Economy
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But sometimes this natural instinct can be superseded by other factors.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.