Rob Schwimmer is a highly skilled Continuum Fingerboard performer. His Tip du Jour series is a compendium of playing techniques on the Haken Continuum from simple practical ideas to unusual specialized approaches. Rob’s instructive videos are individually listed below; a complete playlist may also be found here.
Tip du Jour #1—Single Note Legato
Tip du Jour #1a—Legato vs Portamento Clarification
Reinforce your single note legato playing by adding a neighboring finger for support.
Tip du Jour #2—Your Personal Vibrato
Finding your own personal vibrato. Your are what makes you sound like you.
Short Tip Du Jour #3—Be Able to See Your Fingertips!
Connecting visually with your pitch.
Tip du Jour #4—Get/Bring an Emery Board
A practical tip for best contact between skin and playing surface of your Continuum.
Tip du Jour #5—Non-Moving Chord Study
Using minimum hand/finger weight/motion (illustrating how sensitive the response of the Continuum is.)
Tip du Jour #6—Split Chord Vibrato in 2 Hands
2 Hand vibrato: Parallel vs Contrary motion?
Tip du Jour #7—Economy of Motion in Fixed Position Arpeggios
The question: Do I really have to move that much to make these arpeggios happen?
Tip du Jour #8–Turn up the gain and save patches for less finger pressure
An easy but easily overlooked tip for lighter playing
Tip du Jour #9—Pedal for Sustain vs Sostenuto?
Why use the Sostenuto Pedal instead of Sustain? Also a very cool and useful trick
Tip du Jour #10—Break the Habit! Sliding from “White” Notes to Black Notes
A little exercise declaring to re-wire your brain for chromatic slides that are impossible on a keyboard.
Tip du Jour #11—Y Axis Proximity: Splitting Up Parts for Better Sightlines
Using the Y (front to back) axis to separate parts to make fingertips more visible and easier to play.
Tip du Jour #12—Advantages of Black Notes to the Front & Flat Topography?
An idea in whole tone scale playing using 45 degree Y shift
Tip du Jour #13—Thumbthing or Other
A very interesting way of turning the whole right arm/hand to play downward arpeggios or figures
Tip du Jour #14—re Half Steps using Y
Using Y position to facilitate playing half steps
Tip du Jour #15—Turn Off Your Keyboard Brain’s Auto-Correct!
Being aware of and avoiding old keyboard habits
Tip du Jour #16—Support and Positioning for Thumb and Pinkie Vibrato
Where on my fingers to I best make contact and how do I support those fingers to keep from wobbling?
Tip du Jour #17—In Defense of Thumbs + Preamble
Showing a few advantages of playing with thumbs
Tip du Jour # 18—EXERCISE Whole Tones with Sliding
A fun and useful exercise for sliding 4th finger and thumb in the context of a (chromatically shifting) whole tone group
Am additional thought for adding a little weight during a slide
Tip du Jour #19—Sliding EXERCISE on a Liszt Lick
An fingering/sliding exercise using a line from Liszt’s Transcendental Etude #5
Tip du Jour #20—Dead Drop & Smack Tap!
Two unorthodox but very cool modes of attack
Tip du Jour #21—Reading, Rounding and More Cowbell
A few thoughts regarding reading music and playing Continuum and the role of pitch rounding
Tip du Jour #22—Blues Guitar: Eric Clapton’s Steppin’ Out
A look at blues guitar’esque playing techniques on the Continuum.
Tip du Jour#23—BRAIN TWISTER for Octave Pedal (Regular and Tri-Position)
A musical octave pedal riddle!
Tip du Jour #23a—More on Brain Twister for Octave Pedal (Regular & Tri-Position)
An answer of the previous riddle… and beyond!
Tip du Jour #24–Perry Mason presents “50 Ways to Play Your C Scale”
A hopefully horizon expanding take on fingering and octave pedal possibilities on a simple C scale.
Tip du Jour #25–4th’s Pattern & Cool Pattern a la Bernard Herrmann with Octave Pedal
2 very cool patterns with octave pedal shift: One based on 4’ths and the 2nd a la Bernard Herrmann, Coltrane, Slonimsky.
Tip du Jour #25a—More Fun on 4th’s & Herrmann/Coltrane/Slonimsky Patterns
Pattern and Octave Pedal Fun at +1 and +2 octaves
Tip du Jour #26—The Octave Pedal Aha Moment!
My Philosophy of the Octave Pedal (or at least My Analogy!)
Tip du Jour #27—Hand Injury Awareness
Tips and thoughts re not getting hand injuries from playing
Tip du Jour #28—Thumb on Metal for Parallel Chords in One Hand
Thumb contact on the metal for stability and consistency
Tip du Jour #29--Locked Thumbs for Parallel 2 Handed Chord Stability
This actually works in helping making the impractical possible!
Tip du Jour #30—“Because” from Abbey Road
Checking out different ways to play this Beatles 3 voice masterpiece!
Tip du Jour #31—Four Different Fingering Techniques to Articulate some Rapid Passagework
Rounded vs Flat vs Pulling vs Arcade Game Fingering? Hmmm…
Tip du Jour #32—Slim Continuum Volume Knob + Fuzz= “Hey, Ma! I’m Jeff Beck! …well, maybe not.”
As the title says check out using your Slim volume pot to overdrive your fuzz for some nice expressive blues lines!
Tip du Jour #33—Spice Up Your Solo Lines with 2 Fun Ways of Deploying Chromatics!
Rounding Rate pedal vs Via-Y fingerboard horizontal split for chromatic glisses!
Tip du Jour #34—Paying More Attention to Releases
Thinking about note releases, an undervalued aspect of expressive playing.
Tip du Jour #35—5 Kinds of Finger Releases
Getting more specific with examples of 5 different finger release styles!
Tip du Jour #35A—Releases via Pedal
3 Modes of Pedal Release
Tip Du Jour #36—From Silence to ppp
Finger technique for a super gentle entrance
Tip du Jour #37 (Not #38!)—Single Finger Support
Melody finger support for less wobble/more security for your melodies
Tip du Jour #38—Chord Balance via Wrist Orientation
Rather than only using individual finger pressure to balance chords, try re-orienting (slight turning) your wrist.
Tip du Jour #39—Extend Your Fingers
Extending your fingertips for better contact visual
Tip du Jour #40—CHORD TO CHORD: Fingers vs Pedals?
Advantages/disadvantages of fingering vs pedaling when moving from chord to chord
Tip du Jour #41—Organ Fingerings/Finger Replacement
Replacement fingerings without using the sustain/sostenuto pedal
Tip du Jour #42—Why/When? 2 Sostenuto Pedals
A musical scenario in which I discovered the beauty of using 2 sostenuto pedals!
Tip du Jour #43—Unorthodox Chord Fingering
A highly unusual fingering approach for chords where all note are around Y=0