Will these items help me get better?

[Krieselman13]

The items that I had my aunt order for me are a set of 5 finger weights, Gripmaster Exercise Tool, 3 books: Guitar Fitness, Flying Fingers, and The New Voice-How To Sing And Speak Properly, and also some miscelanious items- a guitar polishing cloth, and some guitar polish.

So, will this help me out. I already had my aunt order it, so it will be too late to change my mind. Well, any help would be appreciated. Thanx ahead of time.

[ESP_Viper]

I can see finger weights being good, playing with those on. But the exercise tool... what good is it that you can push the strings down harder. I have had people say it helps, but I think it's useless. The finger weights should help build speed.

[fretbuzz]

One tool that i have found to improve dexterity and strength is chineese medicine balls. They are basically two rather large ball berings that you spin in your hand. After a accident i could barely make a fist with my left hand, but after working for a while with the balls i have full movement now

shine on

fret

[Krieselman13]

Thats what the grip tool does, improve dexterity in the fingers. Its to use when NOT playing my axe.

[ESP_Viper]

If it's what I am thinking it is, that thing where you squeeze it, it's to make your fingers stronger. That really doesn't do much good for playing, wow you can push the string down harder... The finger weights will be good, because you can built speed up while playing with those on, and when you take them off you will be a lot faster, in theory. The gripmaster will just keep your forearm in shape and your fingers in shape.

[Krieselman13]

O, thats what dexterity is?

[gck]

dexterity is not strength.
dexterity describes the speed, the control, efficiency etc.. of your movements, how far you can spread your fingers over the fretboard and still be able to play freely, and all that sort of skill.
strength is just power: there is no point in pushing a string down stronger on the fretboard than needed, for example. however, strength is good because stronger muscles do not exhaust that quickly, and exhaustion causes muscle lockup, loss of control and all the things guitarists don't like in their fingers :)

What are those finger weights? Do you put them on your right hand when fingerpicking?

If it's something like that, I don't think it really pays out: I'm in a basketball team. Our trainer had us throw very heavy training balls from the free throw line because this should strengthen our muscles and hand-eye coordination: in theory, we should have gotten a lot better with the much lighter basketball then, in reality, nothing happened: throwing a basketball just felt awkwards afterward, and even after half a year of practice, we didn't get the point of doing this. Practicing with just a plain simple basketball, however, increased our abilities...
Of course, you train different muscles with the finger weights than we did with the training balls, however, the principle is the same. Maybe it works for you, but from personal experience, I doubt that.

For the griping tool: maybe you get more endurance for your fingers with it, however, if you do it to hard and too often, you might damage your fingers/hands. Maybe there's an instruction manual with it which gives you the correct practice times/cycles, if there isn't, I'd see someone who knows a bit about such workouts before I used it (like someone that works at a fitness center, I don't know...)

[smfulla]

the fingerweights are for your left hand as far as I know
they work by adding resistance to the movements in your fingers, so that if you can play fast with them, you can play faster without them.

[lam]

I can only speak about the grip master. 3 years ago, I owned one.
I used it maybe 2 months. I VE FOUND THAT 10 MINUTES PLAYING GUITAR WAS BETTER THEN 20 MINUTE ON THE GRIP MASTER. So maybe you can use it when you don t have your guitar with you...
lam

[Krieselman13]

Thats why I am planning on buying it, for car rides and the like. It will improve my grip, so I can also do stronger handshakes, mine are pretty weak.

[fizz]

what tension does the gripmaster youre getting have?
if youre getting one at least go for the medium tension (which is the highest i believe)

[Krieselman13]

Im a beginner, so Im getting the light tension. Thats what it said is for beginners, but if thats whjat you recomend, then Ill return the light and get the medium.

[ESP_Viper]

By the way my last post, I was not talking about dexterity w/ the gripmaster. As I would not expect it to really improve in this area.

The finger weights are for improving dexterity.

[Perfect4th]

The best tool for training your fingers is playing the guitar, hour after hour....then play some more.

Peace!

[IBZRG470]

I dont get it........

People want to be good guitarists, but they arent satsified with just picking up the guitar and playing the damn thing till the get better. There are exercises you can do that you WILL feel in your muscles and WILL make a better guitar player IF you just take the time and do them.

Its kind of sad, people want to sit down with some kind of hand grip device expecting it to make them a better guitar player. IT WONT, you wanna be a better player, THEN PLAY. I am NOT a great guitar player and dont claim to be an expert, I have been playing for about 3 years now, and I was always discouraged because I didnt know much, so I didnt get any better. Until I took lessons and started real focused practice.

Take some lessons, learn some exercises, learn some scales, learn the alternate picking method and do atleast one hour of focused practive EVERY day. YOU WILL get better. I sit down to play for an hour working on just exercises and focused practice, and I almost always end up learing something new just from doing that.

You cant become EVH over night, and you wont ever if you dont sit down and actually play the guitar, no matter what gimmick tools you use

[smfulla]

i think people are taking this gripmaster thing to seriously. Like he said, its just for car rides etc. And he knows it wont improve dexterity (many people have told him now).

[Krieselman13]

Every thing came yesterday. All but the gripmaster. Its on back order.

[cyberfret]

Finger weights are one stupidest inventions that I have seen. If you want the fast track to tendonitis or other injuries of your hand and arms.....finger weights are the way to go. But if you are looking to improve your playing, no. Unfortunately there is not regulation on quack ideas like that. I know that since they have already arrived, you are going to use them......I just hope that you do not end you playing career early from trying to find a faster way to improve. The answer is consistent practice......any other artificial means are the equivalent of snake oil in the traveling medicine show.

Short cuts usually lead to the swamp......be careful!!

--Shawn

[Krieselman13]

They are made mainly for the computer and the exercises which come in the exercise book, but they can also be used for guitar, which is what I am using them for. I use them for like 5 minutes then practice the whole time without them.

[IBZRG470]

I didnt mean to jump on you like that, bad day for me musicly, amp is acting real weird and I have to work eight 13hour days straight this week and its wearing me out pretty bad.

[chicken_polo]

having a private lessons teacher is not the only way to get good. the only real full time teacher in my town doesnt teach anyone anything, so i just bought a bunch of metallica, satriani, zeppelin, etc. and just learned them. thats all you need to do, really, i mean just learn, make vertical progress, and PRACTICE!! work on your spiders and scales and the like and you will get good eventually. all it takes is work, not some fingerweights er some crap like that

[Highlander]

calm down guys... he said he only wanted some equipment to keep his hands busy when hes in the car or stuff. i think your best bet is jus to maybe work out with the chinese balls, they wont over exert your hands but will be good for your tendons, ligaments joints and muscles, and will be relaxing too :-]

i think doing any sort of weight training on your hands can only be dangerous, your hands arent really designed for any sort of major workout like your biceps and quads are, i think the best idea is to just work on finger speed and dexterity to train your muscle fibres, in the long run this will serve you better.

everyone is born with a limited amount of certain types of muscle fibres, theres three types, fast twitch, slow twitch and intermediate type which can be trained either way depending on what sort of exercise you are doing (eg running long distances will train your leg muscles to have more slow twitch fibres which are better for endurance, and doing sprint training will train your muscles to have more fast twitch fibres).

by playing guitar and doing the right exercises youll achieve the right balance to be a fast and efficient player, but going on the weights and stuff will probly just turn you into a fat fingered muscle bound freak who can ping holes in walls but cant play guitar for beans:-]

well, im exagerating to illustrate my point, but you get what i mean.

and as for improving your handshake... i think you should forget about that and concentrate on your music, i know a lot of good guitar players and they get my respect, but i cant say i remember anyone with a world class handshake :-]