Best way(s) to train right hand?

bratsche

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Even though I've become proficient at using a pick, I am determined to use my fingers more now that I have a baritone uke, on which my fingers can actually have a pleasant sound on its strings, unlike mandola and mandolin, for the most part. If I'm playing a slow piece, I can really milk the tone, but I find I'm using my thumb almost exclusively. (Just flesh, no nails, as growing them would interfere with my viola bowing.)

It's when I try to play something faster that my lack of coordination really shows. I really admire those who can fingerpick at a fast clip, but since in videos, their fingers are mostly concealed by the rest of the hand, I really can't see what they're doing. I either find my hand flailing about with tense fingers spread too far apart, or when I try to keep it more cupped, the fingers then get in each other's way, or that of a string, and will often stop the sustain of a note abruptly. And when to use the thumb? When to use a finger? And then, which finger? Sigh.

My instinct says to use the thumb on the downbeats, and only on upbeats if they occur on the next higher (pitched) adjacent string. On upbeats, I will try to use my middle finger when possible, as it has twice the meat on it as my first finger. Sometimes this is easier than other times. But what do I do in a fast passage that alternates between continuous notes on the same string and notes on different strings?

How can I get more fluent at this? I play a lot of Bach pieces, and they contain all kinds of passages.... linear melody, chords, counter-melodies, cross picked melodies, the whole enchilada. I can play these up to tempo with a pick, but wish to expand my horizons. In some practice sessions, my fingers may seem to have a brief epiphany, and the next time, I can't seem to reproduce what worked well the time before.

Do people have hard-and-fast things they always do, or do they make their fingerstrokes up on the fly according to what notes and chords are in what they're playing? My fingers are used to working together as a unit, not independently.

bratsche
 
There are two Mel Bay books - 20 Easy Fingerstyle Studies for Ukulele and 20 Progressive Fingerstyle Studies for Uke both by Rob MacKillop. Working your way through those before attempting more challenging literature. Another book which might help to get your right-hand/left-hand coordination better is Killer Technique Ukulele by Collin Bay. This latter book has two sections, one aimed at improving left-hand technique and the other for improving the right-hand technique.
 
My fingers are used to working together as a unit, not independently.

It's a matter of training them to do the latter through, you guessed it, practice. Lots of books etc, out there with exercises, including those mentioned. I don't think it matters must which you're using, just that you are.
 
As a "rule of thumb" (pun intended) ... one picking digit per string (on a ukulele), thumb on the G, first finger for the C string, second finger on the E string and (bet you guessed) the ring finger on the A string ... use as required ;)

Afterthought: Obviously, on a baritone, the strings are D,G,B and E, but you get the idea!

The little finger can be usefully braced on the top of the instrument, somewhere between the sound-hole and the bridge. By putting the little finger in the same place every time the rest of the hand tends to "fall into place" more or less automatically.

Inevitably some digits get more work to do than others, but by sticking to the "one string, one finger" rule, no finger has very far to go to pick it's notes.

YMMV :music:
 
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Google Samantha Muir and go to her website. Click on Ukulele Main page, scroll down to book #7. Titled....FREE....The Little Book of Right Hand Technique for Ukulele.

Your welcome. Remember me this Christmas ;) I am just paying back for the kindness that was given me when I was told about this. It is excellent, videos and everything, enjoy.
 
I used lessons from classical guitar and lots of Spanish and South American styles. There are tons of videos on youtube and books. Then once you get the basics down head over to the classical ukulele pdfs site and start work on some pieces.
 
There is no set way as to which finger should be played on which string, although you can start by playing arpeggios with Thumb (G), Index(C), Middle(E), Ring(A). In classical guitar we refer too these fingers as P,I,M,A - those initials come from the Latin names for the digits. So, in your studies you may find some reference to P,I,M,A and the instructions may tell you which finger to use where. But you can also move your thumb to alternating strings (often called drop-thumb or Travis style) and there are times when you'll play the same string with alternating fingers as in a Flamenco style.

I'll look for some links and include them in a subsequent post.
 
Thanks, everybody, for the input. I gleaned some good principles from all that. I should have mentioned that most uke books, .pdfs, etc. are not likely useful, as my instrument's tuned to GDAE, and even if I were tuned to DGBE, I don't read tab. Heck, I don't usually even know what numbered fret a note's on without stopping and counting them, so that would waste a lot of time for nothing. Basically, my left hand plays automatically either from memory, by ear or reading sheet music, and I don't even pay much attention to it anymore. As long as my baritone is tuned in 5ths like the rest of my instruments, that hand isn't the problem.

DownUpDave - I've been to Samantha Muir's website. She is great! She even posted a video here of her playing one of the same Bach pieces I'm playing, which I intend to re-watch. It was very extremely well done, in spite of being played on an instrument tuned as oddly as a ukulele. <grin> Thanks for the tip on her book, which I'll look for. Free is always good. :)

Interesting to see that playing the same string with alternating fingers is acceptable. I was finding myself doing that (and also alternating thumb-finger) as an alternative to the usual down-up-down-up that I'd do with a pick on faster passages on the same string. I guess passages that alternate between strings could either go thumb-finger-thumb-finger (feels more natural) or finger-thumb-finger-thumb (feels completely awkward and backassward), depending on which part of the beat has the note on the lower and higher string. The latter is quite a bit slow yet, and clumsy, but doing the reverse does not make any sense going between .a high string (downbeats) and low string (afterbeats).

I guess practice is key, then, as in everything - repetition until it becomes second nature. (But I want it right now! LOL) And I don't like the sound my index finger makes on the strings - sounds more lika a bad pick than a finger, as it's all skin and bone.. (I try to avoid pizzicato on the viola with that finger, too, for the same reason, and use the middle instead.)

I suspect that whatever I wind up doing when I get used to doing it will be my own unique and very unconventional style.

Well, back into the woodshed I go!

bratsche
 
Repetition is the key to building speed. Go slowly and as accurately as possible, work with a metronome and slowly increase speed as you notice an increase in accuracy.

Banjo roll patterns make good exercises.

Like they say in racing - Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.
 
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