Welcome to the Guided Practice Routine for Beginners. Here, you can practice right along with me, and I'll guide you the whole way. This tutorial is divided into 5 stations. For a good well-rounded workout, do the drills that are right for your skill level in each of the 5 stations. Customize your r...

In this set of lessons, Caren Armstrong will delve into the concepts of how to practice. Caren will introduce the tutorial, then get you started on the beginner mindset. Next she'll tune you in to making a beginning with your practice, then how to stay focused. After that we'll talk about how to bui...

You wouldn't head out for a 10k run without doing some stretches and warm-ups first, would you? Same thing with guitar. Wake up your finger muscles with these simple warm-up drills before you head into a practice or playing session, and you'll cross the finish line in fine style.

Before playing or practicing guitar everyone can benefit from the basic hand, wrist and shoulder stretches in this tutorial. If done properly, these simple exercises can help build strength and loosen tight muscles.

This tutorial series will introduce the beginner guitarist to the concept of systematically practicing scales using a metronome. The C major and minor scales will be used. Four patterns will be used as examples of a systematic practice method: up and down, in 3's, in 4's, and pedal point. Use of...

In this tutorial we will learn an exercise that will help you build strength and dexterity in your pinky finger. This is a very simple and obvious exercise that can help beginners get their pinky in shape and ready for fretboard action!

In this tutorial I'll map out a 10 point practice strategy for growing your guitar skills. I'll start by giving you an overview of the entire "map", then the ten point strategy: seeing familiar patterns and repeated elements, planning and economizing finger and hand movement, navigating transitions ...

This versatile warm-up exercise can easily be adapted for beginner through advanced players. It is also equally useful on acoustic and electric guitars, and relevant for players of any guitar style.

Why is it called Spider Legs? Because when you get this exercise up and running, your fingers ...

In this series of lessons, I will show you seven of my favorite warm-up exercices, that I pick and choose from when warming up. The first lessons contain exercises that are beginner friendly, and we increase the level of difficulty with each one until we reach "The Finger Folder".

In this tutorial we'll work together to speed up your chord changes along with a steady beat, in six keys commonly used in guitar music: D, A minor, G, C, E, and A. We'll use a simple strum so that you can focus your attention on your left hand and the important job it has to do, which is to change ...

In this tutorial I will show you a great chord exercise that I call The All Chords Exercise. The purpose of the exercise is to practice finding all 12 chords of a certain type (major, minor, etc.), without moving around all over the neck. We will start with major chords only, then we’ll add ...

In this short tutorial, I will guide you through a couple useful exercises that will help develop your technique. One is a sequence exercise, and the other involves playing a scale in thirds.

These exercises are designed to build dexterity for lead playing.

In this tutorial, I will show you a series of methods that are very useful when it comes to building speed. With each method, I included an example of me playing, so you can see how it can be used. At the end of this tutorial, you will find practice tracks that gradually increase in tempo.

A series of 7 lessons showing different finger exercises.

In this tutorial series of lessons we will look at a method of building speed. We will do exercises using the minor and major scale on one string.

Learning the basic rhythmic subdivisions of 8th notes, triplets and 16th notes is the basis for solid pickin'. Practicing the CAGED system using these rhythms will supercharge your chops and make learning licks easier.

This tutorial on basic hybrid picking exercises was inspired by a young man who asked me how to get started hybrid picking. I'll show you a variety of exercises that you can do to develop your hybrid picking. In the first five lessons I'll show you some basic exercises using the A, G, E, C, and D ch...

This tutorial of hybrid picking exercises was inspired by pickers I've met while performing, and they wanted to know how to get started hybrid picking. These five easy exercises are all root/5 picking patterns, with alternating bass notes. First I'll show you exercises using E, and then A barre chor...

In this tutorial, we're going to go through six different exercises that will help improve your blues playing. First we'll do a basic pentatonic workout using alternate picking; then we'll do a hammer-on and pull-off workout. Next we'll work in grops of four, then do a triplet workout. Finally, we'l...

The use of sequences are a great way to better your technique and heighten your skill as a blues soloist. In this tutorial, we are going to show you a variety of different ways to approach the scales already used in blues to aid you in having better chops and technique. Make sure to develop these ...

In this tutorial we will learn the 5 fretboard shapes/positions that form the pentatonic major scale. For these example exercises we will use the A major pentatonic scale and play each position in a sequence of 3 notes up and down the scale.

In this tutorial we will learn the 5 fretboard shapes/positions that form the pentatonic minor scale. For these example exercises we will use the A minor pentatonic scale and play each position in a sequence of 3 notes up and down the scale.

A solid rhythm guitar is key to any song, and this tutorial will give you 9 very good exercises to develop your metal rhythm playing. We will play four 8th note rhythms, and then move up in difficulty as we switch to 16th note rhythms at the same tempo. Your picking hand will have to work hard here!

In this tutorial, just like the one before, I will start with the simplest examples, gradually increasing the difficulty level. At the end, let's mix it up and create some real life music.

In these 15 lessons, we will further build on what we learned in the two previous tutorials. Be aware, this tutorial features riffs that require a lot more from your fretting hand!

This tutorial will teach you how to play six simple single string exercises that will help you learn the names of the notes in the first position. It will also give you practice learning to sight read notes and rhythmic notation. Finally, it will help you get used to playing with your fingertips a...

This tutorial will teach you how to play basic open chords in a classical guitar style. Chords covered include: A major, A minor, A7, B7, C, C7, D major, D minor, E major, E minor, E7, F, G7. In each exercise two chords are paired for a tonic to dominant (I to V7) musical pattern. Classical guita...

This tutorial will teach you how to play several basic two voice exercises. In each exercise, one voice will be scale played up then down; the other voice will be a repeated pedal note. Playing two voice in two different registers (bass & treble) is an important aspect of classical guitar style. ...