Waltz #3 is significantly harder than #2 and even gave me wrist injury after practicing it every day. I took a break for 3 days, and when I came back I started a new technique that I call the "telephone technique". Instead of trying to crush the strings into the neck to guarantee at least some kind of sound would come out of the correct fret, I started "leaning" into them at a upward angle which really needs the shoulder and elbow to get involved in order to apply enough pressure. I call it the Telephone because instead of thinking that your hand and fingertips push down the strings, I imagine my fingers like telephone poles holding the strings up in the air against the neck - and this image is just much less physically charged than squeezing as hard as possible and holding on for dear life. Because waltz #3 is so fast whenever I'd get stressed I'd always go back to grabbing at strings because its what has worked for 15 years but thats when my wrist would start hurting again. The downside is that you have to be way more accurate because if you don't hit the string dead on the fingertip, you're not going to send enough pressure to get a clear tone - must a muffled buzz or even a muted thump.
This is where the next break thru happened - over time my left hand fingertips had become hard and callused with dead skin that even has built in horizontal impressions where the strings go. This is troublesome however when you have an awkward or strange fingering and the indentation can make the string glance off the sweet spot. But then I figured, if I'm not applying as much pressure as before, maybe I don't need calluses because its the dead skin that protects your pain receptors and allows you to practice longer. I eliminated the calluses, and it doesn't feel bad at all because I'm not squeezing like crazy anymore and instantly I became 1,000% more accurate.
Then serendipitously because my left hand is so much less stressed out grasping at strings and crushing bar chords, my right hand also became much more relaxed and I'm flicking strings way faster all of a sudden. Overall volume is lower, but I think I can develop that back up.
And finally, I was having trouble creating the optimal angles with my elbow and shoulder to access only the needed amount of pressure for this Telephone technique until I actually tried sitting in the classical style posture - and much to my surprise it really helped.
Have you ever seen anyone sit this way playing guitar? This is the way my teacher in college would have us sit, and I just never liked it because I'd always have my neck cocked to the left for long periods of time - plus it just looks ridiculous. Anyway, sitting this way really gave my left arm the best scooping shape to allow my fingers to "lift up" into those strings.
Take aways
- Don't crush the strings in the left hand, "lift" them up into the fretboard
- If you're not crushing the strings, you don't need hardened calluses on your fingertips
- A relaxed left hand creates a relaxed and faster right hand
- The classical posture is actually good for something
Ishida (Walz #2 Andreina)
Ishida (Walz #3 Natalya)
