HALPI dot com

Like a lot of things in the music world, finger exercises are a very individual thing. Some can do without them completely, but for most players some kind of exercise is a great help to developing good technique.

You have to be able to control the instrument to make it do what you want. Exercises are one of the best ways for most people to accomplish that.

Start with a good warm up. Fingers move at your command best when the muscles and joints are flexible and strong. Part of that goal is achieved by getting the muscles well suffused with blood, and by simple stretching.

Extend the fingers as far as they’ll reach, then flex all five simultaneously back and forth a dozen times. Then, do each finger individually, keeping the others still. Then repeat with two fingers, keeping the others still. (Harder than it sounds!)

Bottom line: you need to be able to control your movements. That’s a lot easier when the fingers and joints are limber.

Finger exercises break down into different types: strength, speed, agility, subtlety and others. But one of the most basic is simply pressing the right space between frets in the correct rhythm. If you fumble to play the right note, and the right progression from one note to the next, concentrate on basic scales.

From there, move on to developing strength and speed. Most exercises have overlapping benefits.

Take part of the time to work on strength by using a squeeze exercise V-grip, a hand held device, made from spring steel, shaped like a ‘V’, such as the Gripmaster. You should be able to grip the guitar effortlessly and at the same time press any note you want anywhere on the guitar cleanly and surely, one after the next.

Get a metronome and set it on the slowest speed. Practice scales played at that setting, then in a few days or weeks depending on your progress, kick it up a notch. Get comfortable with executing the notes at that speed, then increase it further.

Don’t try to progress more rapidly than you can execute the notes cleanly, though. You don’t want to train your muscles into bad habits. Sureness and facility are more important at the beginning than simply being able to run through notes at top speed.

Run through scales forward and backward until you are equally comfortable in both directions. As you practice, you’ll become more and more able to execute any chosen pattern with equal ease. Part of that is training the mind where to put the fingers, part of the exercise simply develops physical strength and agility.

Once you’ve mastered those elementary basics, you can move up to the next stage and start training the fingers to vary subtle rhythms and pressure. You’ll gain a whole new level of playing ability as you do. Enjoy!