Group 3
Improve your Left-Hand-Fitness with Slurs!
The Fitness of the left hand is responsible for how comfortable you feel on the guitar. Regular slur practice will improve your stability and agility and opens your hand for more fingering possibilities! Two Weeks, Fingers 1234, a gazillion different possibilites! Let me show you my workout tips for the left hand and let us improve together!
Fellow Participants in Group 3:
Nick
TM
Peter
Tony Gunia
Jim
peter hancock
Nick Trani
Martha Kreipke
Peter
Debbie
Oscar Leonardo Molina Sierra
Steven Liu
Nathan
Some tonebase productions to get you started
Martin Zimny - Left Hand Workout with Villa-Lobos Etude #3
Martin Zimny - Getting Slurs Right from the beginning
Artyom Dervoed - Slurs from Nothing
How to get the most out of this course
- Start by watching the introduction video and practice the exercises given in the video.
- Write a post with your experiences with Slurs.
- At the same time, start practicing the first bars of Etude #3 by Villa-Lobos. If you are new to the piece, start with my livestream on this piece!
- Share two videos per week and help your course partners through feedback on their submissions!
Zoom Check-In: Friday, June 24th at 6 pm CET (9 am PT)
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This is my starting video for the slur challenge. I recorded exercises 1-3, 5th fret only. I did a complete practice for frets 5-9, 9-1, 1-5. I feel a shorter video for feedback on hand position and overall technique would be appreciated by the other participants.
My observations:
- My left hand pinky needs special attention.
- I need to make more time in preparation before plucking
- I need to improve the accuracy of the hammer-on slurs
I would appreciate any/all feedback and recommendations.
Martha Kreipke, St. Louis, MO
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Martin Thank you for the suggestion about checking my thumb position. I definitely had it "stuck" too low behind the fretboard. And I slowed down the temp when I practiced today.
Nick Trani Thank you for taking the time to view the video and to comment.
So much to think about!
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Practicing slowly and as my daily warm up. I find these exercises tough to execute, but am beginning to notice small improvements and am resting as much as possible between each. then also working on Villa Lobos Prelude 2 ( a long term project) where these slurs will be very helpful I hope. I hope to record a video of the exercises tomorrow. for now just working on getting a little precision and honing the feeling of tension and release.
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Peter I love the second etude as a finalizer of technique workout as it brings everything together: Slurs, Scales and Arpeggios!
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Martin I hope you mean the prelude. but yes, it does have it all and beautifully challenging too.
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Peter Uuuuuh, I meant the Etude
But you are right, the second prelude has it all! Although slurs in the context of a barred finger are an exercise in itself!
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Quick Announcement: We're doing the Zoom Check-In 2 hours earlier than planned to not interfere with Manny's livestream on friday! Please comment if you've read that!
Slurs Group 3
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Martin I will likely miss the check-in at either time
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Martin Ive read it so is that 5pm uk time?
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Martin I read this. 7 am PT?
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Martha Kreipke 9am PT, I've already adjusted it in the initial post!
Peter Yes, that sounds right!
Nick Trani Sorry to hear that! Do you have another appointment or is it because of the time zone?
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Martin, Unfortunately, I will not make the check-in time. However, I want you to know how much I've appreciated this practice. Though my slurs are weak now, I know adding this to my ongoing technique practice will reap rewards.
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Martin I have read the message, I don't think I can make it.
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I’ll be there Martin!
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Debbie great!
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This is my study of slurs, i've practiced in focused the pinky finger, and try to gain a good sound. The Etude #3 i´ve played up to the middle, slowly for pay attention in the positions and the difficult slurs.
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Oscar Leonardo Molina Sierra Hey Oscar! Great job! Don’t forget to stabilize your hand with the adjacent fingers, not in use! So when slurring with 2-3, I move with the first finger! It seems like you’re stabilizing your slurs with your palm, which feels more stable at first, but ultimately, you're preventing your hand from building up the internal stability through muscles and tendons!
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peter hancock You’re doing very great! I’d recommend going a bit slower and focusing primarily on 2-3 and 3-4, as these combinations tie together the strong and weak sides of the hand! Furthermore, it's a bit easier in 5th position as the frets are closer together and you don't need to lift your arm that much!
Additionally, when you combine hammer-on and pull-off, I would propose to go quite slow, so that the hand can relax in between for a bit!
Have you watched the assignment video? I go in great depth about some of the details! Especially with fixed finger I would recommend to start to fixate the finger on the 6th string and slur on the 5th, not go all the way up to the first string!
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Martin Thank you sop much for insight. I've been following H. Kappel's Book. Your instructions are easier to follow with the video. I've been practicing Pull off and Hammer-ons with exercise that are on one string by a Bradford Werner. To do them vertically is new and great. I will try to demonstrate in next video. I have been just beginning to practice two note slurs.
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Write a post with your experiences with Slurs.
I am currently practising Capricho árabe, particularly the first few bars with a lot of slurs. There are two problems for me (1) tend to play "too fast" doing the slurs; and (2) the second note (pull off note) tend to be "too soft".
I attach two very short clips (10 seconds each) for ease of understanding.
Many thanks.
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Steven Liu Hi Steven, I recommend practicing with very tight dotted rhythms to counter the speed-issue! For the pull-off, I'd propose assignment 1 but play the firs note super-soft and try to play the pulled note louder then the first one!
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I have it ----That would be 11:00 am CST
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Hi Martin and slur buddies.
I tried to condense my practice in the video for the forum here but it still came to almost 7 minutes. I did all four exercises. The video is timestamped for each exercise to make it easier in case anyone is interested in watching me play boring slur exercises
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Debbie Lovely and clear. A bit of rushing perhaps, but a good sound.
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Peter thanks Peter. I was just trying to not make the video too long so I was going faster than I normally go when i practice
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
