Fret Feed

Most guitar players are familiar with the chormatic exercise, and use it to improve their chops and warm-up before session. Most guitar players know how boring these exercises can get as well. Try adding these variations on the old standard to both improve your playing, and keep your practices interesting.

1. The Stretcher

This is a great exercise for improving finger flexibility. Start by replacing the standard 1-2-3-4 shape with 1-2-3-5.  If you really want to get crazy, you can replace with 1-3-4-6.  You may want to start higher on the neck for this one, and work your way down.

2. Inversions

This exercise is good for building finger independence.  Instead of going up the neck the say way, switch between 1-2-3-4 and 4-3-2-1

3.  Odd Starting Points

This is another good exercise for building finger independence and improving speed. You start on a different fret each string, but still play all four notes. So the pattern is 1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-1, 3-4-1-2, 4-1-2-3.

4. Fret Skipping

This is one of the simpler ones. In this example, we replace 1-2-3-4 with 1-3-2-4

5. String Skipping (small)

Skipping strings is a good way to add some interesting licks to solos with wide intervals.  Here’s a good way to practice them:

6. String Skipping (large)

Now let’s try some really crazy skips.  play the shape on the low E between each other string, or high E if you going down, and then work your way through the other strings.

7. Every Which Way

One of my old teachers showed me this exercise, and it’s a great way for building finger strength. This time we are going to use 2 note shapes, and go up and down with every possible 2 fret shape we can make out of 1-2-3-4:   1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 2-3, 2-4, and finally 3-4(this one can be a real pain if your not used to it)

8. Tritones & Thirds

Now we’re going to try alternating strings to work on our alternate picking. Play close attention to how you are up - picking and down-picking, and make sure your strictly alternate picking.

9.  Triplets

If you don’t use triplets much, this can be a good way to get used to them.  below are a few different shapes to try.

10. Triangles

Though this example is played in straight 8ths or 16ths, it’s spread out a little bit on the tab to make it easier to visualize. We’re going to be playing one note of the 1-2-3-4 shape per string. You can alternate, sweep, or hybrid pick through this one, it makes a great exercise for each.