#182 - The BEST Finger Exercise For Guitar! (everyone should know)
Added 2021-07-20 14:01:04 +0000 UTCBefore we start the 30-Day Legato Challenge, it's time to work on some serious fretting hand gains! You voted for finger exercises, so I'm happy to deliver one of the most powerful workouts we have looked at so far :)
This one has many benefits: finger independence (feeling each finger individually), economy of motion (reducing the size of your motions), and getting rid of that flying pinky finger. The perfect workout before we practice legato next week!!
Here are all your practice files: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y3e6j1epb7so4wb/AACbs62NBSr71b-TfnA68wYoa?dl=0
Have fun!! :)
Comments
economy of motion
Charlotte Stage
2024-06-29 11:59:50 +0000 UTCThis is a great exercise! When you say, just hover your finger over the string, is it ok to touch the string but not press down on it when playing notes on other fingers?
nathan m
2023-02-14 01:15:57 +0000 UTCSvensk?
Anders Lundberg
2022-10-15 12:52:11 +0000 UTCHi Bernth! Thanks for this exercise! What if we are doing your other exercises (eg. hand sync or alternate picking course) and are at decent BPM, but have little bit of flying pinky (i'd say about 30-40% of whats in this video), then are we supposed to put the exercises on hold and do this first? Or is it okay to continue doing them and add this to the routine? Won't a mix of 30-50% flying pinky and this exercise (to counter that) cause an issue? Cheers!
shraey chikker
2022-10-10 03:59:18 +0000 UTCThis is a good one! Extremely frustrating, but getting there. Soon maybe...
Anders Lundberg
2022-10-08 15:08:58 +0000 UTCThis one seems impossible for me to do, my stupid left hand is probably too old. But great idea, should be among the first things to learn on guitar
Dominik Glöckner
2022-04-16 07:22:02 +0000 UTCThanks so much for sharing this Tim, happy I can help! :) Definitely not stopping, much more is on the way!
Bernd Brodträger
2021-09-08 07:50:51 +0000 UTCBro . . .you are by far the best on the net! Thank you for helping and inspiring me! Please never stop these amazing vids! Your pal Tim!
Dr. Tim Klejnot
2021-09-07 14:51:40 +0000 UTCCurrently working on the advanced section of the lesson, which is significantly more difficult for me mainly for the increased alternate picking speed. But it's exactly what I need to work on, so it's several exercises in one for me, hehe.
Robert Bjärmyr
2021-08-04 10:26:01 +0000 UTCDoing this for some days now I really wish you would have used the point of view angle for the second layer in your vidoes here instead. Getting closer with my pinky to the fredboard makes it harder to compare how much of a difference is between your and my motion that way. Also sad we don't see your thumb and how (if) it is moving... since mine isn't moving too hard but still not absolutly still standing, especially in the faster versions. Also² interessting that you are curling your hand with the downwardsmotion... just noticed that today... mine was just in on position. But trying to copy that didn't really change my results... more making it a little sloppy since I was watching for that motion on top, too. So I can't really tell if that would be a better way for me or not. Sometimes I hate that nearly everything is possible on guitar with yet another kind of motion, techniquewise... would be so simply if just all could copy one's exact motion and getting the same results (some day). Damn different body physique :D
Sephiroth
2021-08-03 07:19:44 +0000 UTCAwesome Robert, thanks so much for sharing!! Happy this helps, I also still work on it right now :)
Bernd Brodträger
2021-08-02 05:54:42 +0000 UTCJust checking in and letting you good folks know that this is a great exercise! Been seeing solid improvements on my pinky spasms lately, especially after adding a small pull-off to lesson 3, as well. :) Still not "there" yet, but absolutely an improvement in a very short time. 👌
Robert Bjärmyr
2021-08-01 17:24:22 +0000 UTCThat makes me happy, thanks for sharing Łukasz! :)
Bernd Brodträger
2021-07-27 04:45:40 +0000 UTCHappy that this helped you, thanks for sharing :)
Bernd Brodträger
2021-07-27 04:41:23 +0000 UTCThanks for this exercise!! I noticed I been doing this error all along with the songs I've learned in the past. Definitely breaking out of this habit now... Thanks for your work!
Guadalupe Regalado
2021-07-27 04:18:20 +0000 UTCThis is great I'm familiar with that harmonic shape and I've been practicing triplets going up and going back down. Thanks for refreshing my exercise
Calvin Wilson
2021-07-26 15:08:34 +0000 UTCWOW! Man, thanks to your spider exercises, that I practied since only 1 week, I haven't got any problem with 1st level :). I so f887cken excited :), thanks Mate!!!
Łukasz Berezowski
2021-07-26 10:27:41 +0000 UTCComing this week!
Bernd Brodträger
2021-07-26 05:29:37 +0000 UTCWea the 30 day legato course
Tim Tukapua
2021-07-26 00:35:53 +0000 UTCI agree, it has indeed done wonders for the pinky... But at higher speed my "lesser hand child" is still flailing around a bit. But it feels like it's improved since starting these exercises (or perhaps due to the iron focus it causes one to have on the pinky)
Robert Bjärmyr
2021-07-22 21:25:19 +0000 UTCReally good one for me. I did it an yes, my pinky took off..wow lol..so yeah i will work on this one alot
bryscorpio
2021-07-22 19:48:00 +0000 UTCAnd in the past i think, im the only one who make strange things with the pinky
Stephan Zankl
2021-07-22 15:21:32 +0000 UTCThanks so much for taking the time to share this Edwin, I didn't know about that! That's very helpful - thank you :)
Bernd Brodträger
2021-07-22 04:47:39 +0000 UTCAwesome Alan, thanks for sharing!! Great job :)
Bernd Brodträger
2021-07-22 04:46:10 +0000 UTCGreat to hear Kyle, thanks for sharing! That makes me happy :)
Bernd Brodträger
2021-07-22 04:45:18 +0000 UTCFortunately this pattern and exercise is much simpler after having worked on that m9 arpeggio shape from your "This is why you can't play fast" video. The stretches in that pattern were brutal but left me plenty prepared for this exercise. Both have done wonders for my finger independence! Thanks!
Kyle
2021-07-22 04:22:41 +0000 UTCWow! Great exercise! It is very very hard and awkward when first starting. Had to go super slow first. I could not do the 1st level video until I practiced it for 10 mins or so really slow.
Nick Russell
2021-07-22 01:51:28 +0000 UTCanother week to spent going crazy with technic, thanks Bernth
Vincenzo
2021-07-21 16:39:32 +0000 UTCI think you've already got me trained up on this one. I was able to nail this in 5 minutes. Looking forward to the legato thing coming, it's been my main focus this last month. After seeing improvement in my picking with your last course (I promise I'll start the sweep one at some point) I'm excited to see if I can improve as much with my legato.
Alan R
2021-07-21 15:31:53 +0000 UTCSame... super pumped for this!
Ray Godman
2021-07-21 14:47:48 +0000 UTCNow I am starting to feel very old, 66, and guess which finger has arthritis, yup, my 'pinky'.
Richard Kitt
2021-07-21 12:29:50 +0000 UTC(Pardon the longer comment, just trying to help) I had trouble opening the dropbox link from my Windows laptop. Turns out my antivirus has placed dropbox in the hosts file and routed it to localhost (127.0.0.1) If anyone else encounters this issue, the solution is to open your hosts file as administrator, comment out or remove the lines routing dropbox to localhost, then save&exit I'm intentionally a bit vague, because if you dont know what you;re doing and make a mistake here, you may create a bigger problem. If in doubt, ask your computer savvy friend to help you :)
Edwin van Slingerlandt
2021-07-21 07:46:05 +0000 UTCYesss can't wait to share this :)
Bernd Brodträger
2021-07-21 04:47:00 +0000 UTCCan’t wait for the legato I love these economy of motion work outs gets my fingers tight as And I can’t wait to compose
jaz
2021-07-21 00:53:27 +0000 UTCThis is great but im super excited about the 30 day legato course! I've been trying to work on my legato a while now, excited to see the 30 day course.
Geary Poling
2021-07-21 00:49:14 +0000 UTCSorry that I am so chatty and reply to pretty much everything here, haha. It's just that I'm "on fire" after pretty much years of no progress and it's all thanks to Bernth and this great community. :) Have a great evening and enjoy the guitar! \m/
Robert Bjärmyr
2021-07-20 20:07:21 +0000 UTCI don't remember if it was Bernth or someone else, but the pinky and ring finger share a tendon in the arm. The index and middle finger each have their own tendon, which explains why the pinky often flies away when the ring finger is used. :)
Robert Bjärmyr
2021-07-20 20:04:57 +0000 UTCI'm "only" 38, but considering it's only taken me 2 months to get the pinky more or less under control after 25+ years of playing makes me wonder why the heck I didn't do it sooner, haha. Still struggle with it at higher speeds and stretches (like sweeping) but it's getting there. :)
Robert Bjärmyr
2021-07-20 20:03:09 +0000 UTCWhen I go from my ring finger to the middle, when doing the arpeggio, that's when the pinky flies out more.. I'll start the metronome very slow, maybe 60
Carlos Tijerina
2021-07-20 19:52:27 +0000 UTCOh Can't wait to get home to go thru this the first time. Did someone say legato is coming??!!??
Ray Godman
2021-07-20 18:22:16 +0000 UTCBeen working on "flying pinky" for about a month or so. Still flies like a pesky fly and not making much progress, will add this to the mix, but I'm wondering if age is a factor in fixing this problem as 52 years of pinky connectivity isn't easy to undo :) I'd guess the younger you are the easier it is to gain this finger independence....
Paul Jenkins
2021-07-20 16:08:55 +0000 UTCKomponist :D
Jimmy Grieve
2021-07-20 15:31:58 +0000 UTCIt's like Bernth is in my head! He knows all the things I'm struggling with! For me personally that 3rd/4th finger transition is the most difficult at my version of "high speed" (which is now 100 - 110 bpm for some of the alternate picking exercises). This will definitely be added to my daily routine to help with finger independence and just building the muscles between 3rd/4th. 🥳
Eric Bailey
2021-07-20 15:31:36 +0000 UTCI instantly feel, that this will greatly improve my technique after just watching the video :)
Tamás Piri-Cser
2021-07-20 14:50:37 +0000 UTCThis is EXACTLY what I need in my routine! :) I've realized than even though I've worked hard on keeping my pinky close to the fretboard, the sweep challenge has shown me that it still flails around like crazy when I increase the tempo. This in turn causes the arpeggios to become more of a "blanket thrown sideways" over the fretboard instead of a spider climbing the frets really fast. Weird explaination, but yeah. :P Needless to say, the accuracy is significantly lower from higher up than closer to the fretboard, as well. Awesome set of exercises!
Robert Bjärmyr
2021-07-20 14:31:18 +0000 UTCGRACIAS AMIGO!
roi Herrer
2021-07-20 14:15:27 +0000 UTC
