Hey everyone,
I’ve been working on improving my finger dexterity and speed, but I feel like I’m hitting a plateau. I practice chromatic exercises and some basic finger independence drills, but I wonder if there’s a more effective way to make progress.
How did you guys improve your finger dexterity? Are there specific exercises, techniques, or practice routines that helped you the most? Also, how do you avoid tension and fatigue when working on speed?
Looking forward to your advice!
Thanks!
These tutorials cover increasing dexterity & strength.
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial/1292
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial/1829
Avoiding tension is a matter of conscious decision until it's not. You have to pay close attention to your posture & make yourself relax when you observe tension. You have to keep doing it until it become automatic, second nature & then you don't have to worry about it as much.
I encourage students to practice diatonic & pentatonic scales in musical patterns. Also, licks & lines from solos you are learning. Any single note melodic pattern is a great thing to work on.
Chromatic patterns can be helpful for warming up, but they aren't widely used in most music for most students. You will get better at the things you spend time doing. So I think it's better to spend the repetitious practice time playing musical ideas & lines that you would actually use while playing music.
Otherwise you are just improving your dexterity at things that won't improve your guitar playing. For example, the online basketball game you linked probably doesn't have much overlap in skills with guitar. So, that's a specific exercise, technique, or practice routine I would avoid while trying to improve my guitar playing.
Christopher Schlegel
Guitar Tricks Instructor
Christopher Schlegel Lesson Directory