September 4, 2025 • 17 mins
Steve Stine shares four practical methods to improve finger dexterity that can be practiced in short bursts throughout the day without overwhelming yourself. These focused exercises target specific skills with both hands while emphasizing quality over speed, helping you develop control and synchronicity between your fretting and picking techniques.
• The "20-second exercise" develops fretting hand strength through hammer-ons and pull-offs between different finger combinations
• Start with strong finger combinations, then work on weaker ones like third finger to pinky
• The "two-minute exercise" improves picking hand coordination with metronome-synced down-picking
• Find the right tempo where you're challenged but can maintain technique for the full duration
• "Spider walk" exercises develop synchronicity between both hands across multiple strings
• Apply these techniques to actual songs that feature the skills you're trying to develop
• Focus on quality, control and cleanliness rather than just speed
• Remember that guitar playing starts in the brain, not just the fingers
If you need help setting up a proper practice routine or getting from where you are to where you want to go, check out GuitarZoom Academy and set up a call with one of our instructors to see if it's a fit for you.
Links:
Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/
- Steve’s Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/stinemus...
- GuitarZoom Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarz0...
- Songs Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarSo... .
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steve (00:00):
Hey everybody, Steve Stine from Guitar Zoom Academy
here.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
What we're gonna be doing todayis talking about four different
ways to improve your fingerdexterity.
The way we're gonna do this iswe're gonna break down some
things that you can do with yourfretting hand, with your
picking hand, and then somesynchronicity that you can do
between the two of them.
What I want you to be aware ofas we talk about this is I want
(00:23):
you to be careful not tooverwhelm yourself.
The point of what we're goingto be talking about today is
that these skills that we'regoing to try and work on can be
short enough to where you coulddo it in a matter of five
minutes or something like that.
You could do it multiple timesthroughout the day.
But what I want you to becareful of is that you're not
taking these simple ideas thatare really, really valuable,
(00:49):
really getting to the core ofwhat the struggles are with many
guitar players and their skillset, and then, all of a sudden,
taking these simple things andmaking 350 different exercises
out of these things.
So now what you've done isyou've created a monster that
you don't want to practice orit's overwhelming, and now
you're not doing any of it.
So don't do that, just keepthings nice and simple.
So we're going to talk aboutfretting hand, picking hand and
then synchronicity between thetwo.
(01:10):
So let's talk about the firstthing, which is going to be our
fretting hand.
Now, one exercise that I liketo tell people to do literally
daily, if not multiple times aday, is to simply work on your
strength skills of your frettinghand fingers, the independence
of the fingers, developingstrength in all four of your
(01:30):
fingers your first finger,second finger, third finger and
your pinky.
Okay, most people do reallywell with their first and second
or their first and third, butthings start failing when they
do their middle finger to theirpinky or the third to their
pinky.
You know that kind ofcombination.
Things get a little moredifficult.
So I have a technique that Iteach people called the 20
second exercise.
(01:50):
Now, it might be 10 secondswhen you begin heck, it might
even be five seconds when youbegin, but the better you get at
it, the longer you're going tobe able to do that.
And it isn't just aboutlongevity.
What it is is doing a series ofhammer-ons or pull-offs.
When we put those together, wecall it a trill, and what you're
going to do is you're going totry and do this trill.
So the first note and thesecond note of the trill sound
(02:17):
similar in terms of volume,dynamics.
The tempo is kind of similarbetween the two.
Right, you're not getting somesort of offset thing.
You're trying to make sure that, as you're doing it, at
whatever speed you're doing it,you have control.
You want to remember whenyou're doing these exercises too
, all of these things justguitar playing in general you
(02:38):
want to find the balance of ifyou relaxed any less, you
wouldn't be getting what youwant.
If you were to press or stressyourself even more, you're just
wasting your energy and you needto try and find that line.
So, with this 20 secondexercise or 10 second exercise,
whatever you want to call it,what you're going to do is
you're going to choose a fretand a string to start on.
So let's just say it's thefifth fret of the third string.
(03:01):
So we put our first finger onthe fifth fret of the third
string and we do a series ofhammer-ons and pull-offs to the
middle finger, the second finger, okay, for 10 seconds or 20
seconds, and we're trying togive it everything we've got.
We're trying to, you know, makeit comfortable, make it smooth,
make it sound clean, you know,make sure you're not pulling the
string awkwardly or you know,if you really struggle with the
(03:24):
actual technique of a hammer-onor a pull-off, that's the first
thing that you need to work onis just developing the actual
skill of doing an effectivehammer-on or effective pull-off
right.
Once you get that developed,now what we can do is we can put
that into this exercise.
So we're doing a series ofhammer-ons and pull-offs we're
trying to do as fast as we canbut yet get a great sound from
(03:46):
both the hammer-on and thepull-off.
Okay, relaxing as much as we canfrom the fingers to the wrist,
to the forearm, to the shoulder,that whole thing and I know
that might seem silly, but itreally does make a huge
difference in your efficiency,okay.
So you have to rememberefficiency, okay.
(04:07):
So this you have to rememberthis isn't just about speed,
okay, it's about control, it'sabout sound, it's about feel
right, not just how fast you cango.
Does it sound good?
Does it sound smooth?
Are you relaxed when you'redoing it?
So, for 10 or 20 seconds,whatever you start off doing,
you're just doing this series ofhammer-ons and pull-offs from
the first finger to the middlefinger.
Then what you do is withoutstopping.
Without stopping, you simplytransition from the first finger
(04:28):
and the second finger to thefirst finger and the third
finger.
So the first finger stays whereit is on the, in our example,
the fifth fret of the thirdstring, for instance and you
just start doing a hammer-onpull-off to the first and third
for 10 seconds or 20 seconds orwhatever, and create some
strength, speed, stamina, youknow all of those kinds of
(04:49):
things in a clean, comfortable,controlled way.
And then when you get done withthat, that first finger still
stays there and you head over tothe pinky.
So now you're doing firstfinger to fourth finger and you
do the same thing 10 seconds or20 seconds, whatever you can do.
You give it your all, but makeit sound good, make it feel good
, but give it your all, make itas good as you can make it right
(05:12):
.
Again, if you're not very goodwith hammer-ons, you're not very
good with pull-offs, or youknow, the hammer-on pull-off
timing is inconsistent.
You try and work on thosethings.
It isn't just about speed, it'sabout quality.
And then let's worry about thespeed.
Now here's the big transition isonce you get done with that.
You're not done.
Okay, what you're going to dois, without stopping, as best
(05:34):
you can, you're going to simplyset that middle finger down now,
which would be on the sixthfret of the third string,
because your first finger was onthe fifth fret.
So you're just going to setthat middle finger down now and
you and you do that.
Now it's going to start gettinga lot more difficult.
You're going to do that thesame way for 10 seconds or 20
(05:54):
seconds or whatever, and then,without stopping, you're going
to go from your middle finger toyour pinky and then, without
stopping, you're going to setyour ring finger down now it
would be at the seventh fret ofthe third string and you're
going to do a series ofhammer-ons and pull-offs from
the third finger to the pinky.
(06:14):
So it doesn't take a long time,and what really needs to happen
is, if you do this correctly, bythe time you get to the last
one, you're going to bestruggling Like physically.
Your fingers won't be workingas well.
So you have to be okay with thefact that when you get to the
end of this, it doesn't sound asgood as you want it to.
It doesn't feel as good as youwant it to.
You're pretty tense by thatpoint.
That's okay, you get done, youstretch out, move on with your
day.
(06:34):
Or maybe, if you're in apractice zone, you're going to
take five minutes stretch out.
You know, do whatever, going tocome back and you're going to
hit it again.
Now, what I tell people, thebest thing that you can do, is
throughout the day.
If you do this multiple times aday, the next time you practice
, maybe you start with theweaker fingers, which is the
third and the pinky, and youwork your way backwards.
(06:55):
Okay, and then, or maybe you dothat tomorrow, maybe that's
what.
Again, you have to figure outwhat works best for you.
I like to do this multipletimes a day because it literally
takes me, you know, threeminutes to go through this thing
, and it's not.
It's over.
The last one you want to do andthis is really important to make
a variety of these things goingforward, going backward, but
the last one I really want youto be aware of is isolating the
(07:18):
ones that you're struggling withmost, which is almost always
going to be your third and pinky, and then your middle finger
and third finger, and yourmiddle finger and your pinky the
good ones all the time and thenend, you know, fatigued in
failure at the end of this,because that's what's going to
happen.
That's okay, that's what we alldo.
But if you always start withyour strong fingers and then
(07:39):
with your weak fingers, you'renever really fully developing
your weak fingers.
Okay, so that's what I want youto think about with your
fretting hand, great littleexercise.
You don't have to make it crazy.
You just practice this thing inthose three different ways.
The second thing that you do iswe move over to the picking hand
and we start doing what I liketo call the two minute exercise.
So what you're going to do isyou need to find a tempo on a
(08:02):
metronome that works for you,and what you're going to do is
you're going to try and do twopicks per click, which would be
like eighth notes.
Okay, it's okay if you don'tknow what eighth notes are, but
that's what you'd be doing.
So, if you set your metronomeand your metronome is doing this
, you want to play and you canslow it down or speed it up to
(08:25):
whatever you need, but whatyou're going to do is you're
going to palm, mute and down,pick that sixth string for two
straight minutes and then, whenyou get really really good with
that, we can expand it out tothree minutes, but let's start
with two minutes, okay.
So what you wanna do is find atempo where you can focus on the
tempo, you can concentrate onthe tempo and you're able to
(08:47):
pick in time with the tempowithout getting lost.
Now you might fall off a littlebit and then get back on Again.
That's human nature, but youdon't want to get lost.
What's happening now is not onlyyou're developing the technique
of the down pick with the palmmute, but you're also developing
the technique of being able toconcentrate on the metronome
(09:08):
while you're inputting thelistening of the metronome,
while you're outputting the pickof the sixth string or the
fifth string or whatever it isyou decide to do.
So it's not just the technique,but it's actually having to
concentrate and line up with theclick of the metronome.
(09:28):
And what happens is, instead ofjust doing this, you know, for
30 seconds or something likethat, you want to do it for a
longer period of time.
That really forces you to dotwo things to concentrate for a
longer period of time and towork on that technique, because
what often happens is, once youfind the right tempo to set your
metronome at, what ideally youwant to have happen is this
(09:49):
First of all, you don't want tobe able to do it for two minutes
, and it's easy and there'snothing physically enduring
about it.
The second thing you don't wantto do is you don't want to set
it and you can only last for 30seconds, and then you're faking
it for the next minute and ahalf while you're trying to do
this finger exercise, thisfinger exercise.
What you want to do is find thetempo where, after you know 30
minutes, 30 seconds or 45seconds or even a minute, you're
(10:12):
starting to really feel thisOkay, but you're grinding it out
for the next minute to get tothe end of this, this picking
exercise Okay, that's the righttempo.
And then remind yourself thatsome days are going to be better
than others.
Some days you're not going tobe at the tempo that you were at
yesterday and, yes, it'sfrustrating mentally, but that's
the reality of things.
Some days you're going to do alittle bit better.
(10:33):
If you do a little bit bettertoday, that doesn't promise that
tomorrow's going to be thatsame speed.
So I like to tell people thatif you are going to do this
exercise, you really want todevelop your down picking and we
can even do this with alternatepicking as well.
But let's start with downpicking.
You might start at a slowertempo just to get your mind and
your body synchronized to whatyou're trying to do and then
(10:54):
start building your way up.
So if you're at 140 or you'reat 160 or whatever, it might be
120, it doesn't matter.
You might not start there forthe day.
You might start a little bitslower.
Make sure that you're synced tothe metronome, your body,
you're picking all that stuff.
And I even tell people set themetronome and just listen to the
metronome for a little bitbefore you try and play along.
Make sure that your brain is insync with the click of that
(11:17):
metronome before you starttrying to play along.
Remind yourself all the timethat guitar playing doesn't
start in the fingers.
It just doesn't.
It starts with the brain andthen goes to the fingers, and
the better you get at something,that transition is very quick.
But it's not like your fingerscan just figure it out without
your brain.
You can't sleep and then youknow do these picking exercises.
(11:38):
It doesn't work.
So you've got to make sure thatyour brain is in sync first,
and then bring your body into it, bring your fingers and your
picking into it and then developthis.
The third thing I want to talkto you about is developing some
synchronicity exercises.
So doing things like 1, 2, 3, 4on the sixth string, on the
first fret, you go 1, 2, 3, 4,next string.
(11:59):
1, 2, 3, 4, next string, 1, 2,3, 4, next string, 1, 2, 3, 4.
Often called a spider walk.
Okay, basically, you're justgoing one, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four.
And now what's happening isyou're trying to get used to
being able to synchronize thehands, minimize the noise,
optimize the transition betweeneach finger as well as the
(12:23):
transitions to each string asyou move along.
Okay, so it's a lot more goingon than just playing.
You know you don't want to goda, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,
da, da, da, da, like trying toplay as fast as you can, but
then you have to stop when youchange strings.
The point of this entire thingis you want it to be a large
motion that sounds smooth, itsounds even, it sounds clean.
(12:48):
You're minimizing the noise ofthe other strings.
You're working on not only theconnection of each note on that
string but transitioning to thenext string and then connecting
each note of that and thentransitioning to the next string
, while you're pickingeverything and keeping the
strings quiet.
There's a lot going on there, alot more than people realize,
and there's a host of ways thatyou can do this exercise.
(13:08):
Like you might go one, two,three, four from sixth string to
first string and then you moveup one fret and then you keep
going one, two, three, four backdown to the sixth string.
So you just keep going one, two, three, four in the turn type.
Sometimes people will do one,two, three, four to the first
string, move up a fret and andthen they'll go four, three, two
(13:29):
, one and then move back to thesixth string and then move over
head down to the first string,going one, two, three, four,
move over four, three, two, one.
I mean there's a lot ofdifferent ways that you could do
this.
And again my point is is don'tmake 400 exercises out of it.
Just get something going thatworks, where you're working on
the cleanliness, the sound, thefeel, and then you're working on
the technique.
Don't try and go any fasterthan you're capable because you
(13:51):
just wind up with a mess.
Our goal is not to pretend.
Our goal is to play right.
Stop pretending Just becauseyour buddy or your wife or
something says that your husbandsays that you're doing amazing.
Maybe you are, but you're morein tune with yourself than
anybody else is.
So don't just try and dosomething to pretend like you're
doing it Really.
(14:11):
Do it and reap the benefits ofwhat you're actually trying to
do.
Okay, the next thing I want totell you about is finding a
musical application for some ofthese things.
You might find a song or a riffjust a riff out of a song, like
, if you want to work on youralternate picking, you might
work on Edge of Seventeen byStevie Nicks.
(14:32):
Or if you want to work on yourdown picking, you might work on
Highway Star by Deep Purple orMaster of Puppets or something
like that.
If you were working onPentatonic, maybe you're working
on Sunshine of your Love byCream.
Or if you're working on singlenote, picking and moving between
(14:54):
strings, maybe you work on DayTripper by the Beatles Power
Chords.
Maybe you're working on SmellsLike a Teen Spirit.
Again, it doesn't matter.
It's finding real worldexamples of what it is that
you're trying to develop and not, again, not get crazy.
You don't need to learn theentire song necessarily, unless
you want to, but if you'relearning the entire song, you've
(15:16):
now.
You've now moved on from whatyour initial intention is to a
new intention.
That might be good, but thatmight not be good because, again
, what what guitar players do sooften that kind of prohibits
them from making the successthat they want is they're
constantly shifting gears.
They're just constantly tryingto learn something new and
something different and they'renever really working on those
(15:37):
core elements that can reallymake them a better player.
And everything isn't technique.
Just today we're talking abouttechnique.
There's lots of other thingsinvolved, but my point is,
instead of just learning songsthat you like, which there's
nothing wrong with, is insteadof just learning songs that you
like, which there's nothingwrong with, sometimes what you
(15:58):
do is you learn songs because ithas some element that allows
you to focus on some skill thatyou're trying to develop.
This song has that skill, andso now what you're doing is
you're practicing, again withintent.
I'm working on Daytripper,because it's got this cool
little riff that forces me toplay these frets on these
strings, and I'm working onthese fingers and whatever this
might be.
So that's what I want to focuson today.
Now, please remember that if youneed help with setting up a
(16:22):
proper practice routine, you'refrustrated, you're not motivated
or you just need help ingetting from where you are to
where you want to go, we atGuitar Zoom have this thing
called the Guitar Zoom Academy.
You can always just look upGuitar Zoom Academy in a search
engine and you're going to findit and you can set up a call
with one of our instructors,because our instructors take the
(16:44):
calls and talk to you and thenwe can kind of see if it's a fit
for you or not and kind of movefrom there.
So, anyway, stay positive, keeppracticing and I'll talk to you
soon, okay?
Hey everybody, Steve Stine from Guitar Zoom Academy
here.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
What we're gonna be doing todayis talking about four different
ways to improve your fingerdexterity.
The way we're gonna do this iswe're gonna break down some
things that you can do with yourfretting hand, with your
picking hand, and then somesynchronicity that you can do
between the two of them.
What I want you to be aware ofas we talk about this is I want
(00:23):
you to be careful not tooverwhelm yourself.
The point of what we're goingto be talking about today is
that these skills that we'regoing to try and work on can be
short enough to where you coulddo it in a matter of five
minutes or something like that.
You could do it multiple timesthroughout the day.
But what I want you to becareful of is that you're not
taking these simple ideas thatare really, really valuable,
(00:49):
really getting to the core ofwhat the struggles are with many
guitar players and their skillset, and then, all of a sudden,
taking these simple things andmaking 350 different exercises
out of these things.
So now what you've done isyou've created a monster that
you don't want to practice orit's overwhelming, and now
you're not doing any of it.
So don't do that, just keepthings nice and simple.
So we're going to talk aboutfretting hand, picking hand and
then synchronicity between thetwo.
(01:10):
So let's talk about the firstthing, which is going to be our
fretting hand.
Now, one exercise that I liketo tell people to do literally
daily, if not multiple times aday, is to simply work on your
strength skills of your frettinghand fingers, the independence
of the fingers, developingstrength in all four of your
(01:30):
fingers your first finger,second finger, third finger and
your pinky.
Okay, most people do reallywell with their first and second
or their first and third, butthings start failing when they
do their middle finger to theirpinky or the third to their
pinky.
You know that kind ofcombination.
Things get a little moredifficult.
So I have a technique that Iteach people called the 20
second exercise.
(01:50):
Now, it might be 10 secondswhen you begin heck, it might
even be five seconds when youbegin, but the better you get at
it, the longer you're going tobe able to do that.
And it isn't just aboutlongevity.
What it is is doing a series ofhammer-ons or pull-offs.
When we put those together, wecall it a trill, and what you're
going to do is you're going totry and do this trill.
So the first note and thesecond note of the trill sound
(02:17):
similar in terms of volume,dynamics.
The tempo is kind of similarbetween the two.
Right, you're not getting somesort of offset thing.
You're trying to make sure that, as you're doing it, at
whatever speed you're doing it,you have control.
You want to remember whenyou're doing these exercises too
, all of these things justguitar playing in general you
(02:38):
want to find the balance of ifyou relaxed any less, you
wouldn't be getting what youwant.
If you were to press or stressyourself even more, you're just
wasting your energy and you needto try and find that line.
So, with this 20 secondexercise or 10 second exercise,
whatever you want to call it,what you're going to do is
you're going to choose a fretand a string to start on.
So let's just say it's thefifth fret of the third string.
(03:01):
So we put our first finger onthe fifth fret of the third
string and we do a series ofhammer-ons and pull-offs to the
middle finger, the second finger, okay, for 10 seconds or 20
seconds, and we're trying togive it everything we've got.
We're trying to, you know, makeit comfortable, make it smooth,
make it sound clean, you know,make sure you're not pulling the
string awkwardly or you know,if you really struggle with the
(03:24):
actual technique of a hammer-onor a pull-off, that's the first
thing that you need to work onis just developing the actual
skill of doing an effectivehammer-on or effective pull-off
right.
Once you get that developed,now what we can do is we can put
that into this exercise.
So we're doing a series ofhammer-ons and pull-offs we're
trying to do as fast as we canbut yet get a great sound from
(03:46):
both the hammer-on and thepull-off.
Okay, relaxing as much as we canfrom the fingers to the wrist,
to the forearm, to the shoulder,that whole thing and I know
that might seem silly, but itreally does make a huge
difference in your efficiency,okay.
So you have to rememberefficiency, okay.
(04:07):
So this you have to rememberthis isn't just about speed,
okay, it's about control, it'sabout sound, it's about feel
right, not just how fast you cango.
Does it sound good?
Does it sound smooth?
Are you relaxed when you'redoing it?
So, for 10 or 20 seconds,whatever you start off doing,
you're just doing this series ofhammer-ons and pull-offs from
the first finger to the middlefinger.
Then what you do is withoutstopping.
Without stopping, you simplytransition from the first finger
(04:28):
and the second finger to thefirst finger and the third
finger.
So the first finger stays whereit is on the, in our example,
the fifth fret of the thirdstring, for instance and you
just start doing a hammer-onpull-off to the first and third
for 10 seconds or 20 seconds orwhatever, and create some
strength, speed, stamina, youknow all of those kinds of
(04:49):
things in a clean, comfortable,controlled way.
And then when you get done withthat, that first finger still
stays there and you head over tothe pinky.
So now you're doing firstfinger to fourth finger and you
do the same thing 10 seconds or20 seconds, whatever you can do.
You give it your all, but makeit sound good, make it feel good
, but give it your all, make itas good as you can make it right
(05:12):
.
Again, if you're not very goodwith hammer-ons, you're not very
good with pull-offs, or youknow, the hammer-on pull-off
timing is inconsistent.
You try and work on thosethings.
It isn't just about speed, it'sabout quality.
And then let's worry about thespeed.
Now here's the big transition isonce you get done with that.
You're not done.
Okay, what you're going to dois, without stopping, as best
(05:34):
you can, you're going to simplyset that middle finger down now,
which would be on the sixthfret of the third string,
because your first finger was onthe fifth fret.
So you're just going to setthat middle finger down now and
you and you do that.
Now it's going to start gettinga lot more difficult.
You're going to do that thesame way for 10 seconds or 20
(05:54):
seconds or whatever, and then,without stopping, you're going
to go from your middle finger toyour pinky and then, without
stopping, you're going to setyour ring finger down now it
would be at the seventh fret ofthe third string and you're
going to do a series ofhammer-ons and pull-offs from
the third finger to the pinky.
(06:14):
So it doesn't take a long time,and what really needs to happen
is, if you do this correctly, bythe time you get to the last
one, you're going to bestruggling Like physically.
Your fingers won't be workingas well.
So you have to be okay with thefact that when you get to the
end of this, it doesn't sound asgood as you want it to.
It doesn't feel as good as youwant it to.
You're pretty tense by thatpoint.
That's okay, you get done, youstretch out, move on with your
day.
(06:34):
Or maybe, if you're in apractice zone, you're going to
take five minutes stretch out.
You know, do whatever, going tocome back and you're going to
hit it again.
Now, what I tell people, thebest thing that you can do, is
throughout the day.
If you do this multiple times aday, the next time you practice
, maybe you start with theweaker fingers, which is the
third and the pinky, and youwork your way backwards.
(06:55):
Okay, and then, or maybe you dothat tomorrow, maybe that's
what.
Again, you have to figure outwhat works best for you.
I like to do this multipletimes a day because it literally
takes me, you know, threeminutes to go through this thing
, and it's not.
It's over.
The last one you want to do andthis is really important to make
a variety of these things goingforward, going backward, but
the last one I really want youto be aware of is isolating the
(07:18):
ones that you're struggling withmost, which is almost always
going to be your third and pinky, and then your middle finger
and third finger, and yourmiddle finger and your pinky the
good ones all the time and thenend, you know, fatigued in
failure at the end of this,because that's what's going to
happen.
That's okay, that's what we alldo.
But if you always start withyour strong fingers and then
(07:39):
with your weak fingers, you'renever really fully developing
your weak fingers.
Okay, so that's what I want youto think about with your
fretting hand, great littleexercise.
You don't have to make it crazy.
You just practice this thing inthose three different ways.
The second thing that you do iswe move over to the picking hand
and we start doing what I liketo call the two minute exercise.
So what you're going to do isyou need to find a tempo on a
(08:02):
metronome that works for you,and what you're going to do is
you're going to try and do twopicks per click, which would be
like eighth notes.
Okay, it's okay if you don'tknow what eighth notes are, but
that's what you'd be doing.
So, if you set your metronomeand your metronome is doing this
, you want to play and you canslow it down or speed it up to
(08:25):
whatever you need, but whatyou're going to do is you're
going to palm, mute and down,pick that sixth string for two
straight minutes and then, whenyou get really really good with
that, we can expand it out tothree minutes, but let's start
with two minutes, okay.
So what you wanna do is find atempo where you can focus on the
tempo, you can concentrate onthe tempo and you're able to
(08:47):
pick in time with the tempowithout getting lost.
Now you might fall off a littlebit and then get back on Again.
That's human nature, but youdon't want to get lost.
What's happening now is not onlyyou're developing the technique
of the down pick with the palmmute, but you're also developing
the technique of being able toconcentrate on the metronome
(09:08):
while you're inputting thelistening of the metronome,
while you're outputting the pickof the sixth string or the
fifth string or whatever it isyou decide to do.
So it's not just the technique,but it's actually having to
concentrate and line up with theclick of the metronome.
(09:28):
And what happens is, instead ofjust doing this, you know, for
30 seconds or something likethat, you want to do it for a
longer period of time.
That really forces you to dotwo things to concentrate for a
longer period of time and towork on that technique, because
what often happens is, once youfind the right tempo to set your
metronome at, what ideally youwant to have happen is this
(09:49):
First of all, you don't want tobe able to do it for two minutes
, and it's easy and there'snothing physically enduring
about it.
The second thing you don't wantto do is you don't want to set
it and you can only last for 30seconds, and then you're faking
it for the next minute and ahalf while you're trying to do
this finger exercise, thisfinger exercise.
What you want to do is find thetempo where, after you know 30
minutes, 30 seconds or 45seconds or even a minute, you're
(10:12):
starting to really feel thisOkay, but you're grinding it out
for the next minute to get tothe end of this, this picking
exercise Okay, that's the righttempo.
And then remind yourself thatsome days are going to be better
than others.
Some days you're not going tobe at the tempo that you were at
yesterday and, yes, it'sfrustrating mentally, but that's
the reality of things.
Some days you're going to do alittle bit better.
(10:33):
If you do a little bit bettertoday, that doesn't promise that
tomorrow's going to be thatsame speed.
So I like to tell people thatif you are going to do this
exercise, you really want todevelop your down picking and we
can even do this with alternatepicking as well.
But let's start with downpicking.
You might start at a slowertempo just to get your mind and
your body synchronized to whatyou're trying to do and then
(10:54):
start building your way up.
So if you're at 140 or you'reat 160 or whatever, it might be
120, it doesn't matter.
You might not start there forthe day.
You might start a little bitslower.
Make sure that you're synced tothe metronome, your body,
you're picking all that stuff.
And I even tell people set themetronome and just listen to the
metronome for a little bitbefore you try and play along.
Make sure that your brain is insync with the click of that
(11:17):
metronome before you starttrying to play along.
Remind yourself all the timethat guitar playing doesn't
start in the fingers.
It just doesn't.
It starts with the brain andthen goes to the fingers, and
the better you get at something,that transition is very quick.
But it's not like your fingerscan just figure it out without
your brain.
You can't sleep and then youknow do these picking exercises.
(11:38):
It doesn't work.
So you've got to make sure thatyour brain is in sync first,
and then bring your body into it, bring your fingers and your
picking into it and then developthis.
The third thing I want to talkto you about is developing some
synchronicity exercises.
So doing things like 1, 2, 3, 4on the sixth string, on the
first fret, you go 1, 2, 3, 4,next string.
(11:59):
1, 2, 3, 4, next string, 1, 2,3, 4, next string, 1, 2, 3, 4.
Often called a spider walk.
Okay, basically, you're justgoing one, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four.
And now what's happening isyou're trying to get used to
being able to synchronize thehands, minimize the noise,
optimize the transition betweeneach finger as well as the
(12:23):
transitions to each string asyou move along.
Okay, so it's a lot more goingon than just playing.
You know you don't want to goda, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,
da, da, da, da, like trying toplay as fast as you can, but
then you have to stop when youchange strings.
The point of this entire thingis you want it to be a large
motion that sounds smooth, itsounds even, it sounds clean.
(12:48):
You're minimizing the noise ofthe other strings.
You're working on not only theconnection of each note on that
string but transitioning to thenext string and then connecting
each note of that and thentransitioning to the next string
, while you're pickingeverything and keeping the
strings quiet.
There's a lot going on there, alot more than people realize,
and there's a host of ways thatyou can do this exercise.
(13:08):
Like you might go one, two,three, four from sixth string to
first string and then you moveup one fret and then you keep
going one, two, three, four backdown to the sixth string.
So you just keep going one, two, three, four in the turn type.
Sometimes people will do one,two, three, four to the first
string, move up a fret and andthen they'll go four, three, two
(13:29):
, one and then move back to thesixth string and then move over
head down to the first string,going one, two, three, four,
move over four, three, two, one.
I mean there's a lot ofdifferent ways that you could do
this.
And again my point is is don'tmake 400 exercises out of it.
Just get something going thatworks, where you're working on
the cleanliness, the sound, thefeel, and then you're working on
the technique.
Don't try and go any fasterthan you're capable because you
(13:51):
just wind up with a mess.
Our goal is not to pretend.
Our goal is to play right.
Stop pretending Just becauseyour buddy or your wife or
something says that your husbandsays that you're doing amazing.
Maybe you are, but you're morein tune with yourself than
anybody else is.
So don't just try and dosomething to pretend like you're
doing it Really.
(14:11):
Do it and reap the benefits ofwhat you're actually trying to
do.
Okay, the next thing I want totell you about is finding a
musical application for some ofthese things.
You might find a song or a riffjust a riff out of a song, like
, if you want to work on youralternate picking, you might
work on Edge of Seventeen byStevie Nicks.
(14:32):
Or if you want to work on yourdown picking, you might work on
Highway Star by Deep Purple orMaster of Puppets or something
like that.
If you were working onPentatonic, maybe you're working
on Sunshine of your Love byCream.
Or if you're working on singlenote, picking and moving between
(14:54):
strings, maybe you work on DayTripper by the Beatles Power
Chords.
Maybe you're working on SmellsLike a Teen Spirit.
Again, it doesn't matter.
It's finding real worldexamples of what it is that
you're trying to develop and not, again, not get crazy.
You don't need to learn theentire song necessarily, unless
you want to, but if you'relearning the entire song, you've
(15:16):
now.
You've now moved on from whatyour initial intention is to a
new intention.
That might be good, but thatmight not be good because, again
, what what guitar players do sooften that kind of prohibits
them from making the successthat they want is they're
constantly shifting gears.
They're just constantly tryingto learn something new and
something different and they'renever really working on those
(15:37):
core elements that can reallymake them a better player.
And everything isn't technique.
Just today we're talking abouttechnique.
There's lots of other thingsinvolved, but my point is,
instead of just learning songsthat you like, which there's
nothing wrong with, is insteadof just learning songs that you
like, which there's nothingwrong with, sometimes what you
(15:58):
do is you learn songs because ithas some element that allows
you to focus on some skill thatyou're trying to develop.
This song has that skill, andso now what you're doing is
you're practicing, again withintent.
I'm working on Daytripper,because it's got this cool
little riff that forces me toplay these frets on these
strings, and I'm working onthese fingers and whatever this
might be.
So that's what I want to focuson today.
Now, please remember that if youneed help with setting up a
(16:22):
proper practice routine, you'refrustrated, you're not motivated
or you just need help ingetting from where you are to
where you want to go, we atGuitar Zoom have this thing
called the Guitar Zoom Academy.
You can always just look upGuitar Zoom Academy in a search
engine and you're going to findit and you can set up a call
with one of our instructors,because our instructors take the
(16:44):
calls and talk to you and thenwe can kind of see if it's a fit
for you or not and kind of movefrom there.
So, anyway, stay positive, keeppracticing and I'll talk to you
soon, okay?
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