The Acoustic Guitar Forum - Relaxed left hand

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Quote:

Originally Posted by AndreF (Post 6897288)

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...1&d=1641324438
A couple of things for your consideration, based on that pic:
Your hand does appear overly tense in that position. Ideally you should try to place the fingers as close to the upper fret as you can, i.e. like where your middle finger is currently. Your ring finger looks like it's pinching on the middle finger.
A solution would be to work on finger separation and independence. That will loosen a lot of that tension. There are many drills for that. It will take time, but the payoff is big. A little bit every day.
Your knuckle position is otherwise good though.
The nail on your ring finger looks very long. Or is that a weird camera effect? Keeping those nails as short as you can will help you fret a lot more cleanly. Looking at the pic it would seem that the 5th string (B) note is being muffled by the ring finger. Having the nail too long makes proper fretting difficult. Apologies if it's just a camera effect.
You might want to try this drill as a starter:
Leave the pinky planted on the G note, but fret a C chord with the other fingers. Then move to the G as you show it, but leaving the pinky planted.
The idea is to leave one planted as you move the other. That is the basis of many finger independence drills. I think those would be very useful for you.

Andre, thank your very much for those insights.
First of all, I just grabbed the guitar to take the shot to show finger configuration. But you are absolutely correct that, in an "action" shot, I would want to have the fingers closer to the fret.
What looks like a long ring finger nail is actually a halo from being back lit by the sun. The nail is actually quite short.
You "nailed" it (so to say) when you observed the close proximity of the middle and ring fingers. In fact, I do find that the string assigned to the middle finger is sometimes muted by the ring finger, It is something I am aware of and work to avoid. Part of the problem is my tendency to let my left hand "wing out" or twist away from the fret board, rather than stay parallel with it.
I am much obliged for the suggestion for the independence drills and will incorporate them into my daily routine.
Thanks again.
David

Quote:

Originally Posted by rick-slo (Post 6897218)

That fingering does not compute.

By "low" he means pitch, not altitude.

Hi David, while I'm not a fingerstyle player, I think the question you ask about has relevance to any player ...

... anyways I have found the learning materials from Jamie Andreas to be very helpful. Her teaching wheelhouse is the physical fundamentals of putting fingers on strings in a way that leads to efficient playing and good tone. And all of the headspace stuff that makes that happen. It's a bit of "yoga for guitar" but I've found it to be very helpful.

www.guitarprinciples.com

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deliberate1 (Post 6897179)

The example I was giving was a G maj open chord with the ring finger on low E and pinky on high E strings.

Fingerings are personal and influenced by individual hand size and musculature, BUT...

Try a different fingering for that chord. I suspect that by leaving the index finger unused you may be unbalancing the arch of your fingers, contributing to tension.

1st: pinky on 3rd fret
2nd: ring on 3rd fret
3rd/4th: open
5th: index on 2nd fret
6th: middle on 3rd fret

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueStarfish (Post 6898051)

+1 on this recommendation. I bought Jamie’s Principles of Correct Practice book a couple of years ago and recently felt I was hitting a plateau in progressing with my playing primarily because of tension and non-mindfulness. I started reading her book again and practicing her exercises to release tension and increase awareness and feel like I am getting back on track.

OP here. Thank you all again for the suggestions and resource recommendations.
David

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueStarfish (Post 6898051)

Good suggestion. Most specifically for me is her advice to play with no time when first learning a song. Get the chord fingered absolutely perfectly with complete relaxation and play that portion with no timing before moving to the next one. Toby Walker also talks about doing something like that, he calls it “doping out” the song.

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidbeinct (Post 6899341)

OP here. I really like that suggestion. Like most, I suspect, I immediately jump into a new song with "the song" in mind, and with the intent of immediately recreating it - especially if it is one that I already know in a non-guitar sense. I like the building blocks approach. Thanks.
David