Finger Exercises(I posted this on cyberfret.com)

[NeoClassicalnew]

Hello. If you are here I suppose you want to increase your technique. Well I'll give you something then. Most guitarists have literally no finger independence. This means that when they do something with one finger, all the other fingers react. Why does this happen? It is called sympathetic tension, and it can hurt your playing to no end. You must do these exercises extremely slow and make sure none of the other fingers react. I recommend not using a metronome and just practicing slower than you can on the metronome, at least for a little while. And then get the metronome and slowly start increasing your speed.

The exercises I will give you must be done every day, or they will have no effect on your playing. The picking speed part comes in right know. When you do these exercises you do them in 16th notes, or if you are at a really slow tempo, 32nd notes. But what makes these different, is that you do each exercise twice before moving on to the next one. Once all in down-strokes, and second all in up-strokes. If the tempo is to high and you cannot do 16th notes for up-strokes, then just do triplets. You may want to just do it twice in up-strokes instead of once in each, if your up-strokes are really slow.

The reason you practice both picking motions is because you are normally going to alternate pick, but alternate picking is both of the motions combined, and if one of the motions you are using for alternate picking is slower than the other, then it is going to slow the other one down and you will not be able to go as fast as you should. These exercises do not require a lot of time, but they do require you to do every single one of them every single day. And finally, here are your exercises.

E:--------------------1-2-2-1--------------------
B:----------------1-2---------2-1----------------
G:------------1-2-----------------2-1------------
D:--------1-2-------------------------2-1--------
A:----1-2---------------------------------2-1----
E:1-2-----------------------------------------2-1

Remember, hit every note 4 times.

E:--------------------1-3-3-1--------------------
B:----------------1-3---------3-1----------------
G:------------1-3-----------------3-1------------
D:--------1-3-------------------------3-1--------
A:----1-3---------------------------------3-1----
E:1-3-----------------------------------------3-1

E:--------------------1-4-4-1--------------------
B:----------------1-4---------4-1----------------
G:------------1-4-----------------4-1------------
D:--------1-4-------------------------4-1--------
A:----1-4---------------------------------4-1----
E:1-4-----------------------------------------4-1

E:--------------------2-3-3-2--------------------
B:----------------2-3---------3-2----------------
G:------------2-3-----------------3-2------------
D:--------2-3-------------------------3-2--------
A:----2-3---------------------------------3-2----
E:2-3-----------------------------------------3-2

E:--------------------2-4-4-2--------------------
B:----------------2-4---------4-2----------------
G:------------2-4-----------------4-2------------
D:--------2-4-------------------------4-2--------
A:----2-4---------------------------------4-2----
E:2-4-----------------------------------------4-2

E:--------------------3-4-4-3--------------------
B:----------------3-4---------4-3----------------
G:------------3-4-----------------4-3------------
D:--------3-4-------------------------4-3--------
A:----3-4---------------------------------4-3----
E:3-4-----------------------------------------4-3

All right that's all I have for you today, remember, make sure no fingers react, make sure you have no sympathetic tension going on. And make sure you practice this in 16th notes in down strokes and up strokes (not alternate picking)



Please tell me what you think of it, and feel free to give any constructive critisism :). Thanks

[azhtey]

Thats a good idea. Isolating individual fingers to use not simply the 1234 excercise. I like !!

[NeoClassicalnew]

Awesome! thanks :).

[grae]

Great exercise...when i first looked at it it looked simple but it was really good for the upstroke and my dexterity. I will incoporate it into my warmups for sure.

[Parque]

This will do wonders for my up strokes which I have been having trouble with, but I see the tension in my fingers when I play this exercise but I don't know how to stop. Although I can control it somewhat when I play slow.

[NeoClassicalnew]

This will do wonders for my up strokes which I have been having trouble with, but I see the tension in my fingers when I play this exercise but I don't know how to stop. Although I can control it somewhat when I play slow.
You should just breathe, and relax. Play incredibly slowly, slower than the metrenome can go. Better idea, probably do something like half notes at the lowest tempo you can go. If you still tense change it do dotted half notes, then whole notes. And if you are still tense just forget the metrenome and go even slower than that. After you feel completely comftorably with it for a while, go back to the metrenome and very slowly go up. If you are ever having problems with being tense do not get frustrated, that will just make you more tense, instead just breathe and relax. Then try again. Hope that helps you a little.

[Jell0b0y]

I am just starting to play the guitar when i ran across this forum. THis is one of the first topics i hit and for the last couple nights i have been doing this and I can say its pretty rough on my hand but I think It has help me to allow my fingers to work more indendpently and gets me watching them while I practice.

Thanks for the great tip!

[Patheticloooser]

this has improved my uppicking i dont do it everyday but

[Codemeister]

I've been doing one similar to this that I made up, but instead, it goes in a sequence, and I don't limit myself to just 2 adjacent frets. I'll kind of just make them up as I go. Good stuff.

[mojo]

I tried to do this exercise you posted and it seemed literally physically impossible to do the fingerings without the other fingers moving. Any advice? Is doing it as slowly as possible and still having the other fingers having tension and moving not going to help anyways, or will it help to do this and eventually be easier to prevent them from moving?

[Divigen]

To an extent the fingers will move but that is due to the fact that your other fingers are moving.

If they are going down on the fretboard however try to play as slowly as possible until you can do it without such problems





E:--------------------3-4-4-3--------------------
B:----------------3-4---------4-3----------------
G:------------3-4-----------------4-3------------
D:--------3-4-------------------------4-3--------
A:----3-4---------------------------------4-3----
E:3-4-----------------------------------------4-3


This looks like it might be able to help me with the song last resort... I'm having quite a few problems with the verse

[Sad_Reality]

nice thread =]
i will try this when i get home from college and every time i warm up. thanks.