FRETTING & PICKING ACCURACY

The core of any technique workout is making your fingers move more efficiently. Our exercises will help

When most people think of a guitar workout, they inevitably think of ‘getting faster’, but this can be a fool’s errand. Winding up the speed on your metronome might not do you any good in the long run if you aren’t playing accurately – you’ll just end up playing sloppily quickly. It’s important to keep in mind that speed is a by-product of accuracy. These exercises will improve your dexterity and accuracy, which will in turn allow you to play faster. Work through the examples slowly and only increase the speed when you can play an exercise ten times without error.

1 SPIDER EXERCISES

This classic four-finger workout spider exercise is probably already in your practice routine – the idea is to play notes at consecutive frets using all four fretting fingers. You’ll be honing your alternate picking technique too. The most common approach is: first finger, then second, third, and fourth, but try these variations too.

1. 4-3-2-1 1-2-3-4

2. 4-2-3-1 1-3-2-4

3. 3-2-4-1 1-4-2-3

4. 2-1-4-3 3-4-1-2