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!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Frederic Hand and improvisation

Fred Hand's improvisation techniques

This week I would like to share a technique of the legendary Frederic Hand. A longtime performer wizened by years touring and performing, Fred manages to play from the heart every time he picks up the instrument. Not an easy task!

For most of us, inspiration is a feeling that is hard to nail down and maintain. The ability to make heart-felt music every time we pick up the guitar is a rare trait.

Think about when you are most at ease. Think about singing in the shower. Nobody can hear you... (at least that's what you think!) For most of us, our voice is the first means of self-expression and we hum and sing all day long. Some people are whistlers. Others grunt, with varying degrees of success. We are singing and whistling on auto pilot all the time, without regard to how we hit the notes that we want or why we know the next part of our current song.

Jumping to the obvious question...

Why can't we play the guitar the way we sing and hum??

Take it from a professional; take it from Fred Hand: "You absolutely can!"

For starters:

Nobody questions the existence of their hands. They are here and have always been. However our guitar has not always been here. The default way of thinking is: The guitar is an outside-of-body object that we "use" our body to play music "on".

The truth is, the guitar is not something to be mastered but rather something to be incorporated into our body in order to make it easier to use. Continually fighting your hands will not make them work better for the tasks that we do every day. Similarly, fighting the guitar in order to "control" it will not produce good results. We must learn to think of the guitar as something we are playing music THROUGH.

This lesson is about getting your head out of the way, in order to get your musical ideas from your brain to the listener's ear without the guitar being a barrier. The guitar becomes an extension of your body.

Starting Now...

1) Sing a note, any note
2) Find that note on the guitar and play it once
3) Sing a new note
4) Find that note on the guitar and play it once

continue on, toward infinity!

Next,

1) Sing a note and while holding it with your voice, find that note on the guitar neck
2) Sing a new note and move your fingers to the new note on the neck while holding that note with your voice

Finally

Sing a new note and as you attack it with your voice, simultaneously play it on the guitar.

You will notice 2 things right away:
1)You are not as good at predicting the intervals on the guitar as you are in your throat
2)You are better than you thought at predicting the intervals on the guitar

Thus the learning curve begins and you begin to internalize the notes of the neck. They become syllables and root sounds for you to express yourself with. You can have a conversation with your instrument!

This learning process is one that cannot be duplicated by any other method. You must learn to judge the distances of the neck just as you learn to control your voice. Imagine talking through the guitar, without the apprehension and hesitation that lies between you and your accurately expressed creativity. You will be doing just this after practicing singing what you are playing.

Getting your head out of the way:
The revolution you will experience after doing these excercised cannot be stressed enough. The pieces you play are will be easier. You will anticipate better and get lost less often. You can work your way out of memory slips, even by playing the notes in different positions to get through the piece because you know where the "sounds" lie on the neck.

These exercises can and should be practiced in all positions, because the same note lies in multiple places on the neck.

DO IT.

Thank you Mr. Hand!

Visit Frederic Hand on the web, where you can see an example of his revolutionary new device, the Spider Capo.

http://www.frederichand.com

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

DHGuitarist@gmail.com

Thanks for reading!