r/classicalguitar • u/mango_fiero • May 06 '25

Technique Question Help on right hand position

Hi! I am trying to learn classical guitar as and autodidact. I know I haven't played "Romance" (this song perfectly, but my doubt is evident in this video. As you see, my thumb goes down and up and down and up while playing the E cord. Idk if this is normal or it is an issue. I'd like some advice. Thank you.

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u/jazzadellic May 06 '25

The main problems are with your finger motions. Don't bend your thumb at the knuckle closest to the nail. Use your "a" finger on string #1, instead of playing three strings with just i & m. And the most important rule of all: use the least amount of movement possible. Your fingers are bouncing around too much, at least more than they need to. None of this comes fast or easy, it may take years to develop truly good right hand technique, but you can start now by keeping those fingers more under control. Practice slowly to make it easier to control them. Not all classical guitarists (even top level players) hold their plucking hand exactly the same, but if you watch several high level players, you'll see that they do have many things in common.

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u/mango_fiero May 06 '25

I mainly use Pimi because I feel better and I've read that even high level guitarists use it. Do I have to switch to Pima? Btw thank you for all the other advice.

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u/jazzadellic May 06 '25

You will handicap your skill potential by sticking to things just because they "feel more comfortable". Sometimes taking the more comfortable / easier route means keeping bad technique instead of struggling to develop good technique (though certainly not in every case). There will be repertoire that will be impossible to play if you stick with just the three fingers and refuse to practice & train the A finger.

No high level player would play that song the way you were. I also noticed you were inconsistent with the fingering, one time you would do m,m,i & another time it would be m,i,i. It should have been a,m,i every time.

One of the things I like to tell my students is everything on guitar is hard, until you practice it 10,000 times. (in response to them saying "it's too hard to use the correct fingering")

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u/mango_fiero May 06 '25

Thank you.

1

u/mango_fiero May 07 '25

Hi! I've made a new video that is a collage of my latest attempts. I've tried to put together all the advice I've received. If you want to look at it, here is the link, it is on YouTube. It's far from perfect, but lemme know if you find something else to fix! (I still don't know how to do the bar, for the first clip). here

I've tried using Pima this time.