I'm trying to find the best exercises to perform for mastering accurate fretting. I've been playing a bit over a year, and things are going well, but I do tend to make mistakes regularly. Can you help me with this? Thanks.

Practice, practice, practice, and practice some more.

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Tony Houston

Scales are probably the best excersise.

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Aside from fretting, if you have an acoustic 12-string to jam on, that's a very good warmup prior to jamming/practicing on a 6-string electric. You'd be amazed at how much faster the neck of a 6-string electric feels, after having played on an acoustic 12-string even for just 10 minutes.

Matt

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Fast Cars & Loud Guitars!

I'm on board with the practice. And I appreciate the value of practicing scales. Is it best to practice in one position for an extended period, or should I practice all along the neck during the entire exercise?

Can you also recommend a good drill for practicing accurate chording?

Take a look at Joe Cefalu's hopscotch lesson.

http://www.shredacademy.com/lessons/free.htm

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Rudy, Surfabilly knows what he is talking about. An acoustic will make you a better (and more accurate) electric player. The extra effort it takes to play cleanly on acoutic makes you more articulate on electric. The acoustic also strengthens your hand and grows you some tough finger tips.

Giving each finger a number 1-index 2-middle 3- ring 4-pinkie starting on the low E string run 1-2-3-4 till you hit the high E string then drop to the 2cnd fret and come back 4-3-2-1 all the way to the 12th then work your way back to the first. Then do it with these fingerings 1-2-4 /1-3-4/ 1-2-3/ there are a lot of combinations and the more dexterity you get and wider stretches with your fingers will come in time. You can also do them going up and down a single string or on the Band E string get creative and good Luck.As everyone has done these exercices .

Concentrate on one string at a time...try to play a song that you know on just one string.

In a few days, try another string, etc..

Before long, you'll know exactly where to apply pressure to get clean notes out on all strings.

After that, start all over with bending

" " " " hammer-ons/pull-offs/trills,etc.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Thanks! I'll try those things. I don't have a 12-string acoustic, so that's a bit out of scope for what I can do, though.

Hi Rudy: just a quick thought in addition to what others have said.

Naturally, we all would like to be able to play lightning fast. But it's not the most important thing, and especially when you're starting out the bit to really concentrate on is playing clean, accurate notes.

And thinking about making each note sound nice as music (even if it's just in a scale): a few beautifully struck notes ultimately make much better music than a million super fast ones.

Try playing phrases really slow, but making them sound like expressive music.

There's an old idea with music: you can't do something fast till you can do it slow. We all know it's true - but we don't always behave like we believe it. Yet we make faster progress when we follow that principle.

Good luck - C

'Am a great fan of that emminent American philosopher of the mid-late 20th century, Frank Zappa. His wisdom has served this picker well. He left two pieces of sage, timeless philosophy.

"Shut up and play your guitar."

and

"Shut up and play your guitar some more."

Some excellent advice being given here.

I recommend: Slower, fewer notes, with feeling.

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Chet Feathers

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

+1

A 6-string will be just fine. I only mentioned 12 'cause I've mostly done what I'd described. If I was to jam for a bit on my acoustic 12, then switch to my acoustic 6, the results would be nearly the same, but not as pronounced as switching from acoustic 12 to electric 6.

Matt

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Fast Cars & Loud Guitars!