Guitar: Improving Your Left Hand Technique

[Garr]

I so wish that I could post tablature on here, but the font gets funky. That would be a cool mod for Chris to research and install on the server!

Anyhow, I use two tools (beyond the standard guitar and pick) for left hand techniques. Metronome and stopwatch are their names.

• Commit a scale to memory.
• Turn the metronome to 60 BPM for beginners or 110 BPM for experienced soloists.
• Start the stopwatch.
• Play the scale up and down the neck until the stopwatch reads one minute (1:00:00).
• Stop the stopwatch.
• Start it again
• Rest one minute.
• Stop the stopwatch
• Bump the speed of the metronome by ten or so BPM.
• Rinse and repeat until you're blazing fast.

Sometimes, when I'm feeling particularly self-destructive, I will restart the stopwatch every time I make a mistake in the scale. This can lead to MAJOR hand cramp sessions, but two days later, when the tendons and muscles are healing, you'll have some of the best improvised practices and really stretch yourself (literally) into new things.

Sometimes I play dummy scales with this too. Not really paying attention to the notes, but the fret gaps. I find that a 1-3-5 spread is really taxing at times, especially when played all the way up and down all strings.

Anyway, feel free to share some of your techniques for improving left hand skills or warm-ups.

Seve, no masturbation posts. I mean it.

[Silencio]

You can't do better than running scales at tempo. Seriously.

If I have a beef with unskilled musicians in general, it's time. I never hear someone play and think, "He doesn't play enough notes," or "She didn't really complete explore that mode," or, "He's not as fast as Phil Intheblank, my fave smokemeister," or whatever.

But I DO say over and over and over and over again, "Whoah... out of tune, out of time. He sucks."

Time is what separates the players from the hacks. Good on ya for playing against a metronome.

ADDED: don't forget to practice changing chords at tempo, too. Single note lines are good, but real dexterity means moving all the fingers on your left hand accurately at once.