chilievans Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 I've recently gone up a grade in my music studies so I've decided to optimize my learning. I practice from 5.30 - 7.00 am every morning ( its the only quiet time on my house ) where I practice scales modes and apreggios followed by new songs on one day with exercises and sight reading the next. After looking on line I've found loads and loads of exercises but which ones are the best? What do you guys do for all round improvement? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essexbasscat Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 I'll play Starting off with the warm ups seems to be a general winner a lot of the time, but after that, would it not be beneficial to go for goal specific stuff ? at least this will lend itself to adopting some method of assessing areas of improvement, which will help with motivation. I'm sure many others will add to this big time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilievans Posted April 5, 2011 Author Share Posted April 5, 2011 Ok, cool. My goals are greater strength, speed and dexterity. vI do a general warm up by walking my fingers up and down the neck covering all notes. I do the spider exercise and hammer on/pull offs then some slap some chords with muted notes. Anything else I should be doing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essexbasscat Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 I'll gladly step out of everyone else's way for suggestions about other things to be getting on with. But I would look twice at the simultaneous goals of increasing strength, dexterity and speed. Endurance, dexterity and speed would perhaps be a slightly happier mix. That said, do you have any specific areas or regions of the body you wish to strengthen ? i.e the hand ? Is your hand weak as it stands ? If you do wish to strengthen the hand, be careful to strengthen the muscles that release the fingers to the same degree as you strengthen the muscles that grip, or your finger release speed may be influenced. Good luck with the practice T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deepbass5 Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 (edited) I wish I was that disciplined, good on ya. One great number as an exercise I used to teach people was ( La Isla Bonita ) by Madonna, A recognisable tune but also a great bunch of forward and backward major and minor triads to get the fingers working. Edited April 5, 2011 by deepbass5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKenrick Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 As someone who spent years doing those spider exercises, I'd say don't bother. You'll get better results from playing things that are derived from music - your technique will improve and you'll be developing muscle memory for ideas that can actually be used in a musical context. I'll put some stuff that I've found helpful into sibelius and post it up in a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilievans Posted April 5, 2011 Author Share Posted April 5, 2011 Thanks peeps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKenrick Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 Here you go: [attachment=76764:Scalar_A...xercises.pdf] The first half is a 2-octave major 7 arpeggio. I've tried as best I can to mark the fingering/position shifts, start on the E string and it should hopefully make sense. Hitting each note multiple times is a really good workout for the right hand. This exercise can be applied to any chord type. Scales in 3 and 4 note groups are good ways of developing left hand coordination and finger independence. Again, this can be applied to all scales/modes. The last exercise shows a C major scale played in 3rds, once this is comfortable I'd suggest working out how to play it in different intervals (4ths, 5ths etc), which will really start to test your hands and brain! Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilievans Posted April 6, 2011 Author Share Posted April 6, 2011 [quote name='TKenrick' post='1189774' date='Apr 5 2011, 10:01 PM']Here you go: [attachment=76764:Scalar_A...xercises.pdf] The first half is a 2-octave major 7 arpeggio. I've tried as best I can to mark the fingering/position shifts, start on the E string and it should hopefully make sense. Hitting each note multiple times is a really good workout for the right hand. This exercise can be applied to any chord type. Scales in 3 and 4 note groups are good ways of developing left hand coordination and finger independence. Again, this can be applied to all scales/modes. The last exercise shows a C major scale played in 3rds, once this is comfortable I'd suggest working out how to play it in different intervals (4ths, 5ths etc), which will really start to test your hands and brain! Tom[/quote] Many thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deepbass5 Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Thanks Tom you got me on it now, but i'm not getting up at 5.30 am to play this stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilievans Posted April 7, 2011 Author Share Posted April 7, 2011 [quote name='deepbass5' post='1191253' date='Apr 6 2011, 11:21 PM']Thanks Tom you got me on it now, but i'm not getting up at 5.30 am to play this stuff [/quote] Why ever not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skej21 Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 [quote name='TKenrick' post='1189774' date='Apr 5 2011, 10:01 PM']The last exercise shows a C major scale played in 3rds, once this is comfortable I'd suggest working out how to play it in different intervals (4ths, 5ths etc), which will really start to test your hands and brain! Tom[/quote] +1 Scale in 6ths always features in my warm-ups and practices, just because it works the brain and fingers hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.