- You' ve been playing electric guitar for a long time but yet you feel like you don't know what is the correct step-by-step to tackle the instrument?
- You feel like when you understand another language but you can't speak in it?
- In the bottom of your heart you feel like there is a missing piece between what you know and what yo can play?
- And also you feel overwhelmed by the large quantity of techiniques that we hace at our disposal?
🧡 I have felt the same way, and for a long time. This is why I am going to tell you what have I discovered in my experience.
Arguments
Learning Need
- For a long time I have felt that approaching the instrument was like starting again from zero and I didn't feel there was any tangible progress in my study sessions. I couldn't find a common convention at the time of playing.
- And you are right my dear reader "All guitarrist have different ways of playing " but at the end we are all playing the same instrument. There must be a common narrative for all players. A same language even some speak it differently.
What I did?
- So I decided to begin anew, from zero, on my instrument in a music academy with the idea of going to the fundamentals of the electric guitar and see if I can give and asnwer to my interrogations.
- Then a thought struck me: What would it be the most fundamental thing at playing the guitar?
- The picking, was my answer by thinking in an analogy between spoken laguages, the form in wich we accommodate our speaking apparatus to produce sound like when we are babies and were taught to produce sounds or like when you are learning spanish and were taught to roll your "R's"
🧡 The most fundamental thing is: Picking
Evidence
During My Time in the Music Academy
- I had the great and lucky opportunity to meet a great teacher and great human being Juan Alejandro Hernández that has been supporting me a lot in this process of learning the fundamentals
So doing my classes, beginning again from zero, thinking in understand and master the fundamentals I learn this:
The left hand postition🫲:
Here our digitation must be a light one, like when we are using a computer keyboard.
At the same time, the internal part of your knuckles does not need to be toucking the fretboard because if we have the hand embracing too much of it we end up clinging on it like a clamp 🦞
Having the left hand too near the fretboard does not permit us to move freely when advancing through the fretboard. It is also true that this clamp can be used with other guitar techniques.
Also we could say a little about the thumb and how it should be advancing according to the advancement of tha hand whe interpreting the notes because if we leave it unmoved it could reduce our mobility of the whole hand.
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The right hand posititon 🫱
Here we can work on the angle of the pick, in general it can be parallel to the strings but it can also be angled at 45° dregrees at the time you are going from a thicker string to a thinner one.
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- Also here appears a concept called pronation and supination that is the rotation that our forearm does. A mental image that can help feel it is rememebering the movement we do when we shake our hands to dry them after washing them. Doing this movement at time of attacking the strings with the pick helps us to get a more rounded and fuller dynamic playing.
🧡 Remember, for this technique we need a more light playing with the left hand and try not to hold the fretboard to tight. It is like playing piano, you don't hold the keyboard, you touch the keys and then release them.
Learning Materials I had studied
- At the same time I was taking my classes I was reminding a learning material, pretty famous in the internet in the 2010's called Guitar Gym that was part of a monthly publication that was made by the Guitar Techniques magazine. Sadly this magazine release its last publication at the end of 2024 after 30 years running!
- This publication had various issue numbers talking about a concept I didn't know called economy picking that is the union between alternate picking and sweep pincking.
- This new concept was the click, the missing piece I was looking for. I felt that this was the way I can approach my instrument correctly. The correct way to roll my "
R's". - And the biggest conclusion about this technique is 👇
🧡 If you go from a thicker string to a thinner one do a downstroke and if you go from a thinner one to a thicker one do an upstroke
All Coming Together
- One of the resources suggested by my teacher was the video of Tomo Fujita where he proposes a routine for the electric guitar and the fourth exercise el cuarto is the classical piece called Kreutzer N°5 originally for violin and I told myself: I have to test all of this with this piece!
Next I share the video I am talking about📺
🧡This technique is effective to play everything from melodic lines, solos, single note riffs ,scales, arpeggios, etc.
I you want personalized help with this and other musical topics don't hesitate to reach out!
or
Conclusions
- All languages and musical instruments have a most effective form that allows us to communicate and in the electric guitar we must think in terms of effectiveness.
- We play the strings, generally, through the pick.
- the way we attack the strings is essential.
- The directions of the picking strokes is very important because keeping one direction whether its a downstroke or an upstroke its the most effcient and kinder to to this technique. Sometimes the most acrobatic way to play is not for everyone.
Apply it immediatly, I suggest some kind of classical piece like the Kreutzer N°5.
- Bring your materials and musical methods to your learning spaces, to your classes, academies and even your rehearsals.
🧡 THE BOOKS AND MUSICAL METHODS WILL ALWAYS BE MORE FUN TO LEARN WHEN WE STUDY THEM ALONG WITH OUR TEACHERS AND PEERS
These are my results applied to the Kreutzer, hope you like it!