Hi I'm Tomas, here's the best exercise I've found and tell my students stretch their
fingers and develop their accuracy. Let's do this.
This exercise is called finger developer #2 ____ #1.
I'll start off by showing you the entire exercise then I'll go through and
explain how to get the most out of it. Put your first finger on the fifth fret
of the sixth string. Now we're gonna hit one note at a time. For now the right
hand will just do down picking then your second finger goes down on the next fret
that's the sixth fret. Your third finger on the seventh fret
and your small finger on the eighth fret Now notice as I did this then I didn't
lift any of the fingers off as I pressed the next one down that's because that's
where the stretch comes in. As you place a finger, it creates a little bit of
stretch between the first and the second then between the second and the third
and then between the third and the fourth. If you took the fingers off like
this the stretch would be gone. Now this part of the fretboard by the way has
frets closer together than back here remember that, that's important. Now you
go on to the next string the fifth string and do the same thing. Again all
the fingers stay down. The fourth string,
third string
and so on until you get to the first string. Go slow get the fingers in just
the right place that means close to the fret but not on top of the fret. Now once
you've done this all the way to the first string you start over but you move
down one fret and you the same thing.
Unto the fifth, three notice again my fingers are staying down. Now can you
tell why this is up in the end a little bit?
If you said because the frets are a little farther apart you'd be right! You
see as you go closer to the knot the frets are little farther apart so you're
stretching your fingers more. You keep doing this going one fret back at the
time so we're gonna - on the third fret, all the way to the first string onto the
second fret and you'll start feeling it and to the first fret.
Now if you're a beginner or very new to the guitar go ahead and start on just
the fifth fret and stay there for a while. Get to where it's comfortable. Look
for the little subtle details rather than just trying to push it as far as
you can go. Place each finger close to the fret but not on top of it. You want
to get as good a sound as possible. When you're playing, you can't really
concentrate on exactly where you put your fingers. By doing this exercise, you
can take the time to get your finger in just the right place and you're
developing a habit that'll flow over into all of your
guitar playing. As you move to the strings curl your fingers more so what
we're looking for is up and down. And as you get to the
first string you'll have the biggest angle and the least angle on the sixth
string. Don't keep moving your thumb back so that you end up with the same angle.
Keep your thumb roughly where it is in the middle of the neck on the back. As
you progress there's a couple of things you can add. First of all, you can use a
metronome to measure your speed and try to push your speed up a little bit. Also
in the right hand you can start doing down up picking. You'll find that adds a
whole level of complexity specially as you go from one string to the next. It's
important no matter how fast you go to stay relaxed. If you find yourself really
tensing and clamping on the strings, loosen up and even shake out your hand a
little bit and come back at it. Break that tension. Don't let it become a
habit so that's it for this lesson. I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave me a
comment. Let me know good or bad or if there's something else you'd like to see
me do. Also if you'd like to learn more this really is just one exercise out of
many in my Real Guitar Success membership program. I'd love to have you
there so I can give you the best of what I have to offer and it's absolutely free
to get started. Go to realguitarsuccess.com and I'll put a link
somewhere below. Bye for now.