I’ve recently spent a lot of time really rediscovering my love of guitar in an attempt to not only get better at playing, but also overcome a lot of my stresses related to the instrument and really re-frame how I view it as a creative tool and a form of expression. It has been an interesting ride and I’m finally beginning to see some improvements in areas I’ve overlooked in the past few years.
I asked if people would be interested to see what I’ve been using to help and a lot of you answered (overwhelmingly positively), so I’ve decided to put together a short series of posts to highlight some things I’ve been using and approaches I’ve implemented to get myself back on track.
I don’t believe in charging for this stuff because I learned from good people on the internet and ultimately I want to give something back in the hopes that it’ll help somebody else on their guitar-playing journey!
Part 1 – CORE Exercises
You can DOWNLOAD A TAB which features a bunch of the exercises I’ve been using to improve my guitar playing over the past few months. Some are tried and tested classics, some are variations of other well-known exercises and some are exercises of my own.
In the tab, you’ll find 16 EXERCISES that will help get the blood flowing in a warm-up scenario, but will also help build your consistency, clarity, strength, speed and a whole bunch of other things.
I normally start around 150BPM, doing either as much of an exercise or as many repetitions of an exercise for 1 minute and increase 5-10bpm with each repeat of the workout. Treat it like going to the gym – start slow, focus on the fundamentals and build up speed and endurance over time.
You don’t have to do the exercises in sequence and you don’t have to do all of them – try them out, see what works for you!
Another thing I’ve found really helpful while I’ve been doing these exercises, is to use a hand exercise ball and use a pop-socket with my phone. I’ve found that using both of these items has worked wonders for reducing tension and strains in my hands and wrists. You can get them from sites like Amazon and it’s a small price to pay for some extra comfort!
Link 1 – Hand Exercise Ball (Full set includes a LaCrosse Ball and a Peanut which are really handy too)
Link 2 – Pop-Socket (There are thousands of designs but mine has a really cute ramen bowl on it)
Additional Resources:
Don’t have a metronome? No problem! iMusic School have a handy free online metronome that goes all the way up to 300bpm and includes a variety of sub-divisions. They also have a bunch other resources like an online tuner and free sheet music templates.
You can find the metronome HERE!
Ross Beagan 