Thursday, September 19, 2013

First Exercises, Pt. I - Open String Picking

       For a number of months I have been discussing basic concepts that guitar teachers should be able to incorporate into their first lesson with students. These concepts included: parts of the guitar, seating position, naming the strings, how to hold the pick, picking hand position and the three main types of picking. This month I’ll begin posting a series of effective exercises guitar teachers can use with their students to help develop picking technique and finger independence.


     The exercise below is used to develop pick technique and proper movement of the picking hand. The exercise is simple enough as it utilizes only open strings, the emphasis however, is not on “what to
 
 

do” but “how to do it”. Meaning, the palm should remain lightly anchored, moving from the wrist when picking and adjusting hand placement while moving from string to string. Additionally, the pick itself should be held straight to the string when picking and not angled.
                                                                                    Pick Held Straight to the String    

     The picking exercise above uses both down (1) and alternate-picking (2); make sure the student is comfortable down-picking before tackling alternate-picking. Moreover, regarding alternate-picking in this exercise, clarify with the student that when playing each string the first pick is always down and the last pick is always up. 

     The videos below show a cupped hand approach, the back of the    palm lightly anchored on the strings and the picking motion deriving from the wrist. As a player moves from one string to the next the hand slightly adjusts to accommodate picking that string. The palm remains lightly anchored on the strings the entire time, adjusting as needed until it reaches the 5th and 6th strings. At this time the palm will shift from the strings to the top of the guitar where it is again lightly anchored in order to maintain a continuous hand position on the lower strings.  
 

                                                Video #1: Open String Exercise Done with Down-Picking


 
                                                                                     Video #2: Open String Exercise Done with Alternate-Picking