This exercise for classical guitar changed my life (kind of)
My fingers are reaching their full potential! My hands are unstoppable!!
During the constant journey to hone our craft, there are certain tools and actions we can take to better ourselves in order to produce at a higher level. I suppose I’m talking about technique exercises! Without getting too bland, I believe doing some amount of technical exercise for your hands can improve your playing during regular practice and make goals easier (and quicker) to reach. I’ve become fond of the journey of playing music - learning, practicing, experimenting with different ways of playing a passage. I feel like exercises are important for any artistic endeavor, although I’m not sure how they could look for different mediums, like painting or sculpting. I have assembled a few exercises for guitar though. Perhaps that’s part of the quest, to assemble our artistic toolkit that helps us become better overall.
My point is, that no matter how you create, doing a small thing to challenge yourself daily can do wonders.
This exercise for left hand finger independence really upped my abilities, I feel. I hardly use Instagram anymore but luckily when I do, music content shows up first. I follow an amazing concert guitarist, Tariq Harb, and he shares this on his page.
Also, before going further, I feel this exercise can work for any guitar style, not just classical, if one is so inclined to train your fingers more intensely.
It may look simple or straightforward, but look how the fingers need to move in order to achieve the correct sound. It’s pretty difficult for someone learning (such as myself). To get all the notes to ring out cleanly, especially during the movements and switching to new notes/fingers, is a feat that takes some practice. I usually start playing the exercise as it’s written - the lower and higher notes played together like this:
Then, to further challenge myself I try to let the bass notes (lower notes) ring out while I move. This can be difficult, to keep the notes lingering and steady. I lead with the low notes like this:
Then, I switch. I lead with the higher notes. This is even more challenging for me! Letting the higher notes ring out and leading with them seems to be harder. I am trying to work on making the notes sound even less ‘choppy’ and more smooth, or fluid.
Finally, I’ll do a few repetitions in a higher position like so:
If you happen to come across this and find it helpful OR have any other cool technical exercises/warmups to share, please share!
Thanks for reading! 😊