Acoustic Guitar Building Technique Exercises for the Hands

Subject: finger strengthening
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 10:45:49 -0500

Hi Mickey,

Greetings Terry,

I fear that I like you fall into the category of Jack-of-all-trades-Master-of-none. I began playing piano at age 7 and kept up formal training to age 19. During that time period I also studied trombone and was awarded a "Takamine F" guitar (which I taught myself to play basic chords on) for hard work on the family farm. In the 20 years that have followed I have picked up both hammered and mountain dulcimers and a violin.  I am slowly but surely learning the two dulcimers and have played both with our praise and worship band at church. I have downloaded your fiddle/violin lessons and hope to soon have the violin set up and attempt my hand at that as well.

Here are my questions.  They may seem kind of silly but here goes. I was not blessed with long slender fingers. Are there any finger exercises that you would recommend in building up finger strength.

Sure, there are many exercises that will develop accuracy, strength, stretch and good form. Unfortunately, they're difficult to put down in e-mail. I will have to try to add these types of exercises to our online lessons. It sounds like you may need these exercises for your mountain dulcimer efforts. I'm just now adding more lessons to this section and will consider some type of dexterity exercises...

One of the most frustrating things for me is the inability to hold barre chords and to get my fingers to go where I want them to in order to pick out melody lines on the guitar. I seem to always be damping one string or another.  Speed is another issue but I know that ability comes with practice.

Yes, this is a common hurdle...do not feel alone. Accidental string dampening is caused by the form and position of your fretting hand. One of the most important considerations is to make sure that you're using the very tip of your fingers when fretting a note...additionally, make sure that your thumb is behind the neck not riding on the top...this will make it far easier to use the very tip of your fingers. Always try your best to place your fingers directly behind each individual fret...

With the dulcimer it's a little easier. I can see what my fingers are doing. My problem there is getting my fingers to stretch and move comfortably into the different chord positions. Maybe my problem is that I started out with a DAD tuning instead of DAA.

Yes, the dulcimer has far wider string spacing...so dampening adjacent strings isn't a problem...the tuning shouldn't be a problem...for it's how the piece is arranged that predetermines the stretch requirements.

I have this fear that my fat stubby fingers are going to interfere with learning the violin as well. Maybe you can give me some tips there.

Nope...this should not be an impediment in your playing...look at Roy Clark...he could evern rip it on the fiddle with short fat fingers. Don't impose limitations on yourself.

Hope something here helps...Mickey

On the upside, I still play the both the piano (although that now has progressed to include synthesizer) and trombone with band at church. And I have the only accouning job in the world (with a CPA firm) where I get paid to write music. My boss is a wordsmith and my office would look like a recording studio if it weren't for all of my bookkeeping clients files cluttering up the place. LOL.

Thanks in advance.

Terry

Siloam Springs, AR