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Miguel de Maria -> left hand (Aug. 9 2004 23:01:53)
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For the technically minded out there, I have learned some cool things for the left hand. About a year ago, when in Sevilla, my teacher told me I had a good right hand, but htat my left hand wasn't good. I had never paid any attention to it. Well, I have worked on it a little bit, and discovered a few things:
1. hanging the arm on the neck -- I try to feel that the weight of the arm is fretting the notes with gravity, not any sense of clamping or vise-type grip
2. relaxed hand -- if a finger is not pressing down a string, it should feel completely relaxed, in a gently curved manner hovering above the fretboard. This position is not a conscious, tense thing but really the result of lack of tension
3. slurs -- practice slurs 5 min a day to keep the guitar teacher away. Hammer ons, pull offs, combination, chromatic scales, slurs under a barre--these things will work absolute wonders for your LH. They are the squat of LH exercise. You will be amazed at how much better your hand works after practicing these a couple of weeks.
4. aim-directed movement-- before you do a move on the guitar, think and mentally rehearse exactly what is going to happen. Then relax the fingers from the guitar, then do the movement. If you can internalize this sequence--think, relax, move, then soon enough it will happen very fast, and your movements will become accurate and tension-free
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