Spider finger exercises on the fretboard

Today's practice session was in response to the session I posted about here, with my wayward finger.

After feedback from SVDE I decided to only practice scales and double stops today. As advised, creating a new habit takes time. So I took my glasses off (I can only see close, ie the fretboard and not be distracted by the naughty sheet music) and began. I used to think it was a bad thing to look at the left hand fingers, or rather it was better to memorise finger positions. But of course to get to a situation of good recall and touch, you can allow yourself to look and examine the fingers and what they are doing. This way you can better process and feedback what you see. I know. It seems obvious, but sometimes....

So the first round of cales and double stops I looked at the position of my fingers and the pressure on the fretboard while looking at a 90° positioning. That was it! Scales up and down, double stops up and down. Being mindful of my fingers. Watching them move over the fretboard like a spider's legs might (SVDE visuals there). A walks with purpose and direction and her legs move independently towards their separate goals. They don't land with a thump at the last second as an afterthought. This was what I was thinking of. In this way I wasn't focusing on eradicating a bad habit, but rather moving towards a new one.

In the second phase of the session I repeated the same exercises of scales and double stop scales but with my eyes closed and listening to the sounds I produced. 

Maybe later I'll play some music.