Left Hand Exercise
This left hand exercise includes moments where the fingers don’t actually touch the string, but must remain prepared and in position. It serves as a strong foundational drill to support fast and relaxed position shifts.
Left Hand Exercise for Pinky
This exercise is especially effective for the pinky finger. Since the fourth finger is usually the weakest, this exercise is great for building its strength. It’s also highly useful for shifting between positions and improving speed across wider position changes. Start at a very slow tempo and increase the speed gradually over time.
Left Hand Exercise for Fluidity
This exercise is excellent for developing coordination among all four fingers. With a consistent practice routine at a slow tempo, you’ll notice a significant improvement in both finger coordination and control.
You can access the version played with the index and middle fingers (i and m) via the link and QR code on the left, and the version played with a pick via the link on the right.
Legato Exercise
I’ve noticed a common mistake in legato techniques such as hammer-ons and pull-offs. When students first try these techniques, they often play the connected notes too quickly. This likely happens because the sound is generated solely by the left hand. Since most players are used to producing sound through right-hand motion, this reaction is understandable in the early stages of learning legato.
However, this tendency to rush through legato passages can make it difficult to stay in time with a metronome. To help address this issue, I’ve created a series of exercises based on the A minor pentatonic scale. The goal is to gradually build coordination between legato technique and metronome timing.
The first exercises avoid legato altogether. The seconds introduce it between notes. The thirds are fully legato. Make sure to use a metronome while practicing, and begin at a tempo that feels comfortable and controlled.
At the end of the sequence, the triplet-based passages will help you confirm that your timing matches the metronome perfectly.
Finger Separation Exercise
When you first start playing guitar, your left hand fingers may not fully stretch in certain positions. This can be especially challenging on the lower frets (between 1. and 5. frets), where the distance between frets is wider. For beginners, even basic exercises in these positions can feel like a real struggle.
I recommend this exercise for beginners and for anyone who finds barre chords difficult. It focuses mainly on the first and second fingers of the left hand and takes advantage of the fact that fret spacing increases as you move from the 12th fret toward the 1st. The exercise begins on the 13th fret, where the frets are closer together, allowing your first and second fingers to comfortably maintain a one-fret gap. With each step of the exercise, we move gradually toward the 1st fret, taking advantage of both the increasing fret spacing and the brain’s ability to adapt. This gradual movement helps your fingers adjust naturally to the wider stretch, making it easier and more effortless to separate them and press different frets.
You’ll probably be able to play comfortably down to around the 10th fret. Identify the fret where you start to feel tension between your fingers (for example, the 6th fret) and practice there for three or four days. Once that tension begins to ease, move to the next fret (in this case, the 5th fret).
In this exercise, I focused on the first and second fingers, but you can apply the same method to the others as well.
Stay tuned for more…
