Finger Robotics

Train the fingers to relax like good little robots

So the SLOW that I'm talking about is not a continuous, fluid motion like a slow motion scene from a movie, but more of a robotic stop-start motion. With rasgueados, play one finger, stop and relax, play the next finger, stop and relax etc. You don't have to spend all your practice time doing this, just a few minutes a day. The rest of the practice time can be at a comfortable speed, but not a speed where you lose control of the stop-start sensation in the fingers.

A similar thing applies to training for tremolo and picado. Get one finger on the string. Stop and feel it gripping the string ready to play, then play and stop again. As soon as you play a note, get the next finger positioned on the string and stop and relax. If it was the "a" finger you just played, the tip of the "a" finger should be hovering over the D or A string somewhere as the "m" finger takes it's turn to quickly make contact with the playing string and stops. In this example, the playing string is the E treble string.

It's easy to fall into the common thinking trap, "If I play what I want to learn at top speed, my fingers will get used to it and correct any mistakes as they go along." Good luck because this thinking is badly flawed. There are enough guitar cowboys and "crazy fingers" out there. Consider NOT becoming yet another victim of sloppy thinking. Get it right from the start. You'll be so glad you did.

End of lesson