Left Hand Technique Resources

Playing Technique
#1

Does this site or anywhere else have good info on left hand technique? I wonder if the way I hold the neck is wrong or at least less than mechanically efficient but I’m not really sure. Now that I’ve been using this site to improve my picking, I’m beginning to realize that my fretting hand isn’t really all that great either.

For a quick and simple question – the left hand position used to play legato and pentatonic licks that may include bending should be two different positions, right? For example, the legato position is “flatter” , “Dropped” and more “open” whereas the pentatonic stuff will have the fingers being very angled, even almost going “sideways” or parallel to the strings.

I notice a lot of videos of great players where their fretting hand is like the second example I just gave, which allows them lightning fast pentatonic playing including stretching where the pinky isn’t used at all. I’m wondering if that’s more efficient since in my playing, when i’m doing fast pentatonics and stuff, my fingers aren’t so drastically angled and I tend to rely on my pinkie a lot for anything more than a whole tone stretch.

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#2

This might be somewhat what you’re looking for: Efficient Digital Cycles.

As far as having the hand in two different positions for pentatonic licks, I’m guessing 2nps stuff, I don’t personally use a different hand position in general, although my fingers will be more parallel to the strings when they span across larger gaps. However, I’m no expert player, so someone else may have a better answer for that line of inquiry.

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#3

holy shit this post is excellent. Thank you @keagsBjammin!!!

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#4

Hey @RyanMW, I’ve found hammer groups to be helpful when working out fretting hand stuff. It’s a pretty intense practice technique but it can really sort things out.

For the pentatonics, I think that people do that just because the first three fingers happen to work better for them, and angling lets them work around that. Lots of great players do it. The pinkie has its own idiosyncracies.

Cheers! z

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