Finger Development
I played guitar for quite some time before I began to get good. By good, I mean just good; nothing to write home about, but people didn’t laugh, at least not too loud. I began to spend time asking myself what my main weaknesses were. What was really holding me back? That was a tough question but one that needed exploration.
One of the main issues that kept coming up was my fingers and their development. I heard people playing fast and I could barely play slow.
Here is what I learned.
Every finger meant something.
What Mr. Claritan?
Being a right handed guitar player… every finger on my left hand counted for 25% of my playing ability. If I wanted to “WOW” people I needed to get all 4 of those fingers to perform equally, to perform at 100% (I do use the thumb a bit — over 100%).
All 5 fingers on my right hand counted as 20% each. This makes room for strumming and finger-picking. Any weak finger made me miss my goal to “WOW” people.
Once that was clear my mission was set. Now the big question is, how to get there?
Next, I need to understand chords on the guitar. Not just being able to play them when I saw them written on a sheet of music paper. But how were they formed on the guitar, why in this shape? I pretty much understood basic chords on the piano, but not at all on the guitar.
Standard Chords
The standard chords most guitarists know are listed below. If you don’t know some of them now is a good time to learn them. We will be putting all the shapes below into musical sense.
Finger Exercises
Finger exercises are great for developing dexterity, strength, and speed in your playing. You want to develop your fingers to move freely across the fretboard.
The guitar is what I call a shape instrument. Learning fluent guitar has a lot to do with Shapes. That’s a good thing, really good. We will cover this concept thoroughly.
For the left hand
There are 24 shape exercises I use. They were developed to train my fingers to play every combination of fingering pattern that is out there. These fingers needed to do any combination at will all day, every day.
For the right hand
I started with picking. I understood the need for the left hand and the right hand to be in perfect sync. If I picked a string and my left hand was not on the string and fret properly it would create a buzz sound, not what I wanted. I was going after CLARITY. A great note played every time. These exercises helped. I still practice them.
The right hand also needed to be able to strum down and up strokes. So I added to the right hand:
- Down / up strokes
- All down strokes
- All up strokes
Combine the strokes with the 24 shapes and it seems like a lot of work. Not really, it is easier than you think. Your fingers start to respond a lot faster than you would imagine. Just a little encouragement. YOU CAN DO IT!
Now to tie everything together we need one more thing. To practice with a metronome.
A metronome is a device used by musicians to help them improve timing and stay on tempo. You can purchase a metronome at your local music store or download a metronome app for your phone).
Why a metronome Mr. Claritan?
Because my timing was not that good, not at all. I could not stay on beat to save my life. Rhythm is the most important thing in music. It sets the groove, the emotion. It is something that is usually ignored by many but needs your attention!
Daily Exercises
Play a different one of the below exercises every day. These exercises are meant to be played while watching TV. Don’t miss your favorite show, play through it. It’s just designed for muscle memory.
Why play while I watch TV Mr. Claritan?
When we play to an audience we are enjoying the experience, the lights, roar of the crowd. We are not looking down at our fingers making sure everything is perfect. Perfecting your form is important in the beginning but as time goes on you want to be able to feel your fingers are doing the right thing.
24 Combinations
