Barre:

Ryan; The Natural Classical Guitar, The Bold Strummer, LTD., 1991



Duncan; The Art of Classical Guitar Playing, Sumy-Birchard, 1980 (Begins on following page)




Iznaola, Kitharologus: The Path to Virtuosity, Chanterelle, 1993

Stephen Aron: Lighten Up!
(http://www.stephenaron.net/stephenaronstudio/2013/12/lighten-up-
squeezing-with-left-hand.html)

Left hand squeezing is a common dilemma for student guitarists. It happens
naturally: we try really hard to play the music set before us. It is replete with barre
chords, difficult reaches, simultaneously held and moving voices. We try to avoid the
ubiquitous fret buzz. Further, many of us came to classical guitar from playing other
styles, notably popular styles on steel string or electric guitar. These styles often rely
on blocked left hand shapes, learned as units, not as individual notes. The net result
of all of it is often pressing too hard on the strings, and for too long.

Why does this matter? A couple of reasons come to mind. First, is that the harder
you press, the more difficult it is to release, and therefore, the slower you will play.
Think of this analogy: I was rear-ended not long ago by a tailgating driver. I wasn't
hurt but when the jolt of the impact quieted, I found my hands were gripping the
steering wheel so hard I couldn't easily let go. I could have used some help peeling
them off the wheel! In the same way, when we over-grip the fretboard, our much-
stronger flexor muscles (the ones doing the gripping) aren't easily overcome by our
weaker extensors and so we tend to feel "stuck."

Next, there is an inherent fluidity in virtuosic playing that very specifically avoids
pressing too hard, ever. The resultant looseness of technique coincides nicely with
the quickness necessary for music both fast and complex, and feels and looks
elegant, effortless, and balletic.

So how does one loosen their grip? I will approach the problem from two angles.
The first is the purely physical.

Play a scale (no open strings) or a quasi-chromatic scale (four adjacent frets/string,
across the fretboard). With the right hand, use i-m in alternation, quite loudly. With
your left hand, press so lightly that you create a "thud" effect, mostly devoid of pitch.
I call this a "thud scale." Run the scale up and back in this fashion.

Then press ever so slightly harder, to create a "buzz" effect. This is not the buzz that
results from mis-fretting, too far from the fretwire, but is the result solely of
pressing lightly. To really demonstrate mastery of this buzz technique, you must
induce the buzz to last. It is relatively easy, if playing loud and pressing gently, to get
the note's initial impact to buzz. It takes a bit more control to make the buzz ring on,
for the full duration of the note. Doing so requires that you minutely adjust your
pressure lighter and lighter as the note rings. Pressing too hard at any moment will
stop the buzzing effect.

Using this long-ringing buzz technique, play slow scales up and down the fretboard.
Remember to always play loudly with your right hand.

Play thud scales then buzz scales each day. It doesn't need to take very long. You are
training both a divergent degree of pressure with left and right hands
simultaneously and a minutely controlled and highly specific amount of pressure in
your left hand. Take a moment and determine how much more pressure it takes to
make the (loud) buzzing note sound normal. Alternate, a/b style, buzz then normal
notes. You will develop a better sense of exactly how hard you have to press to get a
good, clean, loud note. Obviously, if the note is softer, you can use less pressure.
Working this method will help you to develop a light and highly controlled left hand
touch, even when playing firmly with the right hand.

The other angle from which the over-pressing question needs to be addressed is
more contextual and passage-specific, but can be addressed here generally: It's
important to understand what notes you're playing need to ring, and thus be held,
and which ones don't, and thus pressure on them can be released. This can seem to
be an infinitely complex challenge, if minutely analyzed, and the motor skills
necessary to control the left hand in this way are considerable. Fortunately, though,
for most guitarists, these adjustments are made more or less automatically as the
hand senses when a note can be released. We get into trouble when the textures are
more dense, as in a Bach fugue. I have a student who struggles with this issue in the
PFA Fugue. He is concerned that voices may not be given their full value and so
overcompensates by pressing every note down as long as possible. Doing so makes
shifts to new locations or positions difficult though, and so the piece ends up more
challenging to navigate and sounds more clumsy and halting. We work carefully on
identifying at exactly what moment certain fingers can be released, effectively
weight-shifting to the remaining one(s) and enabling a more balletic feeling in the
hand and a more legato effect in the interpretation. I see this quite a bit: a difficult
shift or passage which resists a legato reading is corrected simply by realizing that a
specific finger was holding too long. Look for these instances: it may make all the
difference.

And by all means, lighten up!















Hubert Kappel: (The Bible of Classical Guitar Technique)










Hubert Kappel: (The Bible of Classical Guitar Technique)


Kappel contd.


Vibrato:
Ryan; The Natural Classical Guitar, The Bold Strummer, LTD., 1991








Vibrato (continued)
Duncan; The Art of Classical Guitar Playing, Sumy-Birchard, 1980
(Below)


















Hubert Kappell: Vibrato (The Bible of Classical Guitar Technique)