Left Hand Guitar Technique Masterclass - Tips and Tricks
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- čas přidán 12. 07. 2024
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Tabs for Exercise:
drive.google.com/drive/folder...
There were some slight issues recording audio with this one. Bear with me. It's just in the beginning of the video. :-)
🎸 Elevate Your Guitar Skills with Part 1 of our Left Hand Series! 🚀
You'll learn how to overcome flying fingers, fix hand sync, and accuracy challenges on the guitar with our ultimate guide!
👉 We'll dive into the key elements hindering hand sync and speed - Hand FORM... As well as unravel mysteries like why there's so much conflicting advice about what to do with your thumb.
🎓 Then, I'll show you the BEST accuracy-building exercise. (Works wonders on beginners and advanced players alike!).
Part 1 of our two-part series focuses on left hand form - essential for your guitar journey.
🔄 No boring sync exercises! Improve hand sync in just 5 minutes a day. Learn why left hand form is crucial, backed by a neuroscientist's insights.
⏰ Level up your guitar game! Hit subscribe, and let's embark on this series together. Your fingers will thank you! 🤘🎶
CHAPTERS:
0:00 - Intro to Left Hand Technique
1:40 - Why is left hand form so important?
4:25 - Patron's Portal
5:39 - Where do hand sync issues come from?
7:52 - Why we need two hand positions
12:22 - Classical position
19:26 - Diagonals exercise
21:34 - Diagonals demo
22:14 - Making the most of it
23:09 - Eliminate excess wrist movement
23:40 - Mindset + Metronome
25:11 - FAQs: Mistakes and exceptions to the rules
25:36 - Finger motion v. Hand motion
26:45 - Thumb mistakes
28:24 - Demo clips
29:04 - Why guitars have a line on the neck
29:35 - When to collapse fingers
31:14 - Too much pressure
34:10 - Pressure reduction exercise
34:48 - Where to press on the strings
35:33 - Inconsistent fingerings
36:10 - Standard finger patterns
36:48 - 4-fingers per string example
37:50 - Recap
#guitartechnique #HandSync #GuitarMastery #LeftHandForm #GuitarTips - Hudba
![How to Hold a Guitar Pick the RIGHT Way [Guitar Playing Masterclass PART 1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/v9RIjw8psHo/mqdefault.jpg)
![How to Hold a Guitar Pick the RIGHT Way [Guitar Playing Masterclass PART 1]](/img/tr.png)
Sign up for the new Patron's Area / Musicianship Course HERE:
go.mattwrightmusic.com/patron
There were some little audio bumps in this one.. But only in the beginning. Did my best to fix it! Next time I'll record audio twice. :-)
What was your biggest takeaway? 👇
I thought the audio bumps were part of the show. I thought how cool LOL.
I'll take it... lol@@dwaynelasater2350
❤Don't waste your energy on the critics here. You are providing excellent teaching for free. Thank you!!
i think this is the first guitar vid i've seen on youtube that goes through left hand positioning as thoroughly as you do, really great stuff here.
Thanks! That’s the idea :-)
This really gave me a good start in fixing some less than optimal left hand habits. Very well explained and good demonstrations Matt. I Look forward to checking out the rest of your stuff!
I’m only 10 minutes in and I’ve already learned I have the blues hand position for everything
Going to keep watching but just wanted to again say, thank you for these detailed videos. I’m getting better in the last few days than I have over years.
I know it's a long video! But yes, definition is our first order of business. :-)
INSANELY well made video. Great teacher and great, detailed content. Keep it up.
It’s about time someone posted a guitar video that has substance. Thank you!
this video really helped me, thank you
It really helps me. , my country 's videos don't have this kind of detailed information.
자세한 설명 너무 좋아요
I’m actually a Blues / Rock player, however, I really appreciate your scientific and technical approach to teaching, especially when it comes to form and fundamentals.
I found your channel from your video on how to hold a pick (which was great) and it also reminded me of when I was young (like 10-11 years old, I’m 55 now!), that my guitar teacher at the time used to make me play classical style with guitar on left knee, I just played for an hour like that and using your pick holding techniques and tips, I’ve never played so well or comfortably!
Thanks again, I will be subscribing to your channel and watching more of your videos, even though I’ve never even heard any Dream Theater songs! lol (I do use the JP picks for a few years now, I love them and they’ve helped my playing. I suppose I’ll have to go check out Dream Theater and John Petrucci now and see why he’s so popular. (to me Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmore
and SRV are my inspiration and idols)!
Thanks a bunch, man! Like I said, both techniques are important. Sounds like you’re finding space for both. 👏
Dream Theater can be a little tricky to break into cause they’re pretty broad stylistically. I’d say Systematic Chaos and Octavarium are pretty straightforward albums. I love tracks like These Walls, Constant Motion, and In the Presence of Enemies.
To break into JP, just go listen to his Terminal Velocity album. Excellent album! Shred and musical!!
Amazing in so glad you went it to so much details. I needed exactly this because I was feeling lost because of the other guitar CZcamsrs being vague about placement. It helps to put visual indications with colours. I liked that you said several times stuff and repeating even 3 times because my brain sometimes needs someone to repeat several times information for it to sink in. So the more you say 1.important information 2. Important Information and 3. Important information. Again agin and again it actually sinks in better than if I would need to go back in the video to listen again. So I love this format of teaching. Thank you very much you earned a new subscriber and supporter👌
Thanks so much!! 🙂
Glad it helped!
Love the videos! I'm a 52 year old crappy guitar player and I'm really trying to get good. I feel you are doing the best job of explaining all of the little things that a great teacher/coach points out to allow students to improve quicker. For example, I have always had a hard time with holding a pick, constantly changing up over the years with mixed results. After watching your explanation I have felt more comfort and control than ever before. Can't wait for part 2 as I can hardly play any lead or single note runs.
Thanks Matt, really appreciate your clear explanations. You are the only CZcamsr I've seen who takes the time to really go into the mechanics and show the various techniques in detail. It all makes perfect sense to me and my playing has improved since finding your channel. Peace to you too.
These videos are super helpful for super beginners like me:( Thanks!
What a very well professionally made video. I truly enjoy that!
Thank you very much! I worked hard on it!
@@mattwright466 I can tell it shows.
this is great‼️
Hey Matt, this video is absolute gold, its like you have analysed my playing and made this lesson just for me 😆. I play like all you pictures with the big red X on lol. Thak you for this, I have already made changes to my thumb and it has made a huge difference.
You’re so welcome! Keep practicing hard and you’ll be rewarded!
Thiss great advice I was struggling a few months ago and was convinced that I need to switch from blues position. I wasn’t getting the answer what to do and nobody I mean nobody on video was explaining that both are needed. They were convincing one is right other’s wrong. I decided I’ll keep both. I wish I found this video earlier. That would have saved a lot of overthinking on my end.
Loved the details here❤.
You're so welcome!!! 🙂
fastest like ive ever given!
Symphony X mentioned :) Glad to see you also enjoy the works of Michael Romeo.
Great video and tips.
I'm a guitar teacher and I love everything that you teach here. I try to incorporate these into my lessons as needed. Sometimes students follow the instructions and do them well but it just seems like most of the time I have lazy students that do not want to do the work to do stuff like this.
Thanks a lot! Means a lot hearing it from a teacher.
Unfortunately, yeah, most people don't want to do the work. It comes from 2 problems.
1 - The student doesn't know why they TRULY play guitar. They do it because they think it will get them approval, status, attention, or lifestyle. Listen to Tank the Tech on the URM podcast. He gives a fantastic behind the scenes of what it's actually like to be a working musician. And if you don't want to be a working musician, great. NO problem. Enjoy yourself!
And you may chase one of those for a long time, get it, and then realize it's not true... Then you have to find new meaning for music. It's a lifelong journey.
It's one we get to share with our students... Which is a HUGE honor. Meet them where they're at. 😀
2 - The student doesn't know how to practice effectively and recognize incremental progress. This demotivates them.
Once they learn about effective goal setting as well as training in GREAT practice habits (see my life on practice), and the learn to celebrate incremental progress, then walking this virtuoso path becomes a lot less of a grind.
But the idea that playing the great's guitar solos in a week like all of these hokey challenges and online gurus promote... Get real. If a 6th grader said he wanted to go to the Olympics you wouldn't tell him no... You'd tell him it's probably going to a take a few years and to keep at it!
Plan your work your plan.
A teacher helps. 😎
@@mattwright466 Dude, I've been using some of the methods in your videos for myself. I'm a metalhead with a classical background but somehow my shredding sucks. My right hand is solid. I had to kind of backtrack and see how my right hand got MUCH better than my left. It came down to realizing that if I played the rhythm parts to songs, people really enjoyed them and I was able to learn them faster than the leads. If I worked on the leads, I was only able to learn the slow ones like the intro to "Fade to Black". If I could hear the notes and play them, I could tell I was playing them correctly. But if the solos were super fast and I couldn't keep up, I could not tell if I was playing the solo correctly so I would give up and go back to my rhythms. None of my guitar teachers were shredders so my lessons never went that way. Instead, I did work on song writing and arrangements. I'm trying to retrace my steps and learn the solos to songs I would have loved to play back when I was 15/16 to get me to where I should be with my left hand.
Diagonals will get you in shape real fast! Also, no shame in working on some easier solos. :-) @@somarriba333
@@mattwright466 What I like about the easier solos is I can work on on making them more expressive with legatos, vibratos, bending, etc...
Also with my students, I started noticing something years ago not truly knowing why
they play guitar. On the first lesson I would ask them basic stuff like what music/bands they like. Now they all answer "I don't know".
As an older guy and pretty new to guitar I enjoy getting the correct info rather than have to spend ages getting rid of bad habits. Considering I'm a huge Petrucci fan I need the technique to be spot on from the start if I ever want to attempt his crazy runs. Thanks for enlightening us Matt!
You're welcome! Keep at it 💪
Good content. especially the part about amount of pressure. It's the same with the violin -whether the right hand-the bow or left hand. How much pressure to use? Just enough, no more and no less
You're a very good instructor and this video sticks out positively among countless similar ones. Sorry that you feel you have to be defensive and misunderstood, rarely seen that in a CZcams video.
LOL! I don't want to come across as someone who doesn't have an open mind... but when my how to hold a guitar pick video blew up to 200k+ views, I got a lot of comments that completely missed the point of the video. "That's not how X player does it!!" 🤦♂
Wanted to avoid that here. 🙂
Glad you found this helpful!!
That guitar is fiya
i love the lesson but i have fat fingers when i play on 45 position i mute strings that want to fret
There’s a sweet spot that isn’t exactly on the fingertips. If you need to play more open, it will be more fingertips. If you need to play more muted, then flatter (more in the 45) is going to work better. It’s situational. Re watch my playing examples and remember- everybody has slightly different sized hands and fingers :-)
Acho fantástico os seus vídeos, são bem didáticos e teóricos. Se voce continuar assim, você ainda conseguirá engrandecer o canal rapidamente.
Porém queria que você falasse mais devagar.
Obrigado. Eu usei o Google Tradutor.
Você tem legendas? :-)
@@mattwright466 Yep, i have. Thanks :-)
the audio takes me back to zoom sessions during covid lockdown in school hahahah
It's just in the first 2 minutes. So sorry!! It gets better! 🙂
Absolutely FANTASTIC! I'm more a blues and R&B kinda guy, however, much fits across the boardQ
Glad I found you. I do have a question- I play out 4-5 times a week. It's hare for me to correct bad habits as when I play out, I can't concentrate on the corrections. I corrupt my new stuff with the 3hr a night stuff. I hope I made sense.
Much Love~
Just do the diagonals exercise for 3 to 5 minutes a day, then forget about it. If you were going through and playing and need this style of left-hand position, then just do a quick check in it’s demoralizing to try and be perfect all of the time. Use the best hand position for what you are playing and it sounds like you are. :)
@@mattwright466 thanks Matt!!! At 73 old are learning!
These videos have helped tremendously, it's like I've unlocked the secret guitar tricks backrooms of CZcams lol,
:-)
Tell a friend haha
I’ve been practicing for 8 months so far. My story began lazy. In middle school I had a guitar and put myself in a class but never applied myself. Than I sold that guitar. in 2020 I bought a new one and didn’t play it until something pushed me to do it and I haven’t stopped since.
My biggest ailments are my left hand technique. probably where to place my thumb, how my fingers should arch when planting on the fret. Usual suspects , I feel I’ve made much progress but I just can’t nail down how my left hand should be exactly. I find myself at times adjusting atleast 3 different times per play session to see which feels best.
Also when I try to do certain chords like the f variation with the partial barre the stretching is awkward. The first four frets are kind of awkward for me as far stretching goes at times. Even if I got many chords down in this area.
@@Punkypoetico One of the big lessons from this video is that there are 2 hand positions and that, within the classical position, there are two ways to move the thumb - Counter-rotating and reaching deeper with the hand.
czcams.com/video/htaim5bYw6Q/video.html
This video has all of the right principles so keep playing with it and find what's comfortable for you.
Or you can book in a lesson 🙂
go.mattwrightmusic.com/lessons
Hey, I just wanted to ask if there's any good way you could help me figure out why my left wrist ends up hurting when I'm just playing scales. There's no health problems with my wrist for starters and I've been trying your diagonal exercise for a while now and my wrist ends up hurting still I'm just having a really hard time pin pointing what I'm doing wrong so I can fix it. Thanks for any help!
It’s going to be reallllly hard to troubleshoot this via a text convo. I’d recommend a lesson. :-)
go.mattwrightmusic.com/lessons
Hey. Good stuff. The audio is weird tho. Like its picking up from different mics mid sentences
There were some issues with recording. Did my best I could to fix it. It gets better after the first 2 mins :-)
Very cool video. The only thing I disagree with is when you discuss the "where to press the finger" as it really does have an optimal place and it varies slightly depending on guitar and fret. Best way to learn your own guitar is to simply listen to the sound. As a general rule, from the perspective of a sound engineer, simply listening to the "purity" of the tone, you do not want to hit it right in the middle of the frets. Usually the best tone is found closer to the fret, like 2/3rds the way to the fret. Yes the area of best sound is quite small but it's quite consistent so not impossible to learn to hit it correctly.. and if one is a beginner, it's especially important not to start by learning to hit the middle of the fret. That's what I was taught 30 years ago when I took lessons as a teen and I wish the teacher would have taught us to listen to the optimal sound and place right from the get-go. Now that I have 25+ years of engineering experience behind me and some casual guitar playing over the years, I've learned to listen and definitely do not recommend hitting in the middle between two frets. Strongest and cleanest tone, with least amount of pressure needed, is about 2/3rds towards the fret above.
I definitely thought about this while writing the script. Looking back, I could have spent a little more time here scripting and spent more time on this topic.
hey question, should you practise legato with a high gain or low gain?
1. If you have a solo with a legato section, it might make sense to add a little more gain than usual
2. You will need to practice legato with all four fingers, making sure the strength of the hits is even on each finger for ascending and descending. Any chromatic exercise going across all of the strings is great for this.
It will feel like you are hitting "too hard" for the first few days you do it. Then it will start to even out.
3. You will need to make sure that whatever amp/modeler you're using does not have a gate. Fractal has a default gate on the input of -80 dB. Turn it OFF. Once you do that, legato is much easier. And yes, you will have to practice noise control a lot.
@@mattwright466 thank you :) sorry but how long should a exercise be? i wanted to practise alternating picking and 20 minutes doesn’t feel like long enough, cramming a warm up and 4 exercise in 2 hours is difficult
1.
How to practice effectively:
czcams.com/video/85zQBybwiJs/video.html
2.
2 hours is plenty. Make sure you're spending time on music and not just fundamentals. Ideally, you want the balance to playing music to be more than playing fundamentals.
3.
I would spend maybe 10 minutes on the diagonals exercise.
4.
Alternate picking takes time to warmup, and then to develop to your max tempo. I spend a minimum of 20 minutes on this, and find that beyond 50 minutes, I'm not making any more progress.
5.
Fundamental exercises are designed to be practiced with high focus and to change the way you play, even when you're not thinking about it. This happens automatically when you intensely focus on an exercise and then go play other stuff. You should only have to do a little mini check in to make sure you're using proper technique if you're having trouble playing music.
@@mattwright466 thank you so much
so you suggest a more classical guitar position? i used to play classical guitar when i was little, so i learnt that you should place the guitar between your legs. now that ive bought an electric guitar, every video says that i should place it on the right leg but its so uncomfortable for me
My suggestion is to do what the music requires for you to perform it ;-)
IS the tab "hiding" somewhere that I missed ? Can't seem to find it. . . Thank you for the great (albeit challenging!) video !
My bad here you are!
drive.google.com/drive/folders/11LDkNwV4xy50YU-HFLy-VTJnxWK3gt6C?usp=drive_link
@@mattwright466Thank you! The exercise is straightforward enough to really not need the tab, but if I put a print of it on my music stand, it will remind me to practice it daily as you suggest!
Lol I loved when you did the no thumb shred. 😂 SUCK IT🎉
This is good stuff. I'm always looking for efficiency of movement.
But, after having nerve impingement in my neck that affected my left hand (I had neck fusion surgery to fix it), my left hand is taking a LONG time to get the strength back!
So, sometimes I have to utilize "bad habits" just to avoid hand cramps.
(BTW, I practice almost exclusively on an acoustic guitar, that's partly to force it to build strength.)
Also, FYI, I'm having a hard time with this video because the audio is terrible! There's static, and it keeps switching microphones in mid sentence {like from a lapel mic to one that seems like it's across the room from you)!
Really bad.
I KNOW you can do better.
Hey there! Yeah there were some audio recording issues that were unfixable without completely re-recording. I did my best. They’re basically only in the beginning of the video and basically none of them are during instructional parts. So keep working your way through. It gets better! :-)
Regarding hand strength, I highly recommend getting a GyroBall and using that for 1-2 minutes on each hand before playing. Also, check out my wrist pain video :-)
19:30 this one fucks me dead... After i switch my middle fingers they instamute both lower strings even though they are as perpendicular to the fretboard as possible.. Any tips or advice on how to fix that issue?
Try playing more on the tips?
If you have larger fingers, experiment with playing a little lower down.
@@mattwright466 tried 45 degree and tips, but still have the same issue. Would say fingers are rather short, than large. Gonna try some more options tomorrow :)
Thanks for advice anyway, appreciate it🙏
@@Horizzzz
Try:
- Guitar on left leg
- Higher neck angle
- Use more the tip or pad of the thumb
- This will bring the left hand wrist AROUND more
- Watch for wrist pain and adjust position
Good luck! You will surely get there!
Note: Not recommending that as a 100% of the time, default playing position, just recommending so you can find what the right position and execution FEELS like, practice there for a few weeks, then get back to playing in a less nerdy position. 🙂
But yeah, for some stuff, left leg and high guitar angle and being very on top of the strings will be necessary.
Where is the part 2 brother?
Haven't made it yet because I have not mastered legato to the extent that I want to.
Once I feel I have something new to bring to the table BEYOND just telling you what my teachers told me, I'll make it. 🙂
Glad you enjoyed!!
Was there a specific q you had?
Watched the video
Instructions too specific
Guitar only plays Freebird now...
🤣
Ok, after watching most of the video, I can see this is not for me.
I've spent years studying neuroscience (as a scientist, in a medical school), so I didn't need all the "explanations."
And, since I started out playing Classical guitar (I'm self-taught, but I studied Segovia's technique), so I know about the 2 positions. I've noticed how I have to shift back & forth, so I've already worked out the speed of switching.
And, as far as synchronizing my hands, that has never been a problem.
I start out practicing slow 24:01 because, as they say in the military,
"Slow is smooth and smooth is fast "
Any time when I'm playing, if I make mistakes, I'll slow down and practice very deliberately until I've got it. Then I'll speed up.
But, I'm glad you're teaching these things to others. Good luck!
Take my money
Sure! 😛
I offer lessons and a Patron's portal. 🙂
LMK if you want the link
@@mattwright466 what’s the link?
@@zacharysawicki4111
Patron's portal (w/ bonus lessons)
go.mattwrightmusic.com/patron
Lessons:
go.mattwrightmusic.com/lessons
why are there people who says you dont have to bend the wrist at all when playing?
I would make a bet that they're talking about a very limited aspect of guitar playing.
After some additional study, I found Anton Oparin's video helpful on the bent/straight wrist thing.
According to him, it make the finger movement come from muscles in the forearm versus the hand. The forearm muscles are stronger.
He doesn't go super in depth to practical application in his video though, such as playing the "stretchy prog chords" like I address in this video.
So like I said in the beginning of this video, we really need two hand positions to play all of the kinds of music for guitar.
@@mattwright466 yes probably , i just found his channel ,thanks to you
If you’re trying to teach the average person,? Maybe consider using a standard 6 string guitar.
7 string serves to emphasize the very points in this video. I also specifically address this at 14:40 ;-)
It's so depressing to see how CZcams guitar experts are so wildly contradicting each other on everything. I wish there were some authority that tells you who's telling the truth. Honestly from holding the pick to positioning the left hand thumb and anything in between. Even among guitarists of the same genre. And since they all seem to be amazingly good players, I ask myself does it all matter?
The difference between myself and other guitar content creators is the fact that I was raised in the classical tradition. I've had teachers basically my entire life... And very very excellent teachers at that.
The second difference is that I have an entirely separate video teaching how to do bends and I show how to merge both the classical and the blues style technique -- Something I've seen zero others do here on CZcams.
Every video on my channel is built to form a single, COHESIVE, technical approach to guitar. None of the movements contradict or overlap because it's formed that way from the ground up.
My videos are so long because I watch everybody else's videos, find all of the flaws, and then put all of the answers in one place so you, the viewer, don't need to go watch 6 videos from 5 different instructors to get something that will work.
Hope this helps and all the best on your guitar journey.
Definitely not for beginners
why is getting to the point such a hassle!!!!
Because 1) context is important and 2) watch time on CZcams matters.
There are time stamps if you want to skip around, but the fact is to get all of your answers, you’ll likely end up watching 100% anyways. 😉
Talks way too much in the beginning dude. You lost me because it took you too long to get to the good part geez!
I know my intros are long. I wish they didn’t have to be that way! But there’s so many little things I need to stress the importance of so the viewer has full context for the video.
Skip through the time stamps about 4:00 in to get past the intro. 🙏
With all due respect, the actual lesson doesn't start until 5:45. Whatever your rationale for such an incredibly long preamble does not justify it. Many other teachers have figured out how to self-edit to keep the viewers interest... I think you can too.
I say this only because you are a fine teacher and it would be a shame if you lost potential subscribers for such an easily-remedied issue.
Matt: Both your critics and you are right. May I suggest a great compromise? Start your videos as if the viewer has already seen it and provide the sequences of exercises as they should be practiced with no talking. Then do your video as usual for those that want to know the motivation for your lesson. It is far easier to criticize than toshow gratitude for those able to create content. Thank you Matt.
@@claudiafrers8923 The problem with doing that:
1. It will destroy watch time, which is how I get paid by CZcams.
2. People will take the exercises out of context and then complain that they don't work. It is not the notes we play, but HOW we play them that makes the difference. ;-)
For those of you who don't like the intro. You can skip it at will. To help further, there are chapters. 👍
Too much talking and less playing.
Not about the notes - it's about how you play them. :-)
There are ~18 examples in this video.
Is there something you don't understand or that I wasn't clear about?