that the string is
should thJn pass across the string
from the side tor'vards the middle at wfuch point the ,tring should
be eleased. (The quality of
sound will depend to a large extent on the ingle at which
the naii fist touches the strings, and
may be varied somewhat according to taste). Most of the power
shoulJ come from the joint
nearest the palm of the hand, and the fingers should be piaced
in
such position that they are ail
equally curved when playing on the same string (as in a tremolo)
and areis convenientiy placed as
possible to reach as many strings as possible
wit as little motion of the rvrist as possible.
Problems

1.

The nails may be badly shaped, or rough, causing a poor

sound.

2' The angie of attack may be incorrect, or the fingers may not be curved properly,
so that the
nail may attack the string at an insufficient angle to p.Jau.e
a good tone.
3' Th finger nails may pluck somewhat. along the length of the strings instead
of directiy across,
due to poor hand position, and causing time to be
wasted with the t.u *otion. and making a
harsh grating sound if any bass strings are plu-cked
in this
way.

nails may be shaped inconsist-ently from finger to finger, or may be filed without taking
.4' The
into
account the relative lengihs of fingers, the had position, or the angle of attack,
cuusin!
inconsistencies of touch, tone, and sometimes even missed notes.

5. The skin may be too wet or too dry or too sticky or too hard. Most of these probiems can be
cured in one way or another, usually by the use of r-o*" gr"ury substance such as Vaseline
used in
moderate quantities.
6' The iingers may be attacking the string from different angles caused by some fingers being
curved more than others, due to poor hand position, and causing inaccuracies
and differences in
tone from finger to finger.
I

7 . The resting position of the fingers (ie when the

fingers are not touching the strings but are
waiting between strokes) may be too far from the stdngs causing too much time to
eiapse between
the beginning of the stroke and the actuai attack on the string.

8' The hngers may foliow through too far after the stoke and/or may curl up into the palm of
the hand (usually caused by tension) and remain there after the stroke, and so
may not be prepared
to return to make a repeated stroke in time.
? The tip joint of the fingers may be bent too much, thus causing the fingers to hook the strings
often causing the strings to snap on the frets. If done to a suffient delree. tfus
hookinc m;y
indttce tension and improper use of muscles to such an extent as to carise very
serious physicai
problems.

i0' Tire fingers may be too straight and stretched out due to the forearm resting on the guitar
at a point too near the wrist. causing double jointing of the fingers and weakness
of attack.
11. The thumb may be Lrsed in such a way as to tend to puil the hand out of position, usually
caused by lack of independence of the thumb and insufficient development
of the thumb muscles.
12' The thumb may be used in such a way that it may collide with the first

same time as that finger. causing tendency to arpeggiate all chords.

l3'

finger

if

used at the

The thtlmb may enlist the help of the wrist and arm muscles in playing any bass
notes. thus
of position at each thumb stroke.

causing the hand to ja.rmp out

22

7
14. The thumb may approach the string from an incorrect
stnngs.

angle so that its nail maiu catch on the

15. The hand may be held down too lar with the thumb held in a sirieways position so that only
the back of the nail will contact the iowest bass strings, making proper use of the naiiimpossible,
and causing the thumb to produce various odd sounds rather than a consistent clear tone.
16. The fingers may be used in such a way, or may be set into the hand in such a way, that they
may coilirie with each other. This can be due to insufficient stretch, a faulty cramped position, or
may be simply a characteristic of some hands, in which latter case various forms of compensation
may have to be devised.
17. The fingers, especially the little finger, may tend to stick out stiflly, particuiarly when a
difficuit passage is being played, due to tension in the hand and wrist.
Hand and wrist

The wrist should be reiaxed, and the hand should hang from it as naturaily as possible. The wrist
should be out far enough away from the guitar to allow the fingers to reacli as many strings as
possible without undue hand and wrist movement, and the hand should hang in front of the guitar
at such angie as will allow all of the fingers to be curved equally when playing on the same string.
Problems

1. The wrist may be heici in too lar causing the hand to form a clalv-iike position, causing tension
and hooking, and preventing the playing of more than one string at a time rvithout moving the
wrist or changing the angie of the hand. Any hooking movements can be dangerous, and if done
very much can cause actual severe physical damage to the hand and arm.

2. The wrisi may be held too lar out causing tension in the rvrist and a general weakness and
instability in the hand.
3'

The wrist may be too tense thus imparting tension to the fingers, and causing the fingers,
little one, to stick out stiffly.

especially the
I

The hand may be held at such an angie that the i finger is much closer to the strings than the a
!finger,

causing undue stretching of the a, uncitre cramping of tne

move out of proper position.

i, and causing the thumb to

have to

5.

The hand may be pushed in and towards the bridge while the thumb is e-rtended towads the
fingerboard to such a degree that the thumb nail is rendered useiess, and the distance along the
strings between where the fingers are plucking and where the thumb is piucking becomes so great
that the tone colours of thumb and fingers can in no way resemble each orher.

6.

The hand may move from side to side or may pivot, due to various mannerisms or to an
lollow thror-rgh afler the stroke, causing instability, and inaccuracies, as weil as great

exaggerated

inconsistency of tone quality.

Am and shouider

The shoulder shouid be dropped into a reiaxed position anci the foream should rest on the body of
the guitarin a natural comfortable position such that the hand hangs over the stnngs in a convenient
playing position.
Problems

i. The arm may be pulling the guitar in towards the body in an elfort to compensate fortoo high
a chair, too low a footstool, or a lack of sufTicient left hand thumb pressure. ceusing tension and
lack of freedom for the arm to move naturailv when necessary.
:J

77

2' The arm may be pressed down tightly on the eclge of the guitar due
result in serious physical problems if not correctecl in tie.

to tension. This

may

3' The arm may happen to rest on the guitar in such a position as to impede the circulation of
blood to the hand, in which case a slightly different position should be chosen.
4'

The arm may be resting on the guitar at a point too near the wrist,
causing the tingers to be too
stretched out, especially when playing on the first string, usuallz
causing d"oubie jointing of the
fingers, weakness of attack, and problems with the tirandoitroke.

5' The arm may be resting on the guitar above the elbow so that the forearm is not supporreci,
including tension and usually causing improper hand position and instability.
TORSO AND SITTING POSITION
One should sit near the front edge of a stable chair with a flat seat. One's
t'eet should be solidly on
the floor and footstool, and should be placed in such away as togiye as muchsupport
and stability
to the body as possibie.
Problerns

1' The chair seat may be too soft and may give inadequate support causing tension in the back and
often causing pains in the shoulders and upper back muicles.
2' The chair seat may have a ridge at the front which in time will tend to cut off the ciculation of
blood to the legs causrng them to fall asleep.
3'

The charr may be too high causing tension in the back and legs, as well as feelings
of insecurity,
it difficult to holcl the guitar properly.

and makrng

4'

The chair may be too low causing a cramped position and possibie tension
in the stomach

muscles and lower back muscles.

5' one may sit too far back in the chair, or the chair may siope backwards, causing curvature
in the
lowe back, often resulting rn lower back pains.

6. Due to habitual poor postlrre. the back may be curved to such an extent as to cause a multitude
of back problems. and also Lrsually to cause a tendencv to hold the
guitar tilted upward to an
extreme degree, which may resuit in left hand problems ancl in problems
in holding the guitar in a

stabie position.

1' The lootstool may be too high causing the guitar

sion and improper shoulder anci arm position.

to be held too high. usuaily resulting in ten-

B' The footstool may be too low resulting in a t'eeling of insecurity and often causing strain and

tension in the muscles calied upon to compensate.

9'

The footstooi may be too low or the chair too high causing the player to raise
one or both heels
I'rom the t-loor or lrom the lootstool. resulting in very great instability
and feeiings of insecurity,
and causing rension in the Ieg nrLrscles.
Holding the guitar

The gLritar should be supported on the lelt thigh and given

The piayer should lean l.orward towards the guitar. anJ the
towarcis the player giving an additional poinl of support.
angle that the right shoulder can be completely relaxed and
abiy on the guitar in such position that the right hand falls
24

additionai support by the right thigh.

guitar shouid be tilted back somewhat
The guitar should be held ar such an
strll ailow the lorearm to rest comlortnaturally over the strings between the

sound hole and bridge but rather nearer the hoie. (The weight
of the forearm (with no added
pressure) prodes a lurther point of support in hoiding
the guitar). The neck of the guitar should
be held in towards the body enough ttrii the left hanl may comfortably reach
above the twelfth
(This angle of the guitar and its
on the right thigh may be adjusted ro a point where
fret,
-position
both left and right hands are most comfortable).
Problems

1' The guitar may be held at such an angie that the right hand does not fati naturally into a
comfortable playing position, resulting in por hand position, or tension,
or an unnatural shoulder
position.
2' The angle of the guitar may be such that the left hand cannot reach the fingerboard above the
twelfth fret, and this will result in a distortion of the proper sitting position
whenever the hand
needs to reach there.
3' The lower bout of the guitar may be held too ciose to the body causing tension and misplacement of the right shoulder and a rather extended and uncomfortabie left hand and arm poritior.
4' The guitar may be he.ld exactly upright, or even tilted forwards away from the player. causing
not only tension in the right wrist, since the wrist must then bring tne anJ
in towards the guitar
instead of simply letting it hang there, but aiso causing the sound oi ttr" guitar
to become entgled
in the feet of the first row of the audience rather than be allowed to trivei out and up throughout
the hal1.

The guitar itself

The guitar should be looked at and adjusted by a competent luthier

when necessary. The action
should be high enough not to permit b-uzzes wiren ptay,ed at a
reasonable volume level, but should
be no higher than this. The spacing of the strings n tnr nut should
be adjusted to conlorm with
the size and thickness of the piayer;s fingers so that a player
with small thin fingers is not required
to stetch great distances unnecessarily, and a player with large fat fingers
is not forced to try to
squeeze them into an unreasonably narrow tpuing.
The frets should be high enough and rounded
enough to allow a clean sound to be made witout undue effort.
The"fingerboard shouid be
finished in such a way that no frets buzz more than the average,
and the nut should be at a height
that eliminates the possibility of back buzzes.
Problems

1'

The action may be too high to permit a reasonabre ease of piaying.

2'

The action may be too low to permit any loud notes

without buzzing.

3' The-string spacing at the nut may be too narrow to accomodate large fingers or too
wide to be
practical for small ones.
1 . .Tl" frets may be so low or so worn that the string tends to move about on the fret even when
held down quite tightly, usually causing buzzes and oter-imperfections
in the sound,
and requiring
extra pressure from the fingers making the guitar unn".".ru.iiy
alfficutt to pfay.
5.Tht guitar may buzz due to a loose brace, a crack. or various probiems with the machine heads,
all of which should be fixed by someone competent to'o
,o.

6' in general, if

there are problems of sound, or any other problems

the guitar that do not
to be due to a fault of the player, then the guitar should be takenwith
to a luthier or teacher who
is competent to check what might be wrong ancr have it corrected.
seem

25