The
Left Hand
10th
August 2007
Please
remember that to have a good teacher is the most important
thing to acheive good results in playing classical guitar,
let's take a look at the left hand.
Talking
about sound emission there are two tasks depending on the
left hand:
1)
Sound frequency choice and grooming
2)
Sound sustaining and processing
That's
why the sound seems to be a three parted event
1)
Grooming (left hand)
2)
Emission (right hand)
3)
Sustaining and processing (left hand)
I'll
write about five topics:
1)
left hand posture and angle
2)
guitar barre
3)
vibrato
4)
mixed mouvements
5)
position changes
Left
hand posture and angle
As
Angelo Gilardino wrote there are two points in the left hand
to pay more attention for: the weaker finger (the little finger)
and the overwork for the index finger in fact the finger has
to perform the barré as well. You'll have to point
the left hand to get the little finger phalanx perpendicular
to the strings. The index finger will form a barré
even pressing only one string. Keep in mind that the index
finger is just like a fan ready to be opened.
The
left hand thumb is opposite to the others fingers corresponding
to the index finger or the middle finger depending on what
we are going to do.
Whenever
your fingers play on the 5th or 6th string the thumb will
have to go down to the lower zone on the back of the fretboard
if you have little hands but whenever your fingers play on
the 1st or 2nd string the thumb will have to go up to the
higher zone on the back of the fretboard if you have big hands.
Barré
Barré
is a French word and it's used when a finger push on two or
more strings at the same time. The strings contact happen
using the left side of the index, it's to say almost the edge.
Index
finger area pushing for barré
Phalanx
barré position
November
24th, 2007
Sustaining and processing : vibrato
You
can elaborate one sound after playing it using three kinds
of vibrato:
1)
increasing a lot the string pressure;
2)
parallel to string vibrato : moving your finger from right
to left quickly or slowly;
3)
perpendicular vibrato : vibrato perpendicular to string, moving
your left hand finger up and down perpendicular to the string.
It's
really recommended to practice a lot with Segovia's
Scales
December
26th, 2007
Left
Hand finger's mouvements
It's
very important for any classical guitarist to study left hand
finger's mouvent: they happen touching strings but not touching
them too when fingers shift.
As
for the right hand mouvements have to be short but the fingers
joints mouvment ability should be the more wide as possible.
Here
are some tips on the most frequent cases :
1)
Position change
You
can do it mantaining contact on the strings, paying attention
to unpleasant sounds or you can do it releaving contact on
strings completely.
2)
String shifting
Wrist
must be steady. I suggest you to imagine the correct way for
the finger wich has to shift.
3)
Miscellaneous mouvments (position change and string shifting)
I
suggest you to bend your mouvment. The bend have to present
its higher point at half way between the starting point and
ending point.
4)
Fingers Dilation
It's
easier to execute a fingers dilation pushing your fingers
to spread as a task coming from the bottom of your fingers
instead of your fingers tips.
See the following image
5)
Fingers opposition
You
have to try to practice your fingers elasticity. In case of
pushing the sixth string using a short little finger, it will
be helpfull to use the wrist and to skew the left hand leftward.
See the following image
6)
Fingers Contraction
It
compels the fingers to stay in a narrow space. Generally it
is better to mantain the little finger at the bottom and the
index on top. See the following image
I
will add further details as soon as possible.
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