I just finished watching synchronicity. At least all of what is there already. I must say I really enjoy the approach and the production of the seminar so far. Of course, the heart-piece of the seminar, where the two hands get combined, is still missing, but I read that they are working on it, so Im already looking forward to the third batch here!
Question 1 - Proprioception
Left Hand - Chapter 12, Tommo introduces a concept called Proprioception, which essentially means, to my understanding, faster learning and better finger seperation through bigger motions.
There he said at around 02:20 min, that small motions are bad for getting the timing right, because the fingers only travel a small distance, which is not optimal, because there is “little time to adjust”.
I dont understand the point here. Does it mean that if the finger does larger movements, we have the chance to change the moving speed of the finger while it already moves, and by this we can better adjust when the finger actually hits the fretboard?
Question 2 - Fingercombination 134 Issue
I have always really struggled with the finger combination 134. For instance for the minor shape, I always use 123. For very low frets that’s also not really comfortable. I wish I could improve on the 134 combination but I have been playing for 8 years now, and I have always struggled with that finger combination.
Is that even something that is worth working on? I have always struggled with 134 and according to the “easy win” strategy, I dedided to just ignore this problem.
On the first question, proprioception is our sense of position.
Tommo’s exaplanation is somewhat simplified for brevity, but the basic idea is that larger movements give our nervous systems stronger signals about positioning and timing, and more robust feedback about errors.
It’s not a process of consciously adjusting movement speed, so much as it is a means of providing our motor system the information needed to make those adjustments unconsciously.
You can most likely improve your use of (1 3 4) combinations to some degree by retraining your fretting postures and mechanics. However, fingers are not independent and can not be trained to become independent. There will always be some finger combination which will always be inherently more stressful and less capable for you. No amount of “finger independence” exercises or trill drills can change that.
For many people, including Eric Johnson and Shawn Lane (and me!), that problematic combination is (3 4). For others, inlcuing Paul Gilbert it’s (2 3). These players develop fretting postures and strategies which maximise their strengths and avoid their weaknesses.
Learning to naviagte the natural interdependences of our fingers is critically important in developing fretting hand technique. You might find it helpful to use (1 2 4) for whole-half shapes lower in the neck (as Shawn Lane often did) or you might prefer to avoid that shape and the (1 3 4) fingering entirely (as Eric Johnson does).
See my previous posts/comments for more information.
Somewhat out of date and in need of some revision, here’s my original analysis on Shawn’s optimisation principles:
And a series of videos explaining the concepts (again, due for revision)
And an article describing how Eric Johnson’s fretting hand optimisation works
Also, a thread where I outline some more principles, asthey relate to Paul Gilbert’s playing:
