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We will return later in this series to examine this not-uncommon practice, but that’s what it is, a practice (in the sense of a way of doing things or a custom), not a principle. This method seems to me by far the best it is the method I’ve used since I began to teach, and it is the principle I’ve applied to this book. …for the most part I learned the guitar by playing pieces I loved and trying to perfect them. In the Forward to Volume One of the revised edition (1998) of The Christopher Parkening Guitar Method, Parkening writes: Pepe Romero, in his Guitar Style and Technique from 1982, states: “Another very important principle to remember is to not make sudden movements with your left hand, but to take all the time you have available between notes all your movements must be graceful.” This is excellent advice, but it’s not a principle, it’s an instruction. The use of minimal pressure would best be left formulated as a separate principle inclusive of many other areas of left-hand technique.
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Had he written something like, “The left hand can function effortlessly and smoothly if the fingers and mind can anticipate the next shape when moving from chord to chord,” and presented information to support the statement, he would have had a principle with broad application. Anticipate each new formation by whatever physical means available when no physical anticipation is possible, anticipate mentally.Īlthough I wouldn’t argue with the above statements as directives applicable to many situations, they are not principles.Play softly and use no more finger pressure at any time than absolutely necessary.Never entirely relax the fingers between formations.In the 1980 edition of Charles Duncan’s The Art of Classical Guitar Playing, there is a section titled “Principles Of Movement (II): The Role of Anticipation” in which he lists the following: It is a basic part of left hand technique.” Here he has named something a principle, but he hasn’t defined it, except in a circular way: the instructions derived from the principle define the principle. This is not to determine the validity or usefulness of the information or instruction, only how it is presented, which may affect a student’s ability to question it or apply what is taught.įrederick Noad, in Solo Guitar Playing, which was first published in 1968, writes: “In changing from one chord to another with the left hand, always take the shortest path for the fingers. Let’s have a look at a few things that are presented as principles in the guitar’s pedagogical literature and see if they actually are principles. If you mistake a directive for a principle you may end up offering a student something that is inappropriate for them and you will not have given them the means to discover why.
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A deep knowledge of underlying principles will liberate students by helping them understand the why of your teaching, as well as provide them with a clear idea of what to return to on the many occasions when it is necessary to deviate from these principles.ĭirectives need to be fluid and may change from student to student. The distinction I make between a principle and a directive in “The Re-Imagination of Guitar Pedagogy” in the Spring 2000 issue of Soundboard is still useful today:Ī directive is a simple statement such as “Keep your wrist straight.” A principle is the soil out of which these directives grow: “Muscles work best when aligned with their joints.” Directives are necessary and can help a student apply principles, but they are often presented in an inflexible or even capricious way. Not all principles can be reduced to a pithy statement. Sometimes a principle can be stated as an instruction, but only when sound reasons have been given previously. If they are to rise above the anecdotal or opinion, they’ll be based upon principles. Directives, however, are instructions, and are stated in the imperative, a grammatical mood in which commands or requests are formed. We want to have good reasons for what we do and sound principles can be those reasons. A principle is a truth or proposition that shapes our reasoning and behavior.