Do These 4 Guitar Finger Exercises and Become a Guitar Pro in No Time!

Playing guitar and learning songs can be a lot of fun. But to improve your skills and become a pro, you must practice regularly.

One way to practice is by using guitar finger exercises. These exercises help to improve your muscle memory and make it easier for you to play songs. And so, here are some guitar finger exercises that you could try:

Alternate Picking Finger Exercise

The Alternate Picking Exercise improves your speed. Plus, it enhances your accuracy when playing chords and melodies on the guitar.

It may seem like it’s one of the challenging finger exercises at first, but you can master it with practice. To begin—

1. Sit in a comfortable position with your guitar neck pointing away.
2. Use your index finger to pluck the string on the guitar neck.
3. As you pluck the string, use your other hand to touch the string behind the neck gently.
4. Continue plucking the string until you feel comfortable with the motion.
5. Once comfortable, use your middle finger to pluck the string instead of your index finger.
6. Practice this picking pattern until you can do it smoothly and evenly.
7. Once you can play at a slow tempo, gradually increase the speed until you’re playing at your desired pace.

When practicing this exercise, use your middle finger on the third string and index finger on the first note. Also, use all the fingers you have when picking the strings— don’t just use your thumb and index finger!

Also, incorporate this exercise into your regular practice routine. And try devoting at least 15 minutes daily to practicing this exercise.

Pinky Finger Exercises

The pinky fingers are often the hands’ weakest and most underused fingers. And it’s especially true for guitar players, who use their fingers to play chords and solos.

Besides, if the pinky fingers are weak, it can affect the playing ability and even cause pain in the hand and arm. Fortunately, there are exercises you can do to strengthen your pinky finger.

Here are a few:

Pinky Finger Curls

This exercise is simple but effective. To do this exercise, you must—

1. Hold your hand out with all your fingers straightened.
2. Curl your pinky finger up towards your palm as far as you can.
3. Hold for a few seconds, then release.
4. Repeat 10-15 times.

Fretting With Pinky Finger

This exercise will help improve your dexterity and strength when fretting notes on the guitar. Below are simple steps to fret with your pinky.

1. Play a note on the first fret with just your index finger.
2. Play the same note on the third fret with just your pinky finger.
3. Hold each note for a few seconds before releasing them.
4. Repeat this ten times for each note.

Finger Dexterity Exercises

There are a variety of exercises that you can do to improve your finger dexterity. And below, we’ll outline a few of the most popular ones.

The B String

To do this exercise properly:

1. Place your third finger on the B string’s third fret.
2. Place your second finger on the B string’s second fret.
3. Place your fourth finger on the B string’s fourth fret.
4. Place your first finger on the B string’s first fret.
5. Now that your fingers are in position, gently pluck the string with your right hand while holding down the strings with your left hand.
6. Be sure to pluck each string evenly, putting in the same amount of pressure.
7. Repeat this process several times until you feel comfortable with the exercise.

Arpeggio Guitar Finger Exercises

This exercise involves playing broken chords in different keys and positions on the fretboard. Here are the steps:

1. Place your index finger on the low E string’s first fret.
2. Place your middle finger on the A string’s second fret.
3. Place your ring finger on the D string’s third fret.
4. Pluck all three strings simultaneously, and then let them ring out.
5. Repeat this process a few times until you get comfortable.
6. Try moving up to the fifth fret and using your pinky finger instead of your ring finger.
7. Once you can do that comfortably, try moving up to the seventh fret and using all four fingers.

Finger Independence Exercises

Some finger independence guitar exercises include:

The Box Pattern

This exercise is probably one of the most popular guitar finger exercises. And here’s how it works:

1. Play a basic scale or arpeggio in one position with both hands.
2. Take that same scale or arpeggio and break it up into two-note groups.
3. Play those two-note groups with only your right hand.
4. Play those same two-note groups with only your left hand.

The Chromatic Scale

Chromatic scales contain every possible note to improve your finger independence. To practice this finger independence exercise, you must—

1. Choose a starting note.
2. Play this note, and then move up to the following note in the scale.
3. Repeat this process until you reach the highest note on the scale.
4. Once you reach the top of the scale, start moving back down again, playing each note in turn.
5. Once you reach the starting note again, move up to the following higher note and repeat the process.
6. Continue moving up and down the scale until you have played all 12 notes in the chromatic scale.
7. You can start again from a different starting note and continue practicing.
8. As you get more comfortable, try playing it faster or adding other notes from the scale.