#83 - 90% Of Beginner Guitarists Make THIS Technique Mistake

A wonderful exercise, thanks Bernth!

Alex History

Troy Grady is amazing. If you don't know him, this is your gateway drug: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKiO3VhdNmY

Edwin van Slingerlandt

I have just started doing this exercise at the start of every session for 15 minutes. I have a max of 3 mandatory non-playing days (a young family does that to your time), so I'm doing this 4 days a week, and have reached the end of week 1. The effect is already noticeable. My accuracy improved immediately. I fully expect the gains to level off at some point, but that's okay. I'm just extatic for the immediate results and will keep pushing. Thanks for this awesome exercise Bernth! Update: anyone try to play this on the entire fretboard? You should try it! did just now, and found out it gets increasingly difficult indeed on the highest frets. It's near impossible from fret XVII onward just from my finger thickness!

Edwin van Slingerlandt

I would add that practicing the slower tempi may be more of a challenge, because it's easier to mask inaccuracies if you play fast. I was having the same problem btw, fixed it by throwing together a backingtrack in 50bpm from the GuitarPro file (exported as mp3, then copy/pasted it in reaper until I had 10 minutes of track)

Edwin van Slingerlandt

Yes :) You can find all about thumb position in the latest legato course I posted yesterday, hope this helps!

Bernd Brodträger

Bernth, is it the area towards the head you meant as the "lower section of the fretboard"..? And can you please do a lesson regarding the thumb position, which would be very helpful?

Pulasthi Amarasinghe

Just in case someone has a good answer; I'm still quite slow walking from low to high strings, but quite confident going from high to low strings during this. The difference is pretty huge, around twice as fast in the up direction.... Anyone got a clue why? Anything I can work on in particular? :) Edit: So to answer myself and anyone watching this in the future. The problem was more or less that I had a too small gap between my palm and the neck of the guitar. This only allowed me to easily extend my fingers and was making the movement easier as I moved up, while moving down I was working against myself and increased "pressure" as I went down the strings. Now that I have a more correct hand position the difference is much less noticeable. :)

Robert Bjärmyr

This is both the worst and best exercise. The best because it really gets those sausage pistons working properly and worst because it highlights just how bad your coordination really is/was. :'D

Robert Bjärmyr

Hi BERNTH, do we mute with our left finger tips or with our right palm?

Arcanist Bear

Thnx Bernth!!! Now I have to become a gold member ;-) :-) Nevertheless, this exercise is truly great, although I have difficulty to execute it. It is very beneficial for pull offs since you are really practicing the spider ‘grip’. Keep up the good work Bernth. It is very inspiring and motivational.

Jaimie Wilms

Thanks for sharing that, Jaimie! Thumb positioning is a really important and difficult topic, you are right - I mostly try to position it behind my middle finger and focus on having a light grip (not squeezing the neck) but on higher sections of the fretboard and higher strings, this sometimes isn't possible. Also, when you're working with string bending/vibrato, it's often beneficial for the sound to use a different approach. I will add this topic to the lesson wishlist for next month, let's see how the community decides!

Bernd Brodträger

I am also messing with my tumb, especially on the higher strings. My thumb is practically on its side instead of a ‘straight forward push’. Any video’s on that topic or tips? Thnx! Love your channel!

Jaimie Wilms

Hey Dhritiman, thanks for the comment! You can always send me a message here on Patreon directly, if you would like to send video material you can also email me at bernthofficial@gmail.com (or just reply to the membership certificate I sent to your email) :)

Bernd Brodträger

I also face the same till now and I cannot play the C chord back then. But this exercise improved my accuracy and I can play better.Another small tip I follow is that I use foot still and wear a strap while practising. This improves my guitar angle a lot while practising

Dhritiman Banerjee

I believe these 2 exercises will polish our skills and will a lot of base for future learning

Dhritiman Banerjee

Thanks, for the suggestions and for yourtime. Lots of love from me

Dhritiman Banerjee

Could you please share the email address where I can share my practice routine. Your exercise improved me a lot.I believe that I put too much pressure in my thumb which I will loosen as per your suggestion. One of the issues still facing in my pinky finger is that when I move my ring finger, my accurate positioning of pinky position automatically gets affected. Is it related to finger dependence. could you please make a video related to the positioning of thumb, moving of fret from up to low and maintaining a proper thumb position in your future videos regarding techniques. This will help a lot of beginners like me as we are highly frustrated regarding this problems

Dhritiman Banerjee

Thanks a lot for that comment! It's a great idea to familiarize yourself with an exercise before getting serious about it (nailing the timing, pushing tempo,...) - never said anything against that to my recollection :) But the more you practice exercises that are all about timing and technique without an actual rhythmic reference, the less you will benefit from the workout. I'm adamant about timing because almost all students that I'm teaching personally are struggling with keeping time or switching between note values efficiently because it's a lot more fun to work on many other things on the instrument - I totally get that and also have to agree :) But steady timing and rhythm have helped me the most as a player (especially in my career) so I'd recommend practicing to a metronome as soon as possible, don't forget that you can also set it to 40BPM and play quarter notes (amazing exercise!), practicing to a metronome doesn't always mean pushing your tempo and stressing yourself out. Hope that helps!

Bernd Brodträger

Thanks a lot for sharing that! Positioning the thumb correctly is often overlooked, great to hear that you are focusing on that :) Please note that positioning your thumb behind your middle finger only works in the lower section of the fretboard, when you move higher it gets much more difficult and it feels less economic - for me, it kind of happens automatically and comes with practice time concerning difficult pieces, it's not something I actively think about, especially when playing live or in the studio. But it's great to pay attention to it when you're practicing! My biggest tip is not squeezing the fretboard too hard, I have a very light grip and always go for the most economic way of playing that's possible - students often use too much pressure and that makes it hard to move around in different positions. Your pinky will also improve over time, this exercise is great since you have a reference for correct technique, if you're blocking the string you can hear that there is an issue. Please continue working with that one, you can always send me a short video via email so I can actually see what you are doing - that makes feedback a bit easier :)

Bernd Brodträger

Hi Bernth, I feel that I have issue with my thumb and my pinky finger as I am totally a beginner . I try to control my thumb by keeping it between the ring and middle finger but when I try to do the same backwards from high to low strings ,my thumb position messes . My pinky also blocks the string when I try to go from high to low fret at 4-5 fret position mostly . Could you please share tips how to control my thumb position as it becomes stiff and it try to move away from the middle of the ring finger which affects my accuracy and speed. Is there any exercise for controling the thumb position and perfecting the pinky finger position correctly

Dhritiman Banerjee

I totally agree

gman

Hi Bernth, really a shitty exercise :) :) Of course, not regarding the quality but it feels like there isn't any muscle and/or autonomy in my fingers (especially the ringfinger) but it is getting better after some sessions. Regarding this exercise and more or less every other, you say to always practice by metronome, i try that of course in same cases it works well in other not that much. I think it is easier to start memorizing/practice an exercise first, second, third time without a metronome because the click creates some kind of pressure that is not that easy to handle when you try to force your fingers to the next string/fret.

Stephan

WOW, THIS EXERCISE IS KILLING ME... THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR FEEDBACK ON EMAIL....YOU ARE A GREAT TEACHER.

Pie Billboard

fat fingers here...holy crap - that is actually one fun challenge - but holy cow keeping those strings quiet... LOL

John H

Great question Steve! Right here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/38-finger-you-do-30853257

Bernd Brodträger

Where will I find the original spider lesson.

Steve Shaw

This is so much harder than it looks, getting the muscle memory and the fretting just right, perseverance is the answer I think.

Steve Shaw

Thank you very much for sharing that Steve, I'm happy to hear that you will work on this one in your routine :)

Bernd Brodträger

Hey Mart, I personally really like what Troy Grady is doing concerning technique analysis (especially with inviting well-known players, analyzing their picking technique). Jens Larsen is also great when it comes to theory but his content is focused on Jazz - you can use all that in a Rock/Metal context as well though :) We have another great teacher (Ry Naylor) in the Patreon community on here, when it comes to fretboard visualization and chords he has all the best tricks in his Instagram feed!

Bernd Brodträger

Another one to add to my practice routine, to those who haven't subscribed, do so, its the best value teaching anywhere, thanks Bernth.

Steve Shaw

Bernth, can you recommend any other, additional video lesson creators? I like you patient explanations, including theory. Any other similar teachers?

Mart Parve

Definitely incorporating this into my practice. It felt like I had never played a guitar running through it the first time.

Gary Beltrami

I completely agree Scott! Both really help with left-hand technique 🙂🤘🏻

Bernd Brodträger

For looking so simple, this exercise (and the other spider exercise) is really challenging.

Scott Walden

Great exercise. This will improve greatly my left hand which I thought was pretty good. Thanks!

Roger C

It's a video lesson :)

Bernd Brodträger

Goatrider