Williams Technique

I think that the mystique around Williams is unjustified. I know, this sounds like heresy, and I use to ascribe to the same notion. Then I started to study his playing and noticed that mostly his technique is based on efficiency of movement. (Something, apparently his father stressed). A student of mine saw John Williams perform in London some years ago. After yet another brilliant performance Williams came out and stopped the rousing applause and announced that he was going to answer three questions, the most often asked questions by guitarists backstage, in the hopes of saving time. The first answer was ―I use Augustine strings...‖, the second answer was, ―my nails are this long...‖, [holds up right hand], and the third answer was ―and no matter how much you practice, you‘ll never be as good as I am‖. Now, I don't know if this story is true but it helps to illustrate a point; we can't play as good as Williams but we can learn how to play 'like' he plays. Before studying the John Williams video tape - The Seville Concert, I thought Williams would be the one major guitarist who would be the most difficult to ‗copy‘. (By 'copy', I mean stealing, not borrowing, ideas to integrate into my playing). After spending a summer working on this goal I started to play like John Williams. Okay, before everyone jumps on this one, here's what I mean by 'like': my movements became much more efficient in both hands and without changing my technique at all my mistakes went down by about 80%. In a moment I'll tell you how I did it. First, we have some great players out there to try and emulate: Parkening is one of the most powerful players I have ever seen. You hear that in his tone. I‘ve also heard him up close and he plays the guitar with more ‗hands‘ than you and I could probably ever muster. Bream is an amazing musician. Fully committed in every phrase. That kind of intensity can be replicated but his musical ideas are all his own. Segovia - one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century, you can almost forget capturing his essence. [NOTE: A great tool is to take a piece you know and play it with a recording of one of the above - try to get every nuance. When I've done this it's opened up my ears and widen my appreciation. of these players. In addition, you feel like you get an inside peek into their technique and personality. This is so often frowned upon, we tend to think our concepts will be 'tainted'. In fact, that's quite impossible. When studying with Lorimer three of us played the same piece, studied a Segovia recording of it and then each played it for the class - with diverse interpretations. Anyway, I digress...] Now while we can learn from these players, it's Williams who gives us a tremendous dose of how to play the guitar. So here's what you can do, in under 5 minutes a day: Your best option is to get a video of John Williams playing and watch for two things; the comfort in his sitting position and the amazing efficiency with which he moves. No quick OR jerky movements – everything is relatively slow and smooth. One of the benefits of control is that you can play within your technique and although William‘s scales are fast, more noteworthy is their evenness. So now let‘s try to replicate that control and efficiency. First, get a mirror, the biggest mirror you can find. You should be able to see your whole body. Start with your sitting position. Do you look comfortable? Is your guitar‘s neck sitting too low causing you to lean to the left or are your shoulders square? Are your shoulders hunched over the guitar or is your back erect. Are you holding your right shoulder up to high or wrapping the right hand around the guitar or is it resting comfortably on the instrument. (You can refer to the Williams‘ video tape for reference). Remember, all comfortable playing begins with a comfortable position. Play through four or five different kinds of passages, (short scales, Segovia Scales, a passage with a small shift and one with a large shift). Try to maintain the optimum sitting position. Movement is allowed, even encouraged, but you should always revert back to your standard position. Spend two or three days, just five minutes each day watching your

sitting position. When you feel you‘ve made some progress move on. Now that you‘ve got your sitting position working better let‘s move on to your left hand. Study the Williams tape and watch how smoothly he executes shifts and how comfortable his left hand fingers look. Now watch your left hand shifts, are they awkward – do you move too quickly? When you move from one shift to another is there extraneous finger movement? Are your fingers ready when they arrive in the new position or are you recovering from the last position. So how do we make smooth shifts? Here we can knock off two birds with one stone because left hand shifting is dependant on left hand positioning. If your left hand is set correctly it will move with the least amount of effort AND arrive in position in a smooth and controlled fashion. Could it be that simple? Yes! I discovered this quite by mistake. Imagine you‘re crossing a river by jumping from one rock to another. If you are out of position and throw yourself to the next rock your chances of landing correctly are nil and eventually falling into the river are great. Now if you approach each jump first with good coordination your chances of landing squarely and in control are much greater. Same goes for the left hand – except you won‘t need a dry towel if you make a mistake. In fact, I found that once I got my left hand position set I was arriving squarely, comfortably and EARLY! And I never practiced shifting, just positioning Here‘s how I did it. (A trick that the Assads told me years ago and just recently surfaced in my brain). Place your left hand thumb behind fingers 2 and 3. That‘s it. This will enable the hand to play in what will eventually become the most efficient form; supporting the weaker fingers, 3 and 4. This may be difficult at first and even cause some soreness behind the thumb but it will not only put you in the most comfortable left hand position but enable you to shift with extreme accuracy and control. So, for another week's practice watch primarily your left hand for an extraneous movement. Refer to your sitting position occasionally. Next, watch your right hand. Are you bouncing your hand when you play? Do you make funny little movements in between passages? Well, stop it!!! Refer to your left hand and sitting position occasionally. That's it! It's funny but these little unnecessary movements decrease our accuracy. It's like trying to do brain surgery on roller blades, well, with less damaging results. If you want to 'see' the difference try video taping yourself before and after. I think you'll find that, although you won't play as good as John Williams, you will play more 'like' him. Scott Classical Guitarist Scott Kritzer Scott_Kritzer Posts: 628 Joined: Wednesday 28 December 2005, 05:32 am Location: Portland, Oregon  Top by Vesuvio » Wednesday 17 January 2007, 20:56 pm

Hello Scott, I would like to thank you for taking the time to make such a thoughtful and comprehensive contribution to this discussion. Your comments about left hand thumb position were illuminating. You may be aware that this has been discussed recently in another thread, where someone had picked up the same advice from a video on your website. I confess to having expressed the view there that I found moving my thumb to oppose fingers 3 and 4 rather uncomfortable—but I am now going to experiment at length and see where it takes me. I would be very pleased to be able to play more like John Williams—more like you! Best wishes, V