If there was one technical adjustment you could adopt in your fingerstyle guitar playing to take a giant leap forward in the music you're able to make, would you take it? I hope you would, because I'm here to share this fantastic hidden secret to fingerstyle guitar playing! It's called preparing, and it is, in a nutshell, the process of placing your fingers in contact with the guitar strings well before they're needed to play their next note. By becoming incredibly comfortable with--and aware of--preparations, you will be able to control how your fingers move to a much greater degree. Gone will be the days when your fingers floated aimlessly above the strings. Instead, you'll be the master of keeping your fingers close as you play fingerstyle guitar pieces.
To really master preparations, it helps to work within very simple musical contexts. Take a simple arpeggio like the PIMA arpeggio, where your thumb plays followed by the index, middle and ring fingers in order. This arpeggio makes the preparation idea very clear. Play through the arpeggio, and then as you reset to play again with your thumb, make sure every finger is completely in contact with the string. As you become more comfortable preparing, pay extra attention to where your finger meets the string. Strive to find the sweet spot for each finger, which will be where the string touches the fingernail and fingertip at the same time. From this point, you always get the best sound as you play the notes you need to play.
If you're preparing properly, the strings will be completely silent. Since your fingers are in contact with the strings, there won't be any sound coming from the strings. As you master preparations, you won't have to keep your fingers completely prepared and in contact with the strings at all times. It's much easier to master preparations and then keep your fingers just off the strings but extremely close than it is to just sort of allow your fingers to float above the strings wherever they want and then to try to hold them in tight near the strings. Push through the frustration and master preparations so you'll be able to call on your incredible finger control in every passage of music you encounter.
Preparations show their true value when you start playing more complex pieces of music while adhering to the preparation principles. Scales, fast licks and intricate counterpoint passages all benefit hugely from working each and every preparation until they're all totally automatic. I promise you, if you really pay careful attention to preparations as you map out a new challenging passage of music, you'll be amazed at what you are able to do. Just recognize that preparations involve each finger arriving at the earliest possible moment to the string they'll play next. You can often have your finger ready on the string for its next note way earlier than you realized. Stay on the lookout for opportunities for preemptive preparations. They're all over the place, and they take a lot of the guesswork out of challenging musical passages.
Preparations will singlehandedly transform your fingerstyle guitar playing if you take the time to master them. They're hard to explain completely in print like this, but more than anything, just the principle of getting your fingers to their notes as early as possible will serve you extremely well in everything you do. Preparations are all about finger control and awareness. If you aren't aware of your fingers and how they currently move, then adopting preparations may feel unbelievably frustrating. Your fingers have been allowed to range all over the place, and now you're suddenly forcing them to obey strict preparations. They will likely rebel for a bit, but if you persist, you will be rewarded with one of the most potent and useful technical skills in fingerstyle guitar.
To really master preparations, it helps to work within very simple musical contexts. Take a simple arpeggio like the PIMA arpeggio, where your thumb plays followed by the index, middle and ring fingers in order. This arpeggio makes the preparation idea very clear. Play through the arpeggio, and then as you reset to play again with your thumb, make sure every finger is completely in contact with the string. As you become more comfortable preparing, pay extra attention to where your finger meets the string. Strive to find the sweet spot for each finger, which will be where the string touches the fingernail and fingertip at the same time. From this point, you always get the best sound as you play the notes you need to play.
If you're preparing properly, the strings will be completely silent. Since your fingers are in contact with the strings, there won't be any sound coming from the strings. As you master preparations, you won't have to keep your fingers completely prepared and in contact with the strings at all times. It's much easier to master preparations and then keep your fingers just off the strings but extremely close than it is to just sort of allow your fingers to float above the strings wherever they want and then to try to hold them in tight near the strings. Push through the frustration and master preparations so you'll be able to call on your incredible finger control in every passage of music you encounter.
Preparations show their true value when you start playing more complex pieces of music while adhering to the preparation principles. Scales, fast licks and intricate counterpoint passages all benefit hugely from working each and every preparation until they're all totally automatic. I promise you, if you really pay careful attention to preparations as you map out a new challenging passage of music, you'll be amazed at what you are able to do. Just recognize that preparations involve each finger arriving at the earliest possible moment to the string they'll play next. You can often have your finger ready on the string for its next note way earlier than you realized. Stay on the lookout for opportunities for preemptive preparations. They're all over the place, and they take a lot of the guesswork out of challenging musical passages.
Preparations will singlehandedly transform your fingerstyle guitar playing if you take the time to master them. They're hard to explain completely in print like this, but more than anything, just the principle of getting your fingers to their notes as early as possible will serve you extremely well in everything you do. Preparations are all about finger control and awareness. If you aren't aware of your fingers and how they currently move, then adopting preparations may feel unbelievably frustrating. Your fingers have been allowed to range all over the place, and now you're suddenly forcing them to obey strict preparations. They will likely rebel for a bit, but if you persist, you will be rewarded with one of the most potent and useful technical skills in fingerstyle guitar.
About the Author:
This is just one of many Nashville guitar lessons you can find at String Love Guitar. Come on by and stay a while!. Also published at A Deep Secret to Mastering Fingerstyle Guitar.
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