How to Perform Left & Right Hand Guitar Exercise

Hi! I'm Nate Savage. In this video, we’re going to learn an exercise that’s primarily for our right hand, for our picking hand, but it will be a help build strength and coordination on our left hand, as well. So, let me show to you slowly and then I’ll give you some variations and break it down for you and show you how to play it. [Demonstration] Okay! So, I'm using just a regular minor scale shape starting on the fifth fret with my index finger on my B string, walking that scale up [Demonstration] to the fifth fret on my E string, and then coming right back down after I hit that note [Demonstration]. So the really cool part about this for your right hand, for your picking hand is it constantly makes you play back and forth between adjacent strings. [Demonstration] So if you’re having trouble picking or you’re having trouble playing fast, that’s the kind of exercise you want to be doing is playing from string to string. [Demonstration] Because it's really easy to play fast or cling on one string. [Demonstration] I'm playing from string to string, that’s where you can kind of run into some trouble. [Demonstration] And if you start on this exercise with a down stroke [Demonstration] when you go to B to E string right here [Demonstration] you're going to get what we call outside of the string picking. If you’ll notice, I'm going down, coming to the outside of this E string and picking up. If you start with an up stroke on the exercise [Demonstration], want to move from my B to my E string, I'm getting what we call inside of the string picking. [Demonstration] So those are two really important aspects of your right picking hand. This exercise really isolates and helps you to hone it on. Now, you can do this exercise legato too, with your legato technique and you get a totally different vibe on it, your right hand kind of gets a chance to relax. And your left hand is really kind of pushed through the limit on this. So let me let you hear what that sounds like. [Demonstration] So take both of these with picking and without picking with your legato technique, work on them and move around all over the fret board in any shape, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t have to be this E minor shape, you can pick any scale shape you want.