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Finger Exercises

Finger exercises are a great way to build finger strength, agility, flexibilty and speed.

The exercises in this section are aimed to incorporate all finger patterns in various directional playing.

Not all fingers are created equally. The pinky tends to be the finger that gets left behind but with training we can improve each fingers mobility. The way these exercises work is that they utilise finger number paterns to cover all possible finger movements. We commonly use 4 fretting fingers, each finger is numbered as follows:

  • 1 = Index Finger
  • 2 = Middle Finger
  • 3 = Ring Finger
  • 4 = Pinky

This means there are 16 permutations in total.

Finger permutations

1234

1342

1423

1243

2341

2412

2342

2421

3412

3214

3421

3241

4123

4231

4132

4213

The following exercises incorporate the finger pattern 1,2,3,4 into different direction playing.

Down

B A T

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

Up

B A T

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

Up the Neck

B A T

1

2

3

4

2

3

4

5

3

4

5

6

4

5

6

7

5

6

7

8

5

6

7

8

B A T

6

7

8

9

7

8

9

10

8

9

10

11

9

10

11

12

10

11

12

13

11

12

13

14

Down the Neck

B A T

6

7

8

9

7

8

9

10

8

9

10

11

9

10

11

12

10

11

12

13

11

12

13

14

B A T

1

2

3

4

2

3

4

5

3

4

5

6

4

5

6

7

5

6

7

8

Down

B A T

1

2

3

4

2

3

4

5

3

4

5

6

4

5

6

7

5

6

7

8

6

7

8

9

Up

B A T

7

8

9

10

8

9

10

11

9

10

11

12

10

11

12

13

11

12

13

14

12

13

14

15