No more running

I sit back and think for a moment and my hands feel stronger: the systematic churn and pop of every capillary is visible on their mapped surfaces. Is this how it's supposed to be? Was this the confidence that everyone carried between each practice, each therepeutic session with the instrument where even the most unctious form could smile confidence despite themselves? Anyway, I feel like I've unplugged a fountain.

On a completely related note, I watched Joe Satriani's new live dvd yesterday. While the reviews of the camera work being a complete mess a confirmed, the concert happens to star Joe Satriani. A Satriani work being good is a better truism than dirt being dirty -the man has nearly 20 years of material to work off, and has never produced anything subpar that he couldn't envigorate in his live show. So rather than watch, I listened. While the video was playing in the background, I was reading some biographical stuff on Satch on wikipedia when I came across this completely obvious bit of information: it turns out that guitarists (more like modern shred guitarists if you want it to be more obvious) are separated into two categories: those that play fast by picking every note with their right hand (ala John Petrucci, Yngwie or Steve Vai) and those that do so through legato on the left hand (Allan Holdsworth, Joe Satriani, Randy Rhoads).

This stunning bit of information didn't hit me as I felt it would hit any other guitarist who would say, "No shit," or say, "Petrucci can do legato too" in a zeal for any of the guitarists on the list. At the time, I think the song playing was Surfing with the Alien, and during one of the faster runs, it hit me. My left hand legato blows. It wasn't like, I tried to use my left hand instead of my right, and found that I was naturally predisposed to the use of fast legato; upon testing out whether that was the case or not, it soon became so.

All throughout my practicing I had held my right hand accountable for everything: "I'm picking the wrong strings, I can't pick fast at wide intervals, my stamina is low." I think I used that litany to create several practice schedules, all leaving me with a quick right hand that still was mysteriously unable to hit notes. When I started working on my left hand yesterday, it became apparent how week it had become through legato hammer on-pulloff exercises where the player goes up scales in three-note segments on a single string and refrains from helping with the right hand. It was miserable, and not the sort that I can generally draw a laugh out of. But after three hours of well-timed and slow exercise, my left hand swelled with force.

I had seen videos of people play before and wondered if I looked the same way. Someone once said that a guitar was a highway between your hands and your soul...bullshit, anyone would be inclined to say if they hadn't seen a great player play. But some people touch the guitar and it's like something more familiar to them than an appendage.