Hanon & playing fourths

Liberty Citizen · #1 07-18-2009, 06:03 PM

Hi, Janek, first and foremost thanks for sharing so much knowledge and time with us. I admire you, enjoy your music and wish you the best.
I've been using the Hanon method following your advice and I find it quite helpful. There are exercises (for instance, ex. 3) that involve playing a lot of ascending and descending fourths. My question is: how do you fret 4ths? do you barre the notes, or use different left hand fingers for each string? I find it difficult to play clean and fast series of 4ths.

Thanks in advance.

janekbass · #2 07-18-2009, 07:27 PM

thanks for the post and the kinds words.

when playing any interval that is slightly more technically demanding, the first thing that I do is play it really slowly. when i'm playing fourths it's normally a combination of the barring and using separate fingers, and it's something I work on at such a slow tempo first so I can really work out what fits under the fingers the best. The more I work at something slowly at home, the less I'm going to have to think about it in the future. Just like almost anything else I do with the instrument it's about muscle memory. The more time you dedicate to getting your muscles to remember certain things, the more fluid they will be for the rest of your life.

Easy,

Janek

Liberty Citizen · #3 07-19-2009, 06:35 AM

Thnx for your fast answer.
I hope I can see you play in Spain soon
Best wishes,
LC

HaVIC5 · #4 07-19-2009, 11:57 AM

I've had the same problem with the hanon exercises, and I've found that barring/pressure rolling up and down strings is usually the best way to go, especially if you're doing these exercises on a fretless, which is a whole 'nother ballgame. Great technical workout whatever way you get around the problem, though. Now that I think about it, I probably should go back and work out fingerings for different fingers for fourths, just for the workout.