Now, Climbing The Neck

Now let me show you a way to expand our four finger exercise so it can cover the whole neck.

Anders Mouridsen
Instructor Anders Mouridsen
Styles:
Any Style
Difficulty:
Now, Climbing The Neck song notation

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Questions & Answers

When I lift my last finger from a string to go to the next one, the string I am leaving makes a sound. Is there a right way to prevent that? Thanks 2 months ago
Mike Olekshy 1 month ago

Hello - thanks for your question! Yes, you'll need to try and mute the string you are leaving. Usually, we do this by lightly resting the palm or side of the picking hand on that string. You could also position your index finger so that the tip lightly touches the previous string thereby muting it. Experiment and see what works for you. If it is too difficult right now, don't worry about it. As you gain more technique on the guitar, the muting becomes a little easier to do.

This is a very good exercise. Getting my pinky to hit the strings well is a challenge, particularly the low E (6th) string. I have to bend my hand at the wrist quite a bit to reach the low E (6th) string. Anders appears to bend his hand quite bit at the wrist, so is this the correct approach? My finger span is not large enough to span frets 1 thru 4, so I have to move my hand slightly to reach frets 3 & 4. Is this the right approach? I have trouble picking the correct string sometimes. Is there some technique I should try, such as placing my pinky on the sound hole? Anders seems to just know where the correct string is all the time without using any anchor technique. So should I avoid using an anchor technique? Will I instinctively know where the correct string is after enough practice? Thank you for the guidance. 7 months ago
Josh Workman 6 months ago

Hi and thanks for your questions. It's ok if you need to lift your index or pinky (depending on the direction you're going) slightly, in order to play all four notes. Anchoring: If you look closely, Anders is actually anchoring his pinky on the front of the guitar. It's more like he's stabilizing with the pinky and it travels as needed, rather than staying completely glued in place. Some people anchor, some people don't and there are many variations on how to do it. If you do this exercise slowly and accurately with a metronome, gradually increasing the tempo, your hands will naturally find their way to the right spot, without much thought.

Great lessons so far. Thank you! How do you keep your pinkie from moving around? On the way down it stays pretty close to my ring finger. On the way up, it moves further away from the fret board with each finger change. 7 months ago
Josh Workman 7 months ago

Hi Gregory, This is a good standard exercise to get your picking hand and fretting hand synced up. Play as slowly as you need to do it cleanly (with a metronome) and observe what all of your digits are doing. If you see your pinky (or any other digits) starting to fly up, slow down and visualize all of your digits staying close to the fingerboard. It really does involve slowing things down at first and training your fingers. It will get better, as long as you start off slowly. Josh Workman, GT instructor

How do I make sure my hands are right over the fret if my hands are too small? Thanks 7 months ago
Josh Workman 7 months ago

Hi, good question! Definitely make sure your thumb is behind the neck, rather than sticking out over the top. A good starting position would be such that the thumb appears as if it could touch the tip of your index if there was no guitar neck between the two digits. If you aren't able to have all four fingers hovering over each fret, that's ok. You will gradually get to where at least the finger that is about to come down on the string is in the right position and the fingers that played right before that note will naturally peel away from the neck to allow this. This comes from slow, accurate practice and will eventually be second-nature.