Quesiotn: Left-Hand Technique (Hawaiian)

[Patrick Newbery]

Hi-
I have been playing electric lap and console guitars and getting a pretty good feel for left hand technique.

But now, I am playing around with G (low bass) and learning older Hawaiian music (thanks to Bob Brozman's DVD and my ears, and my wife's patience).

Having a bit of a problem going from single notes to slanted diad/triads with out dropping the bar. And getting the triad slants in-tune below the 7th fret is a challenge.

Any suggestions (other than practice, practice practice?).

Interestingly enough, I am getting more comfortable with the left hand on the electric the more I play the old Hawaiian stuff.

Thanks.

[c c johnson]

I assume you have a bullet nose bar with an indentation on the flat end. Properly held you should not have trouble holding the bar, the index finger slightly bent on top, the thumb against the side, the middle finger against the other. When I was teaching I found that students who repeatedly dropped the bar during an exercize simmilar tothe one you described were making the slantwith the entire forearm instead of the fingers. Hope this helps. CC

[Brad Bechtel]

I find that triad slants (where you use all three notes) below the seventh fret just don't sound right to me no matter what. Frequently I'll slide up to the IV of the chord and play the next three lowest strings rather than doing a full chordal slant.
I've tried the low bass G (bass to treble D G D G B D) but I prefer regular open G (bass to treble G B D G B D) for my own Hawaiian playing. I like being able to play the same thing one octave lower.
Now if I could only figure out a good way to fake augmented chords...

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[Don Kona Woods]

Taking off of what C.C. says:

Practice using his technique stated above moving the bar from straight bar position to forward or backward position and then back to straight position.

Then practice moving the bar position to a backward slant and then immediately moving to a forward slant. This will increase your dexterity with the bar. Or vice versa

Practice this last exercise for ten minutes each day and you will eventually become proficient. You do not need to play a song for this exercise.

Good picking and slanting.

Aloha,
Don

[Patrick Newbery]

CC and Don-
Thanks. I am using a bullet nose bar (and trying a few different diameters/lengths. For Hawaiian on the Tricone, my preference is the 7/8" diameter 3.25" length bar, has the right heft and length).

My slant technique has been progressing pretty well on all instruments (with the exception of getting the intonation on the lower frets on the Tricone).

For me, the trick really is going from a point/single note style to a slant and back again, quickly. I carry a bar around in by left hand (held as in single point style) following Stacy Phillips suggestion of getting used to holding the bar, which has helped.

It's just when I watch Bob Brozman play, he's able to shift from point to flat with such speed and attack that I am wondering if there's something I'm missing.

[Travis Bernhardt]

As you suspected, the answer is simply more practice (sadly, it almost always is). Keep it up and you'l get it (or you'll find other things to play instead that sound good and don't require those tricky moves!).

For the slants below the seventh fret, lots of vibrato will help, and for augmented chords you can either do the "illegal move" that Brozman mentions on his tape (one fret forward slant on strings one, two and three and vibrato like mad to make the second string sound in-tunesque) or a string pull.

-Travis