Thumb Songs 3 & 4 | from Sketches I by Frank Wallace

Here’s this week’s tutorial video on Thumb Songs 3 & 4 from Sketches I.

As you contemplate rest stroke with thumb or finger, be sure to note how deeply the rest string is depressed.

If you missed last week’s blog on Thumb Songs 1 & 2, please review the basic principles outlined there.

Beauty of tone

The purpose of all study and technical exercise is simple: to create beautiful tone and have total control over it. Yes, beauty is in the ear of the beholder, but that is what makes us all unique.

Beauty of tone is dependent on fluidity of motion that excites complete resonance in the body of the instrument, be it voice, guitar, flute or other. If there is a break in flow, the resonance will be incomplete. Everything must vibrate, from head to toe, from head-stock to tie block.

What gets in the way

Perhaps you have been frustrated by an intermittent buzz of mysterious origin in your guitar. You think it is a bad string, you change it to no avail. It sounds like it might be in the saddle, but lo and behold, your luthier discovers a loose screw in the tuners. Such a tiny interruption or interference with pure vibration and resonance is annoying and not beautiful!

We sense when a politician is insincere, when a child is lying or a friend doesn’t want to tell the whole story. Likewise we feel it when a musician is not all there. We want the truth, we want 100%. If there is tension in your elbow, or your toes are curled under or your pinky is sticking out all the time, you can’t be giving 100% to the production of sound. Your guitar cannot be fully engaged in essential vibration.

Let the resonance blossom

So we practice to find these blockages and release them. The reward is full and gorgeous resonance. Shift your attention between both sides of the equation, ie: scan your body for tension, then focus on the sound you are achieving.

Be sure to enjoy the process, that’s all we can do. And please enjoy working on these thumb studies, they are really fun to play because they create so much natural resonance in the guitar, without a lot of complication.

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