Classical Guitar Finger Strokes

Video Transcript

" Okay, now another important factor to producing good tone with the right hand is the actual stroke we use with our fingers. What you don’t want to do and what a lot of beginners tend to do is approach the guitar and strike through the strings like this with all these knuckles here. And a lot of times they will actually bring their whole hand up when they play. Another thing that a lot of people do is they have a very flat finger when they play and they play down like this. That’s a good technique but it’s really not where you want to start with at first. What we want is something right in the middle; we want to try to focus most of our energy from the arm here all the way up to the knuckle; this knuckle here. This knuckle you want to keep nice and relaxed and arched; not too flat, not too curved, and this knuckle here you don’t want to keep tense but you want to keep it flexed. That way when you move through the string nothing like this happens. The joint doesn’t actually give. So when you are moving through the string, you can practice this very slowly you want the whole mechanism to move as one. Right through the string and then right back as you relax. So when you play you’ll play the note quickly and immediately relax and it should go right back into place. Some bad habits that people pick up is when they play they will hold their finger in and that can lead to a lot of stress and tension and slow you down. A lot of times people will play and over extend and then come back, you don’t want that either. You just want to play and release, play, relax and release every single time over and over and that will create a good tone."