Speed


The martial arts teach us to achieve power and speed with technique rather than strength. The essence of which is the ability to redirect opposing forces back to where they came from, so that the harder your opponent pushes you the more force you have to send back to them.

To play fast we need a strong right hand and a quick, accurate, responsive left hand. Try this exercise

  • Return to your chong stance. Check that your feet are parallel, knees slightly bent, your legs are stable, pelvis and upper body relaxed.
  • With your arms in this position focus on your hands, in qigong practice we are able to move the qi in a circuit from one hand to the other.
  • This is not as difficult as it may seem at first. Without actually moving, be aware of your right hand pushing and your left hand receiving. As the left hand yields notice any changes in posture or overall awareness.

Once you think you've got the hang of that take your guitar.

    Play a note with a strong right hand attack, as you do push that note up the string to your left hand.
  • Allow your left hand to be soft so that the energy from the right hand attack moves it onto the next note.
This may take some time to perfect but if you've worked hard on the tai chi and focused awareness exercises you'll be getting some benefit from this exercise, even if you don't notice it at first. Here are a few more tips with this more advanced exercise.

  • Keep you right hand relaxed so that as you strike the string the movement is simply pouring out of your hand, don't push against the string.
  • Your left hand should be open and your arm soft allowing the impulse you created in the right hand to be taken up by the left.
  • Start with two note phrases, then three, 4, 5 etc up to 2 octaves
‹ Accuracyup