Beginner's exercises:
Find a position that works best for you. For folk position, neck extends at about 45 degrees away from the body, and the neck angle should not drop below horizontal
Sit at edge of chair, so legs are off chair's edge
Right hand picking
- Palm rests on bridge, or fingers on top of guitar, or hand suspended over strings (Ron's method)
- Pick extends at right angle from thumb, approximately 1/4"
- Place pick at right angle to strings
- Use downstrokes only for now
- Play four strokes per string on open strings
- Watch right hand at first, then practice with eyes closed, visualizing strings
Left hand 4-3-2-1 exercise
- Find "bunch of bananas" shape for fingers: relaxed curvature
- Play from tips, not pads, of fingers
- play just to left of fret - you should be able to feel fret without being on top of fret
- Press fingers just hard enough to produce clear sound; press down, then play right hand
- Play in 4-3-2-1 order only for now - we'll do more complex exercises soon enough
- Try to keep non-playing fingers close to fingerboard
- Try to see some palm in front of fingerboard so that your fingers stay "long"
- Keep thumb behind neck- it's okay for it to stick above the neck, but don't clench
- Allow whole hand to shift as you move from fret to fret, and use fingers 1-4 on corresponding frets - don't slide fingers to different frets
- play on strings 1-4, or beyond, on frets 1-4 only
- Play slowly! 40 bpm max! The point is to pay attention to every aspect of your playing, not to play faster and faster
- Mindfulness is key, both in music and life!