Ex-022 Octave Scale
Practice your Octaves in unison with this simple exercise! Octaves help you become more mobile on the fretboard and aware of what you’re playing. I believe they are one of the most beneficial fretboard concepts […]
Exercises
These guitar exercises will help you improve your guitar skills. The best guitarists practice daily. If you practice these exercises regularly, you will notice an improvement in your speed, accuracy, and muscle memory.
Ex-021 Alternate Picking Sixteenth Notes
Practice your alternate picking over sixteenth notes with this exercise. Sixteenth notes are great for alternate picking because they must be played quickly and alternate picking helps you play faster! This one focuses on four […]
Ex-020 Combining Alternate and Sweep Picking
Improve your technique and speed by combining alternate picking and sweep picking. In the following exercise, you will combine alternate picking lines with sweep picking lines in both directions (ascending and descending). When ascending, notice […]
Ex-019 Efficient Speed Picking Exercise
Practice economy and sweep picking and other concepts in this efficient speed picking exercise. This exercise is efficient because it crams all of the following into one exercise: G major scale with 3 notes per […]
Ex-018 Horizontal Ladder Exercise
Improve your fretboard knowledge with this rut-breaking ladder exercise from my upcoming book on learning the fretboard. This exercise can be applied to any sequence of notes, such as a scale, mode, or arpeggio.
Ex-017 Speed-up Tapping
Practice your hammer-ons and pull-offs mixed with some finger tapping with this exercise by Milan Trickovic. The true purpose of this exercise is to work on tapping technique and speed building by mixing it with […]
Ex-016 Sweep Picking Gmaj6
Learn to sweep pick a Gmaj6 chord cleanly with this exercise, which was written and recorded by Theo Kosmidis.
Ex-015 Brazilian Legato
Learn to play fast and smooth with this fun legato exercise by Dave Dohearty.
Ex-014 Repeating Bass Two-Octave Scale
Practice two-octave scales in a unique way while practicing your picking technique. This exercise is a great way to practice two things at once. This exercise is a great way to learn a scale so […]
Ex-013 Sweep Picking ii-V-I
Learn to sweep pick a ii-V-I progression in this exercise using the tritone substitution to play faster. This exercise uses three chords based on the A form (rooted on the 5th string). In the key […]
Ex-012 Fretting Combinations Exercise Set 3
This is the third of eight sets of chromatic exercises. It is a continuation of Ex-009 Fretting Combinations Chromatic Exercise Set 2. It continues to work your fretting hand, but with new combinations. This exercise […]
Ex-011 Ascending and Descending Quads
Use these exercises to build speed and to avoid sounding like you’re playing scales.
Ex-010 Alternate Picking Exercise
Practice switching strings while alternate picking with this exercise. When practicing alternate picking, most people can quickly learn the basic motions (down, up, down, etc). The hard part comes when you switch strings and skip strings. This exercise […]
Ex-009 Fretting Combinations Chromatic Exercise Set 2
This is the second of eight sets of chromatic exercises. It is a continuation of Ex-007 Fretting Hand Exercise Set. It continues to work your fretting hand, but with new combinations. This exercise set […]
Ex-008 Right Hand Speed Picking Exercise
This is a simple and effective exercise for developing right hand speed.
Ex-007 Fretting Combinations Exercise Set
The object of these exercises is to work on your fretting hand combinations over all 6 strings. Each exercise in the set of 6 varies slightly from the previous one. All of the exercises below […]
Ex-006 Simple Chord Change Exercise
This is a simple exercise that you can do for about 1 minute. It can easily be fit into anyone’s practice or warmup schedule. You will need a metronome and two chords that will challenge […]
Ex-005 Fretting Combinations Exercise 2
This exercise expands on the Fretting Combinations exercise. This exercise will train both your fretting hand and your picking hand by playing all the fretting combinations and all the picking combinations. The picking combinations are […]
Ex-004 Fretting Combinations Exercise 1
The goal of this exercise is to improve the speed of your fingers when playing on a single string in a given fretboard position. The example below shows the 6th string in 1st position. Place […]
Ex-003 Finger Strength Exercise
This exercise has three steps and can be done on any string and in all fretboard positions Step 1 – Place all four fingers on adjacent frets of a string. Step 2 – Lift two […]
Ex-002 Alternate Picking Exercise
The goal of this exercise is to improve the speed and accuracy of your alternate picking. Go slow enough to play it perfectly before increasing the speed. The following picking combination should be used: d, […]
Ex-001 Fretting Hand Exercise
The goal of this exercise is to make each finger on your fretting hand as smooth and independent as possible. The fingers of the hand do not move equally well. This exercise helps you overcome […]