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I notice guitarists who never or seldom look at their left hand while playing. Others intently watch their left hand as they play.
What are you? Looker or non-looker?
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12-05-2015 12:02 PM
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I look. What I don't like is when guitarists stare at you when playing...
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I don't need to look a lot of the time but I do now and then. I'll practice sometimes with my eyes closed or in the dark.
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The less I look the better I feel about my progress on knowing the neck. First it was from sightreading where it's more necessity than nicety. But then the more I worked on improv I found it valuable to just be able to not look. but I still look more than I like.
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I try not to look, cause it's healthier for the spine.
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I think I tend to look, but I don't know. I don't have to. I'm like Chauncy Gardner.
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I think there are at least two kinds of looking. One is help one avoid getting lost----such as when running lines through all 12 keys and needing the visual reference here and there----but another one is to keep from getting distracted by anything ELSE one might look at while playing.
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Yeah, all those women swooning while I play "Satin Doll" is sooooo… distracting…
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Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
I think there is two types of looking. One is looking first to target where you plan to go, Second is something seems wrong where am I? These days I try to do the second type of looking to develop trust in my shifting.
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Sometimes double-takes.
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Like I tell my students when I ask them a musical question. They tend to look up at the ceiling. I ask them what they're looking at. They might say a mental image picture of the staff or a keyboard, or they count letters or numbers. I tell them ton look at their guitar. It's right there in your lap.
When I play I'm looking a fretboard in my mind. It's also in my lap. Might as well save the mental image picture energy and actually look. But as I say I don't know have to and I don't know where I look. But as I think about it I'm looking at the fretboard and my fingers. I'm not sure whether I look at them for real or in my mind. A little of both I think.
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I don't have to look, because sight reading weekly in a big band for 10 years has fixed that, but if I don't have a chart in front of me, I find myself taking advantage of the freedom to look at the neck if I want to.
I certainly find it helpful whenever I'm trying to be adventurous with big position shifts, or whatever. I love to watch other bandmembers play, and make eye contact with them during a tune. It's a level of awareness and communication on the bandstand that you'll lose if you're only focused on staring at your left hand, IMO.
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If i play something well rehearsed that i played before hundreds of times, im relaxed and try to look at the audience, make an eye contact, see if any ladies are listening, or dancing... But if i play jazz tunes im still practicing, i have to look at the fretboard. Sometimes I look at fretboard when I feel embarrassed by what i just played, or how band sounding together, then i just wanna bury myself from shame by looking at the neck!
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I was actually thinking about things in my practice room: clutter, to-do list, that sort of thing. Originally Posted by lawson-stone
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I saw a recent clip of George Benson ..
and he said something like
better not to look sometimes because
"your brain may want to hear something different from what your eyes are seeing"..
I am paraphrasing here but that was the point he was making...
...Sometimes better to let your mind hear/ dictate your phrases and look down at the fingerboard less..
Your mind hears " inside" Notes that fit the Changes ..even when you don't know the changes yet...so if you can play what is in your mind...you are often leaps ahead...
And ideally you will know the changes well enough to arpeggiate through them and have patterns to fall back on also..
I would rather look than take too many chances...but have endings for lines called " melodic cadences" which force the listener to hear what I just played in a certain chordal area so I have to look at the fingerboard for phrase endings...but that is my limitation..
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Originally Posted by Robertkoa
I notice when I watch great musicians improvise they tend to close their eyes and I believe it's their way to block out distractions and focus on the notes they play.
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Timely thread because just today I "resolved" to stop looking at the fretboard in real playing situations when I'm taking solos or playing heads (will probably still look for comping) - in most of my practice I do not look but I tend to look when I'm playing with others, but I think it's to the detriment of my playing. I think it makes me try to overplay or perhaps play more pattern-based stuff than I should be doing when in a real playing situation and trying to make music, where staying in the pocket is priority #1. I mean if horn players don't look at their fingers then I don't think as a guitarist I should have to either, plus I've seen several pro jazz guitarists who never look. I can come up with lines away from the guitar, so I should be able to play without looking...
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I'm mostly looking in the direction of the fret board but not always looking directly at it, except for when I am shifting positions, then once I'm locked in I let the fingers take over, then I may glance over at my right hand to make sure it's still in place. When playing on stage I'll glance over at band mates and out to the audience, smile look happy, then back to the fret board. I guess now that I think about it, my eyes are quite busy lol! Originally Posted by lawson-stone
~Eddie
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On gigs sometimes I look at the audience or the piano player or the drummer. Never the bass player for some reason. I try not to close my eyes but I do. In the gig I don't think I ever look at my fingers.
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I used to think not looking at my left hand made me a better player. While that may be true, what made even more difference to my playing was looking, very carefully, at my right hand...
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Me too. If I look, I mostly look at my right hand, which is much weaker than my left hand.
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Now that I think about it, I don't look at the bass players much if at all, in any of the bands I play in, hmmm... what's up with that? The thing is at break time I usually hang out and chit chat more with them Originally Posted by henryrobinett
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It's kind of like fantastic cleavage for me; you can look, you can't not see it, but don't get caught in a laser beam stare.
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Maybe you'll get a gig with Esperanza Spaulding! You've been playing with Mingus clones lol? Originally Posted by henryrobinett
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I find it helps to play the same guitar or similar guitar on a regular basis. If I start using different guitars with different scale lengths or guitars that join the body at different frets, I find I have to look more frequently.
I look but I try to avoid it as I find looking can be a real pain in the neck.
Danielle
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