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This English version was translated from Chinese by LLM
Noel was my teacher from my freshman through junior year. He has an incredibly expressive technique. Once, during one of his solos, I could almost hear the notes slicing through the air with a sharp edge — or you might call it a sense of air in the sound. You could picture the scene from Kung Fu Hustle with the Harpist assassins who kill without leaving a trace
When I studied with Noel Johnston, there were many moments when his technique intimidated me so much that I shrank back and didn’t even dare to play.
It was also Noel who said:
“If you have bad technique, you cannot execute the appropriate/intended sounds. This (your technique) is the aspect people MOST notice about your musicianship and it’s what defines YOUR sound.”
This is something I’ve noticed again and again, both as a student and as a teacher. Beginners often develop a kind of fear of the guitar — almost like they feel defeated by the instrument. You can hear it directly in their hands: they simply can’t produce the sounds they want.
To me, the guitar — or any instrument — is first and foremost a physical object. No matter what ideas you have in your head, you still have to physically engage with it to make sound. Even if it doesn’t demand the same level of athleticism as drums or wind instruments, you still need enough control to handle it.
The stretch of the left hand, the pressure of fretting the strings, the right-hand picking, the coordination between both hands — all of these are physical actions. Sound doesn’t just “happen”; you physically create it.
So how do you play with more confidence and decisiveness?
No matter what you’re trying to play, the answer is actually pretty simple. I often tell beginners: spend time with the guitar every day. Only then will you start to understand its character and how it responds to your touch. This is easy to understand — **it just takes time. **
you’d be surprised: as a teacher, even without watching a student practice every day, I can almost always tell how much time they’ve really spent with the instrument.
Of course, this doesn’t mean hugging your guitar while watching TV for three months will suddenly make you play great. Technical exercises are the best warm-up and the best core practice material. They help you focus on the quality of your sound. They’re focused, self-contained training — exactly the kind of practice that lets your brain concentrate on one thing at a time.
They’re also the easiest “conversation starter” between you and the guitar. If you don’t know what to practice, work on technique. At the very least, it can easily fill an hour a day — and that’s much simpler than trying to improvise over a tune for an hour.
What to Practice?
Of course, technical practice doesn’t mean mindless repetition. Every exercise should be intentional and attentive to be effective. Here are a few types of exercises I pay attention to when listening to students:
Tremolo exercise
Instructions:
How fast can you play steady sixteenth-note tremolo? Now try adding 1-2-3-4 fingering — how fast can you keep it clean and even?
Pay attention to:
Keep every note evenly spaced. Don’t accidentally accent any one note (especially the first note of each group of sixteenths). After adding the 1-2-3-4 fingering, make sure your left and right hands stay coordinated.
For every note, the three contact points — left-hand fretting, right-hand picking, and the rhythmic placement of the note — should line up precisely in time.
1-2-3-4 (almost chromatic) exercise
Instructions:
Start on the 6th string and play 1-2-3-4 on frets 1-2-3-4. Move to the 5th string, then the 4th, then the 3rd, all the way to the 1st string. Then play 4-3-2-1 back down to the 6th string. Shift up one fret and repeat.
Pay attention to:
Are all the notes loud and clear? Does your pinky cause buzzing? When changing strings, don’t break the sound — aim for legato. Keep the rhythm steady and accurate.
Chromatic exercise — Kurt Rosenwinkel Chromatic Exercise
Instructions:
Start on low E (E2) on the 6th string and play chromatically with 1-2-3-4 fingering. After 1-2-3-4, you can either stay on the same string by switch position and continue or move to the next string — since it’s chromatic, the shift spans five frets. Go all the way up to D6 on the 1st string, then return to E2. Start very slowly, even at BPM = 30.
Pay attention to:
When shifting positions on the same string, move as smoothly and quickly as possible without gaps. The same applies when switching strings. Let every note speak. Try to play each one in a singing, musical way.
Right-hand string-skipping exercise
Mute the strings with your left hand. With your right hand, play:
65, 64, 63, 62, 61, 54, 53, 52, 51, 43, 42, 41, 32, 31, 21.
Then reverse from the 1st string:
12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 23, 24, 25, 26, 34, 35, 36, 45, 46, 56.
Pay attention to:
Try not to play wrong notes and then correct yourself. Develop accuracy from the start. Get used to feeling the relative position of each string.
Summary
All of these exercises are best practiced with your eyes closed and with a metronome. The goal isn’t speed — it’s simply getting familiar with the guitar’s nature: feeling the vibration of the strings and really listening to the sound.
Music can be treated like background noise, or like something sacred that you’d pay money to hear in a concert hall. The same goes for the sound you make on the guitar.
A single note can be casual and cheap, or it can feel serious — almost sacred.
It all depends on how sincerely you treat it.
I hope you and your guitar can be honest with each other.
技术让你变好听
Noel 是我大一到大三的老师，他有着非常富有表现力的技术，有一次，在他solo的过程，我甚至能听到一种音符划破空气的凌厉的感觉，或者你可以说空气感。你可以想象功夫中杀人于无形的琴魔二人组的画面。在和Noel Johnston上课的过程中，我时常会被他的技术吓到让自己感到畏缩而不敢弹琴。
也同样是Noel， 他说，“If you have bad technique, you cannot execute the appropriate/intended sounds. This(your technique) is the aspect people MOST notice about your musicianship and it’s what defines YOUR sound.”
这也是我在上课和教学过程中注意到的一点，往往刚刚开始学习吉他的学生，有种惧怕吉他，被吉他劝退的心理，反应在手上，即没法弹出想要的声音。我理解吉他，或者任何一门乐器，首先是一个物理上的物体，不管你心里怎么思考，它都需要力量去驱动它，即使它不像鼓，或者管乐对身体素质有一定的要求，但它还是要求你能够驾驭住它。不管是左手的拉伸，按弦的力度。还是右手拨弦，或者左右手的配合，都是一种物理层面上的“制造声音”。
那应该如何让自己更加自信果断地弹琴呢？不论到底要弹什么，其实也很简单，我常常和刚刚开始学琴的学生说，要和吉他每天相处一段时间，才能了解它的特性，才能了解它如何回应你的驱动。这也很好理解：要有一定的时间积累。你也许会惊讶，对一个老师而言，即使他没有天天盯着一个学生练琴，但这个学生每天的练琴时长到底有多久，他有多容易就能看得出来。关于练琴时间, 我也有一篇文章可读。
当然，这不意味着你抱着吉他看它三个月电视你就能弹得飞起了。技术性练习是最好的热身和内容练习。它能让你专注于声音的质量。它是一个独立的集中性训练，刚好满足一个练习设计的合理性——能让你的脑力运用在一个单独的层面上。它也是新吉他手们和吉他相处最好的话题：如果无话可说，就练练技术吧，至少每天它能轻轻松松打发你一个小时的时间，而这比在一首曲子里即兴一个小时，要简单太多了。
练什么？
当然技术性练习也并不意味着你就可以无脑地练琴。每一个练习都应该是刻意地，富有关注地，才会有最大的效果。比如以下的几个练习，是我听学生反馈的时候会注意到的层面：
震音练习
指令：你能弹16分音符的震音有多快？如果带上1234的指法的话，又能弹多快？
注意：每个音都要平均，不要刻意强调某一个音符（特别是16分音符的第一个音符），带上1234的指法后，能否做到左右手协调，每个音符的三个接触点：左手按弦，右手拨弦，音符落点，都在节奏之中。
爬格子（几乎是半音阶）练习
指令：从六弦开始弹指法1234，对应1234品，切换到5弦，4弦，3弦，直到一弦，再从一弦弹4321回到六弦。上升一个品格，重复这个动作。
注意：每个音是否都是大声又清晰的，小指有没有打品的声音出现。换弦的时候，不能中断，一定要弹出连音（Legato）。节奏是否准确。
半音阶练习——Kurt Rosenwinkel Chromatic Exercise
指令：从六弦E2开始，按半音阶开始练习，1234指之后可以选择保持在同一根弦上继续用1234指，或者换到下一弦——因为是半音阶，所以是5品的跨度。弹到一弦D6再回到E2。速度可以从极慢，BPM=30，开始。
注意： 同一根弦上切换把位时是否能够尽可能地快速而没有缝隙，换弦同理。让每一个音都与你交流，富有歌唱性地弹出每个声音。
右手跨弦练习
左手护弦，右手弹65，64，63，62，61，54，53，52，51，43，42，41，32，31，21. 再从一弦开始，12，13，14，15，16，23，24，25，26，34，35，36，45，46，56.
注意：尽可能不要弹错再修正自己。感受每根弦的相对位置。
总结
所有的这些练习都最好闭眼，带着节拍器练习。因为这些练习的目的都只是熟悉吉他的特性，感受琴弦的震动和声音。就正如你可以把音乐当作背景噪音，又或者一种需要花钱去音乐厅才能感受到的一种声音。吉他的声音的好坏也取决于你自己对待它的态度如何。一个音符可以很随便，很便宜，也可以严肃得像是有种神性。这都取决于你对它是否足够真诚。
希望你和吉他都能坦诚相待。
I’d love to hear what you think. Use your GitHub account to leave a comment below! 欢迎用 GitHub 账号在下方留言交流!