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Topic: Watching The Right Hand |
Paul King
From:
Gainesville, Texas, USA
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Posted 19 Apr 2019 2:52 am |
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| I sit down and watch a lot of videos on YouTube and Facebook of fellow steel players playing. I have noticed several watch their right hand while playing. I just always remember Jeff Newman instructing to watch the bar hand. After 40 years of playing I rarely look at the right hand while playing. It is not a slam on anyone just something I observed. I also watch pros like Emmons, Rugg, Jernigan, Day and several others and they do not look at their right hand. Just curious as to why some look at the right hand and some do not. |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 19 Apr 2019 8:24 am
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I suspect that "seat-time" has a lot to do with it!  It's sorta like tying your shoes, or a tie; the more you do it, the more natural the movements become. It's also helpful to keep in mind that always watching your right hand can become a crutch, after awhile. I liken it to always using a tuner for your guitar. If you always use the tuner, you'll never develop the "ear" you need to attain good intonation. |
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Fred Treece
From:
California, USA
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Posted 19 Apr 2019 8:25 am
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Maybe they’re watching their right hand for the same reason you are - they want to see what it’s doing and make sure it’s behaving. They may be at a moment in their development as a player where they are not happy with their right hand technique and are trying to figure out what needs to change. Or maybe the right hand is doing something more complicated than the left, and they can keep the bar in position by ear.
In Jeff Newman’s Right Hand Alpha video, the camera is focused on his right hand most of the time. I know. Duh... |
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Curt Trisko
From:
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
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Posted 19 Apr 2019 8:54 am
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| Fred Treece wrote: |
| Or maybe the right hand is doing something more complicated than the left, and they can keep the bar in position by ear. |
Playing involves so much coordination that if I had to put conscious effort into also coordinating my eyes, I have to think that attention would be taken away from something else in my playing. 
For the expert players, I doubt that they're intentionally not looking at their right hand. It's probably that they've got that part down so well that it's a better use of their eyes to be constantly on their left hand. |
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Paul King
From:
Gainesville, Texas, USA
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Posted 19 Apr 2019 9:13 am
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| By the same token I have seen players count strings. I guess it is just a learning experience for all of us. I remember Jeff Newman talking about Buddy Emmons right hand. Man, if we all had his technique and playing ability how great it would be. |
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Fred Treece
From:
California, USA
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Posted 19 Apr 2019 9:48 am
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| Curt Trisko wrote: |
[Playing involves so much coordination that if I had to put conscious effort into also coordinating my eyes, I have to think that attention would be taken away from something else in my playing.
For the expert players, I doubt that they're intentionally not looking at their right hand. It's probably that they've got that part down so well that it's a better use of their eyes to be constantly on their left hand. |
That’s why right hand exercises dumb down the left hand’s responsibilities.
I agree that when a player has total control of the right hand, looking at it while playing would seem to be a completely arbitrary thing. Many “expert†players can play some passages without looking at either hand. |
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Paul King
From:
Gainesville, Texas, USA
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Posted 19 Apr 2019 1:58 pm
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| That is true Fred. I have seen Emmons and Joe Wright play without looking. Emmons used to practice in the dark. I have never been one that could play without seeing the bar hand. |
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Paul King
From:
Gainesville, Texas, USA
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Posted 21 Apr 2019 3:34 am
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| I was talking with a friend yesterday about this topic. He told me in his early years he would watch the right hand mainly due to inexperience. He was still learning string combination grips and just felt insecure. |
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Rick Kornacker
From:
Dixon Springs, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 21 Apr 2019 5:14 am a bit more
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Just thought I'd chime in...a bit of info, opinion, and steel guitar history rolled into one thread. Paying strict attention to your right hand technique as a new player is absolutely "key". Although there are more than any one approach(which work for individual player's)you must at least decide on one good approach at the start. For me it was the Newman technique, albeit that I "acquired" it long before "Right Hand ALPHA" was produced. I had been working diligently with an instructor who was well-versed in Jeff's ideas. By the time(1978) I attended Jeff's Group III class the first thing he noticed was my right hand. He essentially told me that it was "pretty as a picture"...and eventually used me(my right hand!) as a "model" for the picture in the brochure included with the original course. So, once you have established a good, working technique you are basically "there"...not to say subtle improvements and adjustments can be made. An analogy perhaps...a golfer gets his "swing" in order and then does it without thinking about it. Why a player doesn't watch his right hand?. He is already "there"...he is being musical, not "technical"...where we all eventually strive to be. Humbly speaking, many of you older Forumites know me for some of my instructional offerings and the fact that Jeff N. eventually became my father-in-law. It's been a wild ride and I treasure every moment of my steel guitar experience. Hope this is beneficial info and not too long-winded. Respectfully submitted as always and... play GOOD!RK
_________________
"think MORE...play LESS" |
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Paul King
From:
Gainesville, Texas, USA
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Posted 21 Apr 2019 5:28 am
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| Thanks Rick for that info. I never knew you married into the family. Wow, how every steel player would love to have a father-in-law who could play like Jeff Newman. |
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