Chords for Lesson: Odair's Favorite Drill for Guitar

Hi, so this is a new segment for the website
Really just once a week.
I'm gonna go through some different technique exercises and for this week
I thought I'd start off with one of the most popular books out there a pumping nylon by Scott Tennant
Which is great book and if you look in the YouTube info, I have a link to the book so you should buy that book _
_ _ And I'll cycle through lots of different books though.
They do these lessons
I just want to kind of bring up different things every week and you could probably just pick up some tips about guitar techniques by
Watching it or if you want to pick up the book
_ _ _ _ pumping nylon is great because
it
_ It's really kind of straightforward.
It's just like a whole bunch of good
exercises for the hands which are kind of
_ Just workouts more than anything, right?
_ It's not hugely progressive.
It's more like a reference book, but it's very useful for students particularly intermediate students
Just looking to really up their levels
Um for today I was gonna look at Odair's favorite drill in the book and
I use this exercise all the time for my students to correct their left hand positions
_ [A] because of the nature [G] of the exercise
[F#] _ _
[A#] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ [N] because it uses one four and _
and then it alternates between the first finger being on a
Lower string and then an upper string and vice versa the fourth finger being on high string and then a lower string
_ it's it's kind of like a really great equalizer for the left hand it kind of keeps it in check and _ _
Really tells students what their hand position needs to be if you're gonna do this with one hand position
It's gonna be very specific what you have to do with your hand in order to accomplish the exercise
So in many ways you the exercise itself teaches the students what a good hand position is
The only advice I need to give them is plan your fingertips
Um _ _ don't move your hand around a lot when you're trying to do the different reach
_ Reaches just let the fingers do the moving so your [A] hand position should generally stay still
So if you watch my left hand when I do this _ _ _
[G] _ _ [F#] _ _ [F] _ [A] _ _
[G] See it's [F#] remaining pretty still
[A] _ And it's [G] my fingers that are [F#] doing all the movement
[F] _ _ [N] So a couple of tips, like I said playing your fingertips make sure that your fingers are curved
I'll do a close-up in a second, but keep your fingers really curved
That means for the fourth finger it might come in at this angle.
Don't outstretch [E] the finger like this _ _
[B] So with this exercise [A] you start with just the first and third string
_ _ [Am] _ _ [F#] _ _
_ [A] _ [Am] I don't move to the lower strings [F#] until you're [D#m] ready to do so
[A] So once you feel like you can play this [F#] exercise with curved fingers on your fingertips _ _
Then you can increase the stretch to the fourth string _ _
[Em] _ _ _ [F#m] _ _ [F] _ _ [E] _
_ [Em] not before
[F#] _ _ [F] _ _
[E] _ _ [Em] _ _ [A#] And then once you feel [B] comfortable that you go to the fifth string
_ [Gm] _ [C#] Stretch just [Am] kind of gets more and more intense each time
_ _ [C] So before I move [G#] to a close-up of my hand
[N] I just want to talk about some common problems that students have
One thing is just generally the reach and keeping your fingers curved
I'm just remember to kind of put your thumb don't let your thumb be up too high
Behind the guitar.
I have my thumb kind of _ _
Right behind my fingers pretty much so it's like on the lower half of the instrument
So it's like right below the second string or third string so my thumb is pretty low down this way
So I'd recommend that you do that so you can get the reaches _
And the other thing that students often do is they don't hold the note long [A] enough.
_ You have to hold this note _ _
_ _ While you [F#] play that one and then hold this one while you play the next one
_ Don't let go of the first [C] finger until the fourth finger plays.
Don't let go of the [G] third finger until the second finger plays
[B] Etc.
[F#] etc.
Really the exercise is just this [G#] just _ [G] _
[F#] kind of goes down there and one voice _ _
_ _ _ _ [A#] _ [Am] _ Say [D#] in the voice, so it's kind of a counterpoint exercise one voice
Goes down when the other one [A] jumps up and goes. _ _
_ _ [C] So you have to hold
[F#] _
Fingers down now [A#] will always be two [A] fingers on the guitar
[G] _ _
_ [F#] _ _ _ [F] _ So you have to listen for that has [A] to be legato.
It can't be
_ _ [G] _ _
[Em] _ _ [C] _ That's bad because I'm not holding all the fingers down for their proper values no values
there's always this kind of
Overlap like linking kind of thing that happens with the [A] notes to sustain of the note
so let me just [B] do a bit of a close-up [Em] and then
_ That'll be it for this week. _ _
_ So just a quick tip about the left hand here
_ _ _ [N] _ Make sure your fingers are curved even this pinky finger here not outstretched like this
Not down on his fingertip or the padded finger, but on his fingertip and [A] curved
_ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _
[Bm] _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _
[F#] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ [Am] _ _ _ [F#] _ _ _ [F] _
_ All the fingers curved not extended don't throw the wrist out so that your fingers are extended like this just keep them curved
And then even as you [E] increase the stretch _ _
[G] _ You [F#m] have to kind of remain
[F] _ _
[E] curved
_ [G] Letting the fingers do all the [F#m] work
_ _ [F] _ _ [E] It [A] don't go like this
_ _ [G] _ You know like switching the [N] hand position for every single time you you do a new move on it
So just keep that in mind and I think you'll be just fine.
So that's Odair's drill from pumping that one and
Check out that link in YouTube info section.
You should really buy the book.
It's it's a great book and lots of other great exercises in it _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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