#160 - The 6 WORST Fretting Hand Guitar Mistakes + 15 Minute Legato Workout

when descending 10,8,6,,,, 10,8,6,,,,always first finger should reach 6 first and then pulloff needs to be done from 10,8 ?

Mridul Mehndiratta

I have the same problem - but - it's been a lot less prominent the last two weeks I've been forcing myself to use proper form and strength building my pinky (using Bernth's exercises). For me it was the knuckle joint that locked/popped. I am also "double jointed", or at least my joints can bend a bit more than Mr Average, so it might be a thing. In my highly non-professional opinion; I think the locking mostly occurs due to lack of muscles, seeing as it has been reduced from "pop locking constantly" to "once in a blue moon" these last weeks. Overall, I have hope for my pinky these days. :)

Robert Bjärmyr

I use the first finger on my fretting hand. You have to make sure you don't fret the strings instead of muting them.

Maximilian Schlipf

I know that the lifting of the pinky was brought up before, but has anyone ever had a problem with your pinky locking?? I tried looking for people with a similar problem but it was mostly violin and holding the bow. Seems like it's a double jointed thing? When I bend my pinky, the joint in the middle locks. I get the top joint to bend before the joint in the middle does. Or if I use my pinky to barre a fret, it never works out because the top joint bend and will lock the middle joint when I try to press down. Does anyone else have this problem? Does anyone know how I can fix this?

FUYU

Thank you for the tip Ian! Have been practicing it on a daily basis and it's slowly getting there :)

Salomé Sequeira

Think of lifting it but still keeping contact with the string. You're just releasing unnecessary tension

Ian Puzinas

One Question when doing the legato section with the pull offs, I can't get the strings underneath the one who is actually played get muted right, so i worked with my right hand, (ring finger to get it muted), is this right ? or should I avoid the string noises totally with my fretting hand ?

Hello BERNTH! for the Level 2: descending, do you push all three fingers down in preparation for the pull off? Because in your video, it seems you push down just one finger at all times. Thanks!

Arcanist Bear

This is something I thought about a lot too. For what it's worth, I believe it's like you said - you would move the thumb along with your hand as you change positions. What works well for me is just keeping the thumb lightly pressed on the back, and you can lightly pick it up/slide it as you move a fret or two over. That seems to maintain the efficiency of all your fingers all the time. Would also like to see a thumb view on a video sometime.

Will Malone

I find this lesson challenging, but not overwhelming. I have done the 15 min lesson for 3 days now and already feel more comfortable. Granted, I have miles and miles and miles to go, but guitar is a journey not a destination. Bernth, thank you so much for the quality material. I will be right here when the next lesson comes out.

Justin Baker

Always great videos! Thanks!

Carlos Mendez

good evening Bernth thank you for your videos. I'm a beginner but your advice, even if I don't have the level to play it, is still valuable. I have a question about pull-offs, have you ever made a video on how to pull the string, how the finger should be positioned ... when doing a pull-off, the string necessarily moves a lot more, the index must it exert extra pressure to keep the string in ‘axis’? thanks. Matthieu. And my apologies for my terrible English.

Cocteau

Well... this is yet again a very personal and bodyphysiquewise problem. I was playing my guitar ever since on the right leg while practicing/sitting. Starting to regulary work at my skills (finally) with Bernths exercises I paid better attention to everything. So I noticed that while standing my guitar isn't quite in the same position as it is while sitting. So I startet laying my guitar on my left leg and now the positioning is much closer to the one when I am standing and so is the feeling while playing. Always troubled myself that the feeling was different... I now feel more like my practicing is really doing something since I don't completly have to adept to another position of the guitar when playing in bandcontext. What else is to say is, that I am using a DBZ Bird of Prey as my guitar... it is kind of a flying V model. So the shape of your guitar has to be considered too when thinking about positioning when you are sitting. But I guess the best overall tip here really is: When you are sitting it should as much feel as when you are staying as possible. Regulary your body is telling you if something fits or not and you have to find YOUR way since you can't just copy anyones positioning since you have different physiques. And I would wish for more teachers out there to explicitly mention this. If this wouldn't have told me by my old teacher early days I guess I still would try to position everything EXACLTY as shown here in Berths videos for example even if it would hurt myself or just feel totally odd. I just CAN'T do everything exactly as Bernth is doing and also describing it (for example in one video he told us, he is positioning his left thumb on the back between his index and middle finger doesn't work for me. It is more like the same position as my index and the more I am moving to the higher freds the more my thumb is turning to the left side of the index). This works for angles of your shoulder, arms and even fingeres and thumbs of course.

Sephiroth

Too bad you didn't include a Advance videoplayalong like in #151. Guess this will work at most a week until switching to higher tempo. (mostly for the memory: what to play when etc. and the last part is a little tricky technique wise) considering doing it one time each day just playing the video and play along and not more. By the way... I always asked myself... why do you don't show us a new camera angle? Like from above. To see you and your movements from the front is very neat and helpful BUT when playing along with you, we don't see ourself like that. And even if we would via recording ourselves too and mirror this the same time on a monitor it would still be interessting if not really helpful to see what all your techniques look like from YOUR point of view to translate it better to OUR playing. I would think it could be difficult to position the camera angle though... Anyhow. Great work again. Guess I'll include it into my daily routine for some weeks. Using #151 since you uploaded it (but now finally setting the tempo 20 bpm higher than your advanced version). Also it is not too difficult to adapt with my guitar. Since it is tuned down 1 step it's often a little tricky to adept to your videos but this time it's pretty easy done.

Sephiroth

When you take the index finger off it feels like you're purely doing hammer ons.

DJ Neill

Hello! Thank you for the workouts. On the first exercise you mention that leaving the finger is less economical but in my case I am struggling to not leave it there, I have to think twice and lift it up which makes it much harder for me. Is it still effective to leave it there and do the exercise? I'm still very much of a novice player! Thank you

Salomé Sequeira

After my health disaster I started studying legato finally after 3 years of break this week Bernth!! How did you know?!?! ARE YOU A WIZARD?!?!?! <3 <3 <3

Emre Yamangil

Extremely helpful. Thank you.

Papa Murf76

Bernth, I have noticed that it’s much easier to hold your fretting hand in the proper position when you hold your guitar on your right leg versus the left leg. I noticed you typically hold your guitar on your right leg in most of your videos. This has been a struggle for me because I am tall and when I hold the guitar on my right leg, my right shoulder starts to hurt after a brief period of time and have to switch back to my left leg which feels more comfortable. Have you ever encountered this problem?

Bobby McKee

For some reason I keep getting hung up on the thumb. How is the thumb supposed to go? does it just rest at the same position behind the middle finger the entire time and you just slide it along or do you anchor it at any point?

IcicleTrepan

The video I've been waiting for thank you!

Tom F

Another great lesson, helping me definitely with my workouts and maintaining clean sounds.

Steve Shaw

I was hoping the 15 min legato workout would make the cut this month!

Michael Buncher