Modern fretting hand position - we need to rewrite the book on technique!
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- čas přidán 4. 09. 2024
- I've seen more and more players talking about this so here's my take on the discussion.
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mate, I had been going through a state of my guitar playing which would most people classify as burnout due to information overload .internet guitar tutorials have been all over the place and your content is breath of fresh air in this moldy guitar lesson circle of youtube videos.
Yeah, I've been struggling with my hand getting tired too soon and cramping. I thought I just don't have the endurance.
Reminds me a bit of violin technique
This is a very insightful video, especially for this beginner. I can establish these habits early on. Thanks!
revisiting this video after a few weeks, I think hand anchoring isn't a good idea for beginners... but neither is strict classical position.
The best players use an adapted version of classical. Watch HowToPracticeGuitar's video called: Using "Wrong" Technique Can Make You Faster
On top of what he says in the video, many guitar players also let the thumb prop up slightly above the neck, on the High G, B, & E strings. Or if you are playing past the 12th fret.
What is most important is just let your hand remain naturally curved (like chopin's piano technique).
@@arunkarthikma3121 it's working well for me.
best teacher on youtube
There is something they called hitchhiker thumb. Seems like you have one, me too - how that affects playing in classic legato position. I find it more difficult. I believe Hendrix had one, many other great players as well. But for classic legato position I find it to be somehow wrong. For me legato position with thumb in the middle is very unnatural.
I don't know why but it's actually easier for me to play legato in classical position, maybe because I've been practicing in classical position for a long time, regular position feels unnatural because of the fingers getting tight up together restricting the motion. I think it's a matter of practice.. What do you think?
@@audioexpeditions No, you're right, classical is simply better for legato.
This guy is misunderstanding what classical position means. It's not about "anchoring the thumb" or keeping the fingers rounded at all times (how would anyone mute?). It's simply about keeping your palms upwards and hand relaxed.
@@arunkarthikma3121 absolutely
I’m just saying it’s more difficult. Thumb naturally won’t stay straight. It just cannot be the same when you have that kind of thumb. Guys who have it will understood, others probably no. When i say classic position that means exactly that ( position when playing classic acustic guitar ) ( sorry no much muting there ). Anyway, let’s wait few more opponions since everyone body is unique, hand size, flexibility, fingers etc. Same with hitchhikers thumb - it affects playing technique for sure, some in positive way some in negative.
@@shlblesav I binged the source material that this video was inspired by (Anton Oparin's channel).
I would say that Anton and some experts agree that the hand anatomy is largely the same for most players.
So for 90% of players (unless your hands are freakishly large), the optimal positioning is relatively the same.
Very useful. Thanks!
Great video. Please get a better mic so we can hear you more clearly
A better mike would up your game TREMENDOUSLY:)
Definitely working on it - I'm currently in the process of renovating a house so the room I'm in has no sound treatment or carpet either. Lot's of reflections going on which is not ideal, the microphone is actually pretty good!
the goat has does it once again
A m a z i ng 😮
Hi Ben,
Been following your videos on left hand technique for some time as I have a lot of issues with it. For the first 4 or 5 years of my playing I played with the edge of my index stuck to the fretboard like this, what I found though is this introduced a ton of tension into my index finger, as it is in a very tight and cramped position when playing on the high E string especially, I could play some licks very fast but changing position or hammer on from nowhere was hard because it felt like my index was cemented down as it was being leveraged by the pressure against the fretboard. I can see a similar thing (index looks cramped and under tension) when you are playing here but it doesn't seem to affect your playing of course, potentially you have trained to get rid of some of this tension from that position or I was doing something wrong? I do wonder if some of these depends on hand size, I have below average size hands for a guy, thumb over is very uncomfortable for me and I only do it when there is no other option eg. Hendrix chord voicings.
Last year I started practicing to get rid of this habit and I've been modelling my left hand on two people, Tom Quayle and Rick Graham, both have world class legato and rarely have the side of their hand against the fretboard, in fact Rick is mostly strictly classical as he has that classical guitar background. I've been seeing results in that I can play with less tension in my hand and my playing feels more relaxed (but not as fast yet, it takes a long time and I've only been practicing the new technique for 6 months, it is a very hard thing to change and a massive effort, hours every day doing drills to get rid of the old technique and ingrain the new habit) but Anton and yourself are making me doubt myself now.
Interested in your take on this, thanks for the videos there are very few people talking in depth about left hand technique so the info seems really hard to come by and so being self taught I try to analyze this myself but I'm still not sure I'm getting it right, and there is so much conflicting info out there. A lot seem to struggle with the right hand picking but I've got an amazing picking hand (Tumeni Notes isn't that hard for me from a right hand perspective) and an awful left one, which is definitely the worst way round to have it!
It’s always a complicated thing to get right and I’d hesitate to give any advice without seeing what you are doing in the first place. I think hand and wrist size play a big part here - genetically speaking people with big hands or wide wrists have much higher hand strength and that’s where Rick Graham and Tom Quayle are interesting. Not the biggest hands but wider wrists which potentially means they have a lot more inherent strength in their fingers than most people!
My advice for a lot of people has always been ‘find someone who has the same hands and dimensions as you to copy’ and I think that tends to work very well. Personally, I’m 6ft 4 with decently long arms and have struggled in the past trying to emulate guitarists who don’t seem to have the same wrist and arm placements - copying Paul Gilbert and other players who are pretty tall seemed to work better naturally for me.
As for what’s discussed in this video, there are plenty of killer players who use classical position so while it might not be optimal for certain things, it is not going to stop you playing really complex stuff at speed.
If you are having less tension with classical it is 100% the way to go. Classical is simply the best for fast and fluid legato
Okay, idk. After watching this video, I am disappointed. He fundamentally misunderstands classical technique as "Anchoring the thumb". You will slightly "angle" your hand for the higher frets like he is showing, but that is a result of natural hand ergonomics (Classical guitar players do this too).
FYI, if you watch the first 10 seconds of the video, he is literally using a poor version of classical.
If you want to learn to shred comfortably, don't follow this advice. Follow Tom Quayle, Rick Graham and Mike Phillipov.
@@arunkarthikma3121 or Guthrie Govan, Anton Oparin, Greg Howe and the litany of other players who are lightning fast and do not use anything that remotely resembles classical technique. As always, there’s more than one way of approaching the problem - use whatever you find works best!
@@Kerriben All the players you stated use varying amounts of classical technique for the lower strings (angling the wrists for the higher strings), and thumb-above for articulation.
Classical players themselves do not use the strict "classical technique" you speak of, outside of chordal passages.
Nah, what we need is less youtubers and more people playing in bands and spreading Rock n Roll
Nope.
Thanks teacher.