Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Guitar Amps
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Drums
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • EVH trance state
  • Antonoff on Please Please Please
  • “Mick looked peeved. The Beatles had upstaged him”
  • 95k+ free music samples

Recommended reading

Guitar chords
Acoustic Guitars 30 essential acoustic guitar chords, with charts
Woman playing on a digital piano with headphones on
Music Theory And Songwriting Technically capable, but struggle to make your tunes sound musical? 5 simple music theory hacks to make your tracks stand out
Music theory basics: understanding intervals, and how they define the distance in pitch between two notes
Music Theory And Songwriting 10 music theory tricks every producer and songwriter should know
George Harrison
Guitar Lessons & Tutorials How to play like George Harrison on The Beatles' Abbey Road
Adrian Smith on stage in 2025
Artists “He said, ‘Your upstrokes are weak!’ I’m like, ‘You effin’ what?’”: Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith never stops learning
David Gilmour
Guitar Lessons & Tutorials How to play guitar like David Gilmour: Bluesy diads, slides, quarter-tone blues curls and more
Keyboards & Pianos Piano basics: the black notes - what are they for and how do you use them?
  1. Tutorials
  2. Guitar Lessons & Tutorials

30-day guitar challenge, day 8: Improve your four-finger dexterity

Tuition
By Total Guitar ( Total Guitar ) published 8 August 2015

Four exercises for faster fingers

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Introduction

Introduction

30-day guitar challenge: We're well into the 30-day challenge now, so this time we're going to look at ways of building up your physical ability.

Take your playing to new levels with four exercises designed to develop your finger independence, dexterity, and the brain power needed to coordinate tricky fretting moves.

Page 1 of 5
Page 1 of 5
Lateral spider exercise

Lateral spider exercise

This variation of the classic spider exercise is designed to perfect your accuracy across the fretboard.

It can easily be extended over the whole neck and on all six strings.

Lateral spider exercise audio

Page 2 of 5
Page 2 of 5
Chromatic twister

Chromatic twister

This lick is designed to get all four fingers moving.

The move from second to third finger is particularly fiendish, so take your time building up the speed.

Chromatic twister audio

Page 3 of 5
Page 3 of 5
String skip legato

String skip legato

This exercise is tough on the fret hand thanks to the string skips and hammer-ons.

Aim for a steady, even flow of notes. For more of a challenge, move the lick to lower strings.

String skip legato audio

Page 4 of 5
Page 4 of 5
Typewriter lick

Typewriter lick

The idea here is to play the repeating note with each of your fretting fingers, one after the other.

The repetition is a great way to check that your thumb is in the best position.

Typewriter lick audio

Page 5 of 5
Page 5 of 5
Total Guitar
Total Guitar
Social Links Navigation

Total Guitar is Europe's best-selling guitar magazine.

Every month we feature interviews with the biggest names and hottest new acts in guitar land, plus Guest Lessons from the stars.

Finally, our Rocked & Rated section is the place to go for reviews, round-ups and help setting up your guitars and gear.

Subscribe: http://bit.ly/totalguitar

Read more
Guitar chords
30 essential acoustic guitar chords, with charts
Woman playing on a digital piano with headphones on
Technically capable, but struggle to make your tunes sound musical? 5 simple music theory hacks to make your tracks stand out
Music theory basics: understanding intervals, and how they define the distance in pitch between two notes
10 music theory tricks every producer and songwriter should know
George Harrison
How to play like George Harrison on The Beatles' Abbey Road
Adrian Smith on stage in 2025
“He said, ‘Your upstrokes are weak!’ I’m like, ‘You effin’ what?’”: Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith never stops learning
David Gilmour
How to play guitar like David Gilmour: Bluesy diads, slides, quarter-tone blues curls and more
Latest in Guitar Lessons & Tutorials
MusicNomad fret tuition
Can you fix your guitar's frets yourself? We try three innovative approaches from MusicNomad to investigate how they might conquer a major cause of fret buzz
George Harrison
How to play like George Harrison on The Beatles' Abbey Road
MusicNomad guitar fret cleaning
"You owe your guitar the chance to be its best": How to clean and polish your guitar frets a better way
Jimmy Page
Play like Jimmy Page! Exclusive video lesson
Music Theory
How learning and understanding chord symbols can prove a major benefit for sharing your musical ideas
Pentatonic Scale
Proggy pentatonic! How to use the good ol’ pentatonic scale in cool new ways
Latest in Tuition
Piano basics: the black notes - what are they for and how do you use them?
Circle of fifths
The ultimate guide to the circle of fifths and how it can help you make better music
From Parlour to Jumbo: The beginner's guide to acoustic guitar body shapes (and which one is right for you)
Tokyo Dawn Records Nova
Fantastic (free) plugins and how to use them: TDR Nova
Podcasting
The head of Audacity shares his top 5 tips for beginner podcasters
Pedalboard
The ultimate guide to pedal board essentials (and what order to put them in)

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...