Author: Bradford Werner

Question: How do I not mute adjacent strings with the left hand when playing chords and arpeggios on classical guitar? More specifically, when practicing Giuliani Arpeggios, the 4th string D gets partially muted by my left hand 2nd finger that is playing B on the 5th string. This happens no matter how hard I try to use the tip of my fingers to play. Is it okay to lift the 2nd finger off and place it back when needed?

Answer Summary: The usually fix for left hand clearance issues is to make a series of tiny adjustments to a variety of positions which results in a significant improvement. Small adjustments, sometimes only millimetres to your posture, guitar position, guitar angle, and left hand alignment is enough to create the few millimetres of clearance needed to avoid muting the string below. This is more ideal than lifting the finger unnecessarily.

Let’s explore the adjustments in more detail.

Tips and Lessons Regarding Guitar Position

Check this this lesson on: 6 Common Technique Problems Solved with a Better Guitar Position (video below). My biggest piece of advice for this issue in presented in the this video, all the advice in this video is relevant, but specially see the video at minute 10:18.

Practical Tips

Guitar Position: Double check your guitar position making sure the headstock is around eye level. This might seem a bit high but it’s a general guideline. You can see my Guitar Position Lesson and also my Q&A on Headstock at Eye Level.

Tilt the guitar – Tilt the face of the guitar to a steeper angle (up and down rather than leaning toward you on the upper bout). This is the advice in the video at 10:18 above.

Left Hand Lesson – See my full lesson for the left hand here: Left Hand Position for Classical Guitar.

Play on the tip of the fingers – Playing on the tip of the finger is important but the other factors mentioned in the video are essential to the solution. Playing on the fingertips alone will not necessarily result in enough clearance.

Align the knuckles of the left hand – The left hand must be aligned with the strings otherwise the fingers will come in at an angle which reduces clearance of the strings below. This is more relevant to the 4th finger but still applies to all fingers. This will result in angled fingers on finger 1 and 4.

Curve the fingers – You must also have the neck of the guitar up high enough that you can curve your fingers properly.

A = Curvature at the tips joint

B = Curvature at the middle joint

C = Curvature at the knuckle

A great exercise to practice

A great exercise to practice is a basic four finger placement exercise with open strings below.

• Play the left hand fingers 1-2-3-4 on one-finger-per-fret.
• After each finger play the open string below.
• This will create a situation to check your clearance ability with each finger
• Start in the 5th position but once you feel confident play it at all frets to check your clearance.

Download a free PDF of this exercise here.

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If you need any clarification on this particular Q&A please leave a comment below. Also visit the main Classical Guitar Q&A page. If you are enjoying the free lessons you can support the site here.

Question: How do I play through a simple mistake in music? For example, I have a habit of when I play a wrong note, I go back and correct it. It may not be a difficult passage, just a simple mistake. Am I just too much of a perfectionist?

Answer Summary: This is a very common issue for musicians and requires a restructuring of your priorities when playing and practicing music. If a simple note mistake is causing you to break rhythm and go back, you are emphasizing the notes as the highest priority and focus. Instead, you need to restructure your priorities and place rhythm, meter, and directional phrasing as the top priority. This is important for both yourself but also your audience and listeners.

Cautionary Note: This advice is for when you make a small random mistake. It is not for a mistake that is happening in the same spot every time which needs to be addressed. Always make sure you are playing music that is at a level and tempo that is appropriate to your skill. Also ensure you are taking enough breaks to be maintaining high levels of concentration when practicing.

Lets explore the ideas in more detail and also cover some activities you can do to re-prioritize the elements in your playing.

Rhythm and Meter as a Priority

In the majority of the music we play, rhythm and meter should be the higher priority musical element you are focused on. All of my favourite performers are on the ones who feel the rhythm and land on the beat regardless if the notes are correct. A break in rhythm or meter is far more noticeable in a performance than a wrong note because it breaks the phrasing, direction, and meter of the work. Whether you are playing in a group or solo for a listener, you are playing in an ensemble where everyone is feeling the beat. The listener and you are connected to the beat and you both want it intact.

Practical Tips:

• Play in an ensemble – Playing with others is the best way to build rhythm as a priority. When you play in an ensemble you have to continue on-beat since everyone else will continue playing. This take time to get used to. Once you get used to that, you can try playing your solo music imagining that you in an ensemble. In a way, when you play for others, the audience is your ensemble since they are feeling the beat with you.
• Improvising – Learning to improvise to a beat, metronome, or with a jam partner is another great way to prioritize rhythm. You can do this by simply noodling melodic lines with a simple C major scale. If you play a wrong note, no problem, just slide it up a fret for a jazzy sound but keep the beat.
• Tap your foot while playing – If your body is feeling the beat you’ll have a better chance at keeping the beat going even if you play wrong notes.

Musical Phrasing Instead of Note-to-Note Accuracy

Once you’ve started thinking about rhythm and meter as a priority you can start thinking much more about directional phrasing and destination points. Music is very similar to language, notes are grouped together into words and paragraphs. A musical phrase might have 20 notes in it which means that individual notes are less important than the phrase as a whole. Once you realize this you can start deciding your destination points which will give you a goal to play toward.

Practical Tips:

• Mark your phrase destinations to play up to– Decide where your musical destinations are in the piece. If you have a singable line it is usually where you would take a breath. You can mark small phrases or larger ones that are more definitive. But it doesn’t matter too much, even mid-beginners can hear how small musical ideas are formed. Once you have a destination point marked in the score (or by memory), practice playing up to that destination point without breaking rhythm if you make a mistake. Keep it small so it’s an isolated experience you can concentrate on.
• Examine the reason for your mistake after playing the phrase to the destination. Make it clear to your brain and hands when it’s okay to stop and examine and when it’s not.

Start Small and Make it a Habit

You’ll want the above to become the normal way you practice and play. But this will take time to develop. Start by marking your phrasing or destination points and practice in small isolated chunks. Maybe you will only be able to do this for 5 minutes of your 45min practice session. As it becomes more of a habit you can increase it to 10 minutes and so on until it’s integrated into your playing.

At first this will require concentration to accomplish but later it will become a natural habit.

Support

If you need any clarification on this particular Q&A please leave a comment below. Also visit the main Classical Guitar Q&A page. If you are enjoying the free lessons you can support the site here.