Put Your Finger Here. No, Here...

Published: Thu, 12/22/22

I admit it: I read the comments on my Youtube channel, even though any book, article or (of course) blog post on Personal Happiness In The 21st Century will tell you not to. I am ostensibly checking them to learn what is working and what is not, what sorts of things I should maybe continue to talk about and what sorts of videos were more interesting for me to shoot than for anybody to watch and listen to. But I do read them, which is how I come to be in possession of this one weird and, I would have thought, totally insignificant detail: one of peoples' favorite things about the lessons is when I call out the notes I'm playing by the interval – you know, like "so then, this works because you're hammering on from the flat third to the third, before going up to grab the 9th at the top of the voicing in the next measure."

Not the most captivating stuff, I would have thought, but is seems there are a lot of video lessons out there that are more along the lines of "put your finger at the second fret of the third string, and then..." which, as far as I can surmise, people find frustrating because it shows you the mechanics of what to do without providing any of the reasoning behind why you're doing it. Which, I'm told, is why spelling out what intervals I'm playing over a given chord or bass note is more helpful – it explains what the note is in a way that also helps explain what it's doing there and why it works.

I should say, I did not set about doing this consciously; I just figured I should explain what I'm doing while I'm doing it or it wouldn't be much of a lesson. And since that's how I keep things organized in the otherwise jumbled silverware drawer that is my brain, that's how I verbalize it when my teaching hat's on. So when someone asks, "Are you thinking about scales or arpeggios when you play?" I have to say...neither, really, I'm just sort of aware of how the note I'm playing at the moment relates to the chord I'm on at the time. Which basically means: I know what interval it is relative to the chord I'm on.

Which is not voodoo; there's a very simple and stepwise way you can get that kind of information into your brain as well, and that's what I go over in this week's Youtube lesson. You can find it at the link below:

The One Simple Exercise You Need To Learn The Fretboard

More soon,

David

P.S. Every month, the Fingerstyle Five membership includes fingerboard exercises in the key of the current song, so you can sit down to practice with an organized plan that integrates practical theory and technique exercises with building your repertoire and learning to improvise. Find out more and sign up at https://www.fretboardconfidential.com.
 
david@davidhamburger.com

P.O. Box 302151
Austin TX 78703
USA


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