Student’s question:
I am having neck troubles playing the guitar. Looking at the fretboard is causing some difficulties. But I have been practicing the Cloud and Mobility exercises and I can play them pretty well without looking at the fretboard, except for a few occasional mistakes.
Here’s my question. If I keep developing my technique in this way without looking at the fretboard, will this allow me to later play more complicated things like melodies, chord comping and even chord melody style? I would also be open to a small amount of looking combined with mostly not looking. Please tell me your thoughts.
David’s response:
Yes! I always recommend playing without looking at the fretboard even if you’re not experiencing any pain. There’s actually no reason to look at the fretboard except perhaps in a few rare moments where you need to move your hand to a very distant location on the fretboard and you’re not able to judge that distance without looking. But for ergonomics, all of the principles of proper guitar playing go out the window if you have to wrench your head around to look down at your left hand. Also, relying on your eyes in this way actually DELAYS your sense of spatial orientation on the fretboard.
So I encourage you to think of playing without looking as the ideal. And whenever you get into a situation where you can’t visualize the next movement you need, and you’re feeling tempted to look, here’s what to do instead. Realize that this is a moment of learning and discovery, and this is precisely where we build a stronger sense of orientation. So just stay there and try to solve the problem with your mind’s eye. Try to use your left hand to measure the territory like I teach in my Seven Worlds video course. And remember that you’re building a powerful and exciting skill, so try to become fascinated by this problem and try to work it out without looking if you can.
And then of course whenever you get really stumped, that’s the perfect time to open your eyes and see what was going on. But as your basic vision of how you want to play the guitar, it’s 100% reasonable and healthy to adopt the practice of generally not looking at your left hand when you’re playing. You’re also welcome to deviate from this discipline whenever you want. But the discipline itself of playing without looking at your hands is absolutely right and healthy.
In many of my video courses, you’ll notice that I’m doing a lot of other things with my hands. Sometimes I need to use my right hand to point at the fretboard to show what the left hand is doing, or sometimes I’m talking you through a thought process as we build a scale together. So these aren’t good examples to copy for proper guitar form. But you’ll see that in most of the jamming demos, I will very quickly drift off into closing my eyes or looking away. This is my favorite way to experience the guitar because it frees up my whole mind to just think about the sounds and melodies I want to play. And with IFR, it’s very easy to play anything you want without looking.
Again, it’s totally up to you. There’s nothing wrong with looking at your left hand if you prefer. But if you do begin to experience any kind of pain or tension when you’re playing, that might be a good moment to begin exploring this other experience of playing without looking, which is quite fascinating and beautiful in itself.
