How to practise guitar without a guitar

[LeadPS]

I think everyone can't do index + ring. It's pretty impossible on my left hand, and on my right hand it's doable but effortful.

I feel just the opposite My left hand is pretty godly after doing this excersise for 30 minutes each day since I discovered this thread. And my right hand simply sucks...

[buddroyce]

The index+ring finger takes a bit of practise. ......GO SLOW...... and trust me you'll be able to do it over time. It's a killer workout for your fingers. I'm actually really glad this thread came back because this little workout helps in so many different ways. (and it finally gives me cred as a guitar player and not just a guitar tech around here)

[LeadPS]

And you get results pretty fast, on the guitar aswell as just with the hand. After a couple of days doing this workout, you'll be able to do it 5 times faster and with 5 times the dexterity.

On the guitar I atleast feel it when I'm taking a power chord, it's much easier now, and doesn't require as much strenght and so on, as earlier.

[TruNikkaz]

here are some things ive tried and it helps a good bit with tapping and coordination around fingers of the right and left hand


hold your hands up as if you were holding two balls, touch the tips of your index and thumb at the same time on both hands and pull away, the second you pull your finger away touch your thumb and middle finger on both hands, cycle between all adjacent fingers back and forth at different speeds

then after you get that (which is the easiest without a doubt), start the exercise the same way except instead of starting with the index on both hands, start with the index on the left hand and with the pinky on the right going from left to right through all your fingers

after you get that down which is also pretty simple, start if off the same way as last time but instead of moving to the adjacent finger, skip to the next one, come back to the skipped finger and then to the last then start over

after you get those, instead of starting each finger at the same time, alternate between hands

so this would be

left hand: index, right hand: pinky, left hand: ring finger, right hand middle finger, left hand middle finger, right hand ring finger, left hand pinky finger, right hand index finger

then you can mix those up and whenever you start over with each hand you can start a new finger pattern but make sure you're doing them correctly and not just touching fingers in time

you may do it this way now:

left hand: index, right hand: middle, left hand: ring, right hand: pinky, left hand: middle finger, right hand: index, left hand: pinky, right hand: ring (then where it would normally start over it changes into this left hand: middle, right hand: index, left hand: pinky, right hand: ring, left hand: middle finger, right hand: index, left hand: ring, right hand: pinky (then start it all over from the beginning)

it's not necessary for me to go any further with this as many of you may get the point by now and have the ability to change it up and make it more extreme on your own. sometimes i alternate between 4 different patterns within the same exercise and then i'll alternate different patterns within, say you do the most recent exercise twice, then mirror it backwards once then repeat the entire thing

it helps me lot, aside from helping coordination and more finger control, it helps with tapping and also piano =]

[Morgray]

hold your hands up as if you were holding two balls

I bet you know what that's like

[TruNikkaz]

I bet you know what that's like

i was homeless and had no where to go

you'll do anything for money sometimes

[morktkvelden]

its muuuuuuch much easier to do when im not looking at my hand haha

[AcN]

it did freakin' hurt the first time... hahaha

[AusTexCap]

I'm a bit late to this thread but when I was studying classical guitar I had two things that I took with me when I couldn't take a guitar:

1. Gripmaster

2. This little block of wood about the width of a guitar neck and 5ish inches long that had two locking nuts and all six nylon strings. It was awesome and was just like having a classical guitar with you but could fit in your pocket. It kept my picking hand in shape because I'd do my normal exercises with it. I can't remember the name of it but I'll take a look when I get home. I highly recommend it.

[McBrain]

2. This little block of wood about the width of a guitar neck and 5ish inches long that had two locking nuts and all six nylon strings. It was awesome and was just like having a classical guitar with you but could fit in your pocket. It kept my picking hand in shape because I'd do my normal exercises with it. I can't remember the name of it but I'll take a look when I get home. I highly recommend it.

A Shredneck?

http://www.shredneckstore.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=3