Finger Exercises

Jason Rumley · Post by **Jason Rumley** » 2 Dec 2012 12:07 pm

K, I've been practicing Mickey's major scale exercise(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl3x19Plsqg) and I've pretty well mastered it and I'm getting faster and faster. I also do the exercise that Buddy had in Scotty's Anthology and they're both pretty similar. What are your favorite scale exercise for E9? Thanks guys!

John Alexander · Post by **John Alexander** » 3 Dec 2012 1:23 am

I don't play E9, but one of the most useful scale exercises I've used is the pattern written out in 12 keys in the book "The Diatonic Cycle" by Emile de Cosmo.

Actually the book consists of a clever presentation of all the modes and arpeggiated scale tone 7th chords of the major and harmonic minor scales, over a circle of fourths pattern in twelve keys. The key to it is playing the exercises over a specific set of rhythmic patterns, with a metronome. Great for chops, ear training, and a great foundation for improvisation.

It's written in standard notation, but once you've figured out the the exercise in one key you can work out the transposition to other keys without having to read the exercises in each key.

John Scanlon · Post by **John Scanlon** » 3 Dec 2012 10:51 am

Scale exercises? Or finger exercises?

I've been pretty loyal to Mickey on all, supplemented by the Winnie Winston book. Mickey's great for pick blocking, and I use Right Hand Alpha and Winnie for palm blocking. Also got some harmonized scale ideas from Winnie and Bruce Bouton's tape.

Some MA favs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxqkgoXDGSk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rtuigchX1k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXdfQbeiLEo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLG5yDTyhBU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwPW35m62Jw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RliEi7Bftw

Jason Rumley · Post by **Jason Rumley** » 3 Dec 2012 11:19 am

This sounds like a book I need, thank you!

I've been kinda of trying to switch in up by going up the scale in groups of 4, going up in 3rds, and whatnot. It's helping, I'm not to the point in being great on improvisation yet but it's giving me a lot of ideas. Thanks for the recommendation!

Jason Rumley · Post by **Jason Rumley** » 3 Dec 2012 11:22 am

Thanks for the recommendations John! I've gotten into quite a few of those MA vids but some of the ones you recommended I haven't gotten as into. I'll make sure to practice them and look into that Jeffran course!

John Scanlon · Post by **John Scanlon** » 3 Dec 2012 11:55 am

Jason Rumley wrote:This sounds like a book I need, thank you!

No sweat. That book is a classic for a reason. It got many a steeler started down the road, and many others further along. I'd bet there are very few steelers on here who can say they never learned anything from it.

Get right here on the forum: http://www.steelguitarshopper.com/categ ... struction/