The guitar is a member of the percussion family of instruments. This means it has to be struck by something to make a sound. Obviously drums and anything you hit with a stick or your hands fall into this category. Not so obviously, this would include the piano and other keyboards as well. Most percussion instruments are struck with both hands, essentially doing the same job. The guitar is not in this category. Each hand has a very different and unrelated job.

The right hand has the traditional percussive job of striking the note, which controls the rhythm of the piece. This means the right hand is playing exactly on the beat or on some subdivision of it. Hopefully.

The left hand’s job is to make the notes you need available. This means the left hand has to have finished its job before the right hand can do its job. The hands have to work together but are not synchronized. Your brain has to be able to coordinate these two events, just a small part of the multi-tasking that has to take place to get music out of the guitar.

One of the most important practice techniques to master is keeping your right hand playing in time even if your left hand is not keeping up. I usually tell students that I would rather hear the wrong note at the right time than the right note at the wrong time. It is easer to fix a wrong note than the wrong rhythm. When you can keep your right hand moving, your left hand will figure out how much time it has and will eventually get the job done. This applies to playing single line melodies, as well as chords and progressions.

Independent control of the hands does not come easily to most aspiring musicians. You work on one hand at a time until each movement can be done semi-consciously before you try them together. Pretty soon you’ll be fretting some chords, fingerpicking an accompaniment, and singing at the same time. You might even be reading the newspaper and watching TV while you’re at it!