Philip Hii – guitarist

There’s a quality of playing that I’ve mentioned a few times time before.

It has to do with a certain sensation, a feeling at your fingertips when you play, a sensation as if the fingers are completely independent, able to operate on their own and fully focused on their targets, the strings.

They seem to be driven by some hidden force, almost a kind of intelligence that’s guiding them automatically to the strings.

In the left hand, this is manifested in a kind of ‘stickiness’ at the fingertips.

You feel as if there’s an internal force at the fingertips attracting them to the fretboard, almost as if there’re little magnets at the fingertips. You don’t have to do much, they automatically know where they need to go.

In the right hand, you feel as if there’s an internal intelligence at your fingertips, constantly guiding them to the strings. You don’t have to do much, the fingers seem to be able to play themselves, with incredible efficiency and precision.

The sensation is almost like when you want to scratch an itch.

You don’t have to look for the itch or make your fingers go there. You feel the itch and instantly your finger is there, scratching it. If you were to watch yourself do it, you will see that the movement is all concentrated at your fingertip.

How do you develop this internal intelligence, this ‘magnetic’ force in the fingers?

First, focus your playing at your fingertips.

Don’t try to ‘pluck’ the strings, just stroke them with your fingertips. The movement must be very small and totally focused at the fingertips.

You should feel as if you’re only moving the fingertip, wiggling them. That’s how small the movements should be. Naturally, there will be small sympathetic motions in other parts of the finger, don’t suppress them.

When you develop this extreme focused movements at your fingertips, you will begin to notice increased sensitivity in your fingertips. You will feel as if you have complete control over them.

The more you focus on the fingertips, the more awareness and control you develop. This control eventually becomes so automatic you don’t have to think about it anymore. Your fingers instinctively know where they need to go.

Second, anticipate. Focus on getting the fingers to the strings before you have to play.

No, this is not the old ‘preparation’ technique where you place your fingers on the strings before you play. That technique is too static.

This form of ‘preparation’ is fluid and dynamic. You feel as if your fingers are constantly on the move, moving to the next note, to the next string, propelled by some unseen force in your fingertips.

Try playing Etude #1 by Villa Lobos this way.

Make your fingers constantly go to the next string. Focus on getting to the strings rather than on plucking them. Let the plucking happen naturally, without effort, as you let go the string to move on to the next.

When you do this consistently and over time, your fingers will begin to develop a sixth sense as to where the strings are. They will move automatically to the strings as if they’re propelled by some unseen force in the fingertips.

I know the idea of finger intelligence may sound a little strange.

But the sensation is very real and is at the heart of what I do. In fact, I first became conscious of the principle when I saw flamenco legend Juan Serrano play years ago.

What fascinated me about his playing was the incredible precision and directness in his left-hand fingers, especially in the way he fretted his notes. When he fretted his notes, it almost appeared as if there were some kind of weight in his fingertips, some magnetic force in them pulling them to the strings.

One of the things I had learned from Karl Herreshoff was to apply strong pressure in the left hand. This is to develop strength in the left hand. Over time, this pressure becomes effortless as you develop strength. To me the idea of a strong attracting force residing at the fingertips was an extension of that same principle.

And I also began to realize that I had been applying the same principle in my right hand.

I had always played with the right hand by concentrating all my efforts at my fingertips. It was something I had gravitated to doing naturally, one of the benefits of not having ‘correct’ instruction in my early years.

I began to notice the same kind of focus in my right-hand fingertips, the same kind of directness and concentration of energy right at the fingertips.

That was when I began to realize that economy, efficiency and finger independence are all a matter of focusing your playing at your fingertips, not the knuckle, not the wrist, not even in your head, but right at your fingertips.

For me, this is the holy grail of playing, developing so much sensitivity in your fingertips, they begin to assume an independence so complete it feels as if they have an intelligence of their own.

This is a continuation of the previous post.

Most people think of economy as simply moving in small motions. But that’s just one small part of the equation.

Much more important than that is the aspect of efficiency in economy.

In other words, it’s not how small your movements are, but how fast you get to your destination.

Take two routes to a common destination, one is a small street with many stop signs, the other is a highway which brings you straight to your destination. The small street is a shorter route, the highway longer.

Which route do you think offers you greater economy?

Or take this oft-quoted cliché – the shortest route between two points is a straight line. That’s true if all you do is move from one point to another.

But what if you have to move back and forth between two points?

In this case, you’ll have to factor in the return journey back to the starting point and vice versa. If you move in straight lines between the two points, you’ll have to stop at each point to reverse direction to go back to the other point. That’s inefficient because it stops your momentum.

So the straight line may be the shortest route but it’s not always the most economical. The more economical and efficient way would be to move in circular motion between the two points. This way, you’ll be able to keep the flow of your motion going and maintain your momentum.

To translate this to guitar playing.

When we pluck, we seldom pluck just one note. The finger has to go back repeatedly to reposition itself to play the next note and the next one after that etc.

So part of an efficient and economical plucking strategy has to factor in the return journey to reposition the finger to play the next note or what I call the rebounding movement.

To do this, the most efficient way is to move the fingertip upward as soon as the finger has plucked the string and immediately move it back to get it in position to pluck the next note.

When you do this, you create a circular trajectory in your fingertips, a continuous flow of action in your fingers where they never have to stop even as they change directions.

From getting to the string to plucking the string to rebounding, to getting to the string again etc, all these actions are done in a continuous flow of action, giving you effortless speed and power because you’re able to keep the momentum of your movement going on, indefinitely, until you want it to stop.

So in your pursuit of economy, don’t get too fixated on just moving in small motions.

There’re other factors to consider.

If you want more power, allow your fingers to make the necessary adjustments to generate that power. If you feel like moving more to kick start a movement, there’s nothing that says you can’t do it. And if you have to move between several different points, don’t be afraid to take  a more circular path even if it means it’s longer.

And if you’re in the business of providing entertainment, you can add all the necessary frills and flourishes you want too, to make your performance more ‘convincing.’

The point, of course, is that these should always be done deliberately, and not because you lack refinement  in your technique.

The concept of economy is a no-brainer, few will question the logic behind it.

If you move less, you will get to your target faster.

The question is not its effectiveness but how to achieve it.

Many people try to achieve economy simply by trying to make the body move less.

If you’re plucking strings, try to make the fingers move less. If you’re fretting notes, try to keep the fingers close to the strings.

This method works to a certain extent, but  it involves too much policing. You’ll have to constantly watch and monitor your fingers, to make sure they move in small motions.

It’s simply ineffective in virtuoso situations, where events often unfold so quickly you don’t have time to think, let alone police your actions.

There’s a better and easier way to achieve economy – play in such a way that economy occurs naturally and automatically.

And that is, to focus your movements at the point of action.

I’ve written about this before and in the AOV for Guitar.

To gain natural economy, simply focus your movements at your fingertips and you will automatically get very small movements in your fingers.

This what most natural players do, they move their fingertips when they play.

But sometimes this natural instinct can be superseded by other factors. For instance, if you’ve been to move the fingers from the knuckle-joint.

Moving from the knuckle joint transfers the focus from the fingertips to the knuckles which automatically result in bigger movements at the fingertips.

As I’ve said before, I’m not in the business of converting people. If you’re playing from the knuckles and it’s working well for you, you should keep on doing it.

But if you’re dissatisfied with your speed and comfort level when you play, you might want to re-evaluate how you play and try focusing your movements at the fingertips. You may be surprised by the results.

The logic behind moving from the fingertips is simple.

Imagine you’re trying scratch an itch. How would you do it?

Would you scratch by moving your finger from your knuckle-joint or would you scratch with your fingertips?

Or imagine you have to reach out to grab an object, maybe a cup of coffee from a table, would you reach out from your shoulder joint or would you reach out with your hand?

The point is, we tend to focus our action in that part of the body that’s directly involved in performing the action.

If we have to grab a cup of coffee, we reach out with our hand. If we want to scratch an itch, we scratch with our fingertips.

It is important to note that no action occurs in isolation. When you move one part of the body, other parts will naturally move in sympathy. That’s just how our body works.

But the primary initiator of the action must always be the part of the body that’s directly involved in performing the action.

In the case of plucking, it’s the fingertip because the fingertip is what’s directly plucking the string.

Focus your movements right there, at the fingertip, and you’ll get natural economy.

That’s the first part about economy.

As you get used to playing at the fingertips, you might discover that at some point, they will begin to develop a kind of intelligence of their own.

It’ll feel as if they know exactly where they have to go. You think a note, and they’re already there on the string automatically. The precision is uncanny.

At times, it almost feel as if they have a mind of their own, like little creatures completely at your beck and call, ready to do your bidding at any time.

How do you achieve this state?

The first is to focus your movements at your fingertips. The more you focus your movements at the fingertips, the more alive and responsive they will be.

The second is to focus on moving to the strings, and not on the actual plucking. This is part of that walking your fingers strategy I have written about before.

When your movements and actions become so oriented towards moving to the strings, the fingers will begin to develop a special awareness of where the strings are.

In time, this knowledge will develop into a kind of sticky fingers syndrome where the fingertips seem to possess some kind of automatic attraction to the strings, a ‘stickiness’ to the strings, much like the ‘sticky hands’ technique of the martial arts.

It feels as if you don’t have to exert any effort to pluck, you think of the note and automatically your fingers are there on the strings, ready to pluck.

Speaking of the martial arts, this state is probably what martial arts practitioners refer to as mushin or wushin, a state of almost mystic proportions in those circles.

But of course there’s nothing mystical about it.

It’s the natural result of many hours of practicing, the natural result of allowing our body to acquire its own intelligence.