Our guitar gym lessons are all about learning and improving together. In the same way you would put a fitness video on YouTube and sweat along, so too will you do this with Dan... Only it is your fingers that build up the sweat. Follow through the course in order and memorise each exercise. Then, in the final lesson of the unit you'll play along with Dan in a Mega Workout that combines all the exercises. It's tough but you'll see some real imporvement in your playing if you stick with it!
In this unit we take 5 awesome exercises that work to build your strength and technique with both hands. These exercises are not always the most musical, but man do they do the job!
First up, let’s chat quickly about 16th note subdivisions. As an intermediate guitar player, we should be dealing in 16th notes most of the time, which means we will be using that sub division for the entire course. 16th notes simply means fitting 16 notes into your bar of 4. Therefore, for every 1 beat, you play 4 notes. This is often counted like this:
“1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 e and a”
This particular exercise is a great start, and one that you’ll be playing for a long time. It is all about developing finger independence as well as a great synchronisation between the picking and the fretting hand. The fretting hand is rotating between two spider exercises, plus the picking hand is working on alternate picking as well as string skipping! There is a lot going on, so take your time with this one!
For this exercise, we demo it at 60BPM 16th Notes, then scroll down to 50BPM 8th notes. Our focus is to get it sounding perfect, slowly. As you grow in confidence with this exercise you can start to push the speed, but we would always recommend practicing this slowly first as a warm up. Not only does it loosen up your fingers, but by training your fingers at a slower pace, the speed will be there when you need it.
This exercise is one of the hardest exercises you will do! We are really shining a spotlight on your legato (which means “smooth playing”, and in this instance that means hammer ons and pulls offs). This exercise is one of the least musical exercises too, but you’ll be surprised just how much of an impact it has when you come to play your favourite riffs and solos. Your fingers will be stronger and more able to do those fast legato lines.
For this exercise, we demo it at 60BPM 16th Notes, then scroll down to 50BPM 8th notes. Our focus is to get it sounding perfect, slowly. As you grow in confidence with this exercise you can start to push the speed, but we would always recommend practicing this slowly first as a warm up. Not only does it loosen up your fingers, but by training your fingers at a slower pace, the speed will be there when you need it.
Although on the surface of it, the chromatic scale does not sound very musical, it is in fact extremely useful! When combining the chromatic scale with other scales such as the pentatonic, you can find your way into some very cool lead lines and riffs! The challenge here comes with the change of fret and string at the same time. It’s also a great opportunity to practice more alternate picking, keeping the picking hand really synced up to the fretting hand. On the way back, we practice our legato, smooth playing, using slides and pulls off a lot!
For this exercise, we demo it at 60BPM 16th Notes, then scroll down to 50BPM 8th notes. Our focus is to get it sounding perfect, slowly. As you grow in confidence with this exercise you can start to push the speed, but we would always recommend practicing this slowly first as a warm up. Not only does it loosen up your fingers, but by training your fingers at a slower pace, the speed will be there when you need it.
For this exercise, we return to the 1234 style pattern, but now we really push your ability to climb up and down one string. This changing of fretting position can really throw a lot of people, so it’s a great exercise to get you familiar with that. Fantastic for the brain as well!
For this exercise, we demo it at 60BPM 16th Notes, then scroll down to 50BPM 8th notes. Our focus is to get it sounding perfect, slowly. As you grow in confidence with this exercise you can start to push the speed, but we would always recommend practicing this slowly first as a warm up. Not only does it loosen up your fingers, but by training your fingers at a slower pace, the speed will be there when you need it.
For a lot of you, this exercise will be something totally different! Our main objective here is to be able to very quickly find the same note, all the way across the neck, on all the strings. It’s a cool little pattern that will serve you very well in your guitar playing. Plus, the rapid string skipping is fantastic for your left and right hand synchronisation.
For this exercise, we demo it at 60BPM 16th Notes, then scroll down to 40BPM 8th notes. There are BIG leaps in this track, so it will take time to even hit these speeds!
Here is our first mega workout, combining all of the exercises in one, across various speeds. You play along with the video, but make sure you know the order of exercises here.
Here's our awesome interactive tab of the full workout that's synced up to the video above! If you'd like to loop sections, or change the tempo while still playing along with Dan you can do it all here!
Before You Start...
Ready to move on? Remember to check out every lesson in this unit first – then try the next unit...
We move on to something a bit more musical in this unit. These exercises will develop your pentatonic knowledge and can be instantly applied to soloing!