Category Archive: Teaching

April 25, 2011

Guitar chords = yoga for the hand

To a student having difficulty memorizing and mastering new guitar chords and chord progressions, and who has been studying yoga for 30 years:

"Think of chord shapes as yoga poses for your hand.. Let your hand embody and experience each chord as your body experiences each yoga posture. Have that same focus, that same economy and fluidity of motion, that same aliveness to the physical and energetic sensation, that same attention.

Think of a progression of several chords as a yoga routine for your hand. Go from position to position (that is, chord to chord) smoothly, unhurriedly, arriving at each chord with full commitment and awareness, letting each express itself fully, then moving on to the next.

See whether this approach changes how you experience the act of practicing guitar, and how deeply you integrate what you are learning."

Posted by richard at 09:38 PM