Rhythm Lesson 2: Exercises & Practice
There are many exercises that you can use to considerably improve your finger and picking action. Also, constant dedicated practice is essential to gaining the skill needed to pull off all new techniques. The first few listings are exercises based on fret action. Afterwards are basic techniques to practice based on picking, and the rest based on the combination of the two. If done regularly as a warm up before every session of play, you could very well master the art of playing in these aspects and will make it much easier to pick up on other songs that require you to be good at these actions.
- Stretches: Stretching is a concept that makes your fingers more flexible and more agile. Here you take your index finger and hold it on the first fret while taking every other finger and stretching them as far down the fret board you possibly can, all the while keeping your index finger on the first fret. Done often, your fingers with also get longer and will be able to pull of later exercises listed below.
- Alternate Fretting: Here, you take one finger and press down on one fret then take another finger and press down on another fret and go back and forth. For instance, take your index and middle finger and go back and forth from, say the first fret to the second fret then keeping your index where it is, move your middle finger to farther frets, still going back and forth. Doing this, you can easily prepare your fingers for common fret action that requires this type of maneuvering.
- Fret Running: This is where you run from fret to fret with all four fingers first slowly, then with increasing speed as you get better. Still not quite sure what I'm talking about? Try this: Take your index and put in on the first fret. Then take your middle finger and put it on the second fret as you take your index off the first. Then take your ring finger and put it on the third fret while taking your middle finger off the second. Then put your pinky on the fourth fret while taking your ring finger off the third fret. You can do this on each string going down string by string. Now starting where you ended (which should be on the 4th fret on the bottom E string) go up one fret (the 5th fret) and go backwards from the 5th fret to the 2nd fret from the bottom E to the top.
- Palm Muting: This is where the picking practice starts. Palm muting is one of my favorite techniques to use because it puts an intense feel on any song. It can make any note or combination of notes growl and stomp its way through a song. How to do it? It consists of putting the pinky side of your palm and placing it on the string(s) that are to be palm muted. Getting this just right can be pretty hard at first but once you find just the right way, you will be able to control just how the palm muting ("pm") sounds. Its all in how hard or how light you place your palm on the string(s) and how far toward the bridge you put your palm. The more away from the bridge you palm is, the more punchy sound you give the strings as they are plucked. The more toward the bridge you put your palm the more of a growl you give the stings pluck. Remember even though it may be hard to get right at first, experimenting with it often will eventually have you mastering it.
- Double Picking: Double picking can be an important part of almost any playing technique. It can practically double your picking speed and can put a really nice rush to any song or riff. This is how you do it. Take your pick and pluck a string downward. Then pluck it upward, then downward, over and over. Eventually, you'll be able do it very fast and will be hauling major butt just on a single note! After mastering fret maneuvering, you can use this to further coordinate and run through notes with speed that you never thought you could. Also, you can develop 'gallops' where you take sets of plucking and ride patterns with ear catching effects. If combined with palm muting, you can re-create such riffs such as Metallica's "The Four Horsemen". Finally, its one of the best ways to open doors of ideas to you.
- Combination Practice: If you've mastered the above things, you can now take two or more of these and combine them in exercises and double your improvement on maneuvering and plucking abilities all at once! As always, it will be hard at first even with just two of these things. With regular practice, you'll be able to pull off any thing on the next rhythm lesson with no problem.
Here are some exercises suggested by other sites:
Ultimate Guitar Page Exercises
Guitar Universe Exercises
Access Rock Warm-up Exercises
Folk of the Wood Exercises
Guitar Notes Exercises
Guitarsite Chromatic Exercises
Guitar Primer Warm-up Exercises
Guitar Strumming Exercises
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