Post
by James A. Showalter » Wed Oct 11, 2017 5:48 pm
Craig,
Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I will certainly take them to heart especially the part about slowing my play to strive for exactness. That coupled with Binh's suggestion to limit the motion of the left hand.
Now I am at a point where I have to explain. These past 5 years I've practiced guitar on my own and of course use the common posture where the right thigh holds the guitar. So classical posture is somewhat new to me. When I submitted my 1st lesson John Montes observed that I traveled a lot with my right hand and advised that I should practice keeping the right wrist as nearly stationary over the string position as possible. I was playing that 1st sequence that changed from the index finger playing an open G-note alternately with the thumb playing the D-string fretted at F#. Because my right wrist is fused (long story) I couldn't do it. In response I realized that if I altered the position to more of a Cello players position then my thumb was in-line with where my fingers played and I did not have to shift my hand so much to reach the notes. In short, I will never develop a classical posture or playing technique. But I certainly will try.
Thanks for all of your suggestions. I think it speaks volumes that the amount of instruction, derived from actual evaluation of individual effort, that is provided through this lesson series is of such quality. It certainly supports the old adage that the best things in life are free.
James
1972 Ryoji Matsuoka, NO 18
1990 Takamine C132S
2014 Sakurai Kohno Pro-J
Martin Guitars (D28, MC28, D12-28, J-40)
National Resonator Guitar
Les Paul