What do you guys do to get your fingers to move fast, or to strengthen them? Excercises, routines or whatever. Also what muscle is it that needs to be trained?
edit by exercises i mean stuff like taking a ball of play doh and mushing it up for a while

I've been playing for over 30 years, and I don't recommend doing anything but practicing in the normal way.








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Rick

Watch Rock Discipline . Petrucci made really good movie. I practised with it and it gave me effects . Moreover, work a lot with metronome - it' really important. Remember that's not good to start with 250 BPM... 70 - 80 - it's good speed to start

as said above, start slow and work your way up. it doesn't happen over night. you have to realize that. once you get the technique behind the slower parts, you can work your way up

just play guitar thats the only way to play fast with a guitar

There is a finger exerciser called the Gripmaster and its pretty good for strengthening fingers.
As for fast fretting, I find that learning and practicing scales get your fingers in shape for soloing and lead guitar playing.

Quote:

Gripmaster

those things are amazing. not only does it work on your strength but it also has rough finger areas so your fingers build calouses as well

hmm might look into those grip masters ... is there any diffrence between the colors?

yeah, they are relative to the resistance that it gives your fingers. certain colors are harder to press down than others. i don't know what the exact color set up is but i know that is how it works

A friend of mine just picked up the red gripmaster and he really likes it. He has only been playing guitar for a few months and wanted to have something he could use to strengthen his left hand while sitting at his desk at work. I have to say that it is working because from what he says, his pinky finger can actually fret notes without buzzing now.

3 or 4 finger chromatic runs up and down the neck on every string.
scales and modes too.
pick first and then play legato.

just play.
instructional dvds rule too.
tip:
DON'T GET CAUGHT IN THE SPEED TRAP. YOU'LL SERIOUSLY PEE AWAY ALL YOUR CREATIVITY.

i believe the muscles in your lower arm are responsible for the strength as ive noticed my upper arms are smaller than my lower arms(weird?) and usually those parts of your arms tend to burn after long amounts of playing...but if you have time to excersive those muscles then you have time to play; playing is the best excersize








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Quote:

3 or 4 finger chromatic runs up and down the neck on every string.
scales and modes too.
pick first and then play legato.

just play.
instructional dvds rule too.
tip:
DON'T GET CAUGHT IN THE SPEED TRAP. YOU'LL SERIOUSLY PEE AWAY ALL YOUR CREATIVITY.

all of this is seriously true. pure speed shows nothing aside from the fact that you can play fast. shows nothing about creativity. at least for the most part

there are 3 gripmasters:
-yellow: extra light tension
-blue: light tension
-red: hard tension.
I've had a gripmaster for a while now but I don't know if it's the best way to go about strengthening your fingers, the best way to strengthen them is playing and practicing chromatic scales up the neck. just very simple exercises that you gradually increase the speed on (metronomes are key!). I would suggest to pick up John Petrucci's rock discipline. Very good instructional dvd.

nothing wrong in playing fast as long as you know that to show speed you have to show some good melodic slow stuff that shows contrast to the speed. Feel is a very important aspect to this. But if you want to build speed work with a metronome and build up the speed start slow and work it up.