Fretting Exercises

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Up to this point we have been focusing mostly on the picking hand while limiting the fretting hand to fairly simple barre chords. Now it's time to put the fretting hand to work with some new chord forms and other cool stuff. Before we start going crazy with chord forms it might be a good idea to learn a simple exercise that, among other things, will get you used to using your fingers on the fretboard.

This is a little snippet of the G scale. We'll get into the whole G scale a little later on, but for right now this is a nifty little run to work on.

The "two rules" I mentioned earlier in this chapter still apply. You want to fret the first fret with your index finger, the second fret with your middle finger and so on.

All we are really doing here is plucking single strings with our thumb, or with a flatpick.

Now lets take that exact same run, but this time we are going to play it with our index finger across the first fret. I changed the first note to a strum this time so you can "hear" the new chord before you play the lick.

Overall, not too much has changed except that now the "two rules" get twisted a little bit. With our index finger tied up making an Ab barre chord we are forced to play the lick with our middle and ring fingers.

At first this might seem really confusing, but if you spend some time practicing the lick you will get more comfortable with it.

Once you can play this in Ab move up to the second fret (we call it going "up the neck" because the notes are moving up in pitch) and play it in A. Then keep moving the pattern up the neck and back down.

Mess around with this for a little while and give yourself a chance to build up your finger strength. As I said before, when you start getting mushy or dead notes or if your hands start to hurt, stop and move things around a little bit. You will have to find the best hand position for your body.

If you want to "fancy up" things a little bit try picking this pattern with your fingers. I have marked out the first lick with some tips on what finger to pick the string with. T=thumb, I=index and M=middle. Keep your little finger resting on the top of your guitar and just take it easy.

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