Right hand technique

[phil625sxc]

Hi All
I'm in the process of learning a fairly tricky tune and having trouble with parts of it playing at speed - I've figured out the problem is my right hand as there's lots of quick string crossing which I'm not so good on - up & down in 4ths etc. So it's going to take me a while and I figure I need to improve my technique to hopefully speed things up.

I have an excersise where I use one finger per fret per string and play up and down - so say fouth finger on the 5th fret of the E string, 3rd finger on the 4th fret of the A string, 2nd finger on the 3rd fret of the D string, 1st finger on the 2nd fret of the G string play up one note on each string then reverse the left hand position to descend - starting with the 4th finger on the 5th fret of the G string - which I find really good for right hand (and also a good stretch for the left if you play it lower down the neck)

Anyone have any others specifically for right hand you'd care to share ?

Thanks,

Phil

[Doddy]

All you can really do is concentrate on alternating fingers and string crossing. Try playing scales and arpeggios in various intervals like 3rds,6ths 10ths etc. in various rhythmic combinations and both ascending and descending. Don't push it too much though-play them slowly and accurately and speed will develop naturally.

[phil625sxc]

[quote name='Doddy' post='1230968' date='May 14 2011, 02:09 PM']All you can really do is concentrate on alternating fingers and string crossing. Try playing scales and arpeggios in various intervals like 3rds,6ths 10ths etc. in various rhythmic combinations and both ascending and descending. Don't push it too much though-play them slowly and accurately and speed will develop naturally.[/quote]

Thanks Doddy - it's been a while since I've done excersises like these and it's really showing at the moment !
Just have to knuckle down and build up slowly again - and break though the finger pain barrier ! :-)
(It's descending across strings at speed where my right hand fingers seem to trip over themselves...)

[Kevin Glasgow]

Hi Phil,

Something I find useful when working on right hand technique is to take a simple 'root, fifth, and octave' shape and practice it using different right hand patterns.

Here's some examples:-

(R=Root, 5=Fifth, 8=Octave)


R 5 R 5 R 5 etc..

R 5 8 5 R 5 8 5 R 5 8 5 etc..

RR 55 RR 55 RR etc..

RR 55 88 55 RR 55 88 etc..

R 8 R 8 R 8 R 8 etc..

RR 88 RR 88 RR 88 etc..

RR 8 RR 8 RR 8 RR 8 etc..

RR 55 RR 55 RR 55 etc..

(plus any other permutations you can think of)


I find these types of exercises really useful as they allow me to focus solely on my right hand.

Hope they're of some help.


Cheers, Kev

[phil625sxc]

Thanks Kev, I'll give those a go - they look like they'll be good for building strength & stamina.

Cheers,

Phil

[Sibob]

I also find practicing scales, but in intervals, helps.
So a G major scale, played with alternate intervals of five would be G, D, A, E, B, F#, C, G, D, A etc
For real string hopping, intervals of 6 is fun, so G, E, A, F#, B, G, C, A etc, although you'll need to start from somewhere on the E string really to get the most out of it. Descending it is a good mind bend too.

With quick descends don't rule out raking toward you across the strings with one picking finger. This is the opposite to alternating your fingers and is seen by some as cheating, but the simple fact is that it's good economy of movement in some situations

Si

[ZMech]

You could try learning to roll a coin across the back of your knuckles. Best thing I learnt during 6th form, and probably helps the dexterity a bit