The real complexity of two notes

Just two notes. Say C and D on the second string 1st and 3rd frets.

Deceivingly innocent. 

The reality? 

Playing music is more than pressing and playing notes.

When playing Indian music on the guitar, those two notes can be considered as well played if:

1. the sound sustains, and

if the sound stream between the two notes are continuous as they are played one after the other.

Even if they have been playing for sometime, students who join to study with us go through the guitar basics section. They notice important corrections at a basic level, like:

• Chord changes, new chord starting from the bottom strings is inefficient, since most often we play the chord starting with a downstroke, with the first strike on the top string
• Over movement of the arm. Instead learn the stable thumb method to play like Shyam does
• How to practice: exactly know which parts. Build those parts, connect to get the whole song. Like building 4 doors, getting 4 tyres etc separately to build the final car

For anyone to improve their playing:

Basic best practices

Doesn’t matter what you are playing – lead, chords, chord melody – take care of the body level best practices. Each time you play the guitar:

• Your elbow and thigh holds the guitar
• your fingers press or slide
• the other hand strikes or plucks
• the thumb and wrist position helps you reach and hold the notes

Since these are repeated for every note or chord you play, even the slightest misalignments will add up.

Best to learn these best practices when playing your first two notes.

Finger logic

This is one thing I have seen masters spend a lot of time, regardless of how experienced they are:

For each phrase, choosing the best fret-string positions and pre-planning the fingers to avoid inefficiencies and bottle necks in the long run.

Examples of how finger choice changes:

(Finger naming: index(I), middle(M), ring(R), little(L))

        M I R I          M I L M I       (Fingers)
e |——————————————–
B |—6-5————-6-5————————–
G |——–7-5————-7-5-4——————–
D |——————————————–
A |——————————————–
E |——————————————–

When playing FEDCB, the second set of notes, starting with the little finger ensures enough fingers to play all the three notes, without using the same finger twice – lift and press – or having to spread unnecessarily.