Is This Technique Wrong?

One of my young students recently said, “Rules are stupid.”

She was talking about rules of technique, like curving your fingers.

I had a conversation with her to explore this topic a bit.

I told her I don’t think of technique as a set of rules but rather as a journey of finding the best ways of playing particular types of music.

If you want to play a lot of very fast notes, curved fingers will do that more efficiently than straight fingers.

On the other hand, if you want to play one note at a time slowly (her stage of learning), you probably won’t notice a problem with straight fingers.

When I teach a beginner about technique, I’m trying to lay a foundation for music they may want to play in the future.

I don’t want to overwhelm them.

But I also encourage habits that will support their progress later.

It reminded me of a question some of my students ask: “Is this technique wrong?”

That makes it sound like a technique can be illegal.

If you play with ‘wrong’ technique, you have violated the code of musicians. You are an outcast until you correct your error!

I’ll admit I may have sounded like that in the past. When I was a less experienced guitar teacher, I was overly strict in my approach to technique.

But after having taught guitar for 26 years, I don’t see techniques as right or wrong.

Here are some questions I prefer to ask myself and my guitar students about technique:

1. Is this technique hurting you?

It is useful to avoid techniques that can increase the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive strain injuries. Playing with an extremely bent wrist is one example.

2. Is this technique making the music worse?

If a technique is causing you to miss notes and struggle to switch chords, it’s worth trying to change that technique. Holding your fingers far away from the fretboard is an example.

3. Is this technique slowing you down?

If you want to play a fast passage, certain techniques won’t work. Keeping your fingers completely straight, as my young student wanted to do, is slower than playing with curved fingers.

If you feel guilty because you’re playing with “wrong technique”, let go of the guilt. Just look for ways to make your movements more efficient and more accurate. As you do this, speed will usually develop as a result.

On the other hand, if you feel defiant about all rules, look for the beneficial purpose behind a ‘rule’ of technique. You don’t need to serve technique, but you can learn a lot by studying how master musicians play.

Keep making music!