Playing bass to warm up/help finger independence, and other ideas on "finger strength/independence"

I’ve done it. It does help some, but the guitar requires a more delicate finesse IMO, so, I think there’s a limit.

I have a tennis ball that I squeeze ( for each finger) like… every other day.

I do a couple of quick ex to loosen up my fingers which does help even on the worst days.

Does anyone else have any routines that they do on their fingering hand?

Buy complete technic, by Joseph Alexander

I have a couple of his books, not that one though.

I do very slow legato to help warm up. That really helps me with fingering independence.

And make sure to ‘dial in’ (as Rick Graham says) to the right amount of force… the goldilocks zone… not too hard, not too soft. That’s what classical guitarists will usually do as well.

Also, basic stretching is a good idea… .just pulling back the fingers can do wonders.

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Way back in College I went to a picking seminar. Back then, the (over) Emphasis was on the left (fingering) hand. We were given this exercise:

I haven’t written music in standard notation, so it might be wrong. It originally started on the first fret, but I moved it to V position.

You place your first finger on the A -5th fret WITHOUT pressing down on the string JUST TOUCHING IT.

You pluck the string on the first beat with making any sound and on the proceeding notes you press slightly harder only making a sound on the last note of the measure.

Do the same for the 2 fingered note (A#), 3rd (B), Etc.

You only make a sound on the last note of each measure, so you gradually go from a pluck sound to a full note. It takes a bit of finesse.

It’s based on the principle that it takes only a fraction of an ounce to get a sound out of fretted electric guitar note.

You do this for 30 second for every 5 minutes you play for the first few weeks (if I remember correctly).

It does give you some positive results, it definitely changed the way I play for the better.

The drawback is that on somedays you can play a fast riff and you get a clank or pluck sound.

It is worth checking out I think.

Yeah, that is a similar exercise to what R. Graham uses, he slowly adds more pressure until the note plays cleanly. The one warning I’d have about this, is be mindful about different strengths needed for different string gauges, etc.

Strumming chord progressions is highly recommended. The more complex the chord the better, get your fingers all knotted up good :wink:

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When you’re dealing with the fretting hand I do think you can look at other instruments with a longer history of tutelage ( Violin, Oboe, etc).

I found this violin player, Nathan Cole through Noa Kageyama ( who’s interviewed here) I found some of his approaches very useful, you just have to adjust them for guitar, which this site is perfect for.

Here’s one on speed:

Practice violin speed and accuracy by grouping notes

I have heard of grouping notes for guitar, the way he demonstrates it though I useful I found.

He groups them by 2 notes at a time through out the whole run then 3, 4 etc. and plays them as fast as possible. You can really zero on wherever your problem areas are.

Martin Miller has a sort of similar take He comes close to it, It think both these videos compliment each other IMO.

How To Play Faster: A Method That Actually Works - Guitar Lesson

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