Combining exercises

[Yves Cadieux]

Hi!

I have been doing the warm-up exercise and the ten exercises taught by Jonathan for four months, almost daily and found this little idea (very little) to reduce monotony a bit. Thought I'd share it. Please note that the exercises are not altered by this.

So, what I do is combine two exercises to perform them at the sime time and do it for 5 -6 minutes:

First combination is index finger zig-zag with pinky finger zig-zag: I do 4 cycles of index finger zig-zag and without stopping nor changing rythm I switch to 4 cycles of pinky finger zig-zag and then back to index finger zig-zag and so forth. I do this 3 or 4 times so it adds up to approximately 6 minutes. At the end you have two exercises done instead of one and another advantage is that you develop at the same speed for both.

Second combination is index finger waves with pinky finger waves....same principle, 4 cycles of each without stopping in between the two.

I don't know if it's a good idea, it seems to me that time flies faster when I do this.

Finally, I find those exercises to be efficient. Whit time, fluidity and speed increase naturally. I discovered that speed increases slowly! But it does!

If you have ideas, I would love to read about them and apply them!

Thanks.

[Chris Wiggin]

That's a good suggestion Yves. I try to do the ten exercises everyday but I get bored easily so I like to mix them up as well.

Here's something else you could try: 

Start off doing four repetitions up and down the neck with standard (first exercise) 1234-4321 then without stopping on the fifth run up switch to alternate 1234  and 1324 on alternate strings. i.e

E- 1234

A- 1324

D-1234

G-1324

B-1234

E- 1324

After you've done four runs up and down alternating, do four runs just 1324.

At the end of those four runs you go up and down the neck on 1234 hammering on and pulling off.

Do that for eight runs up the next and at the end of the eighth run stop on the top E string and do 1234  Trills.

 

You will have completed another four exercises in one session. 

 

 

 

[Yves Cadieux]

Great!

Thanks a lot! I will try this tomorrow morning for sure and give you some feedback after.

I really appreciate.

[Yves Cadieux]

Hi!

Just finished my daily exercises with your suggestion.....love it! It will part of my daily routine.

Again, thank you.

[Fred Soukup]

I use the daily exercises as well as the dexterity. But I also use Theraputty  to strengthen my fretting hand. It helps keep me from hitting the strings too lightly.

[Yves Cadieux]

What is "theraputty"?

[Fred Soukup]

It is a putty that comes in different resistance to help you strengthen your hand. I use mine because it helps me rebuild and maintain hand strength.

It helps if you had a hand injury or a stroke to rebuild muscle memory and strength.

[Yves Cadieux]

Ok! Thanks for the answer, I did not know about that stuff!