guitar exercise books would simply stop after presenting a healthy dose of scales, scale sequences, arpeggios, and arpeggio sequences. But that’s what makes Guitar Exercises For Dummies so special. In Part 4, we provide the bonus material: a whole chapter on chords and chord playing. We also include supplemental exercises designed just for developing speed, strength, and independence.
Part 5: The Part of Tens
If you’re familiar with the grand traditions of the For Dummies series, you know that the Part of Tens is the fun part. It’s the opportunity for the authors to take you on a bit of a side trip. In our Part of Tens, we want to give some suggestions for helping you play guitar. However, we want these suggestions to be different. We don’t want to provide you with, say, ten more ways to play scales. Because much of this book is technical, we decided to discuss some ideas in a non-technical way — even if we offer advice to take up something technical (and there’s a difference … we think). Chapter 15 focuses on ways to make your practice time more efficient. After all, we feel there’s a difference between practicing the guitar and playing the guitar. When you practice, you should be as brutally efficient and serious as possible. But when you’re simply playing, you should have fun. Chapter 16 is a similarly non-technical chapter. It offers ways to improve your musicianship, including activities that don’t require a guitar.
Don’t forget to check out the appendix at the back of this book! Guitar Exercises For Dummies comes with an accompanying website that presents recorded versions of many of the figures. The handy appendix tells you how to use the website and provides the track listing and exercise descriptions.
Icons Used in This Book
In the margins of this book, you find helpful little icons that can make your journey a little easier. Here’s what the icons mean:
Where to Go from Here
If you already have a good practice routine in place and are looking for material to start drilling those digits, skip to Chapter 3. If you find something in the written figures that you don’t understand, you can always flip back to Chapter 2 for details about the notation. If you know scales already, you may want to look at the arpeggio and chord chapters, as much of this material isn’t covered in other guitar exercise books.
Part 1
Preparing to Practice
IN THIS PART …
In this part, we quickly go over all the essential things you need to know to practice the exercises that appear in this book. If it has been a while since you have played, we offer a brief refresher course in Chapter 1 on holding the guitar while sitting or standing. We also cover all the notation devices and conventions that you need to be familiar with to navigate the different types of exercises presented. The material in Chapter 2 focuses on warming up. It’s always a good idea in any physical endeavor (and yes, guitar playing is physical) to limber up. And because guitar playing is also a mental game, requiring focus and concentration, we give you some ways to gear up the old gray matter as well.
Chapter 1
Reviewing Guitar Fundamentals
IN THIS CHAPTER
We know you’re anxious to get started, but before you lock and load, bear down, and start drilling away on the hundreds of exercises that await you in this book, take just a moment to first ensure that you’re properly set up to do the job. In this chapter, we offer a few gentle reminders regarding some guitar basics. We also provide a refresher on guitar notation. Even if you play guitar often and understand notation, you should check out the “Brushing Up on Guitar Notation” section so you understand how the written music examples in this book work.
Perfecting Your Practice Posture
You probably think we’re going to tell you that you must practice guitar sitting on the edge of a sturdy (or, in other words, hard) chair with your back straight and your feet flat on the floor. While this posture is proper, the truth is that you can practice guitar in whatever position feels natural to you. After you’ve figured out your favorite posture, you next have to focus on holding the guitar and the pick properly. We give you pointers in this section.
Truth be told, you won’t find any benefit to either sitting or standing when you practice. But it usually is more comfortable to sit if you plan to spend a long time practicing. (Most people can sit for longer periods of time than they can stand.) However, you usually stand when you perform, so it’s a good idea to practice while standing some of the time.
Sitting with the guitar: Most guitarists, when sitting, prop the guitar on their right leg and hold it in place with their right upper arm, which dangles over the side and allows the right hand to sweep the strings roughly in front of the soundhole (or the pickups if you’re playing an electric guitar). You should pull the guitar against your body so that it’s snug but not uncomfortably constricting. Make sure your right arm can swing freely from the elbow. If you place your guitar on your left leg, as many classical guitarists do, you may want to elevate your left leg 4 to 6 inches on a small stand, foot stool, or your hard guitar case so you can bring the neck of the guitar even closer to the center of your body. (Another approach is to use a device called a support, which lifts the guitar
