How To Finger Accurately And Play In Tune.

Section links: Intro Tuning Straight Wrist Hand Form Finger Placement Minimum Finger Movement Third Finger "Secret" Exercises

The less you move your fingers, the better you will play.

If an archer stands 10 feet from his target and lets his arrow fly, he'll probably hit the bullseye (even if he's not much of an archer). But if he stands 100 feet from that same target, his chances of hitting the bullseye go way, way down (no matter how good he is). So what does this have to do with fiddling? Well actually, a lot!

Think of the tip of the 1st finger on your left hand as an arrow that needs to hit its target (say the B note on the A string). The more distance the tip of that finger is forced to travel, the more likely it is that it'll miss the bullseye.
Unfortunately, most people have a natural tendency to extend their fingers and stand them up when they aren't using them. If you want to play smoothly and in tune, you'll need to find a way to combat this. The videos that follow should help.

The bad and the ugly.

In this first video, my fingers are moving in several directions at once. You want to avoid this.
It takes energy to lift a finger away from the fingerboard and straighten it; and you don't need to do it. The extra effort accomplishes nothing.

The good.

In this second video, I eliminate any finger activity that doesn't contribute to my playing. This is more what you're after.
Learning to minimize finger movement is just a matter of building good habits.
So how do you build those habits? We'll cover that in detail in the "Exercises" section of this lesson.

Once you've played this second video a time or two, click here for more info.