On a typical stringed instrument, my right hand is also the primary focus and the left is signaled to get ready. The right hand has the role of rhythm, while the left is just note selection. When I noticed that each hand had to assume both roles on the Stick, I tried switching from righty to lefty on my mandolin thinking it would be an interesting exercise to swap roles--a little cross training. Instead, it felt like I had never held an instrument before in my life. . Try it (when no one is looking). I am fairly certain that will bring anyone back to day No. 1.

To work on hand coordination and separation, I am a big fan of the JACARANDA LESSON and continue to enjoy playing it. To start, play the left hand and right hand rhythms with just a single note. Next, alternate playing the actual part with either hand, while the other just plays a single note. Then add them together. Go slow enough that you do not hit a wrong note.

Rob

Steve, you are a hand-motion dynamo, no question. Your command of the board in your right hand is really compelling and a great example of rhythmic phrasing when soloing. The way you jump positions and slide into phrases and positions, and lay down those block chords and chord melodies. Super.

but...

what I'm talking about is using hand movement all the time, as a basic technique strategy, even when playing within a scale position. I don't see 4-finger players (your amazing self included) using it in diatonic position-based lines. Since so many 4 finger players use a more position-oriented approach in their right hand (they should take a cue from you and get out of the box...), I think this is worth exploring.

A unified broad-based technique with hand movement along the string as the main concept is the strategy I'm pursuing in my playing and teaching these days. I think it has real benefits for timing, tone, dynamic control and hand independence. It's what makes 3 finger melody logical, (to use a term I've heard before when these things are discussed )

I'm only sorry that it took me so long to figure out that hand movement was at the bottom of my technique the whole time. If I were a better teacher when I started teaching I would have figured it out sooner.

It's true, I'm no Steve Adelson, and I'm no Bob Culbertson or Larry Tuttle either. And there are lots of other players who can probably play circles around me who are happily using 4 fingers, but I think I've found something here that could help some frustrated players get past feeling stuck.. It's radically different, and I hope they'll give it a try.

I'm still interested in MattS's answer to the question I asked...

Another excellent example of right hand 4 finger playing is André Pelat; not many youtube videos of him unfortunately but, for me, he has one of the most amazing right hand playing in the tapping community.



Cheers, Daniel.

Hi Matt,

Are you using a specific strategy in the right hand? (3-finger or 4?)

Hand movement is definitely more difficult to implement with 4 than 3, especially as the frets get close together.[/quote]

Depends on what I'm doing. If I'm playing block-chord accompaniment I typically use 3 fingers. For leads or arpeggios I typically use 4. Four fingers just seemed logical to me coming from a guitar-bass background where typically you can cover a diatonic scale over a 4 fret spread, where you can loosely correlate a finger to each fret. However, if I hit the same note repeatedly as part of a melody line (e.g. the 3rd measure of the "All the things you are melody) I'll typically alternate fingers on that note.

In my initial post, I was mostly just relating that my level of coordination with my left hand seemed much more advanced than my right. I could strike notes more accurately and cleanly with my left and it was much less often that hit the wrong string entirely. I'll still whiff from time to time with my right hand and play a note a fourth down from what I intend to, but then again I still pretty much suck compared to most of you guys

Take a look at what you're doing in both hands. It could be that you're moving along the string a lot more in the left hand than in your right (you really have to to cover the increased fret span and more spread out scale of 4 notes per string as opposed to 3 for the 4ths).

If you concentrate on directing your hand's energy along the line of the string rather than directly down into the string, you'll be less likely to miss strings, as the hand is a more precise mover than the individual fingers are, especially since each finger has a different length, mass, strength and positional relationship to the thumb.

3 fingers removes the most different of these fingers from the equation (the pinky), so the movement along the line of the string is even clearer, and each of the three other fingers, as an extension of the hand, moves more similarly.

Try playing scales with just the 1st finger, and you'll see what I mean about how the hand can move along this line (plus you'll learn a valuable skill for octave melody).

I find hand movement makes it easier to play the bottom melody string cleanly without accidentally hitting the low bass string, too.

There are different kinds of logic. In this case the logic of the tuning is 3 notes per string for diatonic melody. If you have a chromatic passage it just shifts you from one position to the next and you can continue on in a new position, again because the reflex is always the same no matter what key you are in. It's always1,2,3 on a string, though which finger plays the tonic changes depending on where you are on the board.

If you've never tried it, I maybe you should (just as if someone has never tried 4 finger melody, I would suggest they try that as well).

No dogma, just explaining how 3 fingers works for me, for those who might want to give it a try..

Interim report..

Really getting somewhere, concentrating, as suggested, on getting independence of the hands, at a very basic level. Finding rhythmic independence more difficult than melodic independence.

So I've been doing so exercises putting the stick down, and patting on my knees, initially 4/4 time, beat one and three left hand, 1-4 right hand, and beat 1 on my feet.

Then trying 3/4 left hand with two across three, then four across three, four across six etc.

When I then go back to the stick, the rhythm in much sharper.

I'm also just enjoying the sound of the stick, doing some free play, working on some repertoire too

I'm trying to be aware of ergonomics, and not getting into bad habits soon.

I love this instrument!

Glad to hear you're making progress..

Don't forget to practice rhythmic phrasing with one of the hands while the other plays the motor and your foot keeps the time. This really helps transform the whole process from one of coordinating three things at once to one of concentrating on one thing while sublimating the other two. And don't forget to switch the hands roles around.

You don't need to have a Stick in hand to practice playing the Stick...

I remember my first experience with the Stick and the right hand approach on melody as opposed to playing it with my left hand for many moons on guitar. The first thing I noticed was how natural it felt, not confined or awkward as I thought it would be. Fast forward to yesterday and my right hand playing is worlds beyound what my left hand could accomplish playing wise or creatively for reasons I have yet to figure out. Atten... guitar players out there, its another world of worth the effort. The only thing I kept from my guitar days is using 4 fingers in my quest for rosewood real estate dominance and humility. I always find the 3 vs 4 finger argument as almost a mute point as the player will do what comes naturally or as in my case learned, just as 3 finger technique can also apply, but why. The pinkie frets with the best of them when used as a tool of extension and navagation.

XOXO Fiddy... future SG-12 owner.

I've found most players who come from guitar have an easier time tapping strong phrases with the right hand than with the left, even though they've never used their right hand in this way to relate to a set of strings before.

This could be for a number of reasons....take your pick or make up your own...

1. If you're right-handed and you've been phrasing with your right hand on guitar for years, then the most difficult aspect, tapping "in time", is easy to pick up.

2. The fret spacing is a lot closer together for the right hand, and the tuning is more compact (3 notes per string instead of 4), so the left hand on Stick is fairly different from what guitarists are used to, but lots of them seem to get there without any issues.

3. the relationship of the tuning to the hand is flipped to a more comfortable orientation. Mirrored tunings (5ths included), where the lowest notes in the tuning are closer to the center of the hand take advantage of the hand's natural shape in two ways:

a) for chord structures, the shapes are simply more comfortable (as compared to uniform 4ths going the other direction, but not compared to guitar, where the chord shapes with the major 3rd interval between the 2nd and 3rd strings are easier to form..)

b) (and this is something I've been looking at a lot lately in some tuning explorations as they relate to tapping specifically)... Compared to the conventional relationship of having the lowest note as as far away as possible from the center of the hand, mirrored tunings have the lowest note closer to the center of the hand, with the higher intervals "opening out" away from the root, as opposed to "coming in closer" from the root. No matter what finger is used to play the lowest note

see Rob's excellent article on mirrored 4ths tuning:
http://www.stick.com/articles/mirrored4ths/

Enjoy your SG12, they're lots of fun. Your left hand will probably like it a lot!

I was really blown away by Greg's teaching at the Northeast seminar. I think the hand movement concept is really revolutionary and deserves attention from all beginner players (and old farts like me). I think that this can be incorporated into 4 finger playing as well as three, although it seems a bit harder with 4. I'm working on it. I think it really comes into focus on repeated notes and in shifting in the left hand. It really adds groove.

Oh and listen to Steve as well he's amazing (how's that for not taking a stand).
My thing has always been to listen and learn from everyone especially the masters like Greg and Steve. I just try to absorb it all, and then I fail and try again.

seriously though check out Greg's concepts, They are astounding.

Brett