left hand

[corinne]

Hi!
I would be happy to receive any advise on how to reinforce the left hand on tap-guitar (uncrossed - 12 strings) -
Everything is much easier with the right hand...
thanks

[John O'Connor]

Corinne, I'm fairly new to the tapping instruments as well, and I play a Solene, but I find that playing piano scales and exercises, first each hand alone, and then alternating, and then finally playing both hands together helps me to coordinate both hands with the tapping. Of course, I was a pianist before I became a guitarist, and I use both techniques with the Solene. Try playing a C scale low on the neck with the left hand, and practice it until it's smooth, then play a C scale higher on the neck with the right hand until it's smooth. Then alternate hands with a scale, starting with the left hand, and when that's smooth, start with the right hand alternating. Once you can play each hand smoothly, and then the alternating smoothly, then start playing the scale with both hands together. After you do C, then do all the other keys as well. I hope this will help you.

John O'Connor

[corinne]

Thanks for this John
Actually I also play piano (I am learning it) and never played
guitar before discovering tap-guitar two years ago.
Like you say, I guess it is practise, practise, practise and little by little that left hand will become better :-)
Bye
Corinne

[John O'Connor]

Corinne, I sure wish I could find a good way to replace practice, but unfortunately, I have not. I love to play, so even practice is interesting, but sometimes frustrating as well. Still, nothing takes the place of practice. I can recall while I was playing piano, my left hand was weak, so my teacher had me playing Satie for the left hand, to help strengthen it, and it worked. Perhaps, for a while, simply concentrate on playing with the left hand by itself, then as you become more proficient, add the right hand melodies. Good luck, Corinne.

[corinne]

Hi John
I should say left hand is easier on the piano because of the position which is more symetric - on tap guitar as the instrument is on the left side, the position is not so easy and the muscles have more difficulties to work... probably would it be less a problem if I was left handed, so if I had more strength on the left hand. With the piano, I manage quite well with the left hand, even if it is probably always weaker than the right hand. With the flute, as the instrument is on the right side, it doesn't seem to be to much problematic.

[John O'Connor]

I guess every instrument has its own problems. My left hand was always weaker, since I am right handed, but with practice, I was able to play some fairly complex contrapuntal music in piano. Actually, playing guitar also helped, since you do most of the actual fingering on guitar with the left hand, and the right hand is only used to pluck the strings. Now, with Solene, I find that I do have to take my left hand alone again when learning a new piece, just as I did on piano. It will take practice, but it is worth it. I wish you well, Corinne.

[Nico A.]

I play uncrossed and have difficulties with my left hand as well. I wouldn't say the hand hurts when I play with it but it definitely feels uncomfortable - and it looks highly unnatural!
My hand tends toward my forearm so that my wrist is in a 90 degree angle (when you look from the side) and when you look at the hand from the front view, even then the wrist is slightly stretched and doesn't line up straightly.

I guess this has to do with the instrument being upright and rather vertically played. Also the wide distance between two frets near the tuners doesn't make it simpler. I attempt to stretch my four fingers over four frets. But that feels uncomfortable at these higher frets. And it looks unnatural, as I said before. (I don't even start to explain the difficulties when I try to play the frets at the bass side near the body of the instrument...)

Know, what would you recommend me to do? Force my hand to get used to these uncomfortabilities or unburden the left hand and live with some not-so-clean tones?

[LPHovercraft]

I am also a piano player making the transition to tap-styled playing. I'm only a week or so into it and can feel the dramatic difference from my years of piano training. The left hand is definitely feeling the effects of the unique arm placement and spread-out fingering when playing in first position near the head stock.

FWIW, it seems to me (as a piano player) that it's *unusual* for the hands to be moving in a precise parallel pattern when tapping, as opposed to the symmetrical/opposing fingering that often occurs with piano. In other words, it seems my brain has been trained to think that to go "up" with the left hand is to play from the fifth finger to the thumb. And now on the Megatar this has been inverted. Aside from the raw difficulty in spreading out the left hand and attempting to accurately attack notes in first position (near the head stock) there's the additional *rub* of getting my body to "understand" that the lowest note is reached with the left index finger.

My right hand seems to be working in a way that's more correlated to playing piano, while the left hand is in a completely new world. I think this is the advantage/disadvantage in relation to guitar/bass players. Piano players might have a slight advantage starting out with the right hand, in being able to articulate patterns with accuracy and dynamics that a "picker" might not. But the disadvantage to piano players is the asymmetry of the left hand being transposed to the guitar neck, and being asked to articulate across a wide area of the neck (with accuracy) in a way that might be closer to second nature to guitarists (my imagination tells me that bassists would make the easiest transition there).

This means that I spend a much higher percentage of my time working with the left hand than with the right. I'm personally enjoying the challenge, and taking it as part of the process in approaching the instrument "as it lies" and ensuring that I have the right technique before I go venturing off to far. I realize that eventually my left hand will "catch up" and things will move along faster, and at a pace that's organic to my ability. Early patience pays off in the long term. I'm going through the "Easy Touch-Style Bassics" method book (http://www.megatar.com/english/accessories/Books/books.html), which I bought online with the other texts in a bundle. It really emphasizes the importance of getting the fundamental techniques right, and I'm willing to trust the folks that have been playing for much longer than myself (and well enough to write a method book about it).

This just strikes me as something that a new player must work through, not around.

P.S. I play the standard crossed tuning. I'm 6'2" and have fairly large hands, so I feel like the Megatar was *made* for me. But as much trouble as I have with reaching *to* fret positions with the left hand near the head stock, I have *as much* trouble with right hand accuracy above the twelfth fret. Aside from the ghost-notes that occur due to my fat finger pads striking notes to either side of the intended string, I sometimes over-reach in "sympathy" with the stretching my left hand is going through. As you would expect, it is much more prevalent with parallel practice than when I'm practicing patterns with each hand alone. So I'd expect this to improve with correct practice and plenty of time.

:)

[corinne]

thanks for this answer
unfortunately, I havn't played my tap-guitar for years (like 6 years)... one reason is me having a son and now a husband... not to much time for music any more

[rjgoos]

I play uncrossed and have difficulties with my left hand as well. I wouldn't say the hand hurts when I play with it but it definitely feels uncomfortable - and it looks highly unnatural!
My hand tends toward my forearm so that my wrist is in a 90 degree angle (when you look from the side) and when you look at the hand from the front view, even then the wrist is slightly stretched and doesn't line up straightly.


I don't know what to say, Nico. I play my Megatar uncrossed and with a rather vertical neck orientation, and my left wrist is not bent at all. A standard practice session for our band is 2.5 hours, and I have no discomfort at all, something I could never say with a cross-handed instrument. I do play the Meg mostly around fret 7-12 on the left hand, rather than from frets 2-7.

[Nico A.]

my left wrist is not bent at all

Well in my today's exercises I tried not to bend my hand and tried getting the best sound possible when my hand still feels comfortable. It worked a bit. I guess I'll spend much time practicing and experimenting on that. Thanks a lot for your answer.

[rjgoos]

You can see my left hand/wrist in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMJnyWcY2dE

Not absolutely straight, I guess, but not bent much either.

[Nico A.]

Looks like you're not using your pinky and are concentrating on the first two fingers. This seams much more pleasurable for the hand to me but I don't see how one can play more complex bass patterns with this positioning. Maybe I'm wrong.

[Tom Drinkwater]

That was beautiful J. It makes me smile every time I see you play the meggy. Great job!!