Erik van Goch -> RE: arpeggio (Apr. 30 2014 21:36:06)
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: dapperdan hi all, Was just wondering if its really nessacary to force the position to get the best sound or whether the examples are just exagerated.? As i realy struggle to hit the strings in this position and it involves bending my wrisst towards the bridge. Cheers guys. In my opinion the example is indeed exaggerated and not something to implement to rigid. Last weekend i tried to play an arpeggio using this strict position (thump parallel to the string, 90 degrees finger angle) which brought me out of my 25 year old playing comfort zone and wasn't a real pleasure to experience. Although it probably produced a slightly better sound i'm not likely to apply it in actual playing because it doesn't feel right to me and on top is not in line with my playing strategy. It might be coincidental but 2 days after i tried this for me unnatural position i suddenly lost all functions of my right hand, it felt like it was fractured or suffering 5 fingers with tendinitis simultaneously (especially the thump and little finger) and the back of the hand (especially the part were arm meets wrist) was hurting like hell. It took over 12 hours before i could use some functions again. My father (one of the best classical/flamenco guitar teachers one could ever hope to find) did not object the possibility my hand fall out could indeed be triggered by me trying that playing position for a wile (aside from the noticeable tension i experienced doing it so rigid it's always risky to try new ways of playing). Both me and my father favor a more natural lineup of the arm/wrist/fingers and we embrace natural hand behavior, relaxation and biomechanics. As far as arpeggio is concerned i believe we have similar outcomes using different routes. My father links it to the hand knuckles (the big ones where the fingers leave the hand). My father asks his students to put their right hand flat on the guitar in such a way the knuckles are positioned straight above the string that finger is going to play.... then lift the hand to make the finger tips/nails fall into position. So if you cover the treble strings with IMA the I knuckle is positioned above the g string, the M knuckle above the b string and the A knuckle above the e string. I guess individual players might shift the reference point a bit but you grasp the idea. Preferably choose a position were switching between playing tirando and apoyando demands no movement/effort...... in my best years i could play all my techniques from 2 sett hand positions that were so close to each other that other people could not see the difference... 1 position favored apoyando , the other tirando and i operated on the exact edge were they touched. I generally use a strategy which i call my walking hand position, the naturally relaxed hand i have when i walk...... if all is well that hand has a perfect lineup with arm and wrist and on top the hand and fingers are totally relaxed (not a single muscle is in use). My strategy is always to bring that hand as close as possible to the action without moving a muscle.... only the very last necessary adjustments are made by altering that hand (which could indeed involve adapting a manageable wrist angle to bring the finger in a better playing position). For arpeggio i probably end up in a similar position as my father by bringing my walking hand to the place of the action, placing the fingertips under the matching strings. The big plus is that both your hand and fingers remain totally relaxed and natural with naturally curved fingers (relatively naturally, let's call it fit for playing) and on top the individual fingers enjoy similar actions/reactions when it come to plugging. An even bigger plus is that your fingers will automatically fall back in this preset position/condition every time you end fast actions with fast and intelligent relaxation... if you know when and how to relax your hand the fingers will automatically fall into walking hand position time after time simply because biology force them to do so (the only way to fight nature are slow actions and muscle tension, but if you pair correct muscle action to correct relaxation half of the work can be done by nature/gravity). One of the ideas of the fingers placed in a 90 degree angle towards the strings is because it's the best angle for transposing energy, not wasting energy on lateral moves...if you have a different angle part of the energy will make the finger slide sideways along the string before it actually plugs it, often not noticeable at normal speed but very clear if you study biomechanics slowly with eye for detail. The closer you come to a 90 degree angle the more energy goes into the string. Changing the position of the arm but also minute rotations of the arm can highly alter the direction the fingers moves and can bring them in a better angle to the strings without corrupting the natural line up arm/wrist/hand to much. As far as the thump is involved you could try this amongst others: Place all 3 arpeggio fingers on their matching strings simultaneously using a correct hand position like mentioned above (each finger must have it's own free line of movement while the other 2 remain on string). Now plug the base note(s) with the thump (with those 3 fingers still on string)... that will give you some idea how to position/use your thump making it fall naturally). Obviously it's a good idea to keep the thump out of the action ratio of the fingers as well (probably one of the ideas behind the suggested thump parallel to the string advice) but there are many options and depending on your biology, playing habits and/or the situation the thump can even be within their action ratio if you now how to deal with that/exploit that (arm rotation based thump actions can actually push the arpeggio fingers away from the strings first after which they fluently bounce back (often i use that energy to plug the first note(s) rather then doing it with the finger itself... the thump bounces away automatically as well since it's part of the same moving hand unite). I use various ways to play arpeggio but they all use natural moves, biomechanics and well dosed action/relaxation. If you relax properly during the thump part your hand and fingers will automatically fall back into the natural and known walking hand position, ready to fire another arpeggio. It takes a couple of years to master.
|
|
|
|