The search for a regular exercise regime
We all know there are various techniques we should practice all the time. The standard books give various exercises you should do every day. Some give you targets to achieve so many repetitions in a set time, or a given metronome speed.
None of them seem to get me very far. I either get stuck, or I need to move on to something more stretching. I started to think about what I wanted from an exercise routine, and why the ones I found in books were not working for me. I decided:
When I started doing this it took a while to find the notes, so I wrote in the chord grids. In some places my fingers just wouldn't scrunch that way. But I kept trying. They do now.
Not only can I measure progress with this routine, but when I play other music I find it easier. Sight reading is also improved, because you get used to recognising the shapes your fingers need to make for common chords & intervals in the music.
None of them seem to get me very far. I either get stuck, or I need to move on to something more stretching. I started to think about what I wanted from an exercise routine, and why the ones I found in books were not working for me. I decided:
- If it doesn't sound good I'm less likely to want to do the exercise at all.
- It is good to be able to measure progress in some simple form.
- It is good to mix things I don't really want to practice (like slurs) with something more interesting.
- Complicated tracking, for example varying the combination of left hand fingers on 1 (or 2) strings, is too hard.
- If I need to vary the metronome from one exercise to the next there are more opportunities to decide to skip a part of the routine, or even stop.
- Some days I have more time than others. If I always start at the beginning of any routine, the end doesn't get done as often.
When I started doing this it took a while to find the notes, so I wrote in the chord grids. In some places my fingers just wouldn't scrunch that way. But I kept trying. They do now.
Not only can I measure progress with this routine, but when I play other music I find it easier. Sight reading is also improved, because you get used to recognising the shapes your fingers need to make for common chords & intervals in the music.
There are 2 pdf files:
What to do
The idea is to work up a routine gradually. Pick up each session where you left off last time. Once you have learnt the routine, you will be able to play through the lot as a warm up. When you are playing at 40 beats per minute, it takes just under 35 minutes to do this, but when you get to 100 beats, that falls to just under 15 minutes.
2. it all sounds good, so I passer by would recognise it is music.
I did try practising the harder studies separately over & over again. I could achieve some very satisfying increases in speed in a session, but the following day it was depressing that I couldn't match the final speed.
- Take a piece of A4 paper & make yourself a grid. I have mine stuck to a bit of board so it is easier to find & there is no need to find anything to press on. Stick it to to board with tape round the edges, then when you have finished the grid you can rip it off or stick another on top.
- Hold your page landscape, & list the study numbers down the short end at the left of the page.
- Work through each study in turn, ticking them in the next column when you have had a go. You might only get through 1 or 2 in a session, but the next time you can tell where you got to by looking at the tick list. You may need to work through several times before you can get through each one at the slowest speed on your metronome.
- Once you can play at the lowest speed on your metronome, write that speed at the top of the next column (for example mine is 40). Play each study through at this speed, tick it, & move on to the next. The tick in the column means you are working at this speed, NOT that you can play it at that speed.
- When you are happy that you can play them all at that speed, move your metronome up by 1, write that number at the top of the next column, & work on that speed.
- Work on any trouble spots, but keep the others going at the same speed.
- I found that once I'd everything going at 40 beats per minute for a while I could play through the studies & just move on to the next setting for the next column.
- Once you get to 90 beats per minute, turn the metronome off for a while, and check that:
2. it all sounds good, so I passer by would recognise it is music.
- Once everything sounds good, go back to the metronome & gradually increase the speed.
I did try practising the harder studies separately over & over again. I could achieve some very satisfying increases in speed in a session, but the following day it was depressing that I couldn't match the final speed.
Notes on the studies
- This makes you use 3 & 4, scrunching them up over the neck. Bars 8 & 9 take a bit of getting used to.
- A good one for changing between different chord shapes.
- Make sure you are counting correctly in the first few bars: you have more time to change the chord shapes than you think. The first couple of phrases practice octaves. Bars 8 & 9 use 2 chord shapes in the same position. Two fingers swap over, while the other two stay put. This is a difficult to start with, but worth the effort. The rest of it mixes barres with more finger independence.
- A good one for chord shapes & moving round the neck.
- Another, using different shapes.
- One for practising 3rds & 6ths, with a few slurs thrown in...
- ... and another.
- One for barres. The speed setting is on the slow side so it will do more good.
- A combination of triads, scales, & slurs, with a bit of finger independence thrown in.
- More chord shapes, scales & slurs.
- This one is for finding chords around the neck, with a bit more barre practice thrown in.
- Probably my least favourite. The first section reminds me of the hours I spent on 5 finger exercises as a child, but runs need work. The chords in the final section take a lot lot work, but they are good for your flexibility. Watch out for places where fingers stay in the same place from one chord to the next.
- Barre & finger mobility time again. This is the first half of a study, which I have split up to make it easier to manage. Sagreras says that time spent on this study is worth double the time spent on other material. It feels as though he is right.
- This is the second half of study 13, also covering barre & finger mobility, but with a different pattern.
- This is the section of the study that focuses on harmonics. The whole piece is in the pdf of harder sections as I have yet to get my head round the pitch of these notes.
- Finally, a combination of tremolo & arpeggio.