Finger Problem, Lefty issues
jammer91
Apr 24 2008, 10:59 AM
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Ive been playing fuitar for about 1.5 years now, practicing every day, pretty dedicated. Lot of things have improved like my right hand, but my left hand still is pretty stiff while trying to plat fast. Its these type of licks that i find impossible to play fast (past 100 bpm) with fluency without hitting dead notes:
--16-15-13------------------------------------------------------------|
-----------16-15-13-16-15-13------------------------------------------|
-----------------------------15-13-12-15-13-12------------------------|
-----------------------------------------------15-13-12---------------|
--------------------------------------------------------15-13-11------|
----------------------------------------------------------------------|

Why? Because when i play descending patterns like pinky, then my ring or middle finger and then my index, my fingers become really stiff to move fast. I can play the oppisite fine (first my index, then middle or ring finger and then finally my pinky), but the other eay around is really difficult.

My left hand is really a pain in the a**. I think its because ive never really used my left hand as a child so its not really as good as my right. This is what makes lead playing for me a bit difficult as those type of patterns are frequently used.

Is this normal? My left hand seems fine, can move and flex in all directions perfectly. Its only when i have to write, draw, or play guitar or piano i can see that its not nearly as good as my right hand (well, I am right handed).

How can I fix this? (are there any lessons or exercises you can reccomend?)

I really want to see a doctor to straighten things out. Is there a particular type of doctor i should see?

Thanks

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Jad Diab
Apr 24 2008, 11:03 AM
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try playing some legato ascending scales

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jammer91
Apr 24 2008, 11:05 AM
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QUOTE (Zizi Top @ Apr 24 2008, 02:03 PM) *
try playing some legato ascending scales


Yeah, legato did bring up some improvement before. Will get back to it thanks.

Im going to give Muris' legato lessons a try.

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QUOTE (Kristofer Dahl @ Nov 10 2007, 12:27 AM) *
Part of the key to success is to never call yourself good...


My RIg:
-Epiphone 1967 FLying V
-Line 6 POD XT live
-VOX Valvetronics AD30VT
-Yamaha EG-112
-Yamaha GA-10
-Some Yamaha acoustic which is a magnet to dust under my bed

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Jad Diab
Apr 24 2008, 11:06 AM
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you're welcome mate wink.gif

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DeepRoots
Apr 24 2008, 11:16 AM
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The only answer i can give is to really relax your hand- as you seem to be tensing up when you think "this is faster than i'm used to playing".

Using the metronome will help a ton, if you increase by even 1bpm a day then you will see awesome results cool.gif

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jammer91
Apr 24 2008, 11:21 AM
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QUOTE (DeepRoots @ Apr 24 2008, 02:16 PM) *
The only answer i can give is to really relax your hand- as you seem to be tensing up when you think "this is faster than i'm used to playing".

Using the metronome will help a ton, if you increase by even 1bpm a day then you will see awesome results cool.gif


Regarding a metronome. I have one on my Sony Erricson cell phone. The problem is i cant really play attention to metronome playing while concentrating on playing. But i sort of solved this problem by tapping my foot to every beet.

So if anyone out there is having some difficult using a metronome (sticking to the beat), then tapping your foot realy helps.

In one of Garbriels Yngwie alt.picking and vibrato lesson the max speed i could play fluently was 95bpm. I heard 160bpm is the minimum shred speed (and gabriel was playing it at 180bpm.

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QUOTE (Kristofer Dahl @ Nov 10 2007, 12:27 AM) *
Part of the key to success is to never call yourself good...


My RIg:
-Epiphone 1967 FLying V
-Line 6 POD XT live
-VOX Valvetronics AD30VT
-Yamaha EG-112
-Yamaha GA-10
-Some Yamaha acoustic which is a magnet to dust under my bed

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DeepRoots
Apr 24 2008, 11:37 AM
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Well "minimum shred speed" is a bit of a ridiculous term IMO, its so vague.

Dont worry about hitting minimum shred speed, as this is not a golden rule of guitar- you don't suddenly become good when you hit 160bpm.

And i suggest getting a metronome that is nice and loud- i have a demo of that metronome on my phone and wasn't impressed.

As far as tapping your feet goes- thats reall good, some people fail to get that going. But make sure you can follow a beat without tapping your foot too- this could lead to problems if you go to play in a band situation.

So get a metronome with an output jack so that you can crank the volume and keep in time, you need to be able to "pay attention" to playing and keeping to a beat smile.gif

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Daniel Robinson
Apr 24 2008, 11:45 AM
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From: Normal, Illinois
QUOTE (jammer91 @ Apr 24 2008, 06:21 AM) *
Regarding a metronome. I have one on my Sony Erricson cell phone. The problem is i cant really play attention to metronome playing while concentrating on playing. But i sort of solved this problem by tapping my foot to every beet.

So if anyone out there is having some difficult using a metronome (sticking to the beat), then tapping your foot realy helps.

In one of Garbriels Yngwie alt.picking and vibrato lesson the max speed i could play fluently was 95bpm. I heard 160bpm is the minimum shred speed (and gabriel was playing it at 180bpm.



Its really hard to say what your true problem is without actually watching you play. Perhaps upload a vid of yourself in the uploads section would really help us to see where you might be having difficulty. Aside from that Deeproots is right try to stay relaxed when speeding up. I know its really easy to tense up when trying to exert yourself.

Without actually seeing you play my suggestion would be to play whatever it is your playing at your best fluent speed then gradually work up to where it falls apart, when you reach that point stop and analyze exactly what it is that is falling apart. You say your fingers are tensing up, but that may be a compensation for a problem elsewhere. I know for the longest time there was a speed barrier i couldnt cross over and i kept concentrating on my left hand. When i actually analyzed exactly what was happening i realized in fact it was my picking hand that was screwing me up. I was doing this lazy hybrid picking thing and it was scattering the notes cause i wasnt synced up. Once i realized that error for awhile all i did was practice alternate picking on two string with 3 NPS and i didnt fret anything i just worked on muted open strings. Unitl i could hear the clicking of the pick on the strings with a smooth and even tempo. Just working on that little excersise for about a week i corrected a bad habit and picked up about 50BPM in speed in the process.

Just analyze every little detail from finger placement to picking placement to even something as mundane as how your holding the guitar...your posture can even effect whats happening.


Daniel

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fkalich
Apr 24 2008, 11:54 AM
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don't assume it is not normal. i have had tension in my hands also, but it improved over time. I figure that until your hands learn to move fingers without unnecessary tension, this will occur. But it get better.

I think it takes everybody a long time. Probably not a little kid. But an adult has the advantage of not being a mindless little kid with a focus on kid things. It is not like a 12 year old virtuoso moves anyone to a higher plane listening to them. They are more like show dogs. So I don't think it is a disadvantage learning as an adult.

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Mark.
Apr 24 2008, 12:14 PM
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Sometimes playing it in 3 notes per can help, then you can concentrate better on your finger movement.
When you done that patern you can replace the 16-15-13 with -16-13-15 and get that up to speed. I can tell you it's hard! laugh.gif But hard things are good because when you can play some new hard stuff, all the older licks seem easier biggrin.gif

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Gerardo Siere
Apr 24 2008, 04:37 PM
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From: San Juan
Dead notes are caused by various factors:

1)left hand: the string is not pressed strong enough or pressed on a bad spot....
fot this try to press just before of the freet, never over it. Pressing on the middle of the space between two freets make harder to get good intonation and also you have to press harder to make the note ring with out buzzing.
About strengh you will wamnt only to apply the minimun necesary, so try this choose a note on a confortable place of the guitar, let´s say C at 3rd string 5th freet, now just hold over your 1rst finger very little and push very little so you get a mutted sound, go making slightly more preasure until you get the sound you want, when you get it you must practice that a lot and keep in mind the strengh thing for a while until it becames second nature.

2) Left hand:Stiffness....don't forget to release part of the preasure after you attack a string, usually when ju,mping with our hand we make a little more preasure than needed to ring the string, so take advantage that you have your hand already placed to let the preasure go to the minimum, that will help you to stay relaxed.

3) Barres: Only press the string thar are needed to ring, for example

----------5--------
----------5--------
----------6--------
--------- 7--------
--------- 7--------
----------5--------

You need your barre to focus only on strings 1srt and 2nd, you may need it or not need it for the 6th depending on the size of your hand and the guitar (is it posible to push the 6th string with the tip of the finger). You can touch all the strings here with your first finger, but you need only to make preasure on strings 1, 2 and 6.

4)Finger independence: When pushing a string or emptying your fingers form a string (release presure) you must try to do it, I mean the action from pushing and release from your big nuckle of the fingers. Your wrist, arm and forearm just help to get your fingers near the string and let you gain weight (strength) by fixation. If you make a descendent patern releasing with your whole hand instead of using only the fingers, when you release finger 4 the hand is far away form the neck and so are your remaining fingers, so the fingers that is farter must do two!!! movementes of ontrary direction, 1...strech to reach or stay on the string 2....the release movement, that's ineficient and difficult.

5) Coordination of both hands, think a note like the result of both hand action, so a note = the awareness of a finger (pressure, placemente, sensations) and your pick of finger, must be sure to get your fretting hand in place before playing the note.

If you want to spend a few bucks try this video: William Kanengiser - Effortless Classical Guitar. Has very graphical explanations. (sorry, don't know any electric guitar video that talk abouth that).

Hope this help you.

5)Cordination

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