Acoustic Guitarist Blog

You know when you are playing guitar scales and your fingers get a bit caught up and it’s difficult to move up to another fret and it feels a little clumsy?

Well here’s a simple solution that could easily fix that problem once and for all.

Generally in rock or jazz, most players will play just straight up and down the fretboard and not use the open strings.  That way of playing is great, learn it, use it when necessarily but here’s another way that I sorted that could be very valuable to you.

What I’ve used in the following guitar fretboard exercise lesson is a rather simple idea, but it works beautifully in helping you develop a smooth guitar fretting hand technique.  I’ve taken a plain old C major scale that you’ve heard for years and maybe already can play.  Instead of the standard way of playing everything in the Fist position (First Fret = First Finger), running out of notes and jumping to the Fifth fret, what I’ve done is jumped to the Fifth fret before I’ve run out of notes.  I play the F note at the Sixth fret with my second finger.  When I play the high E string, it gives me a moment to release my hand and relocate it at the Fifth Position (Fifth Fret = First Finger) .  This will give you a bit of breathing space and help you become a much more fluent player. 

If you don’t already play this way because you never considered it, I guarantee it will be of great use to you. 

Breaking the old guitar habits is good for you.

I’ve uploaded the TAB and notation. Click the Link to Download the Free TAB and Notation version:

c_major_guitar_scale

This site is updated regularly with information for guitar players of all styles an levels.

My other other main blog site is at the-guitarplayer.com