Looking For An Exercise

[SlowFingers]

You guys are going to think I am nuts for saying this, but I like doing exercises as much as I do playing songs. I spend about an equal amount of time doing both. When I say exercises, I mean various scales, broken thirds, spider technique exercises, 1-2-3-4, 1-4-2-3, etc. exercises and such. I have two of the Mark Hanson books and play the exercises in there all the time. I really do not care for many of the actual songs in the books(they are kinda hokey, and I am not much of a ragtime or blues guy), but think the exercises are fun and helpful. I also think I am not a good enough player to concern myself much with perfecting songs. When I can perfect all the exercises, then I should be ready to play almost any song.

 

Ok, having said all that, there is one big weakness I have that I need an exercise for: Getting into and out of barre chords. Until I get to where I can do that comfortably, I will continue to have to look at songs with barre chords and just decide I am not ready to try them. There a couple of great songs that Rick Slo has done that sound wonderful and could be great for me to step into and try to complete (Cory and Scamp are examples), but I am scared off by the barre chords. Key To The Kingdom on Hanson's Fingerstyle DVD is another example.

 

So, I was wondering if anyone had any good exercises in tab or linked that I could take a look and work on to get more comfortable with barre chords. I know what some of you will say "Just practice them in the context of the song." Well, I do not work that way. When I have trouble with a song, I find an exercise that does something along that line and work it until I am ready to try it in a song. So, an exercise that takes me from an open chord into a barre chord back to a different open chord to a different barre while fingerpicking is what I am looking for.

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[djmojo]

I second this request would love to have more excercises, and not the types where you go for speed and scalar runs, more excercises for perfecting double stops more than a string apart and such... I think its important to get more classical guitar style excercises, which will open up alot of options for any guitar player. not trying to thread hijack, just showing there's lots of interest in more excercises.

[UFOScorpion]

A really cool song to practice is I'd Love to Save the World by Alvin Lee of Ten Years After. It is basically Em-G-Am-C-B7, but with walk-ups to each chord. You can arpeggiate it or fingerpick it, and part of the song he replaces with barre chords. You will have to find tabs for it - I know one of the mags had it in recently (or I saw it in an old mag). If you remember the song, or can DL it, you will see what I mean about the chords used.

I used to practice a progression of barre chords - Bm- Ebm-A-C#m-G-Bm down to F# - here I used two chords - the Grand Funk chord changing to F#, but you don't have to do that. I play the chords so I move toward the nut one fret each time - so every other chord is either based on the low E or the low A string.

You could also play CSN's Ohis as an exercise - using Dm-F-C, then Gm-C for the chorus. Alternate using barre/open chords. There is a cool riff for that song too, that can be played different ways.

[Mike7771]

You can try the exercises in the "Technique Zone" of my site.

Good luck,
Mike

[farmfoodsman]

Nice site Mike7771 - I've put it in my favourites - the ear trainer is v. useful.

Cheers
James

[Mike7771]

Thanks a lot James

[ibanez fan]

mike,

i have just took a quick glance at your site and i think that this is going to be very useful.

thank you

[Mike7771]

Thanks