Building stamina

[TurvyTopsy]

I've been playing about a year, started learning with a pick, then got used to playing with fingers. Technically I'm improving fine, unfortunately my finger strength in my right hand isn't where I'd like it. I'm a huge Muse fan, but stuff like Hysteria and Knights of Cydonia I just cannot last the whole song whilst having to play so fast. So I was wondering what sort of exercises were recommended to help build up strength? Cheers!

[Bilbo]

Just keep doing it and you will find, realtively quickly, that the stamina will develop.

Never underestimate the value of tedious repetition!!

[Doddy]

You don't need a lot of strength in your picking hand-you don't need to pluck very hard really.
Practice slowly and accurately and you will begin to develop the dexterity and stamina. Don't push it
too hard by trying to play faster than you can. The more you play the quicker you will naturally get,
and the more stamina you will gain.

[Wil]

Try turning up your amp a touch so you don't need to dig in to get the volume you need - I find if I set my volume to be just right when I'm digging in I'll invariably get more tired when things get loud (which tends to inconveniently coincide with when things get fast in my bands!).

[OldG]

Breathe and relax....

[peted]

Start slow and work your way up. Get some scale patterns and play along to a metronome. It's boring but ultimately it will get your muscle memory and stamina working. I think it's better to practice regularly for short periods than infrequently and long periods e.g. 10 minutes a day rather than one 5 hour session a month.

[Heathy]

From my experience I would say to just keep going & play every day. Also, if you gig standing up, rehearse standing up.

When I started playing with my current band it felt like I had been hitting my hands with a hammer by the end of a gig. I realised just the other week that it doesn't hurt anymore.

[michael-faces]

This is what I do:

-------------------------------1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2--------------------------------------------
----------------------1-2-3-4--------------------5-4-3-2------------------------------------
------------1-2-3-4-----------------------------------------5-4-3-2-------------------------
--1-2-3-4-------------------------------------------------------------5-4-3-2-3-4-5-6------

I go up the neck to the 8th fret like that and then back down to 1st, the up to 7th, then back to 1, then to 6th, then to 1st ect....

I used this loads when i was learning to use three fingers with my right hand, but it should work just as well with a pick. Don't forget to use a metronome! xD