Guide Fingers - Mandolin Techniques

[mbruno]

Hey all, I posted a lesson on Guide Fingers for chord changes yesterday on my site but was camping so it's a bit late haha

The lesson is perfect for beginners having some trouble changing chords in a progression. Guide Fingers are those fingers that have similar positions (or the same) for two different chords. Using these can help speed up chord changes and reduce errors. And I use GIFs to help highlight - wooo GIFs!

You can see the full lesson here - https://mattcbruno.com/2022/10/mando...guide-fingers/

Happy Picking!

[Sue Rieter]

Hey Matt, this is awesome. Last month when I went to the jam camp, I attended a session on moveable chords for mandolin that was intended for intermediate players (which I am decidedly not, ha ha). The instructor presented 3 different triad forms with the root of the chord in different positions. She suggested writing out fretboard charts of all the different possibilities in order to pick one of each for the progression. I finally did some of that last night. This morning I was looking at it, scratching my head, wondering how to move from one to another efficiently.

Voila, your post on guide fingers! Just what I needed and just when I needed it! Thanks

[Mark Gunter]

Another awesome post, Matt, thanks �� I like the gifs!

[John Soper]

Matt-

I think this lesson should be very informative for the mandolin player who is starting the journey of learning movable chords. In fact, it is something I still do when encountering a passage with quick chord changes in a swing tune that I want to get under my fingers, especially when there are unfamiliar chords or flat keys (think Db). The gifs are very helpful for illustrating the moves for a novice. Well laid out lesson. Great job!

[NDO]

Love the gifs Matt!
The video link appears to still be showing the strumming video.

[mbruno]

Love the gifs Matt!
The video link appears to still be showing the strumming video.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm not sure what happened there, but should be updated now!

[mbruno]

Hey Matt, this is awesome. Last month when I went to the jam camp, I attended a session on moveable chords for mandolin that was intended for intermediate players (which I am decidedly not, ha ha). The instructor presented 3 different triad forms with the root of the chord in different positions. She suggested writing out fretboard charts of all the different possibilities in order to pick one of each for the progression. I finally did some of that last night. This morning I was looking at it, scratching my head, wondering how to move from one to another efficiently.

Voila, your post on guide fingers! Just what I needed and just when I needed it! Thanks

Hey Sue

Glad this is helping!

To add a bit to what your instructor was saying, I use fretboard maps a lot (I have a post on those here https://mattcbruno.com/fretboard-maps/). Writing out a chord (or scale or whatever) this way across the whole fretboard can be a great exercise, but just looking at the whole fretboard is kind of dizzying with possibilities (where to start, how to link the chords etc)

In practice, I find doing this positionally more helpful. What I mean is writing out the chord (or whatever) from the open notes to the 5th fret, then from the 5th to 9th etc. That helps keep the chords in similar positions which in turn makes it more likely to find a guide finger, which makes the change easier

[Sue Rieter]

Thanks, Matt. "Dizzying with possibilities", yeah that's where I am

It is interesting to write everything out, and I like what you did with the colors. I'll probably do something similar without peeking at yours. For the mandola as well as the mandolin. I think there's really a left hand part, a right hand part, and a brain part, but then at some point you have to be able to get the brain out of the way

[Lucindalin]

Awesome!!

[mbruno]

I think there's really a left hand part, a right hand part, and a brain part, but then at some point you have to be able to get the brain out of the way

I agree with ya! IMO, there's Theoretical practice, Practical practice, and Playing

Theoretical practice is the brain stuff - understanding what it is you're trying to practice from as a concept.

Practical practice is the physical act of practicing - playing specific and targeted ideas / topics / skills to improve your playing.

Playing - combining the theoretical with the practical to use the theoretical and practical practices to "turn off" and play / have fun / etc