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I Need Some Finger-Torturing Left-hand Excersizes


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ANyone know any good warm up excersizes for the left hand? The kind where you move your fingers in weird patterns until they hurt? I want to strengthen my left hand and develop better finger independence as well, especially with my ring finger and pinky. Thanks! :wave:

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Lol I knew someone was gonna say that. I do have a few exercise books with the usual scale-based exercises in it. I just meant some of those really hard finger-twister exercises just for something to do really. I promise I won't over-do it. :) Thanks.

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Try this: Google "1234 permutation guitar" and you will find the classic 1234 exercise or some variation of it.

 

One thing that the various websites fail to mention is you can practice this exercise with hammer-ons and pulloffs instead of alternate picking.

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I like doing this one - it's basically walking down an A harmonic minor scale with your pinking holding the high A pedal note. Writing the tab off the top of my head without a guitar here, so hopefully I'm not making any typos (and hopefully the formatting comes across okay).

 

1--17--16--17--12--17--13--17-------17---12---17-----17-----17--------17--------17------17-------17------------

2----------------------------------15-----------------13-----15------12---------13----------------12-----------------

3-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------14---------------13---14---

4------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Then go through and instead of just using the high A (17 on the 1st sting) as a single pedal point, replace that one note with three - A G# A (17 16 17). That's a lot tougher, but has really helped strengthen my pinky/ring finger indepdendence

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First position chromatic octaves in parallel:

e|-----------------------------------------0--1--2--3--4---

B|----------------------------1--2--3--4-------------------

G|------------0--1--2--3--4-------------------------0--1---

D|--2--3--4-------------------------0--1--2--3--4----------

A|------------------0--1--2--3--4--------------------------

E|--0--1--2--3--4------------------------------------------

Ascending and descending, naturally. Strive to use only your fingers, and not move your hand at all. And don't let your fingers up before the next ones are down.

 

Also this:

e|--9---8---8----8---8---7---7----7--7---6---6----6---6---

B|--10--10--9----9---9---9---8----8--8---8---7---7----7---

G|--11--11--11--10--10--10--10---9--9---9---9----8---8---

D|--12--12--12--12--11--11--11--11--10--10--10--10--9----

A|----------------------------------------------------------

E|----------------------------------------------------------

And so forth. Arpeggiate the chords and watch yer finger posture. If you can make it down to the nut you're probably badass.

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Pick up Al DiMeola's "A Guide to Chords, Scales and Arpeggios"...I remember getting it back in the day and even though I could play pretty decently already, TRUST ME even just FRETTING some of the {censored}ing chord shapes will make your fretting hand hurt, let alone switching them in progressions, not to mention the scales and arpeggios...

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I am currently using this book:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Hybrid-Picking-Exercises-Single-Permutations/dp/1452895430/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

 

It takes the 1234 permutations and multiplies it by permutations of right hand pick and fingers. It will probably put your left hand fingers in many unfamiliar positions. The author advises picking a page at random and working with it for that day. To that I would add - take a break if you start to get sore and if it hurts you're doing something wrong.

 

Use the "Click to Look Inside" feature to see some sample pages.

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Sweep pick some arpeggios. Like some diminished 7th's or really, any 7th chord will make good arpeggios.

 

Snag Carl Culpepper's book Terrifying Technique for Guitar. Skip the rest of this horse poo poo. Get that book and burn through it, cover to cover. If you can do that, you're probably not human.

 

 

...and why would you want to learn a bunch of random shapes? Wouldn't it be smarter to build up the muscle memory to finger patterns you intend to use, rather than random algorithmic polymutations? I don't see the logic. Why would I want to learn a bunch of exercises that are simply 'dumb' repititious exercises?

 

Why not take a concept and run with it? Isn't that an exercise in and of itself? What about this?

 

E---1-2-3-4-3-2-1-4-3-4-2-4-3-4

 

Play that. Play that pattern starting on every fret of every string. That way, you don't have to waste your brain space trying to memorize exercises that basically do the same thing this exercise does. I have it written out as starting on the 1st fret of the low E. Play it everywhere. Play it on every single note of the guitar.

 

Or, you could always DL the 10 hour Steve Vai Workout. If you order it direct, I think it comes with a heart rate monitor.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Cmaj7....... Cmaj13......Maj13b5......Cdom13b5

 

7.............. 5............... 5.................5

8............. 8............... 7 ............... 7

9.............. 9.............. 9 ............... 8

10............ 10 ........... 10.............. 10

 

One of my torture exercises. When you can do it at the 7th fret go to 5 etc....

 

 

Thank you Ted Greene

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Chromatic scale in 4ths....

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------3--4-------5--6-----------------

-----------------------4--5--------6--7------3--------4--5-------6------------------- etc. etc.. etc.....

--5-6------7-8-----4--------5--6--------7--------------------------------------------

5-----6-7------8-----------------------------------------------------------------

 

watch out on the 2nd and 3rd strings things change a little :D

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Cmin9...........Fdom9.........BbMaj13.......Gmin11.......Cmin add9....F13/Eb......Bbmaj7

 

10................5................3.................8..............3................3..............5

8..................8................3.................6..............4................3..............3

8..................8................5.................x..............7.................8.............3

8..................X................7................x...............5................7..............3

X..................8................X................5...............3.................6.............1

8..................X................6.................3...............X................X.............x

 

Made this up for a precocious student about 20 years ago to torture his hands. And before you ask, yes I can do it.

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I generally ALWAYS warm up with tough chord finger stretching exercises. Alot of times I use this continuous Coltrane cycle using a variety of spicy voicings........

 

 

Bmaj7 Ddom GMaj7 Bbdom EbMaj7 F#dom Bmaj7

 

Start at the 2nd fret and work up the neck. Don't stop until you reach the BMaj7 at the 14th fret. Use good voice leading. There are LOTS of Dominant chord voicings and inversions (see above). Same with Maj 7,9,13 type chords. You could use a different one every time you played it and never run out in your lifetime. Rinse and repeat.................

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Seems a little spammy to me.

2 posts both pushing folks to the same book?

 

 

If this was for me I apologize. I have nothing to do with this book. I just think that it's great, and when I saw the other thread it was already in my head. No spam here, just trying to help out.

 

Peace.

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If this was for me I apologize. I have nothing to do with this book. I just think that it's great, and when I saw the other thread it was already in my head. No spam here, just trying to help out.


Peace.

 

 

Glad to hear it Neil and in that case welcome!

We get hit with a lot of sneak sales-y kinds of things from time to time around here. Your username sounds like a product you may be promoting. So forgive the reaction. Looking forward to future convo!

 

Cheers

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