Guitar Rote Exercises - Gliss - Slide - Lateral Strength And Control Of 3 Fingers On 3 Strings

in this exercise, we continue on from the previous 3 exercises,

Which were, to slide one finger up and down one string,

Then slide two fingers up and down two strings, in a power chord shape.

Then slide two fingers up and down two strings, in an octave shape.

And now we are sliding 3 fingers up and down in a root-blue note-octave shape,

Which is root, up one string and up one fret, and then up one more string and one more fret, so fingers are at a 45° angle to the neck.

The purpose of these exercises is to incorporate several smaller maneuvers that we practiced earlier, into more complex, compound maneuvers.

Yes, this lesson is given on a Left handed guitar.

Yes, guitars are “handed”, and 99% of guitars are built for right-handed players.

This is scandalous. Go down this rabbit hole with me...

Im right-handed... but here is my story...

My sister is left handed, and she tried to play violin right-handed for many years thru school.

We were talking about “handed” instruments one day, and the light-bulb went off in her head, and she had an “ah ha moment” where she realized thats why she struggled so hard with violin.

I immediately agreed with her, and i was kind of dumbfounded about the whole thing. Its such a simple, obvious problem, with a simple, obvious answer... and yet...

So time went on, and one day i saw a Mexican Fender Stratocaster in a pawn shop for sale. It was left-handed, but the price was right so i bought it.

Some time goes on, and one day I’m in my local guitar shop, which is one of the finest guitar shops in the whole world, and has one of the biggest guitar inventory and selection in the whole world...

And i notice that out of all the guitars that are for sale, not one single one of them is left-handed...

So i ask the guitar salesman what they do when a left-handed person walks in, and he said, we sell him a right-handed guitar!

So apparently, If you are left-handed, and you want to learn guitar, they will try to teach you on a right-handed guitar, and sell you a right-handed guitar!

And once you start playing guitar right-handed, and you own a right-handed guitar, you are likely to stick with trying to play right-handed, and you’ll buy more right-handed guitars...

And so theres this catch 22, where left-handed people don’t have access to left-handed instruments, and so they are forced to adapt to right-handed playing,

And because the leftys are forced to play right-handed, theres no demand for left-handed instruments,

And because theres no demand for left-handed instruments, guitar shops don’t build them!

And because so many guitar shops wont build lefty guitars, theres a constant shortage if lefty instruments,

Which, feeds right back into the problem of lack of access to left-handed instruments,

Which is why lefty’s are steered to play right-handed!

There is another aspect to this to consider.

In order to be able to do a final set-up of a guitar, the guitar tech needs to be a competent guitar player, and should know what the guitar should feel like while they are taking it for a test drive.

But if you are a right-handed guitar tech, and can’t play left-handed, then you can’t do a good set-up on a left-handed guitar, because you haven’t developed the feel for it.

And since so few guitar techs have developed the feel for a left-handed guitar, its a safe bet that most left handed guitars have never been set-up correctly from the factory, or even at the local guitar shop.

Furthermore, even if there was ONE left-handed guitar in my local guitar shop, thats not much of a selection.

As a right-handed player, i can pick up any and every guitar in the shop, and i can comparison shop,

But if i was looking for a left-handed instrument, i’d have no real selection, no real way to compare guitars for feel and fit and tone, and no selection on colors, or other customizations...

So, not only does a left-handed person have to choose from a small selection of guitars, the one they get probably won’t be set up very well,

And a guitar that is set-up properly, will absolutely make a huge difference in playability,

And guitar playability makes a huge difference in your guitar playing progress.

So, eventually i decided i was going to experience what it feels like to be a lefty guitarist in a right-handed world,

By teaching myself, as a right-handed person, how to play a left-handed guitar...

And let me tell you, i have so much more empathy for lefties now, after having to struggle with contorting myself to play lefty guitar.

Its day 1 all over again.

Picking up a left-handed guitar for the first time,

Feels exactly like picking up a right-handed guitar for the first time,

Except the difference is, you’ve long since forgotten what it felt like on the first day, and guitar has become so natural to you now.

But try playing lefty, and you’ll soon find that day 1 feeling again,

Except the difference is, when you are playing lefty, you will probably struggle even more than you did playing righty.

If you decide to try and play lefty, get yourself a journal book, and take notes every day, on what you noticed about your playing.

Worked on this.

Needs work on that.

Its amazing, because you have, co-existing inside your own head, right now, a fully competent right-handed guitar teacher, and also a brand new left-handed beginner guitarist.

And so the righty-teacher side of you knows what the lefty-student needs to do, but the lefty-student is new and struggling with every damn thing... and the righty-teacher gets frustrated with lefty-student...

And its these moments, when the teacher knows what the student needs to work on, that need to be documented, and passed down to other right or left handed students.

I would say to anyone who is considering becoming a guitar teacher, to first teach yourself how to play lefty, and document every detail of your journey, and use that experience as the template for teaching other students.

Also, for any student of guitar, i would recommend getting an other-handed instrument that what you already play now.

If you own just one guitar, you can flip it over and play it other-handed,

But if you own 1 righty, and 1 lefty guitar, you can then flip both of them over, and have 4 different ways of holding a guitar while practicing

For me, for example, what i noticed is that when i play right-handed, then my right-hand is thinking more like the time signature of the song, the count, the beat...

masculine aspect.

While my left hand is thinking about the pitch, tone, melody, nuance...

Feminine aspect.

So when i went to play lefty, my left hand had to really step up its game on the strict timing, keeping the beat, etc,

and my right hand was off the leash, and free to noodle around, and express itself, which it was not accustomed to.

So after playing lefty guitar for a while, and then going back to playing right-handed, i notice my left hand improved dramatically,

Basically because the left hand seemed to be a lot more tight on the timing.

So before, while playing a song at full speed, my left hand would struggle to make a chord shape, just in time for dominant hand to hit, strictly on time.

I didn’t even realize this was happening!

After lefty practice, my left-hand seems more nimble, responsive, snappy, and on point, and instead of struggling to be in the right place at the right time, the left hand fingers are more “in the pocket”

I still struggle with lefty guitar every day, and i absolutely love it!

And i hope you all get a chance to struggle with lefty guitar too!