Keywords
guitar, biomechanics, shifting, slurs, barrés, vibrato, poise, virtuosity
Abstract
This article conceptualizes classical guitar left-hand technique through a physiomechanical framework that places coordinated movement—particularly shifting—at the center of technical practice. Challenging traditional positional doctrines that privilege static hand forms and digital independence, the author argues that such approaches often disregard the functional anatomy of the limb, resulting in inefficiency, unnecessary tension, and potential injury. Advancing the principle that form must follow function, the study proposes shifting as the fundamental technical category governing all left-hand procedures. A systematic typology—interpositional, intrapositional, and compound shifting—serves as the basis for analyzing arm-wrist-hand coordination across diverse technical contexts, including extensions and contractions, barrés, slurs, vibrato, and complex chordal and scalar textures. Particular emphasis is placed on alignment, rotational freedom, and the timing of preparatory movements as conditions for both ergonomic efficiency and musical continuity. A final section explores the application of this framework to passages demanding exceptional virtuosity, demonstrating how physiomechanically informed coordination can resolve extreme technical challenges while preserving fluidity of motion. By reframing technical security as the product of organized movement rather than fixed positional strategies, the study offers a dynamic model of left-hand technique that aims to help players discover their full potential as virtuoso performers.
Notes
This article was first published in Guitar Forum 1 (2001). We are grateful to Ricardo Iznaola and to the journal's original publisher, the European Guitar Teachers Association (UK branch), for permission to make it available here.
The material in this article was later incorporated into the same author's Summa Kitharologica, vol. 1, Physiology of Guitar Playing: Functional Anatomy and Physiomechanics (Mel Bay, 2015).
Recommended Citation
Iznaola, Ricardo. “Left-Hand Technique and the Limits of the Possible.” Guitar Forum 1 (2001): 1–44. Reprinted in Soundboard Scholar 11 (2026). https://digitalcommons.du.edu/sbs/vol11/iss1/1/.