Exercises for the little finger on the guitar. Useful exercises for guitarists for every day
Continuing the series of useful video tutorials, we publish on the site another video from YouTube called 4 basic exercises for a guitarist (the author of the video source of the notes from which the idea was taken is AndyMcFishka - you can follow the video to the channel and subscribe).
You can watch the video right now and then return to our comments, as you inevitably want to make a few comments.
Useful finger exercises for a guitarist
First, let's bring out those mega-useful tips that apply to all these exercises at once:
1. When performing each of the exercises, you should use a metronome.
The importance of such advice cannot be overestimated. Where can I get a metronome?
You can purchase a stationary mechanical or electronic metronome from a music store, you can download a metronome program to your computer, you can install a metronome app on your phone.
In addition, the metronome can be easily replaced with a drum machine, for example, on your newfangled lotion or a drum part recorded in some music program.
2. Always start exercising at a slow pace.
Speed is good, but all the notes in your playing should sound clear and the same (in terms of volume and quality of sound production). No ringing, no rattling.
3. Once you have mastered the exercise so that you can easily repeat it 5 times in a row (at a given pace), you can increase the speed of the metronome by 4 units.
Thus, your speed will constantly increase.
4. When extracting notes on the guitar fretboard, it is extremely important to follow the position of the hands.
Each finger of the left hand should occupy its own separate fret and extract sounds on that very fret.
When you move up/down the neck of the guitar, all your fingers move at the same time, that is, the entire hand moves.
This is how you learn positional play and develop proper finger articulation.
5. When doing any guitar exercises in general, try to copy (repeat) the "teacher" playing.
This is exactly how the notes should be played. The fingers should not jump on the guitar, and should only be moved when the whole position changes.
6. Large and long exercises that cover almost the entire guitar neck (for example, the first 2 in this video), you need to start from the first frets, gradually moving up the neck, and then in reverse order.
7. To master the guitar technique of playing, get ready to practice a lot and for a long time.
At the same time, classes should be regular, daily. It is better to practice one hour a day for a week than 7 hours on one of the days of the week.
The more you practice and practice, the better your picking technique, the clearer and faster you play as a result.
8. We personally believe that playing the guitar is more useful than playing computer games. Get your priorities right!
9. For your simplicity, we decided to record these exercises in Guitar Pro sheet music and tabs, and you can simply download a ready-made file with these exercises in order to practice them and develop the work of your left hand.
10. If you download the archive with tabs and run it, you will see that the initial tempo in them is 200 beats per minute, but here, using Guitar Pro, you yourself can lower the speed.
You set such a high pace not by chance, but so that you yourself learn to change the pace and set the one that suits you!
If you have no idea how the tempo and speed of the composition changes in Guitar Pro - google it (to change the tempo, click on the number 200 on the toolbar and set the initial value to 40)!
You should definitely learn how to change the beat tempo in Guitar Pro, as this skill will help you many, many more times.
Yes, and you don’t have to buy a metronome, since you can run it in the same program!
1. 1-2-3-4 frets on different strings.
Then shift up the bar (2-3-4-5). IMPORTANT: Do not remove your fingers from the neck. those. when you put the 4th finger the previous 3 should be on the string.
2. 1-3-2-4 and vice versa 4-2-3-1 on different strings.
3. 1-2-3-4 (all fingers on string) then move hand 1 position and 5-4-3-2. then shift finger and 3-4-5-6 then shift hand and 7-6-5-4. Also in reverse order.
4. A very useful exercise (and hard for beginners.
The bottom line is that the finger presses only 1 string at a time, and the rest muffles.
To begin with, to make it easier, we make a bar with the index finger at the 5th fret (3, 2, 1 strings).
We remove string 3, then we bend the finger so that the 3rd one dies out and we sound the second one, then we bend the finger so that the 2nd one dies out and we take the first one.
The bottom line is that the sounds do not overlap (they are separated as much as possible), and the finger only changes the bend, and does not jerk up / down.
And most importantly, start playing SLOWLY.
Set the metronome (do not even try to play without a metronome) 40 and slowly increase the speed by 4 if you play the exercise all over the fretboard without errors 5 times.
Download sheet music and tabs for these exercises in Guitar Pro:
Do it for your own pleasure, and what is unclear - write to us in the comments!
Beginning guitarists always need to warm up for 10-15 minutes before playing. This is necessary for stretching fingers. Guitar in this case will be your main assistant. In this article, we will analyze some guitar finger exercises - how to right hand, and for the left.
Most self-taught people make a lot of mistakes in the early stages of learning (the most common is brute force with just one finger).
Ideally, all fingers except the little finger should be involved (although there are exceptions).
Exercise 1. "Swing"
First of all, we distribute the fingers along the strings: thumb will control the sixth string, the index - the third, and the middle and nameless, respectively, the second and first.
We are trying to play the introduction of the famous Metallica ballad called Nothing Else Matters (this will not be difficult even for the person who picked up the instrument for the first time). Thus, we play the strings in the following sequence:
Note: The thumb can play not only the sixth string, but also the fourth and fifth. So experiment with it. You can also periodically change the sequence of strings and, for example, play like this: 6 3 1 2 3 1 2 3. At this time, the left hand does not clamp anything, that is, open strings are played. Of course, you can experiment and play some simple chords.
Exercise 2. "Waltz"
We distribute the fingers in the same way as in the previous exercise.
The game is an alternation of bass strings and a "pinch" of the three lower strings, which is done simultaneously with three fingers.
Exercises for the left hand
Important: The main task when working with the left hand is the correct setting of chords, adaptability to their change, as well as roughening of the skin on the fingertips.
Incorrect placement of the fingers of the left hand brings the most problems, since the harmony and quality of the guitarist's playing depends primarily on the left hand.
Exercise 1
We choose 3-4 any chords (see article:) and play them sequentially. It turns out an uncomplicated melody. It is better to play them by brute force, because in this case (unlike a fight) we will hear the flaws better if some finger of the left hand is placed incorrectly or the string is not pressed hard enough.
We put and play chords, as if in this moment the master listens to us (you can imagine that this is some celebrity or even your idol) and for him we are trying to create a chord standard.
To do this, you need to monitor the correct setting of the fingers. They should clamp their strings at a right angle (often young guitarists pull them down, thereby knocking down the tuning and creating the illusion of an out-of-tune guitar), not too hard, but not too weak (if we press the finger too lightly, then in this case the string will simply emit the sound of a taut rope).
Don't pay too much attention to playing speed, because first we just need to perfect the transitions between chords.
After this is done, you can diversify or switch to, as well as increase the speed of the game.
Note: already in the early stages of learning, it is worth devoting a little more time to setting bare chords (see lesson: ).
Exercise 2. On the first string
Let's start with the fifth fret. We put our index finger on it. On the sixth fret - the middle, on the seventh and eighth, respectively, the ring and little fingers.
We play the following sequence of frets:
And then in reverse order:
Then we move one fret to the right. We play the same game all over again.
When the little finger reaches the twelfth fret, we begin to play our melody in reverse order, to “fade out”.
Conclusion
Some exercises make it possible to develop two arms at the same time. Currently, there are even entire collections and individual courses containing hand exercises. for guitar it is important that it is configured correctly (see lesson:).
There are no clear instructions for performing these exercises. The guitarist is only required to try to combine in his playing the components for the development of both hands.
All these exercises are designed for beginners who are just starting to learn how to play the guitar. Experienced professional guitarists, of course, use more difficult exercises, and they do them constantly, every day. But for you and me, for beginners, the above exercises are quite enough.
Do them periodically and do not be lazy. Good luck! 🙂
If you are serious about music and plan to play complex compositions in the future, you need to take the time to practice. Mastery always requires a lot of time and effort. Therefore, it is necessary to approach classes with all responsibility. In this article, we will look at various exercises for developing speed and clarity of playing the guitar, training a sense of rhythm. Let's start with warming up your hands.
Warming up before the game
Make it a rule to warm up your hands before playing. Warming up should be an integral part of your workouts and public performances. And the more time you spend on it, the better.
First, by straining unheated muscles, you risk injuring them. Tendinitis (inflammation of the tendons) and arthritis (inflammation of the joint) are occupational diseases of guitarists. A banal warm-up greatly reduces the risk of injury.
Secondly, hand gymnastics greatly increases the effectiveness of training. Try to warm up before the game - and you will feel how much faster and more accurately your fingers began to run along the neck. Personal observation: without warm-up maximum speed performance of passages falls by 25-30%.
Gymnastics consists of 2 parts: with a guitar and without it. First you need to put the tool aside and prepare your hands. Start with the forearms and hands - do a few dozen circular rotations in both directions, as in physical education.
Then comes the stretching of the fingers. Try to spread the fingers of your left hand to the sides as far as possible. First stretch without the help of the right hand, then with it. Watch your feelings - you should not bring to pain. It will also be a good idea to bend your fingers one at a time, holding all the others. If you have an expander, you can work out a little with it.
By devoting just a few minutes a day to this, you will protect your hands from injury, as well as increase the effectiveness of your workouts. Special attention focus on the left hand - it is she who is loaded the most. But you should not forget about the right one either - a fast game also tires her.
Warming up with the guitar - developing a sense of rhythm
When you do a simple exercise, you can safely take up the guitar. Immediately playing at the limit of possibilities is fraught with trouble. You need to start slowly, gradually increasing the pace. Exercise for at least 10-15 minutes - and your hands will thank you.
Now is the time to pay attention to the rhythm. Rhythm is the basis of any music (except, perhaps, ambient). In whatever direction, and whatever instrument you play, you should not forget about the rhythm.
Start with a slow game. Perhaps you think that playing slowly is very easy and boring? Try to accurately hit the beats of the metronome with 4 notes at a tempo of 40-50 beats per minute. Most beginner guitarists won't be able to do this. You need to train at all speeds and without fail with a metronome. The metronome is a musician's best friend and teacher.
Set the metronome speed to 60 bpm (beats per minute). Play the passage shown in the picture. After a few minutes, increase the speed to 70 bpm, then to 80, 90, and so on.
Walk around it a few times. First play 4 notes, then 8, then 16. You can combine them to get the simplest rhythmic patterns, such as a gallop (8-8-4 or 16-16-8), or use triplets.
Then run through the scales. Build a scale from any note on the 6th string - and play it in the same way. It is important not to "stay" in one place on the neck. Pay equal attention to both the first frets and the very last ones. Your fingers should always run confidently.
If you play as a mediator, try different ways of attacking. Play the passage first with an alternating stroke, then with a downstroke. Owners of electric guitars are advised to practice both on a clean sound and with an overload. Their playing technique is slightly different, and it also needs to be worked on daily.
If you are in a hurry, work out for at least 10 minutes. This is much better than nothing.
Exercises for speed play
Learning to play fast is only half the battle. Many musicians can give out even 20 notes per second, but it is very difficult to make out at least some melody in this. The point here is correct setting sound and clarity of the game. Sound is a very large topic and deserves a whole series of separate articles. But on a clean game you need to work.
First, determine the maximum comfortable speed for yourself. Choose your favorite riff or simple scale, turn on the metronome and play it. Then increase the speed and repeat. Turn it up until "dirt" starts to appear in the melody. Minor rhythmic inaccuracies, the screeching of the plectrum over the braid of the strings, the grazing of extra strings - all this greatly spoils the melody. Especially if you use overdrive or distortion in your music.
When you understand the limit of your capabilities, you can begin to expand it. Again: forget about playing without a metronome! Start with the exercise above. Choose any mode, build a similar passage from it and play. Keep clean. If you play dirty, you should slow down a bit or take a break.
Don't focus on one exercise. Tired of playing this passage - switch to other frets, to scales. Playing your favorite works is no worse. Choose an interesting quick song or an excerpt from it, learn it - and into battle! The most important thing is to play as accurately as possible. Never lose the rhythm. Never hit an extra string.
When it does, increase the speed a little. Just 2-3 beats per minute. You will almost not feel the difference, and you will play with warm hands without any problems. Even if you shift the threshold by 1 bpm per day, you will get a stunning result in a month.
Don't forget about various techniques games. If you are interested in the sweep, be sure to practice it. Like tapping - add new notes to your exercises. Try, for example, to play a passage from the picture with both hands.
The letter T in tablature shows what sounds are played with the finger of the right hand. When tapping, pay attention to the volume of the note. Beginning guitarists are very lame in extracting sound with their little and ring fingers - watch this. Mute any extra strings to keep your playing as clear as possible. Your task is to bring your performance at the current speed to the ideal. Only then can you move on to the next level.
Summarize
Let's recap how your workout should go:
- Hand warm-up and stretching;
- Slow playing of scales under a metronome;
- Determination of comfortable speed for today;
- Exercise game for speed game also with a metronome.
You may find this approach boring. Dozens of times to play the same boring riff, besides, keep track of hundreds of little things. But remember the proverb: "Repetition is the mother of learning." Quick game is a very complex technique. Not every guitarist can boast of a clean performance of high-speed passages. To reach the heights of mastery, years of hard training are needed. Spend just 40 minutes a day on these exercises - and the result will not be long in coming.
EXERCISES
If you landed on this page for a query related to exercises for the development of guitar technique, then know that in addition to exercises on the site there is also educational literature for beginner guitarists(Section "Guitar Lessons"). And significant musical collection covering all types of guitar activities (Section "Guitarist's Library").
Thoughts about…
guitar exercises, presented on this page are part of my textbook "A. Nosov's Guitar School" and are intended for the development and improvement of guitar technique, including the development of playing techniques, increasing the mobility of the fingers of the left and right hands, their strength and endurance. The exercises, with the exception of standard scales, are exclusive and are the fruit of many years of teaching. Having played them all, you the best way prepare for the performance of works of any level of complexity.
Exercises designed for a wide range of performers, from beginner guitarists to students of secondary and higher musical educational institutions. All the necessary information on playing them is placed on the title page of the documents.
The bulk of the exercises goes beyond the scope of an amateur guitar, so I did not consider it possible to supplement them with tablature (as I did, for example, in the exercises on "Arpeggio" on the "Accompaniment" page), rightly believing that advanced guitarists do not need such hints. If you are not one of them, or, alternatively, do not know musical notation, then it's time to fill this gap by studying at my guitar school. The first 5 lessons are available for free download (Section "Guitar Lessons").
Change of positions. Position, in relation to playing the guitar, is the fixed position of the fingers of the left hand (which by default is responsible for changing the pitch) on the fretboard. Therefore, a change of position is an action associated with moving the fingers of the left hand from one part of the fretboard to another ("Positions" is the topic of the 15th lesson of A. Nosov's Guitar School).
In the guitar, there are four ways of changing positions (Substitution, Sliding, Jumps, Leading), which have common patterns. Knowing these patterns and, most importantly, their skillful application just allows you to make the transition from one part of the fretboard to another not only technically (quickly and silently), but also qualitatively (without interruption in sound and extraneous overtones). And this skill, in turn, will be in demand in any kind of guitar activity, regardless of whether you accompany or solo. Therefore, if you have not heard anything about the rules for changing positions, then before starting the exercises, I would advise you to read the 51st lesson of A. Nosov's Guitar School, in which detailed information on this subject (section "Guitar Lessons").
Scales- an excellent tool for the development of fine performing technique (fine technique, in turn, is when each next sound is taken on the next fret or through the fret). Where is fine technique used when playing the guitar? When performing melodic lines (including with the support of accompanying guitar voices) and in passages. A passage - a sequence of sounds in rapid movement - is not a frequent guest in guitar literature. Why? Because there are few guitar virtuosos, and authors, including myself, are forced to focus on the average performing level, only occasionally allowing themselves to embody a flight of fantasy in notes, expressed by a cascade of virtuoso sounds. However, talent, multiplied by diligence, can work wonders. And, I really hope that you will become the performer who can handle the works top level difficulties.
Do you know what is the secret of the magical charm of the music of Niccolo Paganini, the unsurpassed Italian violinist and composer? In the most beautiful melodies and ... incredibly difficult passages, close in spirit to the improvisational style (I mean his violin works, not guitar ones, which are also written a lot). And improvisation is something that is interesting to listen to, play and watch live. Improvisation is a stream of creative performing fantasy, embodied by muscular efforts, which are based on ... fine technique. However, learned improvisation also produces a stunning effect, which is proved by the immortal creations of N. Paganini for several centuries in a row. Conclusion, if you want to be interesting to your listeners and enjoy playing, pay more attention to scales - a magical ladder on the way to passages and virtuosity, and I will help you with this with my advice (see the "Guitar Lessons" section).
Arpeggio on the guitar, in a simplified way, it is string picking. The success of this type of technology by and large, depends on the actions of the fingers of the right hand, interacting with the strings in order to extract sound. The left hand also participates in the performance of arpeggios, the fingers of which form chords (not always typical ...).
Any guitar player who plays at the everyday level considers himself an outstanding performer if he knows a few brute force. And I suggest ... 60 types, each of which is considered not only as a separate exercise, but also has a purely practical value, serving as a template for song accompaniment. Moreover, the views can be combined (within the same musical time signature) and get an even greater number of iterations. Details in the document "Arpeggio" and, of course, in my lessons (see section "Guitar Lessons").
barre- This is a technique that consists in simultaneously pressing several strings with one finger. The reception, of course, is powerful, simplifying the game and allowing you to act in various keys without much hassle (provided that you press the strings with your index finger). If… the guitarist knows how to do it right. That's right, this is when the finger involved in setting the barre acts with a force not exceeding the limit necessary for high-quality pressing of the strings, and the remaining fingers are completely free and ready to participate in extracting additional sounds (barre can be performed different fingers, so their name is not specified here). There is no other approach to performing barre for anyone, neither for lovers of accompaniment, nor, especially, for classical guitarists.
And here the question arises, how to learn how to take a barre (or teach, as an option)? In short, you need at least a normal gap between the strings and the fretboard (the topic of the 1st lesson of A. Nosov's Guitar School) and the tension of the strings, which does not interfere with the development of this technique. Exactly. Loosening the standard string tension for many is the only way to master the technique correctly and painlessly. Everything else is quite educable: both the strength necessary to simultaneously press several strings, and endurance, and the ability to freely act with the rest of the fingers while holding "Barre". Details in the document "Barre" and, of course, in my lessons (see section "Guitar Lessons").
Legato- a playing technique that is part of the scope of the left hand, which by default is responsible for pressing the strings to the fingerboard, with little or no participation of the right hand. Legato, conditionally, is divided into ascending, descending and mixed, and differs in the way it is performed. I will not go into details, all this is done in lessons with examples and exercises. I'm just going to point out that the downstroke is the most difficult, and I suggest you set up synthetic strings to learn it if you haven't already. Otherwise, you will suffer... I am writing here for those who are interested in understanding all types of guitar technique, including melismas - grace notes, mordents, groupetto, trills, found in advanced pieces. Although, the legato technique is certainly useful for all guitarists, regardless of the goals and objectives that they set for themselves. It is useful in that it facilitates performance and diversifies the sound, softening the sound.
Melismas. In the 68th lesson, the study of melismas begins - melodic ornaments (if you like, original musical vignettes). Let's start with grace notes, then master mordents, gruppettos and trills. What can be said about melismas in a review article? Firstly, the fact that they really decorate the melody and are used in almost any work of the romantic style. Therefore, if you are a fan of Spanish authors or dream of playing Hungarian, gypsy music, Russian romances, then this is for you. Although, of course, the presence of melismas in the text does not depend on the nationality of the author or his geographical location. Secondly, the fact that they are written in small notes (more precisely, notes in a smaller font) or ... are indicated by special icons that require decoding. I'm sure you've seen melismas if you've ever browsed sheet music for "advanced" guitarists. And, no doubt, we asked ourselves a couple of questions, such as: "How to calculate the length of small notes?", "How to combine them with notes related to other guitar voices?". So, for a successful reading of melismas, you need to know that each guitar voice is independent in the recording (namely, the melody, bass, middle voice and the rarely seen 4th voice are independent). And that all small durations are included in the main note following them. In short, everything, and the details in the lessons.
flageolets- sounds that imitate the singing of a flute. But this is not their only use when playing the guitar. Harnesses are also used to produce ultra-high sounds that are not available with conventional sound production. Does this mean that the flageolets are taken in a special way? - Exactly. Therefore, if you are not aware of their performance, I would advise you to study the key lessons on this topic (141st - natural harmonics, 146th - artificial harmonics, 150th - combined harmonics), which spell out everything you need to know about this type of guitar technique. I would advise because it is impossible to guess about the features of extracting flageolets and their designations on your own. For example, if you do not know that the harmonics are taken not within the fret (as can be understood from the Roman numeral used to number the frets), but above the fret, they will not sound. The same will happen if you interact with the string with the wrong force and the wrong duration. And this is only the most light look flageolets - natural. But there are also artificial and combined ones, which are much more difficult to perform. In general, read my lessons, if not already in the subject.
Arpeggio and techniques such as glissando, staccato, vibrato, string pull, pizzicato, tambourine, tremolo, tremolando are very often used when playing the guitar, regardless of its type (acoustic, electro), the style of music performed (classical, jazz, flamenco, chanson ), the method of sound production (fingers, a special plate). They are used, of course, with varying degrees of intensity. But this does not mean that an electric guitarist should not master, say, the "Tambourine" technique, and a classical guitarist should not master the "String Pull" or "False Vibrato" technique. Must! At least in order to expand the horizons of your instrument. And then… no one knows what they will have to play tomorrow.
I really hope that I could be useful to you.
In this video I will give you some finger stretching exercises and one exercise for the development of finger motor skills.
Now you are trying to play chords where you need a good stretch of your fingers. Your fingers are probably trembling, you can’t reach the right frets on the guitar and all this is very annoying - isn’t it?
Everyone goes through this. These exercises will help you get through this stage. much faster.
Let's start with stretching! First you need to warm up your hands. Close your hands and rub vigorously together (as you do in winter to keep warm). Next, imitate washing your hands (how you lather your hands) - all this warms your hands and fingers well.
Exercise!
Stretch every day. Before stretching, do not forget to do warm-up exercises.
For every exercise take 2-3 minutes- you don’t need to fanatically engage in “hours” - you will injure your fingers and you won’t be able to play the guitar for a long time.
