LESSON > DIGGING DEEPER
The Diving-Board Effect
BY JULIAN LAGE
Julian Lage is one of those rare musicians who
feels equally at home in acoustic and jazz cir-
cles. He has been a member of legendary vibra-
phonist Gary Burton’s group since 2004, and
also regularly collaborates with pianist Taylor
Eigsti. Lage’s latest album, Gladwell, reflects
his wide-ranging musical interests and talents
by incorporating chamber music, American folk
and bluegrass, Latin and world music, tradi-
tional string-band sounds, and modern jazz. For
more information, visit julianlage.com.
CHOPS: Beginner
THEORY: Beginner
LESSON OVERVIEW:
• Learn how to relieve tension
in both your picking and fretting hands.
• Develop exercises to make
your picking motion more
effective.
• Understand how correctly
moving your forearm leads
to better technique.
the diver on the diving board, I could let
the springiness of the string do more of the
work. Rather than being propelled away
from the string, I would cease meeting the
string with equal force, and instead, give
up. Let the string win. By imagining the
string almost cutting up through the pick
(on a downstroke), it felt as though the
string played itself and I was there to create
just enough friction to get things started.
After doing this a few times, I noticed
that for the first time, I didn’t feel tension
in picking the string. The sound wasn’t very
loud at first, but it sounded fuller and like
a more complete gesture. After practicing
downstrokes for a while, I tried upstrokes
and was pleased to find the same mechanism applied. As I would place the pick on
the bottom side of the string in preparation
for an upstroke, I felt my habitual tensing
and urge to “lift” up. However, from this
new perspective I was able to meet the resistance of the string and imagine the string
falling through the pick. Like the downstroke, the sound seemed to release out of
the instrument rather than being forced.
I’d like to explore an approach to pick- ing and fretting the guitar that I’ve been
working on for a while. It all began about
three years ago, when I started to notice
that I was picking a lot harder than I needed, especially when playing single lines. The
result I was hearing was kind of a snappy
sound, and the more I tried to control it
by resisting the tendency to play with a lot
of force, the more I started to lose control.
It was as though I was trying to pick the
string while simultaneously pulling away
just enough so as not to overplay. It was a
classic tug-of-war with myself.
Like David Gorman—one of my favorite
writers and teachers—says, “Never pick
a fight with yourself, because someone’s
gonna lose and it’s gonna be you.” So I
decided to start from scratch and study how
the pick actually produces a sound. I began
by setting the pick on an open string—let’s
use the open 3rd string for our example—
to see if I could sense any excessive tension
as I anticipated picking the string. To my
surprise and delight, I absolutely did. It was
as though just by making contact with the
string, I felt the pressure to make the string
sound and where that anxiety manifested
most was in holding my breath and locking
the right shoulder.
I had a vivid image
of an Olympic diver
bouncing on a
diving board in
preparation for
a dive. It reminded
me of the pick on
the string. If I could
“bounce” on the
string—effectively
sensing the equal
force between the
string and my hand—
all I’d need to do to
make the string sound
would be to give up
my resistance.
68 PREMIER GUITAR JUNE 2012
premierguitar.com
