Hi Merce! This lesson is very useful for every guitar player, beginner, intermediate and advanced.Thank you for keeping my fingers lubricated with this finger flexibility exercises.
You have SO much information available!! After 50+ years at a Drum set, I decided to become a Guitarist. (Guitars are lighter, quieter, smaller and do less damage to one's body) I've always strummed a Guitar but never took it seriously until now. Your free PDFs alone will keep me busy for quite some time. I'm so glad TH-cam suggested your videos to me. Hasta la próxima!
Mercè tus lecciones me están sirviendo para progresar con la guitarra eléctrica. Llegué a tu canal por casualidad buscando mejorar mi técnica de mano izquierda y ahora te tengo de referencia a la hora de escoger ejercicios que sean efectivos y me hagan aprovechar el tiempo. Moltes gràcies. Salut!
Greetings dear Merce!! Not sure how I missed to watch this video sooner… it’s so valuable… I have been struggling to take time for guitar practice for various reasons last few months… or lost motivation, but am motivated again now after watching this video… I hope I can practice this diligently. Thank you 🙏🏻 much, as always
Awesome! Just what I often need. Hope you do a follow up concerning having a stiff head/cranium lol......sometimes I think mine's full of cement. Luv ya💖🤣💖🎼💖🎸💖
Aloha Merce. I am so happy, as I just found your channel. I love the way that you teach, with kindness & encouraging excellence. I have a question regarding your fretting hand. Sometimes it looks like you are placing your index finger on "top" of the fret, whereas the other fingers are placed in between the frets. Is fretting on the top of the fret sometimes optimal? Sending blessings from Hawaii.
Oh no! Another excellent Merce exercise I need to work into my practice time. Your RH speed and precision is breathtaking! I’m 62 so don’t have a lifetime to improve, so I’m getting ready for my next one. (Just in case the Buddhists are right about reincarnation?)
Thinking thru the repertoire - from Renaissance to modern consists of: ~85% of measures that are Thumb + single notes, or Thumb + Arpeggios ~15% of measures that are Arpeggios or scales (no Thumb) Assuming that I'm the ballpark, why the emphasis on practicing scales?
Good point, and very interesting! Practicing scales is not made for only getting better at passages that contain clearly defined one direction scales (eg. Concierto de Aranjuez, welcome to scale world!) but its a great way to develop hand dexterity, coordination, control, tone and a long etc... which will make you better on many general aspects. If you like, check my tutorial on scales and you will see in the free PDF how many things you get to improve with such exercises. Among the most important aspects you will have rhythmic precision, articulation control, dynamic expansion and (hopefully, if you take care of it while playing the scales) hand movement, tone and posture as well. You can certainly improve a lot by isolating passages of the pieces and working on them and creating exercises out of each 'trouble spot' (you got to be creative on creating such exercises to make them truly effective though, and some people find difficult doing it), so isolating technique practice with scales, arpeggios, damping techniques, tremolo, bass control, etc... might help you boost your results in key areas of performance. That's the main reason why we do technique to begin with. I hope my answer is clear and useful for you! I'm always happy and interested in contrasting opinions an approaches as there is not only one way to go about music :) Wish you a nice day!
@@MerceFont What a wonderful and detailed reply, maestro - gracias, Just a few points back: 1. How many of us will ever play the Aranjuez - except in our dreams? :-) 2. Making exercises out of trouble spots is an excellent ideat (again - gracias) - as is using scales to dampen ambient string vibrations. 3. How about just combining scales with bass notes; i.e. Alternate 6 & 5 with the thumb - while playing EMaj. scale patterns starting in Position IX? Using all the patterns; im / ia / ma / mi / am / ami etc. This is kind of what a LOT of the Bach pieces require - the coordination to manage thumb and various fingering/string patterns? Just asking - Muchas gracias
@@MerceFont OK - So I started remembering more of the repertoire; Rafaga, Caprichio Arabe, Dowland Fantasy & other Lute pieces - Villa-Lobos Etude#7 (th-cam.com/video/e1QaMIIbs9U/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=GuitarSalonInternational) and there actually are a fair # of exposed scale/runs. So - while I will continue to practice combined bass/scales - I have to agree with your points 😎
@@isosceles7436 Looks like the score is Scales: 100 - JS Guitargeek: 1 - But, like all technique, scales are a means-to-an-end. And - unless you're a pro-player - guitar life can be (too) short.
thank you your videos have been so helpful. That 1 2 4 stretch feels kind of weird to me but I have been trying to get it for a while, so this is exercise came at the right time. That chromatic scale cross exercise from a past video is so great too, I do it every day with different finger combinations.
for such exercises you can do any variation you want. All i-m, all p, or p-i or p-m, or p-a-m-i... you get the point. Just start with an easy fingering for you to focus on left hand and later down the road you can always spice it up with different right hand ideas
This may be a silly question but I'm new to this.. Does it matter which finger of the right hand is playing the note? I've played a little acoustic and so I'm accustomed to play strings 654 with P, 3 with I, 2 with M, and 1 with A. Is that good for exercises like this?
Thank you. Another excellent set of exercises to do !!! It will take me a while however to reach the 400% speed that you showed. Yeah and at 60, I agree with Andy Hamilton ... hoping that the Buddhists are correct about reincarnation.
hahaha no need to obsess on speed! such exercises are actually good to be done slowly and with control. I just sometimes put such repetitive exercises faster so that is easier to get the overview on how they go and also, for not making the tutorial last twice as long 🙃
I've noticed that startin' from about the sixth fret (i.e. 1st finger at that fret), for the "1v34" shape, I automatically switch to fingers 1, 3, 4, instead of 1, 2, 4. This might be because I tend to use those fingers for that particular stretch for the majority of cases (especially, when practicing). Have you experienced anything like that?
Mam my middle finger is only about 3.5 inches and followed by index and ring finger I am struggling to get 6 string without muting adjecent string Mam i want to ask is my fingers too small to play ? I am beginner but thank-you i am following your every stretching exercise
Classical guitars don't have frontal fret markers so... nop, I can't 🙃 Little tip: if you can see the 5th fret without counting one by one from the head of the ugitar (imagine the fingers 1 2 3 4 on the first position frets) you should go pretty fast finding all the other positions in relation to this fret :)
@@MerceFont Thank you very much for a quick replay. I am a beginner in classical guitar and did not realize that, even though I have seen some that do, mostly in the lower priced guitars, which I too own one of them. Taylor is the only brand that has them on all their guitars, low priced to high. What you mention is true when we can see the whole finger board, or a large portion of it, it is when you bring the camera in for close ups, that is very hard to see. In any case thank you for wonderful lessons, and being such a great warm and beautiful person.
@@MerceFont lol yes it's really essential . it's as the importance level of the practice because it relates to the quality of the sound and the comfortable when playing
Your PDF link doesn't seem to be working for me. It'll take me to the page where it wants a name, e-mail, and a captcha, but it won't let me submit to gain the PDF
Gr8 playing & superb exercises, thank you ! I filled in the Form with my name & email address, received a mail to confirm my subscription, but haven't got the pdf yet. I did this once again, so can you please send me the download , thanks again !
@@MerceFont I checked, but it is not in my spam box. Can you send it again, please? Also, do you have a tutorial on how to keep the left hand fingers close to the fretboard ? I manage to do so to a certain extent, but would like to do better. Thanks a lot for your invaluable lessons !
Does it happen more often that the pdf download from your website doesn't work? I've tried two times to fill in my name and email address butt the pdf file doesn't come into my mailbox 😱😱
@@MerceFont Hi Merce😁 I also checked my spam and it's not there either. I also tried it with another email address and that also didn't work. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong but after filling in my name and email address I got the message to check my email so I it seems that it should work but weird enough it doesn't
@@d.d.70 strange... will check if its anything I can fix on my end but people have been receiving the pdf without problems these days. Seems to me like your email might have some strong filters/spam protection that are not letting such automatic emails in. If you dont manage it, send me please a message via my website so that I can send it to you personally. If that wouldnt work (unlikely though), then I would conclude that your email officially hates me hahahha😂
I have a question. Although I play bass, but I try to implement some of guitar stuff on bass... and I have one huge problem. When playing long runs, especially chromatic stuff my entire forearm of the left hand goes stiff, including my fingers. From that reason I'm really struggling when playing... any advice?
it's tricky to say without seeing you play but might be because you are using the grip (thumb vs the other fingers) to press more than using arm weight (this keeps your fingers freerer even when you need to press the strings)? let me know if you can notice the difference :)
Depends on the amount of time you've got available. If you can do it daily you will of course feel faster progress, but if you time is limited is great if you can have a clear organization so that eventually, within blocks of 2 days you get to cover everything :)
I usually like your videos, but this would've been more helpful if you started slower with the exercise and then sped up. Why assume that everyone is one the same page here and can just peep the sheet music to "easily" glean what you're doing? I don't get why you helpfully broke down exercises in some of your other videos, but decided not to with this....smh
Hi Merce!
This lesson is very useful for every guitar player, beginner, intermediate and advanced.Thank you for keeping my fingers lubricated with this finger flexibility exercises.
wow! i have much practice to do... thank you for your help!
You have SO much information available!! After 50+ years at a Drum set, I decided to become a Guitarist. (Guitars are lighter, quieter, smaller and do less damage to one's body) I've always strummed a Guitar but never took it seriously until now. Your free PDFs alone will keep me busy for quite some time.
I'm so glad TH-cam suggested your videos to me.
Hasta la próxima!
I❥youre Guitarplaying!!!Its Unique...great Video Keep up youre great Work
thank you 🙏
Hi there!
Thanks for sharing a useful lesson for finger flexibility and speed.
I love your logo, besides everything else about you
hahaha thank you!
Thanks for this posting Merce! Yet another incredibly useful exercise to work into the routine. Also a good way to improve some precision.
Absolutely!
Mercè tus lecciones me están sirviendo para progresar con la guitarra eléctrica. Llegué a tu canal por casualidad buscando mejorar mi técnica de mano izquierda y ahora te tengo de referencia a la hora de escoger ejercicios que sean efectivos y me hagan aprovechar el tiempo. Moltes gràcies. Salut!
What a brilliant discover this channell. I m going to see all your videos. They are very usefull. Merci Merce!
Wonderful! Happy to help out other musicians! Happy practicing my friend! 🙏🏻
Greetings dear Merce!! Not sure how I missed to watch this video sooner… it’s so valuable… I have been struggling to take time for guitar practice for various reasons last few months… or lost motivation, but am motivated again now after watching this video… I hope I can practice this diligently.
Thank you 🙏🏻 much, as always
Welcome back Pavan!!! :)
Thanks, Merce. It's one of the best.
Omg it actually works man
Thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you very much.
Can you arrange and make tutorial for the lonely shepherd
Merce you are an angel, thanks for your effort
You are very welcome eren!! 🙏🏻
You are amazing for sharing your information, it's is very useful and I'm sure to get a lot out of them. Thank you.
So glad!
Your videos are very important mam thank you very much
So nice of you!
So good exercise
Thank you Abu! Happy practicing! :)
Keep going doing things that you are meant to be brilliant at
I appreciate that!
It's a beautiful exercise
thanks, nice, keep going
Very helpful indeed. Can you please do a couple of pointers on how to fix FLAILING FINGERS! 💚💚💚
sure will do a video on that when possible :) thanks for the feedback Mais!
As again thank you very much for all the great content you bring up. Really really appreciate. Much love ❤❤❤
thank you Dimitri for the positive feedback :) much appreciated!
great excercises
Glad you like them!
HOW are you plucking with the left hand? seeing that would help for us on an acoustic who are trying to pick up clarity and speed.
Thank you very much for this
You're very welcome Glenn! and thank you so much for your support!! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🌻
Thank you
You're welcome :)
¡Saludos maestra desde México!
Saludos para ti tambien Antonio!!! :)
Bellissimo esercizio,Gazie
Grazie Giuseppe!!!! E buon studio! :)
Good job!
Thank you! Cheers!
Bravo. Missed your live feed, but really enjoyed this. 😊👍🎶🎸
Thank you Dave! Glad you enjoyed the video :)
Thanks, what happens berween the second and third finger, that are really stiff
Thank You And Exellent Content!👌👌👌
Thank you very much!!! 🙏🏻
Amazing content!
Thank you rob!
Awesome! Just what I often need. Hope you do a follow up concerning having a stiff head/cranium lol......sometimes I think mine's full of cement. Luv ya💖🤣💖🎼💖🎸💖
Hahaha I might also need I think some exercises for that very very soon....
When I try to pratrice some pieces, 1v24 I alway feel pain knuckle index finger lelfhand every time.
Thanks for your VDOs. 👍
Keep it up!
This was very helpful!! Thanks a lot!😁👌
You are very welcome! :)
brilliant Merce, i will defo be incorporating this in my practice thank for sharing this video :)
My pleasure! Wish you lots of progress with the exercises!! :)
Aloha Merce. I am so happy, as I just found your channel. I love the way that you teach, with kindness & encouraging excellence. I have a question regarding your fretting hand. Sometimes it looks like you are placing your index finger on "top" of the fret, whereas the other fingers are placed in between the frets. Is fretting on the top of the fret sometimes optimal? Sending blessings from Hawaii.
So good exercise :)
Thank you noel!!!
Hola merce! Como puedo conseguir el libro??
Oh no! Another excellent Merce exercise I need to work into my practice time. Your RH speed and precision is breathtaking! I’m 62 so don’t have a lifetime to improve, so I’m getting ready for my next one. (Just in case the Buddhists are right about reincarnation?)
We really need to find the exact way to keep the music skills in our next life, how awesome would that be if we could do it voluntarily? :D
Love
Thinking thru the repertoire - from Renaissance to modern consists of:
~85% of measures that are Thumb + single notes, or Thumb + Arpeggios
~15% of measures that are Arpeggios or scales (no Thumb)
Assuming that I'm the ballpark, why the emphasis on practicing scales?
Good point, and very interesting! Practicing scales is not made for only getting better at passages that contain clearly defined one direction scales (eg. Concierto de Aranjuez, welcome to scale world!) but its a great way to develop hand dexterity, coordination, control, tone and a long etc... which will make you better on many general aspects. If you like, check my tutorial on scales and you will see in the free PDF how many things you get to improve with such exercises. Among the most important aspects you will have rhythmic precision, articulation control, dynamic expansion and (hopefully, if you take care of it while playing the scales) hand movement, tone and posture as well.
You can certainly improve a lot by isolating passages of the pieces and working on them and creating exercises out of each 'trouble spot' (you got to be creative on creating such exercises to make them truly effective though, and some people find difficult doing it), so isolating technique practice with scales, arpeggios, damping techniques, tremolo, bass control, etc... might help you boost your results in key areas of performance. That's the main reason why we do technique to begin with.
I hope my answer is clear and useful for you! I'm always happy and interested in contrasting opinions an approaches as there is not only one way to go about music :) Wish you a nice day!
@@MerceFont What a wonderful and detailed reply, maestro - gracias, Just a few points back: 1. How many of us will ever play the Aranjuez - except in our dreams? :-) 2. Making exercises out of trouble spots is an excellent ideat (again - gracias) - as is using scales to dampen ambient string vibrations. 3. How about just combining scales with bass notes; i.e. Alternate 6 & 5 with the thumb - while playing EMaj. scale patterns starting in Position IX? Using all the patterns; im / ia / ma / mi / am / ami etc. This is kind of what a LOT of the Bach pieces require - the coordination to manage thumb and various fingering/string patterns? Just asking - Muchas gracias
@@MerceFont OK - So I started remembering more of the repertoire; Rafaga, Caprichio Arabe, Dowland Fantasy & other Lute pieces - Villa-Lobos Etude#7 (th-cam.com/video/e1QaMIIbs9U/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=GuitarSalonInternational) and there actually are a fair # of exposed scale/runs. So - while I will continue to practice combined bass/scales - I have to agree with your points 😎
@@isosceles7436 Looks like the score is Scales: 100 - JS Guitargeek: 1 - But, like all technique, scales are a means-to-an-end. And - unless you're a pro-player - guitar life can be (too) short.
thank you your videos have been so helpful. That 1 2 4 stretch feels kind of weird to me but I have been trying to get it for a while, so this is exercise came at the right time. That chromatic scale cross exercise from a past video is so great too, I do it every day with different finger combinations.
Wonderful!
Can't download pdf 😢😢😢😢😢
How is your right hand playing the strings or are you just using your thumb?
for such exercises you can do any variation you want. All i-m, all p, or p-i or p-m, or p-a-m-i... you get the point. Just start with an easy fingering for you to focus on left hand and later down the road you can always spice it up with different right hand ideas
Exerchises :) love the accent
hahahaha 😂
Waiting
Where is the PDF?
This may be a silly question but I'm new to this.. Does it matter which finger of the right hand is playing the note? I've played a little acoustic and so I'm accustomed to play strings 654 with P, 3 with I, 2 with M, and 1 with A. Is that good for exercises like this?
Thank you. Another excellent set of exercises to do !!! It will take me a while however to reach the 400% speed that you showed. Yeah and at 60, I agree with Andy Hamilton ... hoping that the Buddhists are correct about reincarnation.
hahaha no need to obsess on speed! such exercises are actually good to be done slowly and with control. I just sometimes put such repetitive exercises faster so that is easier to get the overview on how they go and also, for not making the tutorial last twice as long 🙃
Excellent tutorial! Your video begins with an excerpt of a famous piece that I recognise, but which I can't name. What is it?
Is the Allegro from the 2nd violin sonata by Bach :)
@@MerceFont Thanks!
😊
I've noticed that startin' from about the sixth fret (i.e. 1st finger at that fret), for the "1v34" shape, I automatically switch to fingers 1, 3, 4, instead of 1, 2, 4. This might be because I tend to use those fingers for that particular stretch for the majority of cases (especially, when practicing). Have you experienced anything like that?
Thanks for this. Excellent!
400%? 😞
😂
I can't see the right hand...no puedo no puedo
Mam my middle finger is only about 3.5 inches and followed by index and ring finger
I am struggling to get 6 string without muting adjecent string
Mam i want to ask is my fingers too small to play ?
I am beginner but thank-you i am following your every stretching exercise
Hi Anurag, I doubt your fingers are too small, I'm quite certain the problem lays on hand-wrist-arm position.
For me is way more natural 1, 3 and 4.
Can't you use a guitar with Frontal fret markers, so we can see which frets are being played?
Classical guitars don't have frontal fret markers so... nop, I can't 🙃 Little tip: if you can see the 5th fret without counting one by one from the head of the ugitar (imagine the fingers 1 2 3 4 on the first position frets) you should go pretty fast finding all the other positions in relation to this fret :)
@@MerceFont Thank you very much for a quick replay. I am a beginner in classical guitar and did not realize that, even though I have seen some that do, mostly in the lower priced guitars, which I too own one of them. Taylor is the only brand that has them on all their guitars, low priced to high.
What you mention is true when we can see the whole finger board, or a large portion of it, it is when you bring the camera in for close ups, that is very hard to see. In any case thank you for wonderful lessons, and being such a great warm and beautiful person.
Video for fingers nails shapping
I guess I will need to do some day... it's a must for a classical guitar channel right? 😄
@@MerceFont lol yes it's really essential . it's as the importance level of the practice because it relates to the quality of the sound and the comfortable when playing
Your PDF link doesn't seem to be working for me. It'll take me to the page where it wants a name, e-mail, and a captcha, but it won't let me submit to gain the PDF
Try another browser and see if it lets you submit the form to receive the file.
Gr8 playing & superb exercises, thank you ! I filled in the Form with my name & email address, received a mail to confirm my subscription, but haven't got the pdf yet. I did this once again, so can you please send me the download , thanks again !
Hi Vernon! Check please the spam inbox, sometimes the emails can land in there. Let me please know if you find it! :)
@@MerceFont I checked, but it is not in my spam box. Can you send it again, please? Also, do you have a tutorial on how to keep the left hand fingers close to the fretboard ? I manage to do so to a certain extent, but would like to do better. Thanks a lot for your invaluable lessons !
Does it happen more often that the pdf download from your website doesn't work? I've tried two times to fill in my name and email address butt the pdf file doesn't come into my mailbox 😱😱
Hi D.D! Check please in your spam inbox, sometimes these automatic emails get filtered there. Let me please know if you find it :)
@@MerceFont Hi Merce😁 I also checked my spam and it's not there either. I also tried it with another email address and that also didn't work. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong but after filling in my name and email address I got the message to check my email so I it seems that it should work but weird enough it doesn't
@@d.d.70 strange... will check if its anything I can fix on my end but people have been receiving the pdf without problems these days. Seems to me like your email might have some strong filters/spam protection that are not letting such automatic emails in. If you dont manage it, send me please a message via my website so that I can send it to you personally. If that wouldnt work (unlikely though), then I would conclude that your email officially hates me hahahha😂
@@MerceFont I will send you an email via your website. Thanks a lot for so much effort!! You are awesome!!😁😁
I have a question. Although I play bass, but I try to implement some of guitar stuff on bass... and I have one huge problem. When playing long runs, especially chromatic stuff my entire forearm of the left hand goes stiff, including my fingers. From that reason I'm really struggling when playing... any advice?
it's tricky to say without seeing you play but might be because you are using the grip (thumb vs the other fingers) to press more than using arm weight (this keeps your fingers freerer even when you need to press the strings)? let me know if you can notice the difference :)
my fingers are the opposite :'( They're too flexible and mute all the strings
😮
I'm going to ask you something: Should we study technical issues on the guitar every day or every other day?
Depends on the amount of time you've got available. If you can do it daily you will of course feel faster progress, but if you time is limited is great if you can have a clear organization so that eventually, within blocks of 2 days you get to cover everything :)
@@MerceFont thank you, some trainers say it is better to work every other day because in terms of muscle memory
I'm biggest fan of yout beautiful eyes❤
well no, there is a piece that requires me a 3rd to 8th fret stretch and another that requires 5th index to 10th pinky stretch.
You played that faster than the speed metal guys
For a good classical guitarist, shredding is a piece of cake
Slowly please when explane....(ind)
:) 😊
I usually like your videos, but this would've been more helpful if you started slower with the exercise and then sped up. Why assume that everyone is one the same page here and can just peep the sheet music to "easily" glean what you're doing?
I don't get why you helpfully broke down exercises in some of your other videos, but decided not to with this....smh
"Exercises, exercises, exercises" 🤩😍🥰😇🫠🙃🤘🏻😅