Improving Dexterity

Dexterity is an extremely important part of being able to play guitar. Dexterity is being able to control your hands to perform specific tasks, such as using chopsticks, typing on a computer, or playing guitar. By improving your dexterity, you will be able to play guitar in a smoother and more efficient manner. There are many exercises that can help to improve your control over your hands. Really, if you're practicing anything, then you are improving, but I'm going to show a couple exercises that can really help.

These exercises are all really simple, and in no time you will be able to play them with ease. The first exercise is to play one note at a time, starting with the open E string. First pluck the open E, then use your index finger to fret the F note, Middle for the F#, Ring for the G, and pinky for the G#. The notes can be seen on the image below. Do this for each string, moving up and then back down each string. When you are plucking the string, use an alternate picking pattern. Alternate picking is when you pluck a string down for one note, then on the next note you pluck up, and then back down for the third note.

The next exercise is to also pluck one note at a time, but this time you stay on one string. It doesn't matter which string you choose, as long as you stay on that string. Start this exercise by plucking the open string. Then fret each note the same as the exercise above. Index on the first fret, middle on the second, ring on the third, and pinky on the fourth. Then you will move your index finger to fret the fifth fret, and repeat the motions. You want to be able to play this exercise so that there is no gap in playing notes when you move your hand. If you need help with this, try using a metronome and play one note on each beat. This would work for the other exercise too. Once you get good at moving up the fretboard, try going backward. It's harder and more of a challenge.

The last thing that I'm going to mention that could help with dexterity is to learn and play scales. learning scales is not a quick and easy thing. It will take a long time, but don't get discouraged. The more you work at them, the easier it gets and you will have more of those "Ah Hah!!" moments. Those moments are such an amazing thing. I'm not going to explain scales in this post, because there's just too much to cover on the topic of scales. Look for a post about scales in the future. If you have questions before then, just leave a message below. Now, go pluck those strings!