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Look With Your Fingers
By Ernesto | July 3, 2008
We guitarists have a tendency to look at the fingerboard way too much. I think there are a few factors involved. First of all, the guitar by its very nature is a very visual instrument…we rely a lot on patterns and shapes to learn the fingerboard.
Second, unlike most other instruments, a lot of guitarists don’t learn to sight-read. You could argue that piano is also a visually oriented instrument, but piano players (like many other instrumentalists) have to learn to break the habit of looking down at their fingers. Otherwise, sight-reading becomes very cumbersome.
Depending on your personality, another factor could be shyness. I know it is for me.
But I think the main cause is a certain fear that we’re going to mess up if we’re not looking. However, I find that the opposite happens…I mess up a lot less when I’m not looking!
Not only that, but by looking at our fingers when we play, we are focusing on the physical part of playing instead of the aural part. We’re looking instead of HEARING! In the end this hurts the music.
So my proposal to all you guitarists is, just for today (or whenever you happen to read this) force yourself to practice whatever it is your practicing without looking at your fingers or the fretboard. You might be surprised at how much you can do without looking.
What I noticed was that my fingers could feel were I was at the fretboard, even when making large position shifts. So in essence I was "looking" with my fingers. And not using my eyes allowed me to focus much more on the sound of what I was playing, noticing details (or lack thereof) that I hadn’t noticed before.
Of course I’m not advocating never to look at your hands when playing. When practicing it’s important to analyze how you’re playing to solve technical issues. But when it comes to actually playing music…just close your eyes and let it rip.
Topics: Guitar, Practicing |
