Sharpening Your Coordination

By Tim Gillespie

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This exercise is meant to provide a quick, easy to play exercise that will sharpen your coordination between pick and fretboard hands. I also use it when practicing classical or plectrum single note passages. This exercise only involves two strings and three notes per string. It is very simple and allows you to concentrate on the exact mechanics. It is the simplicity of the exercise that facilitates movement and coordination of your hands. This coordination will become very important as you play more demanding exercises and passages. Make sure you can play this error free. If you play with a pick, make sure you are double picking (attacking the string from both sides).

Use the second finger for notes on the second fret and your ring finger for notes on the third fret. These are the only two fingers you should need for this exercise. You can try other combinations of fingers but this arrangement offers a few advantages. One of which is your index finger is free to hit any string at the first fret. Another advantage is your pinky can be used to play notes on the fourth fret. Remember to use the exact same fingers when going down the scale. This is actually a scale fragment in the key of C.

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