Hands Separate

Summary: Work on fretting and picking separately, up to and past target tempo, and then join them.  


Sometimes splitting things up can help reduce your mental load as you try to sort out problems. You drill each component separately, alternating hands at least every couple of minutes, always keeping both hands fresh and relaxed.

  1. Work on the fretting hand. Hammer every note of the passage, or of part of the passage.

  2. Work on the picking hand, picking every string in the manner needed. Your fretting hand can just mute the strings while it rests, or lightly hold a chord.

  3. Repeat, going back and forth between each hand, ensuring they’re always nice and light for each rep. Each rep can be as short as 30 seconds, depending on what you’re working on, but shouldn’t exceed two minutes.

When working on the fretting and picking hands, try to get them going faster than the target tempo. When you join them back up, things will slow down as you synchronize the hands, so the easier and more automatic you can do each hand, the more mental space you’ll have for the task of synchronization.

Example

Take the G minor arpeggio from the Gigue, BWV 1004 Violin Partita no. 2, J.S. Bach, and suppose you wanted to alternate pick every note:

options scale=0.85 font-style=italic tabstave notation=true key=F time=12/8 notes :16 3d/6 6u/6 5d/5 5u/4 8d/4 7u/3 8d/2 6u/1 8d/2 7u/3 8d/4 5u/4

This passage contains many difficulties:

  • fast left hand position shifts

  • potentially unfamiliar left hand finger placement order

  • picking single-note-per-string.

You can reduce the fretting hand to a series of hammer-ons (each note is hammered):

options scale=0.85 font-style=italic tabstave notation=true key=F time=12/8 notes :16 3/6 $H 1$ 6/6 $H 3$ 5/5 $H 2$ 5/4 $H 1$ 8/4 $H 3$ 7/3 $H 2$ 8/2 $H 4$ 6/1 $H 1$ 8/2 $H 4$ 7/3 $H 2$ 8/4 $H 3$ 5/4 $H 1$

For the picking work, you can just mute all the strings (and give your fretting hand a break), or just lay your middle finger across the 12th fret to get harmonics:

options scale=0.85 font-style=italic tabstave notation=false time=12/8 notes :16 12d/6 12u/6 12d/5 12u/4 12d/4 12u/3 12d/2 12u/1 12d/2 12u/3 12d/4 12u/4 text :w,(all 12th fret harmonics)

Having split the passage up, work on a chunk of the passage with the left hand, until it tires. This can be as short as 30 seconds, depending on what you’re working on, but shouldn’t exceed two minutes. Then switch to the right hand, working a short chunk. Then repeat this for your practice session for this lick, which shouldn’t exceed 20 minutes.

Tip

The hands should always feel light and ready when starting each rep. Don’t overdo it! Use a timer if you need to, to ensure you’re always going back and forth between hands, giving them a chance to rest.

When you’re working on a given hand, you can use any practice technique you want, such as Chaining or Rhythmic Variations, whatever works.