The things I talk myself into doing at 5am…

This is a pretty simple exercise designed to give you finger independence. Play it slowly and clearly and speed it up from there. Do not play it faster than you can perform perfectly.  Use a metronome as soon as you can do so comfortably.  Log your progress.  Be patient and you will see you hands explode in a shredding fire!

Step #1:

Position your hand at the 5th position (5th fret) with all your fingers on their respective frets: index on the 5th fret, middle finger at the 6th, ring at the 7th, and your pinky at the 8th.  Begin by floating your fingers above their fret space and playing the notes in ascending order; index, then middle, then ring etc.  Play using all downpicks if you are a beginning player.  Keep your fingers as close above the frets as possible as you play.  Keep your playing clean and do not bypass a dead note—play it again.  Do not play faster than you can do so perfectly.  When you get to the highest note in the 5th position (your pinky note on the 1st string, 8th fret) then move your hand up one fret and play everything backwards on the way down, keeping your fingers close to the strings.  Once you get to the lowest note then move up another fret and repeat it all again.  Do this until you run out of guitar neck!

Step #2:

Once you are able to comfortably play this in the 5^th position try doing it at the 1^st fret.  Can you feel the burn?

Step #3:

Play it using alternate picking.  Since this exercise uses 4 notes per string every string will have the same picking pattern (down up down up) and every finger will connect with the same picking direction (index down, middle up etc.)

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