Guitar Study
Health, Stretching, and Warming Up
Total lessons in study:
Keeping our fingers healthy and nimble is an essential and often overlooked aspect of guitar playing. In this study you'll learn tips to help keep yourself in top performance.
1. Stretching and Warming Up
Hey guys!
As mentioned, this tutorial is a bit different than what you may expect to see from me! Please, please, please! Take the time to go through this series of videos, and strongly consider some of the cautions that I raise.
Items Discussed in this Tutorial:
Physical Warm-Up
Basic Stretching Techniques
Guitar-Rela...Read More
Physical Temperature is often over-looked, when developing a proper warm-up routine.
A few stretching techniques mentioned in this video:
Wrist-Back Stretch
Wrist-Forward Stretch
Basic Thumb Stretch
Also be sure to massage the wrist and hand.Read More
Now let's move on to preparation for either a practice session, or a performance scenario.
For the most part, my goal here is to your muscles working! Get the blood flowing, get your muscles ready, etc.
Have some fun and play some high-speed nonsense, and I'll see you in the next video, once you're warmed up. ;)Read More
Now, it's time to actually practice a specific exercise. Check out the tab below, and remember to repeat this sequence as desired, moving up one fret each time.
As mentioned, it would also be a good idea to do a couple right-hand-specific warm-ups.
Click here to access our metronome.Read More
Thanks for watching, and I hope these ideas help your performance, and keep you injury free!Read More
2. Stretching, Health and Posture
In addition to this lesson, be sure to check out an article I wrote on Guitarist Tendonitis.
Stretching and warming up is critical for any guitarist. Playing guitar can be very strenuous on your fingers, wrists, and forearms, so you need to make sure you take precautions to avoid injury. And of course, stretching is one of...Read More
Maintaining good posture while playing guitar is vital. Not only does it help your guitar playing be more effective, but it also helps keep you healthy.
Here are a few tips you should keep in mind...
1. When sitting down, be sure not to lean your left arm/elbow on your thigh while you play. Doing this not only makes your ...Read More
I absolutely love the guitar. It's so much more than just a hobby to me. It's a part of life. I take it very seriously, and I will assume that you take it very seriously as well. If that sounds like you, then you need to read this.
After I had been playing guitar for about 7 years, I developed a severe case of finger tendo...Read More
3. Developing Flexibility
Welcome to this tutorial on Flexibility Training guys!
As our hands are our tools of the trade as guitar players, keeping them in shape, keeping them strong and flexible should be a priority for us. This tutorial is geared towards that end, and will introduce you to some examples of flexibility, strength and coordination e...Read More
Ok, in this first example, we have an age-old exercise for flexibility and coordination. It’s all pretty self-evident in the video so you should need no in-depth explanation really. Just keep in mind that all notes must be able to ring out in unison, and you are not allowed to release your first two fingers while fret...Read More
The second exercise is almost the exact same procedure as with the first, but the only difference is you keep one fret between each finger, as opposed to keeping them on adjacent frets as in Exercise 1. This will give your hands a good stretch! Just start up high, and gradually work your way down the neck.Read More
This next exercise is called “the Spider”, named thus after the way your hand will resemble a large tarantula moving across the fret board. :)
Same thing goes for this exercise as with the others. The notes must be allowed to ring out together. Also try to play them as seamlessly as possible between positions, ...Read More
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13. Flexibility Boot Camp: Exercise 4 and Chord Stretches
Exercises
Any Style
Beginner
This last part consists of two “parts” really. First of all, you have Exercise 4, which is similar to Exercise 3 but played with 1 fret between each finger (same thing as we did with Exercises 1 and 2).
Then, we're going to be trying out some “stretchy” chords. These will challenge you a bit, and wi...Read More