Conference napalm::guitar

2166.0. "Relaxed Hand Positioning for Guitarists" by KEBLER::WSC100::COLLUM (Oscar's only ostrich oiled an orange owl today) Thu Apr 18 1991 17:34

                   Relaxed Hand Positioning for Guitarists
                                      By
                                 Will Collum
                             as taught to him by
                                 Dale Miller
                             as taught to him by
                                 Ricardo ???

             Ricardo did the research on human anatomy and other
                    subjects and developed the technique.


         The goal here will be to take the tension out of the hand
         while playing guitar.  This goal is based on the assumption
         that a musician can better concentrate on the music,
         execution, improvisation, or whatever, while in a physically
         and mentally relaxed state.

         The position is based on a few basic ideas:

         1. Let's view the hand as the note playing mechanism and the
         arm and wrist as the device we will use to locate that
         mechanism.  Let the hand play the notes, but only after the
         arms and wrist locate it properly.

         2. Let's use big muscles for big motions, reserving the small
         muscles for the more tedious small motions.  Big muscles will
         drive the arm, small muscles will play the notes via the
         hand.

         3. There are fingerings that will take the hand out of the
         most relaxed position.  That's to be expected and not a
         problem.  When possible, the hand will return to a the
         relaxed position.

         Let's observe a few things to start.

         Hold your hand in front of you, palm up, fingers straight and
         together.  You should have a straight line from the elbow to
         the fingertips.  Now spread the fingers to the sides.  Keep
         the knuckles and finger joints straight.  Notice how far you
         can stretch from index fingertip to pinky fingertip.

         Bring the fingers back to the starting position, all straight
         and together.  Now, keeping the first (counting from the tip)
         two joints straight, bend your finger toward yourself until
         the knuckles (third joints) form about a ninety degree angle. 
         Now try to spread the fingers to the sides.  They will not
         spread near as far.

         We want to avoid, while playing, that ninety degree bend at
         the knuckle.  It restricts the reach too much.

         Take your guitar and hold it in a playing position.  This
         position may be modified as we go.  It's up to you to find
         the position that works for you.  I have taken to the
         classical position: the guitar is on the left leg and the
         left foot is propped up on a foot rest about six inches high. 
         I am forward in the chair, not reclined to the rear. The
         peghead of the guitar is only a few inches below eye level. 
         (This is important, not really in and of itself, but to the
         explaination.  Once the principle is clear, you can put the
         neck wherever you like.)  I'll work from this position in
         explaining.

         Now, for the baseline hand and arm position to demonstrate
         the motion.

         Fret this finger pattern to begin getting your hand into
         position:


         1|---|---|---|---|            Index finger is 1, pinky is 4
         2|-1-|---|---|---|
         3|---|-2-|---|---| Strings
         4|---|---|-3-|---|
         5|---|---|---|-4-|
         6|---|---|---|---|
              Frets

         The thumb should be lightly pressing against the back of the
         neck.  The wrist should be straight, not bent in either
         direction.  The elbow should be dropped down toward your
         side, not pointing out behind you.  The pinky should be
         arched, not straight.

         To get into this position, first straighten the wrist.  You
         should have a perfectly straight line from the elbow to the
         middle finger knuckle.  When the wrist is straightened, you
         may have to adjust the thumb position.  Once the wrist and
         thumb are good, then look at the arch on the pinky and that
         angle formed by the hand and the pinky at the knuckle.  If
         that angle looks close to ninety degrees, then the pinky is
         probably not arched.  Adjust this by bringing the elbow 
         closer to your side.  This is how: Your index finger is
         probably touching the neck right near the nut.  That is the
         pivot point for the motion.  The wrist is kept straight. 
         Bring the elbow closer in toward your side, using the pivot
         point, and you should notice your hand coming around.  As you
         hand comes around, the pinky can be arched.  As the pinky is
         arched, the angle at the knuckle is reduced.  You should have
         a gentle angle at all the joints in the pinky forming the
         arch.  The hand should quite relaxed at this point, the elbow
         maybe closer to your body than in the past.

         Now release all the fingers except the pinky.  Maintain
         contact with the neck at the pivot point.  The pinky is on
         the fifth string, gently arched fretting the note.  The
         finger should be fretting the note just hard enough.  If the
         pinky knuckle angle is too close to ninty degrees, bring the
         elbow in a little.  If it's too arched and feels scrunched
         up, let the elbow out a little.  There is a relaxed,
         comfortable position there somewhere; it must be felt.  The
         thumb should be completely relaxed.  Depending on the
         stiffness of the action of the guitar, it may not be applying
         any pressure at all.  The hand should be supported in this
         position by the arm, not the other way around.  If you raise
         you pinky off of the board, your hand should not move at all. 
         Your arm should be the support.  The should no sesnsation of
         your arm hanging off of the neck from the hand.

         To move your pinky to the sixth string, raise it a little
         without moving the hand, wrist, or arm; then bring the elbow
         in a little and the pinky should be over the sixth string. 
         Just press down, again, only with the finger.  The hand,
         wrist and arm are not part of the pressing motion.  To go to
         the first string, raise the finger as before and bring the
         elbow out.  Then press the finger down on the string.  The
         arch on the finger should be the same no matter what string
         it's on, that is, it's the shoulder and arm that places the
         finger over the string, and, in a distinctly seperate motion,
         it's the finger that then frets the note.

         This goes back to the principle of the locating device (the
         shoulder and arm) putting the note playing device (the hand)
         into the proper position to play the notes.

         Now, this extends to all the fingers.  The third finger will
         funtion the same way on the third fret.  The arch and the
         knuckle angle apply the same.  It follows for the first and
         second fingers on the first and second frets respectively. 
         As the fingers change strings, the elbow will come in and out
         to do the positioning across the fretboard.  Then the fingers
         are in a relaxed position to play the notes.  They simply
         press down.

         For the first finger there is a slight exception.  For the
         first finger on the first string, the part of the first
         finger that forms the pivot point may need to slightly come
         away from the neck so the first finger isn't too scrunched
         up.

         As the hand shifts up and down the fretboard, technique
         remains the same.  The wrist does not rotate or flex during
         shifts.  The arm is used to slide the hand up or down the
         fretboard.  The arch on the finger, the finger-string
         positioning works the same all over.  Nothing changes except
         the location on the fretboard.

         An additional note here is that the finger fretting the note
         should be placed right next to the fret, not halfway 
         between two frets.  This helps the note to be fretted with
         less pressure.

         A couple exercises will help you get the feel of it.

         1. Place the pinky on the sixth string, fourth fret.  Use the
         arm to position it there with the knuckle angle, arch and
         pivot point maintained; place it right up next to the fret. 
         Next, without changing the shape of the hand or wrist, bring
         the elbow out so that the pinky will move to the fifth
         string.  The sixth string will be plucked by the pinky
         leaving it; the pinky should come to rest on the side of the
         fifth string.  Continue bringing out the elbow, plucking the
         fifth string and coming to rest on the fourth.  Then the next
         string, and on to finally plucking the first string.  The
         shape of the hand will be maintained throughout, only the arm
         motion moves the finger.  The arch and knuckle angle will be
         maintained throughout.  This is the perfect illustration for
         the technique.

         Then repeat the exercise with the other fingers on their
         respective frets in first position.  Third finger on third
         fret, et cetera.

         It may take a while to calibrate, so to speak, the arm's
         motion to the hand's.  You may tend to move the elbow more
         than necessary, or less.  There will be a comfortable groove
         that you will fall into.  The motion will feel natural at
         some rate of movement.  That will be your own.

         2. Place the pinky on the first string, fourth fret.  Use the
         above described method for locating the finger above the
         string.  Press down and fret the note.  Now without moving
         the arm or wrist, pull with the pinky toward your hand, that
         is, scrunch up the arch and let the pinky pluck the string. 
         Next, without moving the arm, wrist or hand, press and pluck
         with the third finger.  Then the second.  Then the first. 
         Then use the arm to relocate for the second string.  Press
         and pluck each finger in turn on the second string.  Then the
         next string and so on for all six strings.  Don't rotate the
         wrist and pull the strings always at right angles to the
         strings.  Just flex the finger inward and let the finger do
         it all itself.

         If you already play guitar, this technique is easy to apply. 
         When playing scales, as the fingers change from one string to
         the other, use the arm to relocate the hand.  You'll notice
         that your hand is under less tension, particularly on the
         fourth, fifth and mostly the sixth string.

         You may find, that you will need to raise your guitar
         position on your body if you play standing up.  This helps
         the wrist remain straight and gives the elbow more room to
         come in to position the hand for the upper strings.

         Once more, there are many chords and fingerings that will
         take the hand out of this most relaxed position, but you will
         recover to this position when the fingering allows.

I wrote this up thinking it may help people with hand fatigue or tendonitis 
type of problems, i.e. people that play a lot.

My teacher, Dale Miller, is an exellent professional classical guitar player.
He also plays banjo and fiddle.  He teaches and plays for a living.

His teacher, Ricardo somebody, as I understand it trained with someone who 
trained with one of the all time greats, or something like that.

Dale teaches this technique and swears by it.  He changed to it a few years ago
and loves it.  He says it helps his playing be much much more relaxed and less 
fatiguing.  He no longer teaches the more traditional hand positioning.

Neither does Ricardo.

I was able to immidiately apply it to my rock playing.  I'm completely sold.
As musician, I like it's effect on my playing; as an engineer, appreciate the
logic in the system, and it's functioning in acordance with one's anatomy.

Dale stresses this point, and it cannot be overstrssed:  There is no right 
or wrong, just try it out and be aware sensually of what your body is doing.
Do what works for you.


I hope this is clear, it's sort of hard to describe.

Have fun all, keep playing,

Will

    Thanks for typing this in Will...  a percentage of my life is spent
    being concerned about my wrists... 
    
    Ben.

My pleasure, hope it's clear and it helps,

Will

Will,  I can't count the times that I've tried to explain to a
beginner the importance of relaxed hand positioning.  This note is
a perfect reference for them.  

I printed this out, took it home, and read through it...  Very good..
Matter of fact, I found that 98% of the stuff written in there, I
do subconciously.  the renforcement was nice.

Next time someone trying to learn guitar looks rather like they're
trying to choke the headstock off the neck, I'm handing them a copy of
your note, and tell them not to stop referring to it till they got it!

In the words of Bill and Ted, 'Excellent'

That's great!  I really appreciate the feedback.  I found that most of it, I 
did already, but some I'm still incorporating.

Thanks again,

Will