Chromatic exercises question

[mmmipa]

Im a newbie at playing guitar and this may be a stupid question to ask but the hell with it.When I play chromatic scales 1-2-3-4 im fine but if I start with my 4th finger am I supposed to keep it fretted the whole time till im done 4-2-3-1? or any other kind of scale like that.Im sorry if this is vague.When I do the 1-2-3-4 the notes come out clean but when I start out with my 4th finger they are muddy.Any help would be apreciated.



Sean

[GodOfRhythm]

Are you talking multistring here? Because I don't see how you could play "3" for instance, while still fretting the "4".

It's probably more a matter of:

A) Improper muting

and

B) Sloppiness (fretting not lined up with picking)

I'm gonna go and say it's probably that you don't have the left and right thing down yet ("sloppy"). Just keep practicing slow and move up at a steady pace, making sure everything is sounding clear and clean. And keep working on your fingerstrength because I think it's also a issue of fingerstrength here, you can fret much harder while doing 1-2-3-4. So when you do 4-3-2-1's you're not having as much force applied (not that you need that much), to fret and pull off the notes clearly and articulately.

Also the thing I found when starting out, and something which I've witnessed with A LOT of players:

Going 4-3-2-1 is very natural to everyone, it's just like tapping your fingers on a desk, so most people get that down quickly. The 1-2-3-4 (index to pinky) is much harder (try tapping your hand on your desk from pinky to index and try it from index to pinky). This always results in a change of rhythm. When you are goin 4-3-2-1 you'll be able to go faster and more cleanly and then when you go back down 1-2-3-4 it is more unnatural and THUS it is slower.

What I've noticed is a lot of players will be playing/practicing at the upper speed limit of their 1-2-3-4 movement, so when they go back down 4-3-2-1 they are unable to match the speed and it sounds muddied and muffled.

So you have to be working on your 1-2-3-4's until they are upto scratch with your 4-3-2-1's. Once that's happened you can start increasing the speed of both type movements at the same time. (When I'm in class or whatever, I'm actually just tapping my fingers on the desk from 1-2-3-4 and back down 4-3-2-1 in a constant and even speed and motion and I try and go as fast as I can while keeping the rhythm even. That's helped me a lot when I actually try doing it on a fretboard and you can do this exercise literally everywhere, anytime without having a guitar).

----

The basic gest of this advice would be 1-2-3-4, I guess.

[mmmipa]

Are you talking multistring here? Because I don't see how you could play "3" for instance, while still fretting the "4".

It's probably more a matter of:

A) Improper muting

and

B) Sloppiness (fretting not lined up with picking)

I'm gonna go and say it's probably that you don't have the left and right thing down yet ("sloppy"). Just keep practicing slow and move up at a steady pace, making sure everything is sounding clear and clean. And keep working on your fingerstrength because I think it's also a issue of fingerstrength here, you can fret much harder while doing 1-2-3-4. So when you do 4-3-2-1's you're not having as much force applied (not that you need that much), to fret and pull off the notes clearly and articulately.

Also the thing I found when starting out, and something which I've witnessed with A LOT of players:

Going 4-3-2-1 is very natural to everyone, it's just like tapping your fingers on a desk, so most people get that down quickly. The 1-2-3-4 (index to pinky) is much harder (try tapping your hand on your desk from pinky to index and try it from index to pinky). This always results in a change of rhythm. When you are goin 4-3-2-1 you'll be able to go faster and more cleanly and then when you go back down 1-2-3-4 it is more unnatural and THUS it is slower.

What I've noticed is a lot of players will be playing/practicing at the upper speed limit of their 1-2-3-4 movement, so when they go back down 4-3-2-1 they are unable to match the speed and it sounds muddied and muffled.

So you have to be working on your 1-2-3-4's until they are upto scratch with your 4-3-2-1's. Once that's happened you can start increasing the speed of both type movements at the same time. (When I'm in class or whatever, I'm actually just tapping my fingers on the desk from 1-2-3-4 and back down 4-3-2-1 in a constant and even speed and motion and I try and go as fast as I can while keeping the rhythm even. That's helped me a lot when I actually try doing it on a fretboard and you can do this exercise literally everywhere, anytime without having a guitar).

----

The basic gest of this advice would be 1-2-3-4, I guess.

Thanks for the lengthy reply man.I mean on one string at a time.Is it better to keep your fingers straight or angle them?


Sean

[Soap]

youtube.com is your friend.
Go there and type in the search engine, chromatic exercises.
That should keep you busy for awhile and will provide useful visuals.

[GodOfRhythm]

Thanks for the lengthy reply man.I mean on one string at a time.Is it better to keep your fingers straight or angle them?


Sean

Depends, I'm usually at an angle when I'm on the lower fretnumbers and straight when I'm plipli'ing on the higher frets.