Hovering fingers / finger independence exercises - Truly useful?

Playing Technique
#21

I tried them out a bit but honestly they did nothing besides make me play those patterns faster, as mentioned, non transferable. You’re better off going and learning some actually musical patterns you like.

Also listen to your body and try out different movements as much as possible if something isn’t working - tooling around as Troy says. And not just picking movements. When I do legato I’ll sometimes get my whole arm swaying to get momentum if the pattern allows for it, and I’ve found getting the neck sitting just right in terms of angle both an upward and forward (away from the body) has helped both right and left hand movement. Even upper body posture as a whole makes a difference.

But doing finger independence exercises does not play into any part of my practice routine.

Playing example if it’ll lend some authority to that claim:

4 Likes
#22

It looks like his fingers aren’t really moving that much? :thinking: What do the violinists say about this topic?

#23

I actually think that looks very similar to what you’d expect to see a guitar player doing.

2 Likes
#24

It’s almost like our anatomy matters more than the specific instrument…

4 Likes
#25

I agree that anatomy is key, but ergonomic affordances are a thing too. That is, the thinner and narrower neck of a violin encourages good finger posture and makes it easier to learn to habitually use good finger posture.

Good finger posture on guitar is less limiting in the long run than bad finger posture, but the geometry of the guitar neck can make good finger posture seem “awkward” to an uncorrected beginner, and this perception of awkwardness may lead them to develop a habit of using bad finger posture because it “feels easier” for some beginner tasks. I see a big parallel to what we’ve learned about the picking hand, where you can “get away with” a limiting approach at low speeds, only to discover the limiting nature of the approach when attempting faster and/or more difficult things.

I never received formal instruction about finger posture as a guitar student, but when I started playing guitar as a teenager, I made a broad assumption about transferability of what I had learned about finger posture from a couple of years of piano lessons as a young child. I think there was some benefit from that, but I wasn’t a stickler about it and no guitar teacher spent a lot of time on it. Years later, I had to make a conscious effort to “clean up” my fretting hand finger posture to improve my fretting hand speed.

1 Like
#26

My fretting hand is something I focus on far more than my picking hand. It was something I became obsessed with years ago when I saw videos of Guthrie Govan playing lines without using his right hand at all. I found that far more impressive—and ultimately more useful—than being able to alternate pick at fast speeds (though I practice picking as well, of course).

Here an example of an exercise I came up with that’s played only with the fretting hand. I do this sort of thing all over the neck, sometimes using hammer-ons and pull-offs, other times all hammer-ons from nowhere. I do these exercises while watching TV or YouTube and whatnot. My picking hand is only used for vaping and drinking while doing these. In addition to lines like these, I’ll also sound out chords just by hammering them on with my fretting hand. If I ever lose my picking hand in a garbage disposal, I want to still be able to play. Chance favors the prepared mind.

left-hand-legato
left-hand-legato1460×661 54.9 KB

3 Likes
#27

careful you don’t Henry Bemis yourself

1 Like