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Miguel de Maria -> Digging vs Brushing (Dec. 18 2005 15:33:25)
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Wanted to share some thoughts on guitar technique in general.
I remember Jerzy (an excellent player who used to post here) said that all guitar techniques should feel like "brushing" the guitar. At the time, it struck me as very unusual, because that was not my experience at all. Picados felt like clawing or pulling, rasgueados felt like flicking a fairly hard surface, and arpeggios felt like pulling or digging. So I just kind of filed the comment away (as you should if someone who is a lot better than you says something).
More recently, I read a book about natural talent for piano players, called The Pianist's Talent by Harold Taylor. The author analyzed "naturally talented" prodigies, by their pictures, various recollections and studies, and the writings of a teacher named Thiberge. He tabulated quite a few interesting observations. One of them is that great pianists always adjusted their chairs Down.
So what? Well, if you have played keyboard, it might be your experience that you want to be more Above the keyboard. It gives you a sense of more control, and of being able to use gravity more easily to get more weight on the keys. Most people, then would adjust their chairs Up, yet the great players, the prodigies and true masters, adjust it Down.
Taylor and Thiberge (the teacher) deduced from that, that it is in fact a principle of great playing, of effortless and masterful playing, that it should be from a lower position. Furthermore, there must obviously be something very different in terms of mental imagery or mechanistic process, that the virtuosos are doing. Their conclusion was that virtuosos play "up", while hackers play "down." In other words, my inclination on the keyboard to press down and get more leverage was incorrect, and not conducive to optimal technique. They teach that you should visualize that the keyboard is very high. That will lighten your touch and change your physical attitude to the instrument.
So on to guitar. The more I thought about this, I wondered if there was an analogue between this revelation on the piano and guitar technique. It goes without saying that 99% of guitarists are doing it wrong, no doubt myself included. I decided to try to play the guitar "up", to metaphorically adjust my chair "down."
On the guitar, I think this means that you don't do what is natural to most people, to attempt to get a mechanical advantage by pushing inwards, or "digging in" on the strings. I decided to attempt to get power by lightening up. As a consequence, I found my fingers straightening, and the attack on the strings becoming simpler. I started to brush. To my surprise, I found that this way, for picado, I could play fast and with great projection with little effort.
If you think about what it means to "dig in", that usually connotes a muscular motion of clawing at the strings. Try to visualize the path of the string and see how much of that force actually gets translated into the soundboard, and how much is just stretching or attacking it without actually adding to the volume. It is said that Sabicas could play very powerfully with little apparent effort...maybe this is part of how he did it. Paco's method "looks" very muscular and effort-intensive, but it almost surely is not.
It goes back to what Ron has pointed out many times--the string is an almost weightless, thin piece of nylon. It really doesn't offer that much resistance if played correctly. You don't need a lot of muscle to make it zing, you just have to find the right angle and motion. I think that playing "up", and "brushing" can help you find that motion.
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