Basic dos and donts and howtos

• First and most important rule: PRACTICE VERY SLOWLY!
  A slow, but correct and exact movement can be accelerated easily. An unprecise movement won´t work, neither in slow nor in quick tempo.
• Find a sitting position, in which the head of the guitar is not too far away from you (your nose should be about above the 12^th fret) and about at the height of your own head.
• Sit upright.
• Don´t turn the guitar towards you.
• Take care, that your shoulder is hanging relaxed, and that your elbow doesn’t touch your body.
• Make sure, you don’t need your left hand to keep the guitar in position. It must be able to move freely.
• Always keep your thumb stretched (about opposite to the middle finger) and turned a little to the left side.
• An imaginary line between the basic joints of the fingers should always be parallel to the fretboard (even with chords like D or A)
• The basic joints of your fingers should always be stretched (you shouldn’t see the knuckles); this enables the fingers to move independently.
• The other joints should ALWAYS be bent (especially when they don’t have to hold down a string): stretched fingers cannot reach the strings on a direct way (unless you move your hand, which you shouldn’t).
• And all fingers should be in front of the fretboard (not behind the neck), of course.
• Avoid too much pressure. About 100gramm pressure is enough to make the string sound  (this is very little, you can test it with letter scales), provided that you hold down the string

1.    As close to the fret as possible (but not on it)

2.    With the first phalanx pointing in a right angel to the fretboard (not flatly).

• When you see your fingers touch each other on the middle joints, you have too much pressure between first finger and thumb. There should always be some space between the fingers. The independence between 1^st and 2^nd finger is responsible for the range that you can reach with all fingers.
• Don’t forget to relax your fingers, hand, arm and back often!
• For upcoming rock stars: avoid vitamins, daylight and fresh air! ;-)

 

1^st step: get an idea of the best movement

• Forget about the song. Practice every single chord progression in either direction.
• Practice “dryly”(without playing), just using your left hand. Always watch if you keep the rules above.
• Before you change chord: have an imagination, how the new chord will look, feel, sound, smell (just kidding!)
• Do not move your hand (or forearm, or elbow or shoulder), just use your fingers.
• Beginners often clamp one finger first (usually the index), and then try to reach the positions of the others. This is kind of a reflex from birth. DON`T DO THAT. Practice to organize your fingers in form of the chord above the strings, not touching them.
• Make sure, you have lifted off all fingers that have to be moved, before you start placing them again for the next chord. the placing can be done one after the other for the time being, but always go for the bass note first.
• Watch the movements of every single finger: there should be not more than two: 1. lifting off, 2. putting on. No detours.
• Find out if there are common notes in the two chords, so you can keep fingers in their position. (Like when you move from C to am: 1. and 2. fingers can stay).
• Find out if you can move one finger on a string (like from D to E: the first finger can slide from 2^nd to 1^st fret)
• Exercises to reduce pressure and tension:
  1. Put on a chord, but DON´T hold strings down, just touch them. Lift them off and put them on again the same way (just TOUCHING the strings). Repeat often and carefully.
  2. Change two chords (to and fro) the same way.

 

 

·        2^nd step: start playing

 

o       VERY IMPORTANT: once you start playing music, you have by all means to keep the time (even when only practicing a chord progression)!!!

§         Use a metronome  (or a drum computer)

§         Choose a very simple rhythmic pattern; I’d recommend just downstrokes in crotches (on every beat of the metronome)

§         While doing that on one chord, get a feeling for the quavers by counting 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + (say “one and two and…”). Take care that your right hand moves up exactly on the +s.

o       Every chord progression needs a certain amount of time (which will get shorter when you improve). This time must be before the 1 of the next bar. So when you come to 4 +, lift off the fingers (only those, that have to be moved, of course). Place them on 1 of the next bar.

o       KEEP PLAYING the rhythm, even if you didn’t succeed completely (or the fingers start bleeding, a string breaks, your house burns down…).
(You are still at a very slow tempo, aren’t you??)
In case you are not even close to get the new chord, you had better move back to the 1^st step and analyse, what is wrong about your movements.

o       Are you sure you haven’t forgotten to move your right hand upward on 4+, because you concentrated so much on your left???

o       Find a good interval for changing the chords: If you change every bar, your attention and thoughts probably soon will stay back behind the action. If you wait too long, your fingers will be kind of frozen in the old chord.
I’d recommend changing every two or four bars. Remember, you still change one pair of chords!

End of lesson. This could be enough for weeks, months or even years.

 

 

You’ll know what the next steps could be:

• Take the next progression and practice it the same way.
• Go on, until you have practiced them all and you succeed in changing them in pairs without losing the time.
• Now remember you want to learn a song: practice a longer period with more changes. You’ll notice, it’s fairly easy now; in case it doesn’t work, it’s not your fingers, but your head that’s too slow. Practice to keep at least one bar ahead with your thinking or: take a rest.
• You might then try to choose a more exciting rhythm.
• Try to speed up a little.

 

 

Always keep in mind: if you fail, better go back one step, where you are safe. Get used to success, not to failure!

 

Modify this method if necessary! Find out what works best for you! Don’t follow instructions you don’t understand or you don’t see a reason for.

 

 

 

 

This document was provided by © klaus dibbelt (info@klausdibbelt.de).

Report of feedback and experiences with this method as well as questions, hints, ideas for improvements, additions, contradiction much appreciated.

 

I apologize for my poor English! I’d be really grateful, if somebody would correct the grammar of this document and send it back to me.