Module 1 Lesson 1

Click on the Video 1a link and copy the hand exercises shown - Exercise Both Hands
Practice these a little every day until you are totally comfortable with them
These exercises will help to enable the fingers to move freely

Some people can do these exercises easily, but many especially adults may have difficulty at first

NOTE: This video has no sound
Pause the video as needed to read the text

When the video is playing you can go to full screen

Click on the Video 1a link and copy the hand exercises shown - Exercise Both Hands
Practice these a little every day until you are totally comfortable with them
These exercises will help to enable the fingers to move freely. Some people can do these exercises easily, but many especially adults may have difficulty at first

NOTE: This video has no sound
Pause the video as needed to read the text

When the video is playing you can go to full screen

VIDEO 1a - basic Hand Exercises
Stop and pause the video to read the text

1b - Introduction to finger Mechanics Hearing and Feeling and Practice

All guitarists need to practice, and for those of us who play more than just chords this is especially true

The problem for us can be not just finding time to practice, but what to practice to keep our fingers working
The movement of the fingers is a mechanical movement, and like oil on a rusty hinge a good daily workout on the guitar neck keeps the fingers fit, a bit like aerobics for the digits

All the exercises and tunes in this course are designed to give both hands a good dose of oil on their hinges, so to speak, not just for finger picking but also for our chord changes and solo development too, thus enabling good finger mechanics

Hearing & Feeling
When playing any Tune, Scale, Chord, Study or Exercise, first there are the mechanics (movement of the fingers), to try and get the fingers to actually play it, but once it is done then the most important part is hearing what your playing and feeling the piece so it sounds like it is being played by a master and not someone endlessly struggling with Latin

A good artist can draw a match on top of a match box and make it look like a work of art, so next time your faced with practising an exercise in C (or what ever) instead of thinking
Oh No! Not again! Imagine yourself performing in front of four thousand people so try your best

Practice involves several things
1 Practising the right material for the job.
( This "METS" Guitar Course is a very good start. )

2 Endless repetition till:
A The mechanics of the piece are established, in other words you have memorized how it goes
and your fingers can make all the changes without thinking about it.
Perfect the left hand and perfect the right hand for each bar of music.

B Inject feeling into the piece you are playing.

3 Get an idea of the piece by looking and trying to play it through a couple of times, use the recording, Tablature or video's available, listen to it many times, but then the secret is to go back and work on one bar of music at a time and start to master each bar one by one.

4 Always revise your exercises and pieces. ( Even if you are playing in a band and all the exercises and pieces you play are totally unrelated to the band music.) Do not loose your edge.

There are a lot of good guitarists who play in bands that use basic power chords etc. and never get a chance to stretch themselves musically, if they don't always revise their exercises and pieces, one day as often happens the band folds up because the bass player runs off with the lead singer, or the drummer thinks the music stinks and wants to play Cajun rock or whatever, and the guitarist needs to find another band for another gig to make another dollar to pay another bill.

Now the light begins to dawn

"can I still play guitar?"
"Can I still jam with my brothers blues band in LA.?"

"Or play solo at the local restaurant or wine bar?"

"Or do I only know a couple of power chords to thirty six original songs that belong to a band that doesn't exist any more?"

5 Experiment, always try new ideas, create your own exercises, & make variations to exercises in this book.

So Remember
Do all the exercises as many times as it takes, continually practise & use your ear & actually listen to what you are playing once the basic mechanics of the scale, chord, tune or whatever are understood.