Fret/Pick Hand Independence

Is your fret hand dependent on the pick hand? This could be problem you’re not even aware of. Try playing a phrase or musical passage with only the fretting hand. How is your time? With or without the pick hand the time needs a solid feel. So we need to make sure that the left hand plays time too. What can we do to improve and what challenges does the fret hand meet? One issue with the fret hand is the distance it travels. We have a pulse in the music that is steady and fairly uniform, while on the fretboard we have a variety of distances to travel to get to the next note. What we want to do is move the fingers by variable distances on the fretboard, but keep the same time interval. It is difficult to Improve weaknesses in the fret hand. Starting out we can simply set a metronome to a slow setting, let’s say 60 bmp, and see if we can place a finger on a fret/string at the exact moment as the click. In addition, we can take the picking hand and tap quarter notes or even a subdivision on the guitar top. Try this exercise and let me know how they work for you. I will be discussing a lot more about pick/fret hand independence in future articles, videos, and podcasts.