My approach to the Van Hemert System Volume 2

25 Jul 2024

For the past few months, I’ve been working on Volume 2 of the Van Hemert System for learning Gypsy Jazz guitar. I managed to work through the seven chapters rather quickly, and so am sharing my approach in hopes that it helps others in their practice.

I have been playing guitar for a long time, but my picking technique has always been terrible. I approached this book and the set exercises primarily as a means for practicing technique, and not for learning licks. I wanted things to sound light, clean, crisp, and bouncy. I also wanted to get everything up to speed quickly, as I have never had good results by starting slowly and gradually speeding up.

Pre-requisites

When I started practicing the set exercises, I knew I had some fundamental problems that needed to be addressed. I worked on these alongside the licks and sets. It was an iterative process: I worked on the components, then the licks, then back to the components, and so on. They both inform each other. I still feel that these fundamental components should be tackled and mastered separately, outside of licks, because I feel that many struggling players don’t have these things at the levels they need them to be – I know I don’t.

I’d work on all of these as I practiced the licks and sets. If something wasn’t working, I’d check my relaxation/tension, and all of these components. For example, the Stochelo fast eighth note triplet lick created lots of tension, so I broke things down further to investigate, as shown the video How I “solved” a fast Gypsy Jazz Guitar double downstroke lick.

Relaxation

Tension has always been a big problem for me, and Gypsy picking was much more active than my usual ideas about picking, so I always keep an eye on this. I made a video about relaxation, Relaxing your picking hand and arm, and it’s a good resource for people with problems with tension.

During my practice, I would continually check for tension. To me, tension is my body telling me that my current idea about how to play is wrong. For example, during the chapter 6 Gizmo lick, I found my picking hand was cramping up at higher speeds: this was due to my hand making unconscious adjustments to avoid hitting the strings. I had to change my pick grip to avoid the tension, and so went back over old sets to work that new habit in. Now with the technique ELO challenge I’m trying out a free-floating hand, because my current hand configuration might be causing me issues.

Picking

For me, picking problems can initially be boiled down to three separate components, which are most effectively worked on independently.

• Single string swung eighth notes (wrist work). This is the primary thing to get – without this, nothing else works. I work on playing these faster than any particular lick might require, say 20% faster (e.g. 170 bpm + 20% is just over 200 bpm). I go for a clear, loose stream of a single note, with a great rest stroke feel. I feel that this is worth practicing on its own: it’s a fundamental skill that lets you work on looseness, rest strokes, and wrist positions, but is not exercised enough during regular lick practice, as licks involve changing strings and require separate muscles and impulses. I practice this separately on all strings, as each string requires a slightly different elbow and hand position, which is enough to make a difference for me!
• Changing strings (arm work). Figuring out how to properly change strings was my first big breakthrough spurred by this course: I was either overcontrolling my arm shifts, or mixing wrist and arm work incorrectly. I put together some simple exercises and worked on those. I sometimes work on this independently in various configurations, but it gets exercised enough during regular lick practice.
• Half rest stroke (wrist work). This is still a challenge for me. I put some initial notes and drills together in this document, but I’m still experimenting as I’m having trouble at higher tempos.

Using licks to address picking problems did not work for me, as licks combine all of the above at once. It’s too confusing to work on for me. Existing exercises found on YouTube etc. are often too ambitious, e.g. running over all six strings; more focused work is required.

Tone and timing

I always keep an eye on good tone, because speed without tone is not very fun to listen to. Good tone is caused by proper pick-to-string contact and motion, and wrist motion. I want a clear strong downstroke to rest position, and a clear strong upstroke, no extra noise, no extra tension. Timing is important because that informs your muscle reactions.

Learning and practicing licks

My rough method for learning a lick is this:

• First, learn it “intellectually”, away from the guitar. Listen to it a bunch of times, try to sing it. Analyze the lick away from the guitar, try to memorize it and reproduce it (without playing it). Then play through it slowly, check what I’ve memorized, refine the memory. Note: Since all of this is separate from physical practice, I could overlap learning the next chapter’s licks with the physical work of the current chapter – that probably gave me the biggest boost, time-wise.
• Actually work on it: Use backtracking (starting from the end) and chunking to play things up to speed as quickly as possible, get ideas about what the trouble spots are. Always check the fundamentals: tone, tension, wrist position, etc. Play through it fast and slow, ensure everything is clear and as easy as possible. None of this is hard work, it’s just back and forth, trying things out. I made a video about this and other practice techniques, 7 ways to practice guitar licks.

Some licks had real trouble spots: speed, position shifts, sweeps in rhythm over multiple strings, harmonic difficulties (i.e., can’t clearly understand or hear what a lick is doing, such as tritone substitutions), dead notes, timing troubles – these would become the focus points. Clearly identifying where licks start to fall apart is important!

I rarely played any single lick in several positions once it’s worked out, because it doesn’t add much value to repeat the same thing once it’s in the mind and body/fingers correctly. Sometimes it’s necessary, though: a lick can get difficult high up on the neck, when requiring open strings, etc. For some early loops, it’s necessary to jump up or down in the middle of a lick. I’d keep a short list of such things I had to work on: e.g. “Chapter 2 loop 2 Bb”, “Chapter 7 run in F#”, because they needed extra attention.

When away from the guitar – out walking, getting a coffee, going to sleep, etc – I play through a lick mentally and see if it’s still clear. Mental work is a real time saver, it requires time for some concentration.

Set exercises

I feel the “set exercise” concept is vital: it’s a clear goal that has me work for long stretches of time at a steady tempo, solidifying technique. I also feel it is not an efficient mode of practice to work on technical problems: usually, within a set, there are a handful of problems that become the stumbling block, and the rest is rather straightforward.

Generally, set exercise problems could be boiled down to one of these: problem shifting positions for key changes, problem with one lick in one key (e.g., “oh shoot, I should have started this F# minor lick up one octave”). I’d work on these separately. E.g. for problem shifting positions for key changes, I’d sometimes only play the first lick in the set, and then the last, and then do the position shift to the next key, etc.

Some sets are harder than others, so I’d do them at a comfortable tempo (say 50% speed if necessary to ensure things are very clear in my mind, then 70% speed, and then 95% or 100% speed) – always exploring and keeping it clean and clear.

When the set difficulties were sorted out, I’d play the full sets. Playing the full sets was to help solidify the technique, because each set lasts several minutes, but this was where I started to blend technique and music, making the sets lively and energetic. I almost never used the backing tracks, instead trying to push the beat along just with the solo playing. I’d set the metronome at 2 and 4, and try to make each set a standalone piece, with different attack, dynamics, etc, always keeping a close eye on timing, tone, and feel. “Feel” here is my own feeling, which is a combination of physical feeling and drive, momentum, everything that makes this music fun.

With later sets, I found that recording would throw me off completely – performance nerves. I used an old trick of concert pianist and musical monster Claudio Arrau, and would practice the sets at faster than the required tempo, perhaps at 190 bpm for a 170 bpm recording. Recording at 170 bpm felt much more secure, as I wasn’t playing right at the edge of my technical ability. (But I still managed to screw it up, of course).

Sometimes I revisit sets to explore different technical ideas, such as wrist positions, pick grips, etc., always looking for ways to get a cleaner sound with more ease.