Finger-Pivoting Warm-Up

Using a minor pentatonic exercise to develop better left hand technique for your lead playing.

Finger-Pivoting warm-up Rob Schumann: The subject to this tutorial is finger-pivoting and we are going to use this for a daily warm up that will help us work on this technique. Finger pivoting is really needed for when you playing lead and you are trying to keep two strings from ringing together with an undesirable fashion. So for instance if I am trying to go from this fifth fret on the third string, to the same fret on the fourth string, I don't want this. And so a way to avoid that is finger-pivoting. Going from a lower note to a higher note you just start on the tip of the finger and rock back you pivot, to avoid that sound and when you are going from the higher note to the lower I am going to start on the little bit of the back of the part of the tip and rock forward to mute that, the string that's behind and that's just a way to really clean up your playing. It does take some preparation particularly when you are going to higher notes to lower notes to make sure you are land on the back part of the finger. You don't really bend backwards with your finger when you are doing it because that isn't particularly good for that joint. A really good way to practice that its to do a daily warm up that really exploits that technique and makes it become a reflects in your hand till where you are not really having to think about it any more. One scale that use this at a ton, will be the minor pentatonic because there is bunch of places in here where I have got that kind of shape on adjacent strings. I am just running the scale straight however, I don't really have to worry about it. However if I sequence the minor pentatonic by going up in fours one, two, three, one, two, three, four, I am going to run into this place all the time and what I don't want to have happen is this sound where those notes are ringing together. So a great warm up is to take all five of your minor pentatonic boxes and do these sequences of four and try doing incorporate that finger pivoting motion in there. So here is the first box and I am in G on the third fret and so we will apply this finger pivoting and back down and so you can get to where you can rip through that a little bit faster without those notes ringing together. And so you basically work that up over time and it becomes faster and faster and a little bit more smooth. So now we are ready for our second pattern and I am still in G Minor pentatonic. In this case I am in the D form upon the fourth string, fifth fret and as soon as pattern look like this. Now normally that's the fingering that I would use to play it. However we are restraining to sequence, we are going to have to alter that just a little bit to avoid some awkward movements. That's the other kind of cool thing abut this exercise. Not only I am finger pivoting but we are also getting a little bit more flexible with how we are able to use these minor pentatonic which would help you in a solo setting where you are not always going to be playing them strictly up and down and you will be doing a lot of licks where you are manipulating them in different ways. So to do this sequence, notice that I am using the second finger right here on the sixth fret the first time. Now when I go there, I shift and use the first finger there. So this is all sequence will look like this and back down and you will notice I am not really avoiding using the fourth finger, there are still times where I do the finger pivoting with it. However, there are times where if it makes more sense to use one and three I will go ahead and shift and do that. So that gets us through the second form. So now we will move to the C form of the G minor pentatonic which looks like this. Now this one is going to have some very awkward position shifts in it because we are shifting frets in it quite a bit. So with the sequence here it will go like this--starting on the tenth fret of the fifth string we will go up. So notice when we got towards the bottom rather than keep that with the second finger in the fourth finger and made a lot more sense to eventually to get where we are using one and three accessible but easier to pivot on. Moving on we are now on the A form of the G Minor pentatonic. So sequencing that this is a little bit more similar to the one we had down the E form on that third fret. So that gets us to the A form and the final one that we have is the G form here on the 15th fret of the sixth string, this form looks like this and so sequencing it. So that one we have to use the fourth finger quite a bit. So this should make a great daily warm up for you start out with very slow efforts just concentrate on that pivoting motion trying to get it as smooth as possible. Trying to where you anticipate where it is and the neat thing is eventually you will be able to this with the scales that you haven't even really played you will be able to do it at the first time because your hands are getting use to it and when you are first start doing it very slowly and concentrate on getting those notes to sound clear and not interacting in a negative way. So we are going through it slowly for instance here, back on this bottom one we would really be concentrating on, having both of those notes and I will buzz like that avoiding that sound. So you may have to make a little exercise just out of the top part of the scale in order to get that the sound like you want. And then once you have got that note sounding clear consistently where you can do it several times in a row. Then you start bumping it up metronome and get to where you can do it fast and you are playing benefit as a result and you will notice a change in your plan even after just a week or so, doing this exercise. So have fun and warm up and keep practicing. Giles Martin: Hi this is Giles Martin I am here at Abbey Road Studio to talking about I Feel Fine. This song was based around the guitarist it is starting off with the Jones feedback, the beginners the first one of feedbacks that's heard been on record. So that basically come from him and he has written back and turning out the volume up gradually. Steve Rieck: You start with the third fret on the sixth string, to the fifth fret on the fourth string.