July 2023 Guitar Newsletter: How To Develop Left Hand Strength

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HOW TO DEVELOP LEFT HAND STRENGTH

“The guitar is a physically demanding instrument.”  I find myself repeating this sentence dozens of times within a week’s worth of lessons.  It is not unusual to see students pump their left hand fist and stretch their fingers after playing a few minutes straight.  Especially playing the acoustic guitar requires left hand strength to facilitate good sounding notes.  The fingertips have to exert enough pressure on the strings to keep them ringing and also not to get any unwanted buzzing from the frets on the guitar neck.  In this aspect, learning the guitar is not unlike the progress of an athlete; in order to develop stamina, you have to build up muscles and good technique.  It is equally important to avoid an injury by not overdoing it or acquiring non-ergonomic hand positions that can lead to pain.  Tendinitis is a guitar player’s nemesis and should be avoided by all means.  Very often, the cause of this is an ill placed thumb, poor wrist position or playing despite an injury.  I recommend placing your left hand thumb straight up and parallel to your middle finger behind the guitar neck. 

It is normal to feel a sensation in your fingers while playing for an extended period as muscles are being used in a manner different from everyday use.  However, no matter what level of guitar playing you are at, listen to your body.  If you are experiencing significant pain in your left hand, especially in the wrist area, take a break!  You can still do guitar related activities during your allotted practice time such as brushing up on your music theory, memorizing the notes of the fretboard or expanding your knowledge of recording artists.

 Left hand strength and dexterity is developed through warm up exercises in the form of repetition of finger combinations.  A logical starting place is to play index (1), middle (2), ring (3) and pinky (4) straight in a row on one string.  Conveniently, the distance between the frets increases in increments, so start your warm up exercises in a higher position.  For electric guitar players, the 12th fret is a good starting point.  On acoustic guitars, start in 9th position unless you have a cutaway guitar.  Playing fingers 1 2 3 4 in a row is the easiest, and once you shuffle them around, you get 24 combinations!  If you find this approach interesting, albeit not necessarily musical, check out the Note Math/Finger Math section (85) in the unique method book called The Advancing Guitarist by the late guitarist and Berklee College of Music instructor Mick Goodrick. 

Another technique guitar players employ to develop left hand strength is to work on the stretching ability of the fingers.  Instead of just playing these combinations in a row from one fret to another, incorporate a stretch between two fingers.  The pinky usually needs the most work because it shares muscles and a nerve with the other three fingers.  To help increase the reach of your little finger you could take any one of the previous examples and insert a stretch between fingers 3 and 4, meaning there would be a fret in between those fingers.

1 2 3 (stretch) 4      2 3 (stretch) 4 1      3 (stretch) 4 1 2    4 (stretch) 1 2 3 

Another variation is to take the initial combination of 4 notes and pick one finger and place it on a different string, again extending the reach of that finger.  

For example:

1 2 (place 3 on a different string) 4

Aaron Shearer has a fantastic method book written for classical guitarists, which is a treasure of left hand exercises.  It is a bit advanced and will require you to read music well.  It is titled appropriately and promises left hand strength if used daily.

Rock and metal players check out the first chapter, “Chromatic Chaos,” of Kevin Dillard’s Intelli-Shred. It is filled with plenty of warm up exercises using both written music notation and guitar tablature.  Kevin is another example of a guitarist with a miraculous comeback.  He suffered a terrible spinal injury, and thanks to a successful spinal fusion surgery was fully functional and playing again within a year!

Warm up exercises are limitless.  Once you understand these basic concepts come up with your own variations.  Take your initial combination and move them up and down in a linear manner on one string or vertically across all six strings.  Try zigzagging across the fretboard by going up or down a string every time you shift to the next position.  Try skipping strings or shifting larger distances.  If you consider lengthening your initial pattern to a longer one by allowing repetition of fingers or grouping different patterns together, the combinations become astronomical!

 Ex.  12341324

Warm up exercises are a must for beginners, and on days you are not inspired to play, they can help to get you into a flow.  Start slow, pay attention to accuracy and put all your focus into these exercises.  At the same time, don’t be too critical on yourself.  Playing the guitar well takes time, and there is no end to improvement.  These systematic patterns can become meditative, and I believe they are beneficial to developing discipline and even lowering anxiety as your mind calms down and stays centered on a repetitive activity.  Boy, on some days, it can be a real challenge to allow your thoughts to pass by as you remain committed to doing these drills!  Don’t forget to pay attention to your breathing and try to inhale and exhale using deep breaths.  Also, start using a metronome once you feel confident enough to measure your progress in tempo.

I hope you will try these well-tested warm up exercises and come up with your own.  Most of them sound like random combinations of notes, but every once in a while you might stumble across something musical to incorporate into your playing or song writing.
Keep your fingers moving and treat them with care,
Chris