Fingering Exercises for Guitar

Bax buddy!  You might want to just move this post into a new thread just to keep the "sticky" as small as possible, and to ensure that members get a reasonable chance to view your post.  We tend to ignore the "tinted" threads after having familiarized ourselves and new additions tend to be overlooked.

Another thing I noticed is that you are using the top down string numbering, which although you explained it in your post, is generally reverse of what a good bunch of the tutors out there are teaching.  IE: chord building on the 6th or 5th string root as in basic barre forms etc.  It's not difficult to grasp for more practised members, but might prove puzzling to novice and some intermediate players.  To me the ascending arpeggio in Gmaj, would naturally start on the 6 string (Bass E) 3rd fret (G) with the 1 finger (index) and go up the scale in order with each finger in turn in the fret it naturally resides in.  But then again I started out playing "classical", and although I'm getting lax in my old age and changing genres often still try to hang on to those structured techniques lest I lose the ability to make the "stretch".

I too am a firm advocate of scales as a way to learn the notes, and take it a bit further by naming the note while visualizing the sheet notation so that too becomes habitual.  I still can't "sight read" as quickly as some, but can pretty much find the correct note on the fingerboard from familiarity and interval.

It's all good!

You got me fellas!
My only defense is simplicity.

I'll really need your coaching on new posting at old thread Doug.
Is a full delete here comfortable by you? "You da' Boss, I'm just Ross!"
LOL, Ross Perot joke.

I Really Like Your Scale Roger! Playing open that way made me laugh joyfully.

It took me awhile to get over the "one-up" hang-up.
I don't frown on that, it's what everyone has used successfully.
My concept is the natural flow for me, any'hoo, neophites grasp it better. 

One-up shows how a measure of notes is placed on the staff but...
Noticed how their placement is reversed from all we hear?
Low sounds down, high sounds up.
Imagine how much "one-down" transforms music theory.

If the World Were a Village of 100 People

I was taught that when first learning scales one keeps below the 5th fret, the first finger plays the 1st fret, the second finger the second fret, third for third fret and pinky for 4th fret and to always use an open string where possible.

Once scales are mastered down there you can move to the more difficult to remember scales up the fretboard.

Roger

You always make it sound like playing guitar really isn't all that hard, Russell.

Hey Doug! Kawabunga! It must have been Roger who made the clean-up then because
I'm still just sharing the alphabet here so far. Thanks Maestro!

02.) Fingering Exercise; and a lil' theory.

"Staff" is the set of horizontal lines and spaces for writing music notes on.

This will be in the standard numbering system:
Fret and finger are common and unchanged
Bottom E string is 1/ Up to B is 2/ Up to G is 3/
Up to D is 4/ Up to A is 5/ Top E string is 6

Remember Key is string, fret, finger

632/ 654/ 532/ 554/ 421/ 454/ 321/ 354/ 232/ 254/ 132/ 154

Repeat and play in reverse bottom to top.
Move up the neck two frets and copy the pattern.
Repeat and keep going... Work the fingers and don't look at 'em.

For my leftie with her strings upside-down...

132/ 154/ 232/ 254/ 321/ 354/ 421/ 454/ 532/ 554/ 632/ 654

After you do this for about five minutes 
you'll be saying, 'Guitar Isn't That Hard!", too!

Hey Las Vegas! Long time No-See!
I can't claim to be the creator of this notation language
BaldGuitarDude. Thank You for Trying it and sharing your smile!

Somewhere along the line, when people are digging into music theory they always eventually begin to relate the six (or 7) guitar strings to numbers. In our case, we always know which string we're on by the number representing it.

Actually... this is borrowed from the KEPATHIAN Notation Method, which uses
numbers to represent written notes. Mostly by countries with different sheet-music than our Western Notation of Lines and spaces, left to right.
To play without looking at paper, we just show each note placement this way.

Starting this can be really slow until your hand has memorised the pattern.
So we just keep doing it over and over again until it's fast and smooth.

Did you try it enough to not look but just feel the string and Fret Bars?
I mostly do this stuff with an accoustic because they really work the fingers. After you gain control, you can really "Rip" an electric BaldGuitarDude!

Lets run another exercise to work the middle finger, ok?
~Bax!

Standard numbering system; Key = string, fret, finger

632/ 554/ 432/ 421/ 332/ 321/

Repeat until it's easy... then step-up two frets, repeat... step repeat.
Try to get to 120 BPM and then run it in reverse.

Before you know it you'll be carrying any song on vocal breaks.

Tiz' my humble Pleasure Strummerboy Bill. Too Much of my life is absorbed in the daily-grind and
our contact here is enriching to my love of music and my goals for it's full growth.

I skipped a few days of posting, due to getting new pc stuff and now still setting-up everything... seems ok, huh?

I've had this ol' KISS rhythm going thru my head too. I was skeptical about showing it because it's long.
I played it awhile and enjoyed it, so I synced it with a percussion and bass. It's a great low-fret exercise!

Anyone familiar with KISS has heard the song, "Detroit Rock City". 
Gene Simmons hits this reprise before the chorus parts and with fill ins...
If I remember the song correctly... Seems they're about 150 BPM.

We'll start out at our own feel and pick pace and speed-up as we get into it, ok?

Key: string/ fret/ finger 
+ means, the next measure ... means, sustained note

40x/ 433/ 322/ 30x/  +30x/ 333/ 322/ 30x/ 333/ 322/ 30x/ 433...

+433/ 322/ 333/ 322/ 433/ 411/ 40x/ 411... +411/ 30x/ 433/ 411/ 30x/ 433/ 411/ 40x...

If you've got the drift of the song, you can tell where to repeat two measures and end here,

411.../ 40x.../ 444/ 30x...

Even without copying the original it makes for a sweet exercise progression and
gradual cross over at 5th string, 5th fret... ooPs, no 5th finger! ~Bax!

is that an arpeggio or scale or just a pattern?

Just a quick couple points of clarification...I might not be following you but I think there are a couple of mistakes here unless I'm reading your notation incorrectly. For purposes of simplification I've left off your finger number:

- 3rd fret string 4, 2nd fret string 3 and 1st fret string 2 is FAC - an F major triad. You need an e (open 1st string) to make it Fmaj7.
- 2nd fret string 3, 2nd fret string 2 and 2nd fret string 1 is D major 7, not D7. Fun fact: It's also F#m.
- A natural scale (I assume you mean major scale?) doesn't sound all notes of an octave in sequence. All notes of an octave in sequence would be a chromatic scale.
- Arpeggios can occur on one octave. For example you can play FACEb ACEbF FEbCA EbCAF for a 1 octave F dominant 7 ascending and then descending arpeggio.

On another note, your Dm is interesting as it's a rootless voicing, which works great in some settings but is not very common. I use a lot of rootless voicings in one of my groups. What song(s) do you use that in? Do you throw a 5th fret A string in there to add a root to it or do you use it as your main Dm chord when you play?

-BGD

Your eb7 above is correct except for the open D string. Notes in an Eb7 are:
Eb, G, Bb, Db.

The open 4th string is a D which is not a part of the Eb7 chord. If you wanted to play a chord with the b7 in the bass (which is a cool but unusual voicing) using the open d string you would need to move your chord form up 1/2 step and play E7 with a D in the bass. The notes in E7 are

E G# B D. So your chord shape would work and would put the dominant 7th chord tone in the bass. Would sound super cool with a band behind you but perhaps a bit tense in a solo acoustic type situation.

Re: the F#m chord, that's one of my favorite chord shapes. You can play a big honkin' barre chord across all strings and just mute the A string.. you wind up with

2
2
2
2
x
2

Lots of people might know this chord shape as
2
2
2
2
4
2

However I like to omit that A string note for two reasons:
1. It's the 5th degree of the chord, which is generally unnecessary unless you're playing an altered chord like your Gb7b5 above. (In fact I find 5ths unnecessary and avoid them whenever I play barre chords.)
2. Even if you are compelled to put 5ths in all of your chords, the 4th fret A string is doubled by the 2nd fret B string. both of those are C#s. So why play two?

Might be justifying my laziness but I like to leave that bad boy out altogether.

This particular barre chord has lots of possibilities. You can play the barre on strings 1,2,3,4 with your ring finger and the bass note with your index finger or middle finger. Or (my favorite) play the barre with your index finger and hit the low E string 2nd fret with your thumb. That leaves your three other fingers to take a break, hit some wrong notes or point at the cute girl ordering drinks.

Fun extensions of that chord are
4 (F#m7 add 9)
2
2
2
x
2

and:
5
2
2
2
x
2
(this one really isn't an extension but for some reason putting the b3 up at the top of the chord sounds kind of pensive.)

You might also recognize that this barre chord also forms the low frets of the minor pentatonic scale:
2 5
2 5
2 4
2 4
2 4
2 5.

See all those 2s?

So you can even play that barre chord with your thumb and index finger and also do blues scale type fills with your other three fingers just by following the minor pentatonic pattern.

Fun stuff!

Hey friends and lovers.
The holiday was wonderful and our entertainment was spectacular.

Now... Getting back to the exercises! 
Since the fret spacings grows tighter and smaller with each step up the guitar neck,
we must develop the ability to accurately change the width and stretch of our hand
and finger placements, whyle maintaining our focus on proper fret locations.

With this pattern, our fingers will become accustomed to the feel of the fret board changes.
This pattern runs very quickly on every string at every fret.
Teach your fingers to feel each bar as they slide across without looking.

Key; string, fret, finger...

311/ 333/ 222/ 244/ 111/ 133

Use this same pattern everywhere to gain a command of the guitar neck.

Keep filling the world with beautiful sounds. Bax

To quote the above key:

"+ means, the next measure ... means, sustained note

40x/ 433/ 322/ 30x".

I get it all except the 0 after the 4 (and the 3) and then the small x after the 0 (after the 3). One of those means play the string "open" right?

Sorry, I know my question sounds dumb, but that's me: dumb.

Thanks