Let's shed some pounds for summer

Fingers looking fat? Need to get that beach finger look? Well here is an exercise to slim your knuckles down and make you the most wanted image on the guitar beach. WTF am I going about?

Anyway here is an exercise. This exercise is going to come in 3 parts, so we will look at part 1 for now and once you have mastered it we will move it along. Hopefully you will see how it evolves and start to devise ideas for yourself.

Initially you may look at the above and think, "well that's a lot of notes i have no idea what is going on."

Let me demystify a little for you. Essentially this is an A natural minor scale and it ascends, 4 notes at a time. Once we have gone up 4 notes we go to the second note in the scale and go up for notes from there. over and over until we have crossed all 6 strings. Once we get to the top, we reverse the whole thing. down 4 notes until we get back to where we started.

Now just start with the first bar and get the idea into your head. Just repeat it round until you hear how it flows. From there add the next bar, Soon you will feel how it just gains momentum and you can ascend the scale almost instinctively.

Other pointers. Keep where at all possible to 1 finger per fret. There is a position shift on the G string.

Alternate pick where at all possible and keep the timing as even as you can. If this means slowing right dow then so be it. Accuracy is the aim not speed.