Want to play guitar like the pros? Part 3 – Guitar Speed-Building and Strength-Building Exercises

Article by David Woodford

Want to play guitar like the pros? Part 3 – Guitar Speed-Building and Strength-Building Exercises – Entertainment – Music

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As you probably already know, playing the guitar requires time, practice, and passion. Just as in anything else in life, you can’t get better unless you practice. The rule sticks in guitar; you must practice to get better. To play guitar, you also must have good hand strength. That can be done by doing guitar exercising and practicing a lot. Here I have written some simple exercises which will build speed and strength.

I’m going to start out with speed exercises. The simplest speed exercise is to play a scale, or cycling patters. There are scales in the other lessons online, and it isn’t hard to make your own scale. A good way to increase speed with scales if by playing the note 2 or 3 times while playing the scale. So if you’re playing a chromatic scale, you play each note twice and then move on to the next note. As you get better, go faster and add more notes, at the end you will have improved a lot from where you began.

An important exercise I used for strength building is hammer-on pull-offs. I start out at the 1st string 1st fret and hammer on to the 2nd, then pull off to the first. I keep on moving up until I reach the 6th string. After I reach the 6th string I move over a fret, and then go back down to 1. I repeat the process until my fingers get tired. While doing this it is best to use a pair of fingers, then start over and change fingers. Not only does this build on your hand strength, but this will also help your coordination for hammer-ons and pull-offs. Also, use the exercise in the previous lesson about positioning yourself with chords without actually playing them; they will make you play chords faster.

An exercise I use for barring is to bar the 1st fret. I bar the fret, play every note individually, then play the fret all barred, and then play the 1st fret open for all the strings. I repeat the process until the 12th fret or so, and then I move all the way back. Doing this will help you bar better and will also produce strength in your fingers.

A good exercise I use for picking is called alternate picking. I’ll play a piece to warm up, but I will pick alternately. Picking alternately means that you will pick one note upwards and the other downwards. This will build strength in your picking arm, and will also make you a faster picker.

While doing this exercise, the tip of your fingers might start to peel a little and develop calices. You should take a rest, but this is a good thing. The more your fingers peel, the harder the tips of your fingers will get which will assist you in guitar playing. It is always best to warm up before practicing the guitar so doing these exercises will not only build up strength, but they will also get you ready to play!

About the Author

David Woodford is a professional writer who specializes in beginners guides for a variety of subjects. He is currently writing this series of guides on learning to play guitar for novices and ‘false beginners’.More information can be found on his site at http://www.info4u-services.com/guitar

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David Woodford

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