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RE: Left and Right hand picado speed?? (in reply to Stu)
yes you should spend equal time working on your left and right..
there are also specific exercises to practice them beeing in synk
one simple one u can do at work at a desk is tap the desk (gently) with I or both hands at absolute the same time then M, then A etc... work out litlle orders, mix match etc..start slow work out to medium or whatever speed you can do evenly..i got this tip from a drummer whos hads ofcourse needs to be equal and in perfect balance to eachother..i think its usefull cause u can do it anywhere with or without a guitar
having hands that work well in synk with eachother gives a better chance of good picado the having supper fast right hand and a left that dosent match it
RE: Left and Right hand picado speed?? (in reply to Stu)
I would say playing lots of chromatic scales/exercises simply because of all possible left-hand scale exercises these slow down the left hand the most since every finger has to be used in on every string. So if you can do those quickly, you can do anything else quickly too.
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Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Left and Right hand picado speed?? (in reply to Stu)
I am never sure how to address this problem, I have always been WAY faster with my left hand then right....perhaps because of my electric guitar days doing lots of legato runs...So it is strange for me when I encounter students who are faster with the right hand.
Anyway, an easy way to synchronize is use the metronome and make sure you can play rhythmically with the left hand, any fast runs or whatever, even if you dont' sound the notes, make the fingers move with controlled rhythm. For the right hand, that is usually obvious too...
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Joined: Aug. 9 2006
From: Iran (living in Germany)
RE: Left and Right hand picado speed?? (in reply to Stu)
i have also exactly the opposite problem. My left hand is OK (because i played E-guitar in the past), but my right hand is way behind....i think my left hand is double or tripple faster and better than my right hand when playing picado....
RE: Left and Right hand picado speed?? (in reply to Stu)
Stu, hammer ons are the way to go without the use of the right hand. Think first fret and using your left hand only sound the notes with the force of the fingers falling down on the strings using different left hand fingering example 1234 1324 1423, but do not play legato that is as soon as you are about to play another note lift pressure off of the struck string for example if you are to play chromatically 1234( f f# g g#) hammer on f and as you are about to hammer on to f# lift off f. Practice with a metronome at all times.
RE: Left and Right hand picado speed?? (in reply to Florian)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Florian
yes you should spend equal time working on your left and right..
there are also specific exercises to practice them beeing in synk
one simple one u can do at work at a desk is tap the desk (gently) with I or both hands at absolute the same time then M, then A etc... work out litlle orders, mix match etc..start slow work out to medium or whatever speed you can do evenly..i got this tip from a drummer whos hads ofcourse needs to be equal and in perfect balance to eachother..i think its usefull cause u can do it anywhere with or without a guitar
having hands that work well in synk with eachother gives a better chance of good picado the having supper fast right hand and a left that dosent match it
Yes, I used to do this and still occasionally do. I got the idea from Grisha who said that when he met Paco he saw him doing some sort of finger tapping excercise. So I played around tapping my fingers on a table. I found it pretty useful for getting some basic coordination and it should give you an idea of your level of coordination between left and right hands.
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From: Boston, MA, U.S.A
RE: Left and Right hand picado speed?? (in reply to Stu)
i'm no picado demon but what really helped me was learning to be relaxed as possible in the left hand. i used to use the thumb a lot and fretted by using a squeezing motion with the fingers and thumb. now i just use the weight of my arm and gravity. though i am currently using extra high tension strings, my left hand has never felt so fast, agile and relaxed.
i would practice with picado so that the hands can learn to work together. if you practice ligato alone, your left hand will become faster but it might not sync up so well with your right hand.
RE: Left and Right hand picado speed?? (in reply to Stu)
i'm pretty sure i can play left hand hammers and pulls faster than picado, and can also do picado with right hand fingers only on open strings faster than with left hand fretting notes.... it's the left-right coordination that messes me up!
i've been using chromatic exercises and lots of scales and also playing 1-3-5-7 arpegios with IM picado (good for string crossing). i kind of keep thinking if i want to get good with IM, then surely it's better to just practise IM, but i keep practising with IA and MA too just in case what everyone else says is true and it does help...
one thing i'm finding useful with left hand is all the chromatic finger combinations, not just 1234 and 4321,
so i also use 1243 and 4312, 1324 and 4231, 1342 and 4213, 1423 and 4132, and 1432 and 4123. i pair them up cos i go up the neck with a pattern starting with 1 and come back down starting with 4, it's kind of neat,
you can also do patterns starting with 2 and 3 but i haven't got round to seriously practising those yet...
and keeping all fingers down at all times except when needed to lift to play ie. when 4 comes down 1 lifts ready, when 1 comes down 2 lifts ready etc.
i do all this with picado btw, 'cos it's the coordination of left and right that's the problem for me, not either hand on it's own
was gonna post some of this stuff up on flo's exercises thread a while ago but haven't got round to it yet
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Joined: Jan. 11 2009
From: England (West Yorkshire/Lancashire)
RE: Left and Right hand picado speed?? (in reply to Stu)
My experience as a picado 'improver' - i.e. getting better every day - is that it's development of the right hand that's the problem/challenge. For example, if we forget about the right hand and simply finger the neck with the left hand, we can play at tremendous speed. Similarly, spped is improved if we play the left hand runs as hammer-ons/pull-offs. So, in my opinion, the problem of left-right coordination is simply (?!) one of increasing the speed AND developing the PRECISION of the right hand, so that the two hands synchronise. Thus, rather than working religiously on left-hand chromatic scales, I have found simply playing chords picado-style, working up and down the strings, doing i-m, i-m-i, i-m-i-m, and m-i-m-i 'flurries' (then the same with m-a and i-a) has really improved the 'snap', speed and control of my right hand picado. This then translates into better coordination when playing runs - so that runs that I could previously only play at a high speed with hammer-ons/pull-offs, I can now play as individually picked notes.
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