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Guitar Playing for Beginners – How to increase your 2nd and 3rd left hand finger co-ordination
By Mike Hayes | September 29, 2009
A long time student of mine recently told me he had canceled his
subscription of a popular guitar magazine; I was curious to know
why. As it turns out the final straw was when the magazine
started including a short video with the magazine titled “betcha
can’t play this!”
Apparently the monthly video features some impossible guitar lick
played as fast as possible … predictably no beginner guitarist
can play the lick. Unfortunately this is an all too familiar
tale; heaps of ’showing off’ without any educational content only
contributes to the frustration of the new guitarist.
Which brings me to one of the most significant problems
encountered by the beginner guitarist … how to develop strength
and co-ordination in your left hand. Here’s a batch of really
simple and incredibly effective exercises designed specifically
to help overcome this problem; I know these will help!
Left hand 2nd and 3rd finger exercises:
(a) Start with your left hand second finger behind the first
string second fret; whilst your third finger is behind the second
string third fret.
Make sure that both fingers come down on the strings with a
single movement, just like a rubber stamp.
(b) Now change strings: your second finger is now behind the
second fret, second string and your third finger is behind the
third fret, first string.
Use your right hand fingers for this exercise not a pick; work as
achieving an equal balance of both strings, we don’t want one
string to dominant.
(c) It’s time to flip our fingers over again, this time widening
the gap by skipping the second string.
Second finger behind second fret, first string and third finger
behind the third fret, third string.
(d) Flip the shape over again and we have … second finger,
third string, second fret and third finger, first string, third
fret.
Our next project is to use the same shape only skipping over two
strings, like this …
(e) Second finger, second fret on the first string with the third
finger behind the third fret fourth string.
(f) Back to our old trick of flipping the shape around and we
have …
Second finger behind the second fret on the fourth string with
the third finger behind the first string, third fret.
The idea is to continue this process until you can stretch across
to the sixth string. Practice this exercise slowly and
deliberately and you will notice a new confidence and control of
your 2nd and 3rd left hand fingers.
For best results try this exercise two or three times a week
leaving a day of two in between for your muscles to recover and
re-build.
I invite you to use these tips and tools when you play the
guitar.
And now I’d like to invite you to get free access to my “How To
Remember 1,000 Songs” eCourse. You can download the course for
free at: http://www.guitarcoaching.com
From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar
System
http://www.GuitarCoaching.com
http://AdvancingGuitaristProgram.com
Topics: Beginner Guitar Lesson, Guitar Fretboard, Guitar Tips | No Comments »
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