Simple “classical” Right Hand Patterns, or Chords Arpeggio, or False Arpeggios
David Raleigh Arnold
It would be good to balance these patterns with some work on the Carcassi “scales”.
There is in prospect a whole other set of sequences emphasizing the development of the thumb a good deal more.
Sequences
The idea of practicing right hand finger sequences without real
music is not a new one. Some 20th century methods even have
a number of patterns on open strings to get started. Much earlier,
Mauro Giuliani published
120 right hand
All of the sequence work here is on music, and none of it is empty finger patterns.
There is nothing wrong with the idea of practicing right hand finger sequences with meaningless chords for beginners, but it is not fit work for a player who is not a beginner. Giuliani’s 120, or anything similar, can only be of any use until the student has collected enough real music featuring such work to render it superfluous. Your common sense should tell you that the best thing to do when you are working on this sort of thing is to spend the most time on the patterns that give the most difficulty.
Simple Sequences Using Three Digits
Start with the third piece, Puddle Mode
from my
Seven Easy Pieces,
substituting these patterns for what is there (timi). The advantage
of doing this work with real music is that real music can sound better
or worse. What a good performance of two chords changing back and
forth might be is unclear. In this case, only the
playing of the open ➀ and ➁ strings changes. Work on maximum power
of sound and evenness of tempo. Where you have four or six note
sequences, vary the rhythm by playing
jazz
The fact that the bass note is written as a separate voice with
its own stem indicates, in guitar music with two voices such as
this, that the chord tones above
sustain for the duration of that bass note or until they are
played
The thumb plays appoggiato, meaning that it comes to rest against the next string after playing a note, and it stays there until it has to be removed to get out of the way of the index or to play the next bass note.
Don’t set ridiculous goals. You will never be able to do tmam as fast as timi.
Beginning Right Hand Patterns
t, i, and m (use with Puddle Mode}
Of course the first one is the one already used in the original.
The ➀ string is played by m.
The ➁ string is played by i.
The thumb plays all of those remaining.
timi tmim tim tmi timimi tmimim
More Advanced Sequences
A good piece to use to work on the second group of sequences is the
first prelude
from the Carcassi
The patterns from the Ten Lessons are still good too, but if you have forgotten them, here they are again. ☺ Simply assign each finger to a string: i → ➂, m → ➁, a → ➀, and t → (the remainder).
The first parts below are also available in plain text.
Sequences Using t, i, m, and a (use with Carcassi) tima taim timami tmiaim tiaimi tmaiai tamiam timiaimi tiam tami timaim tmiami timiai tamiai tamima tmaiamia tmia tiamia tmaiam timama taiama taimai tmiama tamimaia tmai tiamam tmaima tmamai tiamai taimia timama tmimamim t, m, and a (more advanced) tmam tama tma tam tmamam tamama tmamamam tamamama tmama tamam
Doubling Up
Fingers without a space between them indicate strings played at the same time.
t i ma i ma i t ma i ma i ma t m ia m ia m t ia m ia m ia t im a im a im t a im a im a t im a im a im t im ma im ma im t ia ma ia ma ia t ima ima ima t ima a ima a ima
Shifting Emphasis
Repeated chords are without question the most important single right hand pattern. The thumb is only apoyando where possible. The emphasis is on the string indicated and that note should be much louder than the others.
tima tima tima tima (also on each of the other strings) > > > > tima tima tima tima > > > >
End Notes:
§1 To their credit, modern editors usually call them something other than arpeggios. That misnomer has caused guitarists to think that they did not lack arpeggio exercises. To the contrary, real arpeggio practice is many times better than Giuliani’s sort of nonsense.
The Giuliani 120 is in his Op. 1. You can download the whole thing gratis from Boije. Look under “G”. ☺
A better prospect is the shorter list of patterns in the Carcassi Method, because they are more selective.
§2 “Jazz eighths” is the term for the slightly uneven division of the beat used in jazz and folk music. The ratio of note lengths is something like 51:49. It is nothing like 3:2 or even 5:4.
§3 The same usage often applies to music with three voices, where chord tones are stemmed with a melody part above.
The same prelude is here in pdf format, and on page 20 of the Carcassi Method.
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