Interestingly enough, Tim does not actually have big hands. I've met him in person and shook his hand, and they felt tiny. He is just very flexible and dexterous, probably because of playing guitar/violin from a VERY young age in combination with actually practicing a ton. His fingers are mad skinny, which I think gives that illusion. Scott actually does have big hands though
100% this. If you watch their play through of chimera (amazing song btw) you'll quickly see how small tims hands are compared to scott. That dude has some massive hands
You don’t need to meet Tim in person. Watching Tim’s tutorials I can see the neck of his guitar and Tim’s fretting hand. Tims hands wrap the neck, like (fretting more than bass note with his thumb. Tim hensons finger length is NOT average. Tim has Long fingers. You must understand many people can play guitar with average short finger. Advanced levels they either buy guitars (closer fretting space) because they cannot play solos like buried alive lemon drop. Although there is way to play the stretched notes re arranged. For that part, re arranging the notes does work. Arranging notes on fretboard, doesn’t always make fingerings easierto play either. I was lucky drop it works. Tim was meant to play guitar (Tim’s dad was good guitarist) Tim said both of our dads shred on guitar. Referring to Scott’s dad also. Average person can learn many things on guitar but struggle with polyphia.. They can learn gun roses slashes’ entire discography. They get stuck on polyphia. Long long time. It changes the way they feel about playing guitar. Not the same person No expression
He studied violin for years as a child. If you look at Tim's technique, he first developed on violin, and then he carried this discipline over to guitar. Some say Tim is this century version of Paganini, who was also a violinist and guitarist in his day also.
@@phunkyjunkee not overrated. Hes properly rated. Wanna talk underrated? Look at jimi Hendrix the grandfather of modern guitar playing. Innovation and absolute mad skills. Man did all that and never learned any proper Lessons in playing guitar from any books nor any teachers. Hes hated because he was so incorrect to classical guitar but nowadays we call that a skill
The three keys I have found essential to playing wide intervals: 1. Thumb well below the top of the neck (as stated in the video); 2. Guitar positioned to the fret hand side of your body; and 3. Changing the position of fret hand elbow. Bringing it closer to the neck for wider stretches. Elbow position is often well overlooked by instructors.
The thumb rule doesnt work for me. Im double jointed in my thumbs which causes my thumb to pop up from the back of the neck. Lol. My thumbs literally fold back 90°. Ive played guitar now for 30 years with crazy thumbs.
Great stuff. Tim is so freaking good. I love the video where one of his friends asked him how he got so good and he said “practice.” Then he asked how much do you practice? Tim says “I don’t know about 12 hours a day?”
@@woofcity6307 Nope. No such thing as talent - and you can see early videos of Tim playing and he's not very good at all. Now he's brilliant. Music is a skill and you learn it by practising it.
@@woofcity6307 It's not just sitting and playing the guitar you have to actually practise with a goal to an end. Look for example the process by which Tim learned Tosin's thumb technique - it took him months of dedicated practise including a few lessons from Tosin. If you can't do that it's not talent it's because you've sat and noodled stuff you can already play most of the time. If you sit and strum 3 chord for 40 years you'll be really good at strumming 3 chords. To play better you have to spend the time stretching your ability. It's not talent. There's no such thing. It's a skill. And Tim has created videos showing exactly how he uses a DAW to create his riffs. There's no mystery "woowoo" magic creative force" to any of this. In fact the people who expect to be hit by some kind of divine inspiration when they step into a studio are the ones who are going to struggle to come up with ideas. See, for example, Dave Lee Roth explaining how he came up with lyrics - he wrote everything down filled books - he didn't just listen to Eddie's riff and stand there waiting for God. Tim's created videos showing how Playing God was created using an omnichord and that parts of the piece were added by Wes Hauch - and Wes got one of those parts from a guitar teacher. No magic lightning bolts involved - and Tim, in particular, because of social media has documented what he does - literally sitting in front of a camera telling you what he does. The trick is to listen and stop thinking you can't do it. You can but it's more than just sitting for a bit struggling to play one of his riffs and giving up because he must be more talented than you - look at Tim's early doors guitar playing as a kid with a band - the playing is not some kind of wunderkind at all. Nor is simply learning a couple of his riffs enough - you can see how he creates - learn to do that and practise doing that, add other ideas - take something you create on a DAW and transfer it to guitar - and then sit and try to play. Clearly Tim, rather than just playing a melody where it would fall under the fingers plays notes all over the neck on different strings using open strings and harmonics where they fit - it creates something that appears complex and that, unlike a riff that falls into a box shape takes time to learn "How did anyone ever think of playing this riff?" - well he tells you how - you just have to watch and listen to his youtube channel. And these days we can see how significant numbers of people can learn to play the guitar to a high standard because of social media. There are a plethora of people playing Tim's music equally or even better than he can and most of them add some creative twist to it - the band have sat and watched a load of them.
he says he doesn’t have big hands, actually he says he has small hands compared to someone like scott, but his fingers are slender and is palm is small compared to his actuall finger length, this gives the impression that they are longer
I love this video so much man. No bullcrap, no long explanations to simple things, no blatant plugs. You've earned a subscriber. Keep up the great work.
he also does this thing with his thumb that you can see at 3:33 where it looks like he uses his thumb to alternate pick instead of pronating his wrist. You have to hold the pick close to the thumb joint and make a wave motion with it. It's strange at first but it feels like you have more control.
I hope you find it useful. Sorry for the very long time between videos, I got extremely sick over Easter, was hospitalised for months, and have spent months afterwards recovering. Also, I drew the wrong conclusion that Tim has big hands! From his videos I saw he had around the same size hands as me, and I thought I had big hands, but it turns out that I have average size hands (7.6 inches from wrist to tip of middle finger). So I learnt that I am not as special as I thought 🙂 As the comments pointed out, small hands can be overcome with practice anyway, I touched on that in the video, but its important to re-stress that.
Good vid, really nailed it with the classical fretting hand position. That, along with consciously minimizing tension in my hands/wrists during practice helped me a lot.
Dude what a breakdown! The best thing on CZcams is when smart, talented, creative people break down the actions of other smart, talented creative people! Sometimes the people doing the impossible aren’t the best at explaining how they do it
Dang this video was rly helpful. Gave me a lot of insight to what i've been doing wrong while learning this song and what i should work on. Thanks a lot!
Ive never had a problem with harmonics as i have played with them since young, But the speed! Its almost incredible what some of the New-Age guitarists can do. As much as i am an old soul, Theirs a lot of respect for people who are currently challenging how musicians feel about their play. I went from blues and classic rock to heavy(ish) metal and had to learn alot. These guys are doing the same. Re-Imagining the music around us creates unique and inspiring pieces for others. I am amazed and inspired by the next generation and am in hope the future ones carry the same weight that players like Tim Henson do. I cant play it, but i respect it.
This is really helpful! Tip 2 about the thumb is great because you can learn so much from classical guitarists. I took classical lessons for about 6 months but I am still relearning some techniques. I recommend to everyone who feels stuck with thier playing to ask a teacher to check thier picking hand technique ( it's very common that we move our hands more than we need to ) as you can see with Tim Henson, he keeps his fingers closely together. Also make sure you are not pressing down with too much force as this can make playing anything much harder . Don't forget to make sure your action is set up to a comfortable height and find the guitar pick that is right for you! :)
Halfway through watching this Video I paused it long enough to hit LIKE and SUBSCRIBE . I like everything about this Video . Now I'm going to work my way backwards through your Lessons to explore what I've missed from you . I have no doubt that I'll be finding treasures among your Videos . Hope you're doing well . 🎸🎤🎸
This is a great video and I really appreciate the look it takes at what he is doing. As a non musician but with great musical appreciation I was just enchanted by what Tim (and Scott) are able to do with their guitars. I'm a lifelong tradesman/crafts person with heaps of hand skills and I long, long ago realized that to learn new skills I was watching the hands of other tradesman even if they were just performing a gross motor skill task like troweling plaster or concrete and that was what led to the secrets. The truly talented make it look effortless and Tim certainly does here. I concluded that the sound he produces from what seems to be the lightest of pressure drifting over the strings could only be pinpoint precision applied with the most invisible of Shaolin strength level hidden pressure. When I first saw one of his POV play throughs with a head cam on it then all made sense. He simply plays so much that the callouses on his fingers behave like the hammers in a piano and the X Y Z axes of the rest of him puts everything where it belongs with uncommon exactness. I hope you can take a look at one of his POV's and maybe consider doing a video about it. I'm sure I missed plenty and would love to hear your take.
My son I witnessed from the age of his 10th birthday til he was 18 , he practiced no less than 8 hours a day plus. I taught him basic chords and today he's 29 and is one hell of a musician. He doesn't play as much now but he plays gigs still and holds his family and job well too. I remember how hard that was and I am proud of him. This Tim H young man is playing a lot of what I heard in 2010 by son was creating. I have tons of him on sd cards playing variations of tapping and percussive stuff insanely technical. Anyway. I see alot of this now.
Put them up, i want to see how he sounded like tim henson before tim henson came up with his own style? I dont doubt your son is good but saying your son did did what tim did before he even came out, i want to see this because i honestly doubt that.
@@danielmcgregor1 I get it. Why would you believe me? That's the gift of comments I guess. I can make the claim and you can deny it. All good. At least you commented without complete doubt and I appreciate that. Perhaps I should have said , Not identical like his actual songs but , the stuff he does with the slapping tapping and technical crazy insane abilities. I do have the stuff on some SD cards it's old and I will need to find them and see if the quality is up to standard. I would much rather email it to you as I don't know how my son will feel about that as he thinks it sucks. Lmao. He was young then and was borrowing my old droid phone and I found them going through SD cards few years ago. Hahah. I did post one to Facebook I think? But yeah I totally would like to share these with you. Since you asked. Perhaps I'll even put them on CZcams if my son doesn't think it's a bad idea. I'm not saying he is Tim Henson. I am saying Tim and my Son are pretty similar in how long they have been playing. My son was a major Pertucci fan and Born of Osiris with one of the guitarists that left. He actually knew him and I can't think of his name now. Dude I'm an old drummer and while I do love to brag about my son I know it's a bad taste and I shouldn't as that is definately biased approach. He is amazing. He was playing drums at 5 and keys , like classical pieces pretty well at 12. He's a dad now and was in his band Disarayen in FL ...His name is Corey Clark. There are some small clips on my channel of him and it will say in title My son on those videos. However they are more recent and he's usually playing heavy stuff. As technical as he is he is into that really interesting heavy brutal stuff and solos like crazy over them. Not the style I'm speaking of here. But by hearing him perhaps at least you'll get the idea that he is pretty good. I hate to even mention those as the best he can do isn't on my channel. He isn't really into CZcams and I have to beg him to show a few moments here and there. Heheh. Btw. Nice to meet you and hope this helps some as I don't want to make a claim and then dip out. Lol
@@robertclarkguitar understandable mate, as I said no disrespect to your son I more so just found the topic interesting having a precurse to the style we see come from tim nowadays, hopefully one day you can put them up I'd genuinely like to see them, cheers mate!
Mate, people have been playing things like what tim henson is doing long before Tim Henson. There is literally nothing he is doing that is original to the guitar. Tapping, harmonics, hybrid picking, sweeping. It has ALL been done before and it has all been done well, only Tim henson makes it sound more sterile and lifeless than ever. @@danielmcgregor1
I've got big hands too and ngl it helps alot. Especially covering Tim himself. Tim loves his 4-5 fret spanning chords and 3nps scale shapes really do accelerate your playing once your comfortable with them.
Can you please do a review on Paolo Gans? He’s an underrated fingerstyle guitarist who has a different style of playing and almost does every part of a song and it’s amazing.
Pat Metheny is one of the fastest jazz players out there and you will regularly see his thumb. While I absolutely agree it's important to reflect or be aware of left hand shape and positioning it's not the key to speed. Speed is in the brain. If you can't hear it fast you can't play it fast. I've got huge hands, and can make long stretches but I wouldn't count myself as a fast (or capable being one) player. It's an attitude and synching brain and music.
Modern technical wizards all have the the thumb IP joint articulation thing going along with the hybrid picking with the middle finger. They make it look effortless.
Having certain types of long fingers does help. I have tiny, tiny hands and i hate it, so much so that i use a 7/8 size guitar. It's not an excuse or cop out, but it does help. There's also the incredible talent and determination thing as well, that helps a tad.
You can also see his crazy picking technique in the last clip, where he's not even really moving his wrist, just his thumb and index to pick quickly on certain parts.
Can confirm having long thin fingers gives an advantage. On top of having double jointed finger tips so my tips can bend at 90° angle when i apply enough pressure. ( for example: this allows me to play an A chord on the 2nd fret with 1 finger and do other weird chord rolls with 1 finger tip) I have really long fingers I can do the reach in Playing God with ease....one of my friends has a little hard time cuz they have kinda short fingers
I suspect that even though Tim Henson hated playing the violin, starting at 3 years old plus the technique learned on the violin was a very good grounding for when he switched to guitar.
Tim doesn't have big hands, dude. He even says that he has small hands. They're not particularly small. But definitely not big. His hands are about the same size as mine, and I do not have big hands or long fingers. I was initially worried about that stretch at the beginning of the 'Playing God' riff. But I can easily nail it now and it's one of the easier components of the riff. Ultimately, Tim can play like that because he practises more than anyone else, and he practises with correct technique. I've practised that opening riff for over 60 hours at this point, and I can almost play it like he does. But even he struggles with it when he's practising. I don't think that Tim's fingers remain that close to the fretboard in that clip. Tim's percussive style often requires his fingers to come out more so that he can do left-handed tapping, for example. At the beginning of the run that comes in after the main riff, the fourth note, which is a D on the B-string, is tapped in. This is why he needs to come away from the fretboard to get the necessary velocity to sound that note. It takes some serious force. He even taps high notes with the little finger of his left hand during the arpeggio section.
The thumb thing should be standard practice. I see so many people have their thumb hanging out to dry and it limits their mobility. Thankfully when I started, I was taught not to. While I may have lost that over the years, I’m trying to start again and it’s easier than it was when I started.
And Jimmy Hendrix used his thumb to press the bass string in chords; that's why I don't play Hendrix because I was always taught to hide the thumb behind the neck.
@@harrisontownsend910 it can but it definitely slows you down. Using the thumb when learning bends for the first time can help, but it’s a bad habit. Its better to learn the right way later on.
I use my thumb to fret strings all the time lol. Sometimes my thumb is placed down on the back of the neck while I play things that require more stretch but my thumb is usually my best friend lol. I don’t even know when I started doing that and I thought it was just me being weird until I saw John Mayer play Neon.
Yup I noticed the thumb when trying to learn a lot of their songs along with CHON stuff. Its a thing all these super fast modern guys do that im bummed to say feels extremely awkward for me to stay disciplined with for entire songs outside of fast riffs I would naturally throw the thumb on the middle of the neck for. Had a old shred lord guitar teacher that taught me playing with my index finger knuckle glued to the bottom of the neck helps me stay locked in - it does but and just cant get away from it now without feeling lost :')
0:45 i dont have big Hands and i dont even play a lot of Guitar, but i stretch my fingers sometimes and i can easy reach from the 8th fret on low e to the 14 of the low.
I tried learning to play Euphoria and I'm stuck just the first part cuz I have trouble reaching and changing the notes with my fingers 💀 the stretches were too much, even on my guitar that's on the smaller side
Practice can make you great, if done properly, but natural ability is just that. My favorite guitarist who can shred from Santana to Malmsteen, to Rhodes to Gary Moore and a thousand greats in between practiced for 10s of hours a day. When i showed this great to my guitar teacher who has played with record label bands he said shit if i had time to practice 10 hours a day, but i saw this great play after 3 years if starting and he wad playing like 25 year musicians...talent does play a part, for an amazing treat check out my fav guitarist.....panos arvanitis....simply incredible.
Tim Henson is a one-in-400-years kind of musician. There's never been anybody, and may never be anybody who can play like him, but it is good to learn what he is doing; I myself am going to try to learn a few of his furiously fast riffs. Genius.
@@spaghettisauce445 If you want to make it in music, you have to reinvent the wheel. I said that because Tim has reinvented the wheel. You're right, 400 is like Beethoven or The Beatles, but I think Tim has invented a new thing that nobody would have thought of. I guess time will tell if his talent goes unmatched.
@@ricktheexplorer yeah he has proved to be a very important guitarist for his generation so far but i would say since he proved that you can play this stuff everyone is gonna be able to play this good its like how in the 60’s blues was hard and now we look at blues as being simple. Eventually we will all play like in like 30 years
I've been playing guitar for over 40 years, having played in many metal cover bands throughout the 80's and 90's. I'm 6'1" tall, yet I have FREAKISHLY short fingers AND toes. At first glance most people would never even notice it until I showed them, but they are short. In fact, my little fingers are so short they look like they only have two joint along their length, instead of three joints, like normal people's fingers. I do have three joints, but you can't tell by looking. In fact, my little fingers are so short, I only have one joint crease along the finger on the palm side of my hand. Weird, right? Yet I've still managed to become a pretty decent guitarist. I can't say it hasn't been somewhat of a handicap, because I'm quite certain a lot of things would have come much easier had I had the reach most people's hands have, but I've seen guys with only two or three fingers play most impressively.
Your thumb position %1, your hand size %1, guitar position %1, your knowledge about scales %1. Practice adds %96 to the table. When we are talking about speed, the only thing that matters is practice, practice and practice more. There are lots of great guitarists with different styles of guitar handling yet they shred with incredible speed and some even play with their tongues.
Hi mate! I am a drummer and I have thick and wide, short fingers. I think I won't and don't need to be the the greatest solo guitarist. But ... a few nice rock, metal riffs for the people who are like.... "Dude, you got three guitars, and one bass here, please play a song for us!" I bought them so test some amp sims :-) and for decoration of my mens cave. So, a few power chords ok. Already sound great for through AmpliTube 5. But where can I find voicings for my types of fingers to play real chords without buzzing?
I guess we can say that Tim is kinda of a "classically trained fretboard player" - he was a violin player for most of his infancy/childhood. So yeah, dude definitely know all the intrinsic things of the fretboard-hand posture, and uses it 24/7 to play at such high level. Also: Tim actually has "tiny hands", like, for such a high level guitarist that reach all those stretches, I would say.
Tim Henson is immensely talented! He plays great guitar; but he also invented Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Beaker, Animal, Bert and Ernie and on and on. What an amazing talent!
I play fairly fast, but I honestly don't do the thumb thing. My thumb sticks out like a sore ... thumb. I've noticed, tho, that when I start to do the finger-licking fast stuff, my thumb just goes down into position, bcos where else would it be when doing that thing? So, my conclusion is, it's not about the thumb at all. Instead it's about what you're planning to do with the rest of the hand.
those who dont want to listen to all the yapping. tim henson has mastered fast alternate picking, fast hybrid picking and fast sweep picking and he combines them together to make some really cool melodies which are easy for him to play but hard for us because it takes a lifetime to learn these techniques, and another to master them
Having fingers that are about the same length is more important than the length itself. That's why a lot of kids are great at playing. I have a short index finger so bar chords are about all I can play successfully
![Can I learn Playing God on violin in only 30 minutes? [Polyphia 🎸]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gpfupoTVW9U/mqdefault.jpg)
![Can I learn Playing God on violin in only 30 minutes? [Polyphia 🎸]](/img/tr.png)
Tim's secret is countless hours of hard work
I have yet to see an interview with Tim where he's not practicing something during the interview.
@@jomiran1000he also said directly that he used to practice all day when he was a young kid. Dude was hella focused
@@Hadri_ART he also said he did this because he was grounded through most of high school on account of getting busted for weed
No pain no gain dude🔥🔥🔥
He practiced so you don't have to....he's passing it to you on you tube
Interestingly enough, Tim does not actually have big hands. I've met him in person and shook his hand, and they felt tiny. He is just very flexible and dexterous, probably because of playing guitar/violin from a VERY young age in combination with actually practicing a ton. His fingers are mad skinny, which I think gives that illusion. Scott actually does have big hands though
100% this. If you watch their play through of chimera (amazing song btw) you'll quickly see how small tims hands are compared to scott. That dude has some massive hands
I was gonna say wtf his hands are small lol
You don’t need to meet Tim in person. Watching Tim’s tutorials I can see the neck of his guitar and Tim’s fretting hand. Tims hands wrap the neck, like (fretting more than bass note with his thumb. Tim hensons finger length is NOT average. Tim has Long fingers. You must understand many people can play guitar with average short finger. Advanced levels they either buy guitars (closer fretting space) because they cannot play solos like buried alive lemon drop. Although there is way to play the stretched notes re arranged. For that part, re arranging the notes does work. Arranging notes on fretboard, doesn’t always make fingerings easierto play either. I was lucky drop it works. Tim was meant to play guitar (Tim’s dad was good guitarist) Tim said both of our dads shred on guitar. Referring to Scott’s dad also. Average person can learn many things on guitar but struggle with polyphia.. They can learn gun roses slashes’ entire discography. They get stuck on polyphia. Long long time. It changes the way they feel about playing guitar. Not the same person No expression
His palms are small but his fingers are long and thin.
Watch classical nylon string players... Fret 8 to Fret 13 is not that big a deal, either?
He studied violin for years as a child. If you look at Tim's technique, he first developed on violin, and then he carried this discipline over to guitar. Some say Tim is this century version of Paganini, who was also a violinist and guitarist in his day also.
Hm. I learned how to play the Cello as a child and picked up the e-bass as a teenager. Could it be....? *wonders about life*
Tim is overrated as a guitarist.
@@phunkyjunkee nah
@@phunkyjunkee not overrated. Hes properly rated. Wanna talk underrated? Look at jimi Hendrix the grandfather of modern guitar playing. Innovation and absolute mad skills.
Man did all that and never learned any proper Lessons in playing guitar from any books nor any teachers.
Hes hated because he was so incorrect to classical guitar but nowadays we call that a skill
@@magnipettersson4432good point. I just don’t find his playing very musical.
The three keys I have found essential to playing wide intervals: 1. Thumb well below the top of the neck (as stated in the video); 2. Guitar positioned to the fret hand side of your body; and 3. Changing the position of fret hand elbow. Bringing it closer to the neck for wider stretches. Elbow position is often well overlooked by instructors.
Yep. Elbow is the control lever for reach.
The thumb rule doesnt work for me. Im double jointed in my thumbs which causes my thumb to pop up from the back of the neck. Lol. My thumbs literally fold back 90°. Ive played guitar now for 30 years with crazy thumbs.
@@bearingceeTim also has a hitchhikers thumb
Great stuff. Tim is so freaking good. I love the video where one of his friends asked him how he got so good and he said “practice.” Then he asked how much do you practice? Tim says “I don’t know about 12 hours a day?”
when talent meets hard work..
@@chopholtz4950unappreciated comment.
@@chopholtz4950 I aint reading all that
@@woofcity6307 Nope. No such thing as talent - and you can see early videos of Tim playing and he's not very good at all. Now he's brilliant. Music is a skill and you learn it by practising it.
@@woofcity6307 It's not just sitting and playing the guitar you have to actually practise with a goal to an end. Look for example the process by which Tim learned Tosin's thumb technique - it took him months of dedicated practise including a few lessons from Tosin. If you can't do that it's not talent it's because you've sat and noodled stuff you can already play most of the time. If you sit and strum 3 chord for 40 years you'll be really good at strumming 3 chords. To play better you have to spend the time stretching your ability. It's not talent. There's no such thing. It's a skill. And Tim has created videos showing exactly how he uses a DAW to create his riffs. There's no mystery "woowoo" magic creative force" to any of this. In fact the people who expect to be hit by some kind of divine inspiration when they step into a studio are the ones who are going to struggle to come up with ideas. See, for example, Dave Lee Roth explaining how he came up with lyrics - he wrote everything down filled books - he didn't just listen to Eddie's riff and stand there waiting for God.
Tim's created videos showing how Playing God was created using an omnichord and that parts of the piece were added by Wes Hauch - and Wes got one of those parts from a guitar teacher. No magic lightning bolts involved - and Tim, in particular, because of social media has documented what he does - literally sitting in front of a camera telling you what he does. The trick is to listen and stop thinking you can't do it. You can but it's more than just sitting for a bit struggling to play one of his riffs and giving up because he must be more talented than you - look at Tim's early doors guitar playing as a kid with a band - the playing is not some kind of wunderkind at all. Nor is simply learning a couple of his riffs enough - you can see how he creates - learn to do that and practise doing that, add other ideas - take something you create on a DAW and transfer it to guitar - and then sit and try to play. Clearly Tim, rather than just playing a melody where it would fall under the fingers plays notes all over the neck on different strings using open strings and harmonics where they fit - it creates something that appears complex and that, unlike a riff that falls into a box shape takes time to learn "How did anyone ever think of playing this riff?" - well he tells you how - you just have to watch and listen to his youtube channel.
And these days we can see how significant numbers of people can learn to play the guitar to a high standard because of social media. There are a plethora of people playing Tim's music equally or even better than he can and most of them add some creative twist to it - the band have sat and watched a load of them.
he says he doesn’t have big hands, actually he says he has small hands compared to someone like scott, but his fingers are slender and is palm is small compared to his actuall finger length, this gives the impression that they are longer
I love this video so much man. No bullcrap, no long explanations to simple things, no blatant plugs. You've earned a subscriber. Keep up the great work.
Thanks very much! Yeah I'm trying to make shorter "to the point" videos.
Great video. I don't even play guitar, but the way you explained those concepts was incredibly clear.
Thanks!
he also does this thing with his thumb that you can see at 3:33 where it looks like he uses his thumb to alternate pick instead of pronating his wrist. You have to hold the pick close to the thumb joint and make a wave motion with it. It's strange at first but it feels like you have more control.
I hope you find it useful. Sorry for the very long time between videos, I got extremely sick over Easter, was hospitalised for months, and have spent months afterwards recovering. Also, I drew the wrong conclusion that Tim has big hands! From his videos I saw he had around the same size hands as me, and I thought I had big hands, but it turns out that I have average size hands (7.6 inches from wrist to tip of middle finger). So I learnt that I am not as special as I thought 🙂 As the comments pointed out, small hands can be overcome with practice anyway, I touched on that in the video, but its important to re-stress that.
4:10
Good vid, really nailed it with the classical fretting hand position.
That, along with consciously minimizing tension in my hands/wrists during practice helped me a lot.
Thanks Patrick
Dude what a breakdown! The best thing on CZcams is when smart, talented, creative people break down the actions of other smart, talented creative people! Sometimes the people doing the impossible aren’t the best at explaining how they do it
Thanks very much. I really appreciate it.
Dang this video was rly helpful. Gave me a lot of insight to what i've been doing wrong while learning this song and what i should work on. Thanks a lot!
Thanks!
Thx for the short and sweet vid, i learned about the importance of thumb placement and also laughed at the text
Nifty, well-crafted fun video! Great explanations ~
Thanks!
This was a good video and explanation, certainly for a pleb. Thank you :) Tim and his guys are incredibly talented
They certainly are very talented. Happy it was helpful.
Ты, случайно не🙄 Виктор Цой? Это я про заставку к видео. Почти в профиль
Man, this was so helpful.
Ive never had a problem with harmonics as i have played with them since young, But the speed! Its almost incredible what some of the New-Age guitarists can do. As much as i am an old soul, Theirs a lot of respect for people who are currently challenging how musicians feel about their play. I went from blues and classic rock to heavy(ish) metal and had to learn alot. These guys are doing the same. Re-Imagining the music around us creates unique and inspiring pieces for others. I am amazed and inspired by the next generation and am in hope the future ones carry the same weight that players like Tim Henson do. I cant play it, but i respect it.
Hard work and having the guitar set up properly and posture , plays a major role .
Knowing every note on the fretboard can really help you play fast. Speed is really just the knowledge of knowing where your going.
How does he do it? Practice. Lots. He mentioned that he practiced 16 hours a day as a child.
Practice? 16 hours a day is a warmup talk to be when you practice 40 hours a day in 2 hours that’s when you stop sucking ass
DANG
How can he practice that long?
@@blacklikethesun being obsessed will do it, on top of being naturally talented.
@@markdonnelly6921 playing that long isnt the issue for me but more so, how does he play that long without getting bored???
Great video - highly incisive! 🙌🏻
Tim is a beast. Also the text bit was hilarious.
Henson looks SO RELAXED when he plays
And gay
@@annihilation777 ... not that there is anything wrong with that :)
Total Boss appreciating the artistic expression of a total Boss. Thank you, sir.
Thanks very much.
the thumb tip actually worked!! I noticed a instant speed increase and accuracy!!
This is really helpful! Tip 2 about the thumb is great because you can learn so much from classical guitarists. I took classical lessons for about 6 months but I am still relearning some techniques. I recommend to everyone who feels stuck with thier playing to ask a teacher to check thier picking hand technique ( it's very common that we move our hands more than we need to ) as you can see with Tim Henson, he keeps his fingers closely together. Also make sure you are not pressing down with too much force as this can make playing anything much harder . Don't forget to make sure your action is set up to a comfortable height and find the guitar pick that is right for you! :)
Anyway, thank you for the video it was very well made! :)
Halfway through watching this Video I paused it long enough to hit LIKE and
SUBSCRIBE . I like everything about this Video . Now I'm going to work my way backwards through your Lessons to explore what I've missed from you . I have no doubt that I'll be finding treasures among your Videos . Hope you're doing well . 🎸🎤🎸
Awesome video mate
thanks mate
First time watching your channel, tip at 1:32 is pure gold - suddenly those long stretches are so much easier!
Thanks Miles
Practice, practice, practice is a good start!. I can stretch from the 5th fret to the 13th fret with ease. My fingers are long for my body size.
“I’ve never seen someone have so much control over a finger” will stick with me forever 😂
Good video, good explanation 👌♥️
Thank you 🙂 Glad you like it
This is a great video and I really appreciate the look it takes at what he is doing. As a non musician but with great musical appreciation I was just enchanted by what Tim (and Scott) are able to do with their guitars.
I'm a lifelong tradesman/crafts person with heaps of hand skills and I long, long ago realized that to learn new skills I was watching the hands of other tradesman even if they were just performing a gross motor skill task like troweling plaster or concrete and that was what led to the secrets.
The truly talented make it look effortless and Tim certainly does here. I concluded that the sound he produces from what seems to be the lightest of pressure drifting over the strings could only be pinpoint precision applied with the most invisible of Shaolin strength level hidden pressure.
When I first saw one of his POV play throughs with a head cam on it then all made sense. He simply plays so much that the callouses on his fingers behave like the hammers in a piano and the X Y Z axes of the rest of him puts everything where it belongs with uncommon exactness.
I hope you can take a look at one of his POV's and maybe consider doing a video about it. I'm sure I missed plenty and would love to hear your take.
Thanks! Appreciate your take on things. I'll check out those POV videos and see what I can do.
My son I witnessed from the age of his 10th birthday til he was 18 , he practiced no less than 8 hours a day plus. I taught him basic chords and today he's 29 and is one hell of a musician. He doesn't play as much now but he plays gigs still and holds his family and job well too. I remember how hard that was and I am proud of him. This Tim H young man is playing a lot of what I heard in 2010 by son was creating. I have tons of him on sd cards playing variations of tapping and percussive stuff insanely technical. Anyway. I see alot of this now.
Put them up, i want to see how he sounded like tim henson before tim henson came up with his own style? I dont doubt your son is good but saying your son did did what tim did before he even came out, i want to see this because i honestly doubt that.
@@danielmcgregor1 I get it. Why would you believe me? That's the gift of comments I guess. I can make the claim and you can deny it. All good. At least you commented without complete doubt and I appreciate that. Perhaps I should have said , Not identical like his actual songs but , the stuff he does with the slapping tapping and technical crazy insane abilities. I do have the stuff on some SD cards it's old and I will need to find them and see if the quality is up to standard. I would much rather email it to you as I don't know how my son will feel about that as he thinks it sucks. Lmao. He was young then and was borrowing my old droid phone and I found them going through SD cards few years ago. Hahah. I did post one to Facebook I think? But yeah I totally would like to share these with you. Since you asked. Perhaps I'll even put them on CZcams if my son doesn't think it's a bad idea. I'm not saying he is Tim Henson. I am saying Tim and my Son are pretty similar in how long they have been playing. My son was a major Pertucci fan and Born of Osiris with one of the guitarists that left. He actually knew him and I can't think of his name now. Dude I'm an old drummer and while I do love to brag about my son I know it's a bad taste and I shouldn't as that is definately biased approach. He is amazing. He was playing drums at 5 and keys , like classical pieces pretty well at 12. He's a dad now and was in his band Disarayen in FL ...His name is Corey Clark. There are some small clips on my channel of him and it will say in title My son on those videos. However they are more recent and he's usually playing heavy stuff. As technical as he is he is into that really interesting heavy brutal stuff and solos like crazy over them. Not the style I'm speaking of here. But by hearing him perhaps at least you'll get the idea that he is pretty good. I hate to even mention those as the best he can do isn't on my channel. He isn't really into CZcams and I have to beg him to show a few moments here and there. Heheh. Btw. Nice to meet you and hope this helps some as I don't want to make a claim and then dip out. Lol
@@robertclarkguitar understandable mate, as I said no disrespect to your son I more so just found the topic interesting having a precurse to the style we see come from tim nowadays, hopefully one day you can put them up I'd genuinely like to see them, cheers mate!
Mate, people have been playing things like what tim henson is doing long before Tim Henson. There is literally nothing he is doing that is original to the guitar. Tapping, harmonics, hybrid picking, sweeping. It has ALL been done before and it has all been done well, only Tim henson makes it sound more sterile and lifeless than ever. @@danielmcgregor1
8 hours a day???????? How tf did he have the time? That's either insane focus or hyperfixation - either way, that discipline alone is very impressive.
Your skills are remarkable
I've got big hands too and ngl it helps alot. Especially covering Tim himself. Tim loves his 4-5 fret spanning chords and 3nps scale shapes really do accelerate your playing once your comfortable with them.
Also hybrid picking is awesome. Tim does it a lot but someone who talks about it in good detail is Guiseppe Gilardi.
Thanks for the thumb info, game changer. Best wishes, Stefan, Jersey, Channel Islands
thanks Stefan!
Can you please do a review on Paolo Gans? He’s an underrated fingerstyle guitarist who has a different style of playing and almost does every part of a song and it’s amazing.
Pat Metheny is one of the fastest jazz players out there and you will regularly see his thumb. While I absolutely agree it's important to reflect or be aware of left hand shape and positioning it's not the key to speed. Speed is in the brain. If you can't hear it fast you can't play it fast.
I've got huge hands, and can make long stretches but I wouldn't count myself as a fast (or capable being one) player. It's an attitude and synching brain and music.
I think he was saying the thumb position was for stretching and reaching notes. He said keeping his fingers close and his picking created the speed
Modern technical wizards all have the the thumb IP joint articulation thing going along with the hybrid picking with the middle finger. They make it look effortless.
Amazing video
Thanks!
I just plain love how we all go nuts over something thats totally normal in the flamenco or classic world.
There its called "the basics" ;P
Paco and Vicente...
Exactly!
but tim has small hands
Yeh hes short af
Dude he’s 6’7 at 235 lbs pound solid … I saw him bench press 2 guitars ….. at the same time
Having certain types of long fingers does help. I have tiny, tiny hands and i hate it, so much so that i use a 7/8 size guitar. It's not an excuse or cop out, but it does help. There's also the incredible talent and determination thing as well, that helps a tad.
You can also see his crazy picking technique in the last clip, where he's not even really moving his wrist, just his thumb and index to pick quickly on certain parts.
Wow great tip
Can confirm having long thin fingers gives an advantage. On top of having double jointed finger tips so my tips can bend at 90° angle when i apply enough pressure. ( for example: this allows me to play an A chord on the 2nd fret with 1 finger and do other weird chord rolls with 1 finger tip) I have really long fingers I can do the reach in Playing God with ease....one of my friends has a little hard time cuz they have kinda short fingers
I remember him posting videos as a kid playing "shred" type solos, and a Live where he talked about how much *TIME HE SPENDS PRACTICING*
When explaining the natural harmonics it helps to add that the lighter you touch the string over the fret the better the harmonic
i used to be proud that i never got grounded but knowing tim getting grounded made him so good just makes me jealous
Many years of practice since he was a kid. That's why he can play fast and consistent.
Classical technique, honed over centuries is very good, who was surprised? :)
The 13 th fret on the 2nd string is the same note as the 8th fret on the first string, so no massive stretch required.
I suspect that even though Tim Henson hated playing the violin, starting at 3 years old plus the technique learned on the violin was a very good grounding for when he switched to guitar.
that looks more like a hinge barre than hovering over the string, which is another great classical technique that can ease very tricky passages.
Tim doesn't have big hands, dude. He even says that he has small hands. They're not particularly small. But definitely not big. His hands are about the same size as mine, and I do not have big hands or long fingers. I was initially worried about that stretch at the beginning of the 'Playing God' riff. But I can easily nail it now and it's one of the easier components of the riff. Ultimately, Tim can play like that because he practises more than anyone else, and he practises with correct technique. I've practised that opening riff for over 60 hours at this point, and I can almost play it like he does. But even he struggles with it when he's practising. I don't think that Tim's fingers remain that close to the fretboard in that clip. Tim's percussive style often requires his fingers to come out more so that he can do left-handed tapping, for example. At the beginning of the run that comes in after the main riff, the fourth note, which is a D on the B-string, is tapped in. This is why he needs to come away from the fretboard to get the necessary velocity to sound that note. It takes some serious force. He even taps high notes with the little finger of his left hand during the arpeggio section.
Summary of the video: he plays with good technique.
The thumb thing should be standard practice. I see so many people have their thumb hanging out to dry and it limits their mobility. Thankfully when I started, I was taught not to. While I may have lost that over the years, I’m trying to start again and it’s easier than it was when I started.
And Jimmy Hendrix used his thumb to press the bass string in chords; that's why I don't play Hendrix because I was always taught to hide the thumb behind the neck.
I was taught to use the thumb to help with bends. Slows down shred but makes bends super easy.
@@harrisontownsend910 it can but it definitely slows you down. Using the thumb when learning bends for the first time can help, but it’s a bad habit. Its better to learn the right way later on.
@@ricktheexplorer Jimi.
“We in here talkin bout practice….We talkin bout practice.” - Allen Iverson
I use my thumb to fret strings all the time lol. Sometimes my thumb is placed down on the back of the neck while I play things that require more stretch but my thumb is usually my best friend lol. I don’t even know when I started doing that and I thought it was just me being weird until I saw John Mayer play Neon.
Yup I noticed the thumb when trying to learn a lot of their songs along with CHON stuff. Its a thing all these super fast modern guys do that im bummed to say feels extremely awkward for me to stay disciplined with for entire songs outside of fast riffs I would naturally throw the thumb on the middle of the neck for. Had a old shred lord guitar teacher that taught me playing with my index finger knuckle glued to the bottom of the neck helps me stay locked in - it does but and just cant get away from it now without feeling lost :')
0:45 i dont have big Hands and i dont even play a lot of Guitar, but i stretch my fingers sometimes and i can easy reach from the 8th fret on low e to the 14 of the low.
I wonder if around 3:40 if he isn’t using the part of his index finger closest to the edge of the neck to hold the 12th fret of the high E string
I know how to play that part. He bars with his index finger to play the 12th fret on the e, b and g string
1:15 is not only the thumb, the elbow is almostdirectly below de nech, you have your elbow against your ribs
Rember too that even live dubs exist. Theres a reason there is months between the acoustic lesson and the song release.
sure, but what toothpaste do you prefer?
Tim henson
I tried learning to play Euphoria and I'm stuck just the first part cuz I have trouble reaching and changing the notes with my fingers 💀 the stretches were too much, even on my guitar that's on the smaller side
I have even developed the ability to release the thumb completely to get even wider stretches
My number one favorite muppet baby of all time is Fozzy !! 🦿
ana vidovic is one of my favorite classic guitarists! xufei yang is my favorite tho!
amazing video! the complete opposite of clickbait
Thanks 👍
Practice can make you great, if done properly, but natural ability is just that. My favorite guitarist who can shred from Santana to Malmsteen, to Rhodes to Gary Moore and a thousand greats in between practiced for 10s of hours a day. When i showed this great to my guitar teacher who has played with record label bands he said shit if i had time to practice 10 hours a day, but i saw this great play after 3 years if starting and he wad playing like 25 year musicians...talent does play a part, for an amazing treat check out my fav guitarist.....panos arvanitis....simply incredible.
Tim and ichika are super human....incredible style.
Marcin has entered the chat
Tim Henson is a one-in-400-years kind of musician. There's never been anybody, and may never be anybody who can play like him, but it is good to learn what he is doing; I myself am going to try to learn a few of his furiously fast riffs. Genius.
That’s a bit of a stretch more like 1 in 10 or twenty years Imo
1 in 400 is someone like beethoven or the beatles not tim henson 😂
@@spaghettisauce445 If you want to make it in music, you have to reinvent the wheel. I said that because Tim has reinvented the wheel. You're right, 400 is like Beethoven or The Beatles, but I think Tim has invented a new thing that nobody would have thought of. I guess time will tell if his talent goes unmatched.
@@ricktheexplorer yeah he has proved to be a very important guitarist for his generation so far but i would say since he proved that you can play this stuff everyone is gonna be able to play this good its like how in the 60’s blues was hard and now we look at blues as being simple. Eventually we will all play like in like 30 years
Idk man, he was default metalcore kid in 2010 or smth, he just played all his free time last 13 years)
I've been playing guitar for over 40 years, having played in many metal cover bands throughout the 80's and 90's. I'm 6'1" tall, yet I have FREAKISHLY short fingers AND toes. At first glance most people would never even notice it until I showed them, but they are short. In fact, my little fingers are so short they look like they only have two joint along their length, instead of three joints, like normal people's fingers. I do have three joints, but you can't tell by looking. In fact, my little fingers are so short, I only have one joint crease along the finger on the palm side of my hand. Weird, right? Yet I've still managed to become a pretty decent guitarist. I can't say it hasn't been somewhat of a handicap, because I'm quite certain a lot of things would have come much easier had I had the reach most people's hands have, but I've seen guys with only two or three fingers play most impressively.
Ive got stubby fingers. (cant even fit a ring on them ). But i can play all sorts of styles. Just practice every day and always try new things.
can you also analyze how marcin patrzalek plays? I could never understand how that dude is able to play the guitar like he does.
Speed is important, speed.
I love your stupid cutaways, very fun 😂
thanks! Analysing guitarists playing can pretty dry otherwise!
The thumb is way more comfortable like that tho so I adjust it according to the riffs
wait was it just me or was the 8th fret 6th string to 13th fret 2nd string not a stretch?
Your thumb position %1, your hand size %1, guitar position %1, your knowledge about scales %1. Practice adds %96 to the table. When we are talking about speed, the only thing that matters is practice, practice and practice more. There are lots of great guitarists with different styles of guitar handling yet they shred with incredible speed and some even play with their tongues.
Wait. Not everyone can stretch from 6th on 8 fret to 2nd on 15th?
It’s like watching Bernth as well, remarkable accuracy and minimal finger movement
Hi mate!
I am a drummer and I have thick and wide, short fingers. I think I won't and don't need to be the the greatest solo guitarist. But ... a few nice rock, metal riffs for the people who are like.... "Dude, you got three guitars, and one bass here, please play a song for us!" I bought them so test some amp sims :-) and for decoration of my mens cave. So, a few power chords ok. Already sound great for through AmpliTube 5.
But where can I find voicings for my types of fingers to play real chords without buzzing?
...is the video not also sped up??? am I crazy or when I see the videos it always looks edited
"clean as a pearl"
nobody tell him where pearls come from
I guess we can say that Tim is kinda of a "classically trained fretboard player" - he was a violin player for most of his infancy/childhood.
So yeah, dude definitely know all the intrinsic things of the fretboard-hand posture, and uses it 24/7 to play at such high level.
Also: Tim actually has "tiny hands", like, for such a high level guitarist that reach all those stretches, I would say.
It's the tone wood.
Tim Henson is immensely talented! He plays great guitar; but he also invented Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Beaker, Animal, Bert and Ernie and on and on. What an amazing talent!
Pushing your elbow down and out helps get your thumb behind the neck
Jimmy Page was famous for hybrid picking (see White Summer Live at the Royal Albert Hall 🥹).
I play fairly fast, but I honestly don't do the thumb thing. My thumb sticks out like a sore ... thumb. I've noticed, tho, that when I start to do the finger-licking fast stuff, my thumb just goes down into position, bcos where else would it be when doing that thing? So, my conclusion is, it's not about the thumb at all. Instead it's about what you're planning to do with the rest of the hand.
How? MANY hours of smart, purposeful practice
Actually when he is alternate picking , he uses the same technique as Yngwie Malsmsteen (Push the pick inward and backward)
I find it hard learning to play guitar as I always want to lay it down flst on a table and play it that way as it seems more natural. 😅
Marshall MS-2
those who dont want to listen to all the yapping. tim henson has mastered fast alternate picking, fast hybrid picking and fast sweep picking and he combines them together to make some really cool melodies which are easy for him to play but hard for us because it takes a lifetime to learn these techniques, and another to master them
Having fingers that are about the same length is more important than the length itself. That's why a lot of kids are great at playing. I have a short index finger so bar chords are about all I can play successfully