Posts Tagged ‘Left Hand’

Do you want to learn how to play bass guitar? It is not difficult as bass guitar is one of the simpler musical instruments to start learning. If you are just starting to learn how to play bass guitar, I would suggest to learn to play one note one at time. It is easier and will make sure you learn it the right way.

Also, I would suggest to choose a fretted bass guitar to learn how to play guitar unless you already have experienced playing other instruments. You can get the note correctly more easier if you use a fretted bass guitar.

The first step when learning how to play a bass guitar does not involve the guitar at all. Rather, you need to practice your fingers. One simple way is to try relaxing your left or right hand depending on which hand you are playing the bass guitar.

Lift your hand at a 90 degree angle from the floor. Then try lifting each finger one at a time. Do this in quick succession.

After the exercise above, pick up the bass guitar and place it on your right thigh. The strings of the bass guitar should be facing away from you. You should notice there is a slope on the body of instrument. If not, use your right or left forearm to adjust the bass guitar position on your thigh.

Hold the neck of the bass guitar with your left hand. Place your right thumb on the string that is about midway between the strings or called the E string. Then place the middle and index fingers on the D string. The D string is about two string down the E string. Pluck each in succession. It may take some time until you are comfortable with it.

There is a whole lot more about how to play bass guitar and I would not be able to cover them all in this article. But the exercise above is the very first step when I learn how to play the bass guitar.

The best way to learn how to play a violin is to first get an excellent violin teacher. Online instructional materials and instructional videos are available, but a private teacher will enable you to master the violin more quickly, for an actual teacher will know what you should be aiming for, notice problems with your technique, and tailor solutions to your particular needs.

The next step is to study your violin fingering chart, or if possible, study music theory so that you will comprehend the structure of music. As you study the fingering chart, you’ll understand where to place your fingers as you play each chord.

Before you begin playing your violin, remember to rosin your bow. If you haven’t learned how to do this, request for someone from the music store or your violin teacher to rosin it for you. If you do not have rosin on the bow, this will cause very little noise; however, if there is too much rosin it will cause a scratchy sound.

When the bow is ready, you must next tune your violin. This must be done once a week, or more often if you play your violin frequently. Using a shoulder pad is helpful for beginners. This will make it possible for you to hold your violin between your chin and shoulder without raising your shoulder. That way you can move your left hand without restriction.

The last yet far most important step is to practice– not just practice your violin playing, but to strive for improvement. As you practice, you repeat the same action or same ways of playing, so if you have bad habits while playing the violin, you practice committing them over and over until they become ingrained.

Therefore, it is important that when you practice, you must first have your mistakes corrected, so that the subsequent time you practice, you will not be repeating the same mistake again. This does not just apply to violin playing, but also to playing other instruments.

That’s all for now! Now, go and study those fingering charts!

You love the soothing sounds of relaxing piano music. But have you ever thought about actually going to your piano and creating it yourself? You can thanks to Edward Weiss’s online piano course.

This course teaches beginning adult students how to play piano using a chord-based approach. The lessons are designed in an easy step by step fashion that shows you what chords to play and how to improvise and create your own music.

You already know how therapeutic listening to solo piano music is. Creating it on your own is much better because you’re actually involved in the process. Making music forces you to be in the present. And once you get a taste of how good this feels, you’ll want more and more.

For instance, take the free lesson “Winter Scene” Here we have a relaxing piano lesson that teaches you to play 2 chords in your left hand while your right improvises melody.

To the complete beginner, this may seem like a lot. And it is until you actually try it. Once you start to play the chords in your left hand and get the pattern down, it becomes quite simple to jump in with the right and begin improvising a melody.

I always advise students to go as slow as they need to at first. Speed is not important at all. Playing with sensitivity is. If all you can do is play one note in the right hand while your left is busy playing, than you’ve accomplished quite a lot.

It won’t take long for you to freely improvise and create your own relaxing piano music!

Have you ever wondered how guitarists play so clean and fast with articulate picking control? This is an issue that has many of us scratching our heads, and some of us flat out stumped!!

There is a solution that works for everyone, if you want it bad enough.

The formula is simply this:

Right and left hand synchronization + Practice = Fast smooth playing!

I know, I know, it may sound obvious, but it’s only when you really start to analyze this process slowly, that you will begin to see the issues that can cause serious long-term problems. Ultimately the goal is to achieve un-interrupted flow.

You must pay close attention to what’s happening with your left and right hand, if you want to gain real speed in the end. There is a difference between playing fast, and just flat out ripping! I think you know what I mean. It’s much like turning on the water faucet. Free flowing with no restriction.

Friends, I’m here to tell you this does not have to be an issue for you any longer, once you fully understand how to practice properly. You see, whether it’s rock and roll, country, jazz, or blues guitar etc…the pro’s all have one thing in common, their left and right hands are in perfect sync with each other on command.

This means they’re able to use their Speed Picking Techniques when desired, including many other types of techniques as well.

Note:

Always view your techniques as tools. This is critical. Tools are needed to complete any kind of project. Guitar playing is no different. Tools, or (techniques), are needed to complete a guitar solo or guitar lead structure within a song. Speed Picking is only one of many tools used. Having said this, let’s look at some problem issues that you might be facing when speed picking.

Examples:

1. Is one of your hands faster than the other, such as your picking hand picking faster than your fretting hand can fret, or your fretting hand fretting faster than your picking hand can pick??

2. Do you find yourself restricted to going up and down scales for speed purposes?

3. Do you sometimes stumble when trying to play fast.

4. Do you feel out of control when you play fast?

5. Do you feel like you’re in a rut at times?

All of these things are very common for guitar players; it’s a part of natural growth as a guitarist.

However, there comes a time in every guitar players learning path when they discover how to practice properly, and where to focus your efforts for maximum results.

The first thing I recommend is getting a metronome. This is something you’ll use forever. The metronome is the key to your success. It’s how you’ll monitor your progress as well as pinpointing where you are right now.

Play a fast repetitive style guitar lick that you are comfortable with, and find out where you max out on the metronome. For example, you might play a lick that matches up on the metronome at 128 beats per minute. Once you have that number in mind, begin to work on the same lick by reverse engineering it. Start playing it slower and slower and slower until it’s almost stopping. Make this last for several minutes.

While you’re doing this focus extremely hard on exactly what the left and right hand are doing together at the same time. Each little mechanical movement your fingers make, you want to try and register in your brain. The flow, and sensation of what it feels like to mechanically work both hands together. Do this for several minutes very slow.

It will take some getting use to when trying to concentrate that hard, but you need to do it. It’s critical. This is where all the speed and guitar tone come from, the lick needs to be embedded clearly in the brain, as to what the left and right hand are doing EXACTLY.

Once you feel you have control over that, at a slow speed, start playing a little faster and then a little faster until you get back to the original (max out) number you started with on the metronome.

Continue playing the lick for 2 full minutes, going up one increment at a time on the metronome. Do Not Cheat! Again, this is crucial. 2 full minutes per increment. No less.

As you continue to climb, be sure to stop when you know your getting over your head. It needs to be in perfect sync or just stop on that number. That is the number you are going to try and beat every day.

You must practice the same exact way every time, for this to work properly. If done correctly, you’ll see amazing results in days!!

If you want to achieve guitar star/rock star status, this is the path you’ll be taking. There are several other points of interest that should be addressed that will also help increase your speed picking, such
as…

* Alternate picking only

* Picking on the very tip of the pick

* Having a pivot point to work from

* Equal picking attack on up and down strokes

* Where to actually place the pick on the string for tone purposes

* What type of picks to use

* Etc…

I hope this helps take your playing to the next level.

Until Next time,