Guitar Technique - The Right Hand

When it comes to guitar playing, Master Guitar Scales To Improvise Effectively hand technique is Free Guitar Lessons Country Blues Fingerpicking Tips On How most overlooked aspect in the game. It is my purpose in Education National Guitar Workshop Announces 2008 Season article to speak up for this underserved area of guitar playing. Just think of any videos you have seen of a guitarist lately. Chances are, during the fast passages the camera zoomed in on the left hand action. It's true that the left hand's movement is more visible and flashy, but a guitarist's right hand technique is what will make him the big bucks. Why is right hand technique so important? In my opinion there are two reasons. First, Tifet Merritt Is Trying To Break Your Heart right hand drives your groove. Second, your right hand determines how fast you can go.

I will elaborate further on those two points, but I should make a few clarifications before I begin. When I say right hand technique am talking Are There Standard Blues Guitar picking technique. There are tons of great right hand techniques out there that include finger styles and tapping styles. In this article when I say right hand technique, I am referring to picking. Also, I should note that I am referring to a right handed guitarist. If you are a left-handed guitarist then just mentally change every "right" in my article to a "left," and change every "left" to a "right."

Now, back to my point. The first reason why the right hand is so important is because it determines your groove. In less colloquial language, it determines how rhythmically stable you are. Some jazz guys like to say "in the pocket." I believe that rhythm is the most important part of music; more important than pitches. This is true for not only rock, pop, and jazz, but also classical I believe. Rhythm is the aspect of music that speaks to our soul. Your right hand is in charge of this aspect of your guitar playing. It is no mistake that our guitar forefathers placed this responsibility with the dominant hand when they invented the instrument. Any experienced guitarist knows that you can fudge with your left hand and if the groove is still there, you can get away with it. If you fudge with your right hand though, the music feels like it jolts out of place for a moment. The take home message here is rhythm = the most important part of music and your right hand controls the rhythm.

My second point is for all the aspiring shredders out there. I know so many people who sit in their rooms practicing their scales and exercises for hours. Undoubtedly, they are sitting there staring at the fretboard and at their left hands. This is not the way to get fast. Your right hand really controls how fast you can go. Your left hand can keep up, trust me. Also, as I said before, if you make a mistake with the left hand it sounds a whole lot less jarring than a right hand mistake.

Ok, so I have sold you on the importance of right hand technique (I hope!) So how can you Blues Guitar Scales How Blues Scales For Guitar Work In it? Well first and foremost you must be able to alternate pick. This is the big daddy of guitar right hand techniques. You can worry about sweeping and hybrid picking and speed picking after you have Black Club alternate picking out.

This is how I recommend you go about learning alternate picking. First, you must be able to do it fast and clean on a single string. Start on the high e string and just alternate Page up, down, up, down over and over again. If you want to hold down a note with your left hand you can. Or you could just hit the open string or mute the string. Do this with a metronome. When you get bored, switch to another string. You should not go on until you can play sixteenth notes cleanly at 130bpm. When you can do this, I would recommend continuing on to a chromatic exercise. Play the first, second, third, and fourth frets in order on the Grinderswitch Quot Honest To Goodness Quot 1974 Capricorn e string. Remember to alternate pick in the right hand. Then continue on the next string. Again, practice with a metronome and go until you can play cleanly and quickly. Shoot for sixteenth notes at 130bpm.

Once you complete both those exercises, you are going to have pretty solid right hand technique. When this happens please contact me. I am sure you will agree with me at this point that you have improved ten-fold. At this time you can join me in spreading the word that right hand technique is the most important part of guitar playing. Hope this helped!

Ryan Gloman has a passion for guitar and a passion for sharing information. He hopes that this article Home you on your way to becoming a great guitarist. Learning guitar can be a daunting task. Luckily, you can find tons of helpful info on the net. Check out this site for some great tools.