I can't stop staring at my left hand when I play (rant)

[TF from MN]

What is the use of staring at my left hand when I play? Yet I still do it. After sixty f___in' years of guitar playing!!

The sax player doesn't look at his left hand! The violinist doesn't do it! The trumpeter doesn't do it! How can I read a chart when I'm staring at my left hand?

The only cure: practice in the dark. Which I like doing anyway.

Maybe if I perform with a blindfold - it could be a schtick!

Aarghh...

 

[hemingway]

Wear dark glasses. Then no one will know. You'll also look like a secret agent. Win win.

 

[Trenchant63]

Do you know why you’re staring at your fretting hand? Is it for confidence? Once you learn the song, my advice is to force yourself not to look which is what you’re doing now already. I used to practice with a TV on no volume and cc to test if I could play something without looking. On the gig, look around vs at your hand, etc. Good luck.

 

[FaithNicole]

I do it (bass) as well. It's a insecurity issue for me. I'm afraid on hitting a bad note live onstage. Oddly enough, I still hit bad notes occasionally *sigh* When I sing my songs or sing backup/harmony I don't look. I'd say 90% of what I play I don't need to look .. but I look anyway.

 

[andy__d]

My guitar teacher had a simple solution for this. Practice in front of a mirror. When you’re playing live, you should be looking at the audience, so he’d teach us to look ourselves in the eye as we played; and get out of the habit of looking down at your hand - you can still see it in the mirror, but your realize every time you do it, you’re taking your eye off what you should be looking at, and how that looks (to the audience). The calmer, more assured, more confident that the face in the mirror looks, the more confident you feel about your playing. It was weird for me at first, but I found it worked.

 

[Peegoo]

The only cure: practice in the dark. Which I like doing anyway.

Try putting a bar towel over your left hand.

If this guy (RIP) keeps at it, he might be pretty good one day.

 

[philosofriend]

Do you have a guitar with no fret markers? It couldn't hurt while you are trying to change your habit. Without the dots you are getting way less information when you look at your left hand.

 

[Buell]

So. I look at my left hand quite a bit while playing. Every guitarist I've ever seen, including Hendrix and VH, look at their fretting hand. Nothing wrong with it.

 

[FaithNicole]

So. I look at my left hand quite a bit while playing. Every guitarist I've ever seen, including Hendrix and VH, look at their fretting hand. Nothing wrong with it.

tell that to my neck ..HAH! Owwww

 

[prairietelecaster]

Staring at the neck might explain my lack of neck.

 

[kuch]

some old habits are hard to break.....

Do the blindfold and visualize you're playing the guitar you're gassing for. Like imagining a new girlfriend.....

 

[Boreas]

I don't stare. Just like with with women, I do indiscreet glances.

I only glance when I am doing big slides or jumps up/down the neck because I tend to be one fret off. But once I know what fret I am anchored on, I find looking at my hand confuses my reptilian brain. After all, reptiles don't have the hands for detail work.

 

[RobRiggs]

Practice in a dark room. Works for me. Honestly.

 

[Chiogtr4x]

I'm (now) a lead singer, so always looking at my left hand ( always have anyway, 50+ years playing)

I even put little white stickers along edge of neck near fretboard ( NOT on fretboard!) on a Classical that doesn't have the dots. ( but I play another one that does, more)

Screw it! I'm a good guitar player, but I gotta look!

 

[Dostradamas]

Playing guitar for me can be very therapeutic and even cathartic, in these times of highest emotiotional expression I close my eyes or really detach from the external visual and don't look.
My playing is best at these times, I find more fluidity and depend on the ears the most.

Long story short,

too late.

All the rest of my time noodling or actually practicing I have a completely different part of my brain driving and I am constantly looking at my left .

This slows my learning down and makes me just sloppiler so I can relate.

Lots of good advice already, I am in the mirror or spot on the wall straight ahead camp.

Focusing on feeling and hearing it in my brain helps, it is automatic to lean towards the visual so that is what I fight.

 

[Mike Simpson]

Play in the dark…

 

[Killing Floor]

my first instrument was violin and for most of 1st-7th grade my teacher hit our hand with a wooden ruler or her bow if she caught us looking anywhere but the sheets or her or a conductor.

Maybe ask someone to hit you if you peek. Worked for me.

 

[drmordo]

I'm bad about that too.

I have to MAKE myself look around the room rather than watching my hands. I think it's a natural result of playing at home too much.

 

[schmee]

Me too. I think I'm doing well at avoiding it, then I see a video someone shot and shared and.......... WTF?

 

[teletail]

So. I look at my left hand quite a bit while playing. Every guitarist I've ever seen, including Hendrix and VH, look at their fretting hand. Nothing wrong with it.

I agree 100%. If I make a list of my top 10 (or 20, or 100) shortcomings as a guitarist, this isn’t on it.