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Topic: Good exercises to practice grips? |
Jim Fogarty
From:
Phila, Pa, USA
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Posted 29 Nov 2023 8:52 pm |
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Hey.....as we play and learn, different technique issues pop up and need to get solved before you can improve. Right now, it feels like I'm struggling a wee bit grabbing the right grips for chords, on the fly.
Other than what I'm doing now......just knuckling down and doing them over and over.....are there any exercises out there you've found helpful? Any advice?
Thanks! |
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 30 Nov 2023 1:29 am
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I do them over as a warm-up every time I play. I don't know a shortcut or I'd use it 
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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Bengt Erlandsen
From:
Brekstad, NORWAY
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Posted 30 Nov 2023 3:26 am
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Slow down, make sure you know where your fingers have to go before you start moving them. From one chord to another....there are options...staying on the same strings? or moving to a different set of string and/or a different position.
A lot of this can be figured away from the guitar with pen/paper and some need to be done at the guitar.
Playing through different inversions of a chord either across the strings or up/down the neck helps get familiar with where hand/fingers have to move.
For the E9 practising going from a 10 8 6 string grip to 8 6 5 to 6 5 4 to 5 4 3 and back to 10 8 6 should be done until one can do this without watching the right hand.
Then one can watch where the bar needs to go next instead.
One should not need to watch where the bar is! Eyes decide where the bar needs to go, ears decide if you hit that spot correctly. Know what you gonna play before you play it. Then you have a really good chance of beeing accurate with both the right and left hand.
Certain chords might be available a lot closer than one think. It takes a little bit of study, how one chord can transition into another chord with minimal movement of bar position by using the pedals and levers to good advantage.
The less thinking one has to do when playing the better.
Which means that the thinking process needs to done while practising. Work out several ways to go from this chord to that chord until you dont have to think about how to perform this chord to the other chord. In the beginning this will be slow but it will hopefully soon get a lot faster and accurate with a lot less thinking.
There is still tons I can improve in my own playing but it takes time/practise. I would like to get less of the thinking process to be present when I am playing. Work in progress.
B.Erlandsen
Zumsteel S12extE9 7+7 |
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 30 Nov 2023 6:34 am
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Bengt is right - thinking and playing at the same time is tough and to be avoided
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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J Fletcher
From:
London,Ont,Canada
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Posted 30 Nov 2023 6:55 am
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I warm up everyday practising chord grips , for 15 minutes or so . What I have found is that if I am stumbling when I do a series or 3 or 4 different grips , I slow down and work on the first two grips that are a problem . So , I concentrate on the exact area where I stumble .
Slowing down and zeroing in on problem areas gets me results . |
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Ken Metcalf
From:
San Antonio Texas USA
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Posted 30 Nov 2023 9:12 am
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Play good night ladies with 3 string grips.
Can't find the Franklin Tab.
_________________
MSA 12 String E9th/B6th Universal.
Little Walter PF-89.
Bunch of stomp boxes |
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Chris Templeton
From:
The Green Mountain State
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Fred Treece
From:
California, USA
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Posted 30 Nov 2023 9:34 am
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There seems to be an aversion to the chords and voicings formed by the following E9 grips:
10-9-7
9-7-5
9-6-5
5-2-1
5-3-2
6-5-2
Like there’s a law against open minor chords or somethin’ 🤔
“B6 mode” grips with E’s lowered:
10-8-7(and 6)
8-7-5 (and 6)
7-5-4
6-5-4
Joe Wright suggests a system of going through all possible grips, but so many of them (like 10-9-2, for example) are obviously musically impractical, it is more of a purely physical exercise that can gobble up a crap ton of practice time.
Practicing all of the adjacent string grips does have a lot of value though, so I do grips and picking routines on those.
And all the open 2-string octave grips.
10-5
8-4
7-1
6-3
On 12-string, for kicks and giggles I do the Close Encounters melody:
7-1 / 6-3 / 8-4 / 12-8 / 10-5
Look around. There’s more.
Okay, time for lunch… |
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Ken Metcalf
From:
San Antonio Texas USA
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Posted 30 Nov 2023 9:51 am
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_________________
MSA 12 String E9th/B6th Universal.
Little Walter PF-89.
Bunch of stomp boxes |
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Barry Anderson
From:
Nevada City, California, USA
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Posted 30 Nov 2023 10:02 am
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Here's what I do:
First, I recorded a voice memo on my phone of me playing a 4-strum count of major chords on an acoustic guitar running chromatically from G through to G again and back down. I did this to a metronome at a nice slow pace.
Now, I set my phone on the deck of the steel and play that memo while running various grip exercises to each chord using the open position. I figure my goal here is to master grips and intonation, so I don't even touch the pedals. Here's my typical routine (one grip per strum of the chord):
Exercise 1:
G: 10-8-6 / 8-6-5 / 6-5-4 / 5-4-3
G#: 5-4-3 / 6-5-4 / 8-6-5 / 10-8-6
A: 10-8-6 / 8-6-5 / 6-5-4 / 5-4-3
A#: 5-4-3 / 6-5-4 / 8-6-5 / 10-8-6
Etc up and down the neck...
Exercise 2 (grip skip):
G: 10-8-6 / 6-5-4 / 8-6-5 / 5-4-3
G#: 5-4-3 / 8-6-5 / 6-5-4 / 10-8-6
A: 10-8-6 / 6-5-4 / 8-6-5 / 5-4-3
A#: 5-4-3 / 8-6-5 / 6-5-4 / 10-8-6
Etc up and down the neck...
Exercise 3 (open voice grips):
G: 10-6-4 / 8-5-3 / 10-6-4 / 8-5-3
G#: 8-5-3 / 10-6-4 / 8-5-3 / 10-6-4
A: 10-6-4 / 8-5-3 / 10-6-4 / 8-5-3
A#: 8-5-3 / 10-6-4 / 8-5-3 / 10-6-4
Etc up and down the neck...
I feel like doing this on a regular basis has really helped my playing. I am way more comfortable moving between grips plus my intonation has vastly improved and the metronome component is another added benefit. It feels like a multi-layered exercise.
Hope that makes sense. Hope it helps. Cheers |
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Chris Templeton
From:
The Green Mountain State
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Jim Fogarty
From:
Phila, Pa, USA
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Posted 30 Nov 2023 7:23 pm
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This is great stuff. Thanks, kids!
Mostly talking E9 psg......although I play dobro and 8 string non-pedal C6, too. They don't trouble me, as much. |
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Markus Mayerhofer
From:
Vienna, Austria
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Posted 30 Nov 2023 10:21 pm
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Joe Wrights videos are a good source for grip exercises!
Go for the "Wright Hand" in the "Analog Years" Section on his homepage!
https://www.pedalsteel.com/
Also the Sierra Homepage offers good videos of Joe covering multiple technical aspects. |
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Tony Prior
From:
Charlotte NC
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Posted 1 Dec 2023 2:42 am
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I use the same exercise for many things. Guitar , Mandolin and Steel. Scales, parts of scales, intervals. I create my own madness.
For the Steel, I start at the open 0 fret, first I pick individually, 10,8,6, - 8,6,5- 6,5,4, - 5,4,3 - then back
then repeat at the 1st fret, then 2nd , 3rd etc...up the fretboard
The goal is to reach the 12th fret then back with no mistakes or flubs. If I flub, I start over. I've never reached the 12 the fret. ( which actually isn't the point )
once I've had enough of this I repeat the same exercise with3 string grips. If I flub I have to start over.
On the Guitar or Mandolin I play simple scales, sometimes just a simple pentatonic scale , starting at the 0 fret working my way up to the 12th and then back down. I've never made it all the way without a flub. Which is irrelevant anyway.
The whole routine is about repetitive motor movement .
We don't need a video to do this, we need to know what it is we need improvement on and create a routine. Start with a simple routine and once we improve add a bit more to it.
Ok I'm sure some are wondering, how long do I do this for ?
5 or 10 min then I move on . IF we do something thats causing us grief, we need to put it on the instrument every day for a few minutes each day. Yep its dreadful , but the results after doing it continuously is very noticeable. IF we don't do it and just revert to learning songs, there will be no results.
As Maurice Anderson ( RIP) said way back, this is called "perfect practice"
I've been doing this on guitar for 50 years , I still do it but now make a game of it, I play short scales now in 1,2,4 and 5 fret positions in multiple keys, starting in various fretboard positions. I still don't get to the 12th fret ! LOL We should do this on the Steel too.
When I was teaching I told my students that this is self torture, but mandatory. 5 or 10 min a day.
Remember the stories we hear about Buddy, he would sit and play the exact same things ( routines) over and over for hours. Thats how he became "Buddy Emmons"
Years back when I was just beginning, a local friend , also very good Steel player , told me I was awful  --- BUT--- He told me to practice one thing everyday for 5 min a day. After 30 days I would be the best player in town for that one thing but I would still be awfull for everything else. Now add a 2nd routine and on and on.
Ray was right .
_________________
Emmons L-II , Fender Telecasters, B-Benders
Pro Tools 12 on WIN 7 !
jobless- but not homeless- now retired 9 years
CURRENT MUSIC TRACKS AT > https://tprior2241.wixsite.com/website |
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Andrew Frost
From:
Toronto, Ontario
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Posted 5 Dec 2023 8:14 am
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Some great exercises in the thread here.
Practicing the exact same chord voicing, alternating between sting grips is effective too.
The switching and alternating cleanly between grips is what you ultimately need...
For example, open A major, pedals down on string 5/4/3... C#/E/A.
Play it a couple times then move to the same inversion but at fret 5 with tone bar down, no pedals. Same notes, but they are on string 6/5/4...
Do this repeatedly and rhythmically, maybe use a metronome. You could incorporate 8th fret AF position on strings 8/6/5 if you like, and so on....
Your ear, intonation and bar control will get a workout at the same time. |
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Bill Duncan
From:
Lenoir, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 6 Dec 2023 5:49 am
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Grips are not my gripe. My frustration has always been to quickly and accurately reach out to a single string 1, 2, or 3 and not hit the wrong one by accident. Such as playing a 5 and 8 grip and then to quickly get the 2 string or some other single string and get back to the grip.
_________________
You can observe a lot just by looking |
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Ron Funk
From:
Ballwin, Missouri
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Posted 6 Dec 2023 4:34 pm
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Bill D
Try finding the 'harmony note/string/with pedal or knee lever if required to provide the 'harmony note" to what you're presently playing solely as a single string note...
Playing Both the melody and harmony strings might help you retain the 'two string grip' for your next series of notes.
Just a thought /
or not!
Ron |
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