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Left hand finger exercises are quite crucial for those recently learning to play the guitar especially for strengthening the fingers and getting a sound grasp over the fretboard. Try to practice the exercise below for an adequate amount of time to get used to the fretboard.

First of all, you have to start with your two fingers. The finger numbers of your left hand are given down below. You should do the exercises by putting your first finger on the first fret, second on the second fret, third on the third fret and fourth on the fourth fret. Pay close attention to continue with the alternate picking in your right hand throughout the exercise. You can struggle, don’t forget that it’s quite normal. We’ll go on with the exercises on picking techniques in further studies.

We’ll work with fingers number 1 and 2 fingers in this exercise. Press your first finger on the first fret of the top string. After, place your second finger on the next fret. Again, press the first fret with your first finger and press the next fret with your second finger. Repeat this exercises for 4 times.

Repeat the same exercise on the string one below for 4 times. Study the exercise on all of the strings in order. In this way, you will have completed the exercise starting from the top string to the bottom. Now, do the same exercise starting from the bottom string to the top, repeating 4 times on each string..

Now you can apply this exercise on the whole fretboard. Without changing your finger numbers and by using the second and the third frets, start from the top string and slide down to the bottom, repeating 4 times each, then go up back to the top string. Afterwards, you can expand the study by applying it on the third, forth and the fifth frets; respectively.

Try your best to proceed on alternate picking with your right hand in this first study. In the following topics we’ll be including studies on picking, but don’t begin to worry if you struggle with the picking at your initial tries. The most important thing in this section is to render your left hand get accustomed to the fretboard.

It’s quite normal to struggle with fingers number 3 and 4 if you newly started to play the guitar. It will get better in time.

In this exercise, you’ll be working with your fingers number 1-2-3 and 4. Press your first finger on the first fret of the top string, second on the second fret, third on the third fret and forth on the fourth fret. Do the same exercise with the same finger numbers on the string one below. Later on proceed with applying the same exercise on all of the strings and frets. Again, make sure to continue practicing alternate picking with your right hand.

We’ll be learning to read guitar tab in our second topic. This system whose real name is “Tablature” and abbreviated as “Tab” has been developed as an alternative to read notes. It’s possible to encounter an easier method every so often in textbooks or musical notations which can assist you to read notes.

In the first image, you see the fretboard of the guitar and in the one below you see the tab staff. This staff also has 6 lines likewise the fretboard of the guitar. The bottom line represents the thickest string at the top and the top line on the tab staff represents the bottom string, the thinnest one.

Numbers are written on the tab lines rather than notes. We press finger on the string which is represented by the line and on the fret which is represented by the number.

Press the zeroth, first, third and again zeroth fret of the bottom string of E respectively, on this tab staff. In the second measure press the third, first and zeroth fret of the second string from the bottom, also the B string; and press the second fret of the third string from the bottom, also the G string. The number 0 means to clink the string that’s represented by the empty line on the tab staff. As you can see, reading tab is actually easier than reading notes.