Group 1
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 1:
joosje
Alex Polonski
Robert
Vilio Celli
Eric Phillips
Bill Young
Kirkestopinal
Carlos Augusto Costa Silva
Marilyn Blodget
Barney
Valdir Ferreira
GALAIS
Jason Park
Helen Walker
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
Bill Kanengiser - Padre e Hija by Garcia de Leon
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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I do like working more intensively on a technique. But not skipping other techniques, like arpeggios , tremolo etc. so 20 minutes slurs is a bit much for me. I shortened the exercises, skipping some positions. I go V, VII, IX and back, then III, I and back. Or V, VI, VII and back, then IV, III, II and back. I concentrate on assignment 3.
in assignment 4 you seem to suggest first position. Is there a reason for that choice?
I think it’s best to work on this 4th assignment until you feel safe, before attacking VL etude 3. Slurs with fixed fingers are there all the time.
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joosje If I had a reason, I don't remember it anymore, because I started these exercises sooo long ago, haha! The advantage of the first position is the lower action of the strings, but everything else about the first position is harder!
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So here it is. After 4 days of thoughtful (I hope it was) practice of a complete newbie to slurs.
I struggle with 3-4, and 2-4 combinations. It's either because of the lack of strength in my pinky, or it's something wrong with posture etc. I can't figure it out.-
Alex Polonski Hey Alex, thank you so much for your submissions! If you've never done dedicated slur practice, you need to get acquainted with the movement first! But your position, especially of the adjacent fingers look fantastic. I would recommend taking it a bit slower in the beginning to give your hand the chance to relax and not inherit tension from one slur over to the next one!
That's basically the theme of this and last month's Two Week Intensive: Take it slow
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As for the hammer-ons, I tried it like walking up and down the strings (sort of relieving the first finger). But after a while I realised I might be "hammering" too much. So after the actual hit I continued putting much pressure onto the string for it to sound. It looked however, that if after the hit I immediately make like 1/2 the tension on the hammering finger, the sound is more clear.
Also started thinking where my finger tip is :) If trying to hit the finger with 90-digree angle, my nail hits the fretboard earlier. So it produces no sound, just pain. The nails are cut short though.
Struggling with 3-4 as well. 2-4 is easier though.-
Alex Polonski Some of my students had this issue with the nails as well, but your body will adapt with continuous practice and your nails will actually start to release (that sounds painful, but it's over the course of several weeks) bit by bit and your tip will reach out longer ... does this make sense?
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Martin Does that mean I have to hit the nails now? Because at this point of time my body instinctively makes a small angle. But I feel that this angle impacts the sound.
So on the photos attached:
1. That's the angle the fingers hit the string now to adjust to the nail issue.2. That's probably how it should be. Or the string should be even closer to the nail. Is that the case?
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Alex Polonski Of course every hand is different, play it the way it feels best for now. When you're slurring as pictured in picture no.1, the stretch between the nail and the finger tip is even greater, so I'd recommend continue what you're doing now and stop when it starts hurting, because as soon as you have pain your hand will compensate EVERY movement!
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Mix of hammer-ons and pull-offs. Struggling with the tension, I believe.
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Alex Polonski Try not to compensate the movement if one of the hammer-ons are not placed properly, this induces stress in the hand.
We can never correct any movement that has been done, the hand itself doesn't know what is right or wrong, it only learns what we continuously repeat. So if you feel that you have issues with the hammer-ons in the combination, take them slower and get to the bottom of the problem!
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Martin Thanks Martin. So you basically mean, "don't get back and fix the wrong try, rather notice it was wrong and make it better on the next positions", right?
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Alex Polonski Exactly! I've mentioned this in my common issues video as well!
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Fixed finger slurs. Although it works easier with the 1st finger being fixed, when I do it with the 3rd or 4th, I can't figure out the proper position to relax the hand. To make it with the finger the arm instinctively tries to move forward with the elbow, so it looks and feels strange, and makes much tension in the hand and fingers.
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Alex Polonski I only practice these exercises for a couple of minutes and only after my hand is properly warmed up! Especially these awkward combinations (2nd finger fixed, slurring with 3-4) should be done very carefully and only for one round!
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Martin Your advice is to be taken very seriously. when I started working on these fixed finger slurs, I probably over did it, as I felt the pain later and for the next few days. I backed off and the left hand is now back to normal. I think maybe I will try doing these in 5th position for easier execution and go slow and easy. Sometimes I forget I'm not 15 years old anymore...lol.
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Alex Polonski Thanks for the submission. I have not worked much on the fixed finger assessment so far due to some time issues. It looks hard and I am very excited to do it on my own the next days (weeks, years...). I am sure that working on that will bring much improvement over time for slurs and for LH and playing in general. Keep on practicing...
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Barney on the day 5th I figured out that it might be wise working on trying to isolate mentally the working pair of fingers. Meaning concentration on those 2 only makes the rest of the hand relaxed. And that already gave some improvement.
This however doesn't work on the fixed finger exercise for now :)
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Alex Polonski Sounds good Alex. Keep going!
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Hey everybody, I've recorded this video with 5 of the main issues I have identified! Enjoy and let my know what you think! See you tonight at the 60min Zoom Check-In!
Slurs Group 1
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Martin Super analysis and diagnosis, Dr. Martin! You just pinpointed all of my issues, and before this week, I had no idea they were issues.
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Eric Phillips Haha, love that picture!
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Martin You are the Hand Doctor!
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Eric Phillips I should write a jingle, haha!
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Martin It's getting kind of late for the week 1 submission, so here is an attempt at assignment #3, and Villa-Lobos Etude No. 3 page 1 in reverse dotted rhythm. I've never played this particular Etude, but can see the slurs benefit even more pronounced with the dotted rhythm. The last measure is a bit tricky but is worth the effort.
I think I should probably practice assignment #3 more slowly to get a more secure feel for the attack and relaxation. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks!
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Martin Excellent!! Too bad I watched this AFTER I did my submission today, haha. I will keep these issues in mind as the practice of slurs continues. Thanks!
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
