The #1 TECHNIQUE MISTAKE that 73% of guitarists make (and how to fix it)
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- In this video, I will show you the #1 guitar technique mistake that many guitarists make...and I'm going to show YOU how to fix it.
For the right hand to fingerpick properly you MUST learn to push in rather than "hook and pull" out and away from the guitar.
This is essential!
I hope you find this information helpful...
Groove on!
Adam
► Start learning my solo arrangements and get personal guitar coaching - FREE 14 day trial: studywithadam.com
► Get more cool FREE lessons here: adamrafferty.co...
-------
Follow me!
► Facebook: / adamraffertyguitar
► Instagram: / rafferty.adam
► Fingerstyle Guitar HANGOUT - iTunes Podcast: apple.co/2GVDWoR
► Twitter: / adamrafferty
► NEW - Join the "Fingerstyle Guitar Hangout Community" on Facebook
► Post your videos, chat and hang out with me and other guitar players here:
► / fingerstyleguitarhangout
► NEW book "The Inner Game of Fingerstyle Guitar" available on Amazon
► www.adamraffer...
Thanks Adam, great message. I took my first lesson with a classically trained fingerstyle instructor 2 years ago. I came to the lesson with a song I prepared, all worried about my chord formations and switching.. he watched me play and shocked me by saying "all of your problems are in your right hand"... and proceeded to explain exactly what you said... hard habit to break but really critical.
Best advice I ever heard - make changes in baby steps. Lean into suggestions from a teacher. Big changes usually result in an imbalance. Go for YOUR version of groove, tone and comfort.
Great lesson Adam, i still remember that day in early 2009 when i discovered Tommy Emmanuel videos and later yours: great players playing great music without nails solo acoustic fingerstyle guitar, inspired me a lot
Thank you Diego!
Yes! I played the wrong way until I had the chance to work with a well-respected classical player and changed my whole approach. Everything you say here is what I learned from him. Pushing into the guitar for a free stroke is the only way to get a rich, warm sound and more volume with or without (nosferatu) nails. He was also adamant that one could achieve a great sound from free stoke playing alone and didn't need to worry about when rest strokes may not be possible.
You are preaching to the choir my brother!
I want to add that I had just searched many fingerstyle versions of "Isn't She Lovely" and your playing was clearly the most musical and tonally pleasing. I expect to be hear a while if just for the song selections which are also clearly more to my liking than other channels.
Thank You so much!!!
All good sound advice, i had a few years classical training and i'm very thankful for it.
Hey! If you found this video helpful - please give a LIKE and COMMENT BELOW! 🙂 Groove on!
Thanks Adam. I just took a look and I am most of the way to this. The "keeping the fingers airborne" is a great tip. I still have nails on that hand but have been gradually making them shorter and shorter which I am liking more all the time. The next thing is losing the thumb pick.... cheers mate!!
Thumbpick and nails are all fine! As long as you like your tone. The follow through is something classical players do with nails also. Critical is that you don't hook and pull :-)
I've been working on getting my nails just right for a few years now. Every professional I've encountered who uses nails, says the right length is 1/16"-1/8" or 2-3 mm. I've kept mine in the middle of that range for the last 2 years or more, and I get the full range of tones I want.
I don't have to think about the details of how my nail engages the string or the exact stroke required for a particular tone, any more than I think about individual finger movements required to throw a ball hard, soft or in between. The fingers translate my conscious thought into the correct micro-movements. They only need some consistency in the length and shape of the nails.
Thanks Adam! I never ever had guitar courses, Classical or otherwise, except trying to follow some RUclips videos randomly, until I joined your course. When I tried to check what I do now, I saw something I suspected: I simply don´t have one consistent technique. I will have to practice until I get one, I suppose. This video will make me be aware of what I am doing, at least. I will go look if you have any simple practice courses on the Study With Adam site.
Naci there is no "one technique" or way - that becomes dogma. There are ideals however - we must address touch, time, tone, technique and taste in a way that suits us personally. Rock on!
Interesting short lesson. I’m gonna have to fiddle with it later to see if that’s what I’m doing. Sometimes it does feel like my tone is too sharp sounding, like I’m using too much nail and it’s a slightly jarring sound. Thanks for the short lesson Adam!
Getting a good tone with nails is an art - check out sone classical lessons….
Amazing lesson as usual! Thank you Adam!
Well thought out ideas that inspire us
Good words. Good science.
Hi Adam . Good info on this video. I am a big fan. Thank you.
Thanks that's great advice and much appreciated
Just come across this gem. So nails are the devil! Wish you had explained exactly why you “ have no nails” and how you arrived this conclusion? I have endless trouble with broken nails from fingerpicking steel strings, but don’t quite have the nerve to cut them down! PB.
Hey Peter! I have a video called "My Weird Technique" ruclips.net/video/3RekQZwb824/видео.html where I explain it a bit.
here is a blog post I wrote about it: www.adamrafferty.com/2012/03/19/guitar-right-hand-technique-nails-vs-flesh/
Here goes - why I use no nails:
1) Tone - on an amplified steel string coming through a PA I feel nails would be too sharp / thin.
2) Time - I can place the notes better rhythmically even though they are less "clear"
3) Maintenance - I had nails, and boy I don't miss em. I don't want a moving target, or a nail breaking before a gig. Oh, and touring? Always getting nails done or gluing them? No thanks.
2 of my fave players - Wes Montgomery and Tommy Emmanuel have made a ton of music no nails - and in Wes' case, no pick.
In the end, I like it better and I was willing to forgo what nails could do so that I could embrace everything else.
Tooka few years to get used to it 🙂
I hope this helps.
This is really interesting Adam, like you I had some classical lessons early on & I follow the free stroke technique you showed. One question though. I've been intrigued for a while with your standard right hand thumb technique where you bring it inside your fingers rather than as you showed with the classical free stroke where you bring your fingers into the palm of your hand & your thumb is out of the way (if that makes sense). Thanks for the content, always well played & explained...
Ross thank you! I made a video on what I am doing with my thumb. You can see it here: ruclips.net/video/3RekQZwb824/видео.html
It's not for everybody - but it works for me. As well, to experience my solution fully you'd have to commit to my "habitat" of no fngernails, no picks and steel strings -which I don't expect or suggest anyone should do!
GIven the steel sgrings and no picks or nails, one is like a declawed cat....and this is the best "leverage" I've found so that I don't get fatigued, can play accurately and enjoy my sound.
Groove on!
@@adamrafferty thanks for the reply. I knew you would have some logic behind the technique, love the way you've approached the thinking. Like you I left the nails (what a relief) and thumb picks behind a while back. Not sure the thumb technique would work for my style and fingers but am going to have a play around with it and see what doors I can open up. Thanks again for the great content and playing.
@@RossHelmot Ross - excellent man. The technique has to fit the playing and your musical vision. I am a jazz guy and love Wes Montgomery and walking bass, and dont feel right unless it's flesh on the thumb. Its extremely personal - so dig and search and find YOUR truth brother!
Good lesson and good review for me
Thank you for the excellent instruction and presentation, and very helpful suggestions!! God bless!
Thank you, Adam. Great info as always!
Killing Us softly by His Song
Thanks. I will pay attention - maybe a mirror? Or just the way the string sounds.
Debbie watch in a mirror. It will take some practice . Hook and pull will get a quick result but lead to problems later 😀
Fantastic
Thanks Lawrence!
Thank you Adam for your great and very valuable video - I have been having a hard time with my sound, more so when palm-muting. It often sounds like a slap, and I wondered if it also had to do with my technique - it definetly has after seeing your video... Your advice seems to work well, also the details (e.g. allowing finger bend) are top. I see the direction and necessary correction to be addressed. I imagine this will take a lot of time and effort, my muscles alone (to execute the finger stroke into the palm) are underdevelopped. That's a bit frustrating for now, on the other hand I am very glad to see this now and not in 5 years😊. Thanks so much again!
Be gentle . You’re not going to develop muscles like a fitness studio. Quite often I get sound out of the strings by pushing IN to the top of the guitar and letting fingertips flex back - is that shown in the video?
@@adamrafferty Thanks for the tip Adam - yes, both inward pushing is shown and flex of fingertip is added with a note. I noticed after your video that my joints at the fingertip were blocked and my fingers didn't pull through towards the palm but came to halt half way.
@@deesterity That's also ok - you need both techniques. :-)
@@adamrafferty Alright thank you!
Craig , thanks again Luiz.
I,m launching a website in a few months that Will incluye step by step fingerstyle guitar introduction tutorials, so stay tuned out Adam Rafferty who is a grato player wonderful teacher.
Me chamo Luiz , Brasil.
Great video Adam! talking about no nails to me is a no,no! and I tell the reason, the sound comes out too dull it has no life, a little nail and flesh make a beautiful sound specially in your case that you play so well, anyway this is my opinion. Keep up the excellent work with a little nail in the future if you can! Best Regards!
I see you okay nylon - yea you really should use nails for this!!!
Good info!
Nice lesson, good advertise. And my like it has been the number 100, today is my internet day 🎉😅
Thanks Carlos!
Hi Adam, do you have any plans to produce and sell any additional guitar lessons on your website?
Ari my main place for new lessons is my online school, studywithadam.com rather than one off lessons for sale. There's a ton of free stuff on adamrafferty.com - go take a look!
Thank you so much Adam!! I have been playing the acoustic guitar for over 25 years and recently I realized that my right hand setting was a limit ... I always rested my palm a little on the bridge and this did not allow me to always have clean and sustained notes and I could not play well even pieces like "guitar boogie", with the pick, because the hand "anchored" on the bridge does not easily allow some fast and "smooth" phrasing and passages (Tommy Emmanuel docet...).
For me,however,it is very "unnatural" to play with the right hand detached from the body of the guitar, I'm still working on it,maybe it's never too late! 🤞🏻😅 my compliments for all!🙌🏻🙏🏻
I wish I could play better with the right hand on the bridge - it's better for that boom chick sound. I'd say go with what feels best and expand gently from there.
@@adamraffertyOk Adam,thank you very much !! I will try to reach a compromise between comfort and result,for example it took me months to learn to anchor myself with my little finger,i can play some things better like that,but I can't harp well! 🤦🏻♂️ in that case or I always support a little to the bridge or I can keep my hand off and arpeggio with all fingers, even the little finger🤷🏻♂️...
Thanks again! 🙏🏻You are an exceptional guitarist🙌🏻
Keep at it. I anchored my pinky for decades, until I discovered Adam and fingerstyle, and made a conscious effort to get my technique right. That was five years ago, and it took 2-3 years until my hand was free-floating by habit. It's so much easier on the soft tissue, I've never had any kind of carpal tunnel or similar problem, even though I play several hours every day.
The best advice I've had (from a classically-trained teacher) is to think of your forearm as a lever and your elbow as the pivot. The only arm movement you need is to rotate the few degrees needed to move your rest position from one string to another. Of course you could twist the wrist instead, but over a long time, that's asking for trouble. Watch any pro, and their picking hand barely moves at all.
Thanks Adam! 🕊
Hey Tolda! Great seeing you the other night!
@@adamrafferty Thanks for the great music Adam! 🕊
Thanks, Adam great lesson. How do you incorporate palm muting when using this fingerstyle technique?
Adam! What about blues and muting!? I can’t use my classical technique on classic constant droning bass fingerstyle blues. Of course doable but Comprises need to be made. Could see people have different thoughts on the adjustment, yours?
It's interesting! 🙂 And if I understand correctly: you pluck the strings not across, but almost along the string. Or not?
Well...it depends! Which tone color do I want? But yes, there is an angle.
Don't think 'pluck the string', think 'stroke the string'. It makes a world of difference.
This is something which should not need to be taught If a player is listening to the instrument and going beyond merely translating written notes into "a sound". The generation of a note in a set is part of a phrase. Relative "dynamics of tone" were in the mind of the composer and must be included. The written notes are, at best, a guide to achieving a reasonable replay of the creation. Success, in any sense, is satisfying the requirement. A clear understanding of the "requirement" must exist in the mind of the "actor" prior to and commensurate with a performance. The fingers, then, will execute in support of what is in the mind of the "performer". Explaining a way to mimic what must be embodied is better than no understanding but can only provide a "break from bad habit (technics not supporting success).
yes yes yes Paul!!!!
👉
If people are doing this then this video needed to be made. Maybe I'm naturally gifted but I physically cringed and recoiled when I saw the "hook and pull" example.
I made sure to do it as cringeworthy as possible :-)
Thanks Adam. By chance, I noticed the other day that a well-known guitar You Tuber was picking with very hooked fingers. It looked so weird that I tried to do just out of curiosity and I couldn't. It was dead awkward. I then noticed that you are actively bending the second joint of your fingers to get most of the movement, whereas I don't, I use 75% bottom joint with the fingers just slightly bent, as do many classical players, so I tried you method and found it did not work for me. I can do it, but only slowly, as it is not natural or comfortable.
I can do a Pami tremolo at ca. 700 notes per minute using my method (some good classical players can get over a 1000), but struggle to do 350 with yours. We are all different, I guess.
An exercise I do now - forget where I got it from - involves playing an Em natural scale up and down on bass strings with thumb, while adding picking patterns thus
pami
pima
pimami
paim
piam
piamia
etc.
The first is easy, the second not quite so, in fact it is quite a bit harder, furthermore one finds that unless you can do a pattern in your sleep and even if you can do it fairly well with thumb ascending, it is likely to fall apart on the descent for some reason unless you are really comfortable.
I have been doing these exercises for about 3 months and they have improved my picking agility considerably. I do them all everyday, necessarily, one does not have to as doing the first three gets one a long way.
RIchard I love your replies! Great insights.
Let's break something down...what is your measuring stick? This comes up often with classical players. Sounds like you are striving for clarity, speed and a good tremolo.
I love classical and spent many hours on RECUERDOS myself in my teens, as well as countless flatpicking excercises. So I know where you are coming from.
In my current fingerstyle concept, have abandoned speed as a measuring stick - for my repertroire it is not needed... so right there we will have different preferences and aims.
When I did play fast, of course one needs a stiffer technique so one can get in and out of the note fast.
The techniuqe I am doing here is heavily influenced my classical, but more along the lines of when great players to ths big buttery rest strokes, and now I am trying to emulate that as a free stroke.
I'm much more along the lines of a jazzy electric bass than "guitar" technique wise.
Off to read your other comments - let's keep the dialogue going!
@@adamrafferty you are too kind Adam. It is not really about speed, except that I would quite like a decent tremolo, it is more about getting my third, or ring finger working as well as the others. I started playing with three fingers and one carrot on each hand; third finger almost useless with no independence. That is what it is about. I do do not use stiff fingers like a flamenco player though, I just find getting most of the action from bottom joint is natural for me. It just happens to coincide with widespread classical action. We are all different though. As you will know, there are a few very good players who use the top joint of their thumb to pick, which for others just seems weird, almost spooky.
73% !!😀
I measured exactly LOL!!!!
I measured exactly LOL!!!!
I've played with fingernails for years, but now my nails are so brittle that they are useless. I tried to play without nails, but just can't get any sound.
I haven't played guitar in the last 2 years.
I am old and had a phase recently of about two months where my nails went quite brittle, except they are fine again now. I am wondering whether it might have be diet related perhaps in my case, even if not sure what I might have been missing.
@@richardturbine1769 I've been thinking about hair and nail supplements.
Like your left hand, your right will develop calluses (5 to 6 weeks) if you play enough & this will help with sound production. I also find that whilst I don't play with nails I do have a slight edge of nail that will grab the string on follow through. I hope this helps & you can get to play again...
@@RossHelmot I agree about slight nails. Only a small minority of people really do play with nails, although it is not a good sound to me, whereas most play flesh onto nail and you only really a millimetre for that (but we all let them get much longer, increasing the odds of breaking them), provided they are filed and sanded correctly. The exception is the thumbnail, which needs to be longer, maybe 5mm (again, you see people with 10 mm or more). Worth it though, the freedom using thumb as opposed to thumb pick gives is worth having in my view.
There are some very well known players who play with callouses, but I for one do not like the sound, as they tend to catch or pull a bit.
I play both nylon and steel and find that nylon trebles are more forgiving of nail quality than steel. You can make the very best steel strung sound garbage with badly filed and sanded nails. I know, I have done it many times. I now use several grades abrasive finishing with 1500 grit or finer to smooth the under edge, which I will use every hour or so of playing very lightly to take off rough spots. I wish now that I had always done so, but did not know how important it is at one time.
@@richardturbine1769 That's really interesting...thanks for sharing. For me I use (hard to explain) the edge of my thumb, not the nail at all so have some callus build up there, I'm lucky that I don't have an issue with catching. Maybe because I'm teaching & playing a lot the callus gets an even texture but our bodies all react differently.
You're right that steel strings are unforgiving...the eternal search for a good sound, I tend to finish off any filing by rubbing on the leg of my jeans. I'm always playing around with the angle of where my fingers strike the strings.
Good right hand technique as Adam showed is the foundation, then we fine tune from there. Enjoy...
No one way to skin a cat or play a guitar.
Absolutely! If we all did the same thing it would be pretty boring!
@@adamrafferty Yep.....Love your playing btw!