left hand guitar exercises?

Subject: left hand guitar exercises?
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Jul 04 - 10:42 PM

I looked through the old posts for some help here, but couldn't find what I was looking for. I'd like to know if anyone has some advice for left hand exercises to help me get around the fretboard faster on guitar. I'm an intermediate sort of player and play mostly Irish backup, but I'm looking for ideas that will help with finger dexterity. I've been working on a few fingerstyle pieces, but am not sure this is the best way to do this.
Thanks!
meg

Subject: RE: left hand guitar exercises?
From: Mark Clark
Date: 05 Jul 04 - 11:22 PM

Actually, Meg, we've talked about what you're looking for but maybe not exhaustively. There are a lot of thing you can do including

• practicing scales
• practicing new or awkward chords
• performing finger exercises—often with the aid of a small rubber ball.

For starters, play a two-octave A Major scale beginning with A on the bass E string. This note is played with the middle finger. Now spread your hand and assign your first finger to the fourth fret, middle finger to the fifth fret, ring finger to the sixth fret and your little finger to the seventh fret. Never allow a finger to stray from its assigned fret. Now just play an A Major diatonic scale. Your ear will tell you where the notes are if you don't already know.

Run that scale up and down—across the neck—until you can do it quickly and smoothly. Once you have it down, you can begin going up and down in thirds. That is play A B C# B C# D C# D … all the way up and then reverse it coming down. If you find this exercise painful, start higher up the neck and play it in the key of C or D but eventually work yourself back down so you can play the same fingering in F# using the first four frets.

There are many other scales to practice but this will get you started.

I'll check back and see what others have suggested.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: left hand guitar exercises?
From: Kaleea
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 01:26 AM

Learning to play the scales will help alot, as all melodies come from scales. It is also helpful to do some finger stretches like other string instrument players do. Some folks I know have opened up a Violin method book & learned the finger stretches they teach. Many classical guitarists are taught these type of hand/finger stretches. Best finger nimbler stretch I've found is sort of like to Vulcan hand salute! These are actual stretches away from your instrument.
    Hold up your hand palm away from you, & stretch your pinky away from the ring finger. Then stretch both the pinky & ring fingers held together away from the other fingers--the Vulcan salute! The pointing finger away from the middle, ring, pinky held together. & finally the thumb. Then reverse & go back through from thumb to pinky. Do with both hands, especially if you are a fingerpicker. For playing guitar in Ceoli bands, I fingerpick & play bass with thumb & rhythm with other fingers--with no pick. My pals from Ireland really liked that for most of the jigs & reels & hornpipes & polkas.
    The more your fingers are able to stretch, the more agile they will be. ALso, the more varied scales-major & minor-that you play in various keys, the faster you will be able to play any tune in any given key(for some real fun, learn all keys--Try not to get stuck in D & G & A). Find the scales under Play them stating on various srings. Another good thing is to find scales which are right under your fingers when playing the basic chords in each key-major & minor. Good luck!

Subject: RE: left hand guitar exercises?
From: Grab
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 12:18 PM

Rolls are a classic Irish ornament. They take some finger strength and technique on a guitar, but they're a good exercise, and they'll actually give you a technique you can use in real playing.

To do rolls - play 1st finger on 2nd fret, hammer on with 3rd finger at 4th fret, pull-off to 2nd fret, pull-off to open string, and hammer-on again to 2nd fret. Then try that with 2nd and 4th fingers, and 1st and 2nd fingers, and 3rd and 4th fingers. Having your left hand in a proper classical position (rotated so that your hand is completely parallel to the neck instead of at an angle - pull your elbow into your side for this) helps for technique. This practise also ensures you're playing with the tips of your fingers, instead of cheating by using the pads, because you can't do hammer-ons with the pads of your fingers.

Once you've got that, try rolls somewhere up the guitar neck, playing 2nd/3rd finger, hammer-on to 4th finger, pull-off to 2nd/3rd, pull-off to 1st finger, hammer-on again to 2nd/3rd finger.

Another thing with finger dexterity is how far you can reach. A great exercise my guitar teacher got me doing is playing the bassline from "Every step you take" - this needs your fingers to go over quite some distance. Start with a capo around fret 5 or fret 7 to make it easier, and then move the capo down (giving a bigger distance between frets) as your fingers get better.

Graham.

Subject: RE: left hand guitar exercises?
From: Nick
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 12:43 PM

There is a nice book of varied guitar exercises by a guy called David Mead with three sections - Warm up, coodination and ear training. The idea being to do 2 minutes on each exercise, one from each section, once a day. Having chosen the exercises at random to avoid boredom.

Each has three speeds - beginner, medium, advanced. So a beginner may do something between 2 and 15 times in 2 minutes, an expert 40 times.

Only £5 and available from his site or bookshops. Fits in your pocket as well. Some more details at Basic Guitar Workout

Subject: RE: left hand guitar exercises?
From: GUEST,HipflaskAndy
Date: 07 Jul 04 - 03:56 AM

Three Golden Rules
1. Don't stay up late, get lots of sleep - so you never play when tired.
2. Drink NO alcohol!
3. Indulge in NO 'sustances' which affect the mind.

...now, at least, your left hand will know what your right hand is doing!

(It's not so much fun as staying 'intermediate' like me tho'!)
More brandy! Hic! HFA