Friday, September 17, 2010

David Russell and technique development

David Russell and the warm up

The man who needs no introduction, David Russell has been entertaining audiences around the world since his youth. He constantly gives masterclasses and likes to share his approach to technique development after the participants have finished playing.

His philosophy includes starting out with the most basic motions and progressing into exercises that are combinations of these motions. For example, one would not begin the day with a scale because the scale is a combination of many basic movements that must all fall into place. The scale is not only greater than the sum of its many different right and left hand motions, but something that is rendered inadequate and lame if any of those motions are below an acceptable level. And remember, if you want to achieve greatness, your bar of acceptability must be high indeed.


The right hand

To start, David plays a free stroke with his i finger. When he is happy with the tone and projection, the range of volume that he can produce and the different timbres that are possible he begins this exercise with the m finger. Next the a finger and finally the thumb. He recommends doing this exercise with rest strokes as well. This is the perfect opportunity to pay close attention to the separation of the fingers and the relaxation of the hand. You can choose certain criteria that you wish to hone and set your attention on those areas while you do these exercises.

In this way, the guitarist can systematically break down the motions of his or her right hand and pinpoint weaknesses at their most basic level. David is absolutely right when he states that a solid foundation is key to the success of a larger musical endeavor. This is a principle that holds true in developing every practice and profession.

The left hand

Now considering the left hand, David reminds us that there is one great spot (and one only!) that offers us the best tone with the least amount of effort. The area of optimum left hand fingertip placement is directly behind the fret and on the end of the finger, with the fingertip pointing perpendicular into the neck. The direction of the fingertip is important because it prevents the waste of energy when a player is pushing the string sideways (up and down the fret vertically, like a blues solo articulation). Not only does using this spot allow you to use as little pressure as possible, but it sounds the best! By simply relaxing your finger it will exit the string vertically and silently. You then move it horizontally and place it down in a new spot vertically.

When asked in a radio interview about the cleanliness of his recordings and the absence of squeaks, David responded that he just "leaves those out". Not so easy, you say? Re-read the above paragraph and do this exercise slowly like David. You will start improving your left hand accuracy and your tone quality will go up while your squeaks go down!

You're gonna like the way you sound. I guarantee it.

The right and left hand combined

After this diligent and careful work with each hand separately, David plays a note with his i finger while a left hand finger is fretting a note. then he plays two notes with his right hand with i and then m, alternating. You can imagine the possible extended exercises from here. Next he practices playing one left hand finger and moving to another one, relaxing completely the old finger and only engaging the new one enough to play the note in the perfect spot on the new fret. In this way he is preparing to play the scale.

The scale is the goal! Not the beginning. The beginning idea is to play the scale well and all the motions inside of it. (I can't resist throwing some zen in here).

Only after all of these items have been perfected will the scale also be in good running order.

More work can be done in many areas, including
-shifting
-string crossing
-right hand combinations
-multiple simultaneous finger use on the left hand
-volume control
-right and left hand articulation

the list goes on!

David Russell plays effortlessly in part because he has ingrained these basic abilities in himself at the highest level. To play a note is to care about that sound and he gives personal attention to each motion he makes at the guitar. Practicing something slowly and correctly is the ONLY way to improve it. Five good repetitions will improve your technique better than 40 hastily played mediocre ones. It's a law that we as organic beings can't argue with.

For interesting information about how the brain learns to store the instructions it sends out to create motions, read "The Brain that changes itself" by Norman Doidge.

David states that all guitarists, especially those in their developing stages ought to devote a substantial time to their technique workout (at least 30 minutes!). As we can all see, it paid off for him.

Thanks Mr. Russell!

Visit David Russell at www.DavidRussellGuitar.com

Daniel Hallford is a classical guitarist in New York City. Visit him at www.DanielHallfordGuitar.com

DHGuitarist@gmail.com

Thanks for reading!

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