Exercises are for life

Do you have some good finger exercises you can use to keep them in shape? If not, you can find great guitar and bass exercises on the internet by doing a simple search on Google or Yahoo!


Keep in mind there are different types of exercises - some are for building speed, some for strength, some for dexterity, some for conditioning, some for left hand and some for right hand mechanics, and so on. Make sure you know what you are supposed to get out of each of the exercises you use. Ask your instructor or an experienced player for help if you're not sure.


Finger exercises are for life - you should not approach exercises as something to practice once or to play just until you learn it. Exercises should be used frequently to keep your fingers in shape, just like physical exercises are used to keep the rest of your body in shape.


Get in the habit of exercising your fingers and you'll see the benefits of keeping them in shape while your playing improves. Stronger hands make clearer sounding notes and chords, and faster fingers make your playing smoother.

What is your practice schedule?

If you are learning an instrument, it is important to have a practice schedule. Your teacher probably gives you new material to learn and expects you to be able to play it at your next lesson. But how do you go about it?

Here is one example of a practice schedule (assume your lesson is on a Monday....)

Monday (after your lesson) - warm up - 10 minutes; practice lesson - 10 minutes; play anything - 10 minutes

Tuesday - warm up - 5 minutes; play anything - 10 minutes; work on finger exercises - 10 minutes

Wednesday - warm up - 5 minutes; practice lesson - 15 minutes; experiment - 10 minutes

Thursday - play anything - 30 minutes

Friday - warm up - 5 minutes; finger exercises - 5 minutes; practice lesson - 20 minutes

Saturday and Sunday - warm up 5 minutes each day; practice lesson 15 minutes each day; play anything 20 minutes each day

There you have it! You've managed to practice your new lesson material for 1 hour, worked on finger exercises for 15 minutes and had a lot of fun warming up and just playing your instrument the rest of the time. The above plan is for 30 minutes a day - you may want to practice and play more, so just add minutes to each of the various activities. Or, practice twice a day!

What should you play when you "play anything"? How about music from previous lessons which you really liked? A song or some chords you haven't played in a while...a new finger exercise...a new picking method...experiment with different sounds...try out a slide...explore a different tuning...in short, ANYTHING!

Not only will you see better and faster results, but you'll have a lot more fun than just practicing your lesson.

How is playing music like riding a bicycle?

A wise man once said learning to play a new piece of music is akin to riding a bicycle.

When you ride a bicycle, you don't look at the tire where it meets the pavement, do you? Of course not! You look to see where you are going. When reading music, you need to apply the same principle - don't look at the note you are playing, rather look at the notes coming up.

If you are looking at the note you are playing, it's probably too late to prepare yourself for the next note or series of notes. You should always be looking ahead to what you are going to play.

Some things that will help:

1. Look at the first measure and know exactly what you are going to play before you even start the song. Get your fingers in position so there is no guesswork. Once you start playing, begin looking at the second measure and preparing yourself for those notes

2. Rests and whole notes are your friends. It is hard to keep an even tempo when you are playing by yourself, but you should strive to do so. Let every whole note get 4 complete beats....let every half note get 2 beats, and let every rest get it's full time value. Use those pauses in the music to look ahead at the next note or series of notes.

3. Play at a slow tempo while learning the music. Slowing things down will give you even more time to look ahead at what's coming up. After you have mastered the piece of music (or whatever you are working on) then you can speed it up.

4. Every once in a while, take out a new piece of music and try sight reading it. Force yourself to try something new - play it slowly and concentrate on not making any mistakes. This type of practice is all about looking ahead and if you do this frequently, you'll find it easier to do each time.

You are your toughest critic...

Or, are you? Well, you should be.

When learning an instrument, a new piece of music or a new musical concept you need to judge your performance most critically. Don't accept "good enough" from yourself. Expect perfection and you will never disappoint your audience. If you play just well enough to get by, your audience will know it and they'll quickly seek out other entertainment. If you play as well as you possibly can at any given moment, your audience will appreciate your effort if nothing else.

If you are taking lessons from someone or playing in a band, your teacher or band mates may not be as hard on you as they need to be for fear of insulting you or pushing you away from lessons or out of the band.

Be your own toughest critic and push yourself to be the best musician you possibly can be.

Start Slow....Build Speed

Always, always, always start slow and build speed gradually.
Remember that playing slower allows you to look ahead in the music and prepare for the next note or chord change. If you play too fast, you may miss notes or your chords might sound sloppy.
'Tis better to play slowly error-free than it is to play fast with a lot of mistakes.

Once you have mastered the music at a slow pace, you can speed it up gradually until you reach the tempo you are aiming for.

Use a metronome to control the tempo.