Six note chords
One of the maxims of effective practice is to break everything down to the smallest movement. Isolated problems are easier to tackle because you are focussing on one thing and as such the solution can become clearer to you. Related to this advice is to practice only one hand at a time. In other words, if you are practising arpeggios, for example, the idea then would be to focus all you attention on the right hand. Therefore, the left hand should be doing as little as possible. This, to me sounds eminently sensible.
However, my experience of this type of practice, especially if done over an extended period of time, can cause tension and fatigue in the left hand. This tension is detrimental to any kind of playing and steps should be taken to eliminate it.
So here are a series of chords that you can use to practice with. They all employ simple and easy fingerings and once mastered, they can be done with very little thought, leaving you to concentrate on your right hand without mashing up your left.
What can you do with these chords?
- arpeggios
- tremolo on various strings
- alzapúa
- block chords using i-m, m-a, i-m-a, p-i-m-a, p-i, p-m, p-a and so on…
- picado string crossings
Can you think of anything else?
