Top 5 Exercises for Classical Guitarists

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Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:38 Exercise #1- Left hand independence taught to me by ‪@pavelsteidl596‬
2:02 Exercise #1 Explanation & Sheet music
5:07 Exercise #2 - Right hand independence taught to me by ‪@aniellodesiderio7676‬
6:01 Exercise #2 Explanation & Sheet music
8:43 Exercise #3 - Left Hand exercise taught to me by ‪@reneizquierdo‬
9:33 Exercise #3 - Explanation & Sheet music
11:28 About this video's sponsor - ‪@tonebase‬
13:01 Exercise #4 - Buzzing!
14:37 Exercise #4 Explanation & Sheet music
15:54 Exercise #5 Left and Right hand coordination taught to me by Bruce Holzman
16:24 Exercise #5 - Explanation & Sheet music
Guitar used in video made by Steven Walter
www.stevenwalterguitars.com/
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[@electropentatonic]

That first exercise is amazing. It also showed me that one of my picking fingers is weaker than the others, resulting in a much quieter note attack. I was not aware of this

[@MattGregoryGuitar]

Great stuff! I'm an electric guitarist of almost 30 years playing, exploring classical guitar and it's been such a humbling experience. Tips such as these really help. Thank you.

[@vichalen294]

I can ditto that...key word being "humbling"

[@Skinny_Karlos]

I've been playing classical guitar since a child fifty-odd years ago. I can't imagine beginning as an adult and how difficult that would be. Good luck !!

[@davidcase647]

That is a nice set of exercises for developing dynamic control and a light touch in the left hand. I do have a suggestion for you that might make your communication clearer. I recommend you use "press" rather than "squeeze" when describing left hand pressure. For English speakers "squeeze" implies a counter pressure with the thumb but "press" indicates an isolated finger action. For example, imagine describing the action of the fingers on a keyboard. The word "press" is correct here whereas "squeeze" would make no sense since the thumb is not being used in opposition. Of course on the guitar the left thumb is in the opposing position but we avoid squeezing it and simply press the fingers individually as needed. I hope that's helpful to you. I taught guitar all my life (I'm retired now) and I learned the hard way to be careful with my language so that I did not send confusing messages to my students.

[@ropehitch]

I could write several paragraphs about what amazing instruction this is...but I have to go practice. Thanks for the inspiration. Great video. It is a gift to have a dedicated artist share their knowledge. Sincerly.

[@raulherrera8630]

Excellent exercises for left hand fingers independence. Thank you Evan! Subscribed

[@petersmichaeld59]

Mr. Taucher...most appreciative for the exercises and the acknowledgment for the Guitarist.

[@susannekalejaiye4351]

This will be very useful. I've listened once through, but made note of it so I can come back to it next week. Good clear points. Thank you

[@gemaf]

Great lesson. Thanks for sharing your knowledge

[@nigelianzamora]

Exercise 3 is gorgeous. I'm glad I saw this. Thank you.

[@Koga-Ed]

What a great set of exercises ! Thanks ! 🙏🏼

[@aloneinthepark1628]

As a flamenco guitar student myself, I really thank you for this. Flamenco and Classical guitar had been learning from each other for ages, so here we are ☺️

[@evantaucher]

I'm so glad it helps!

[@diegovaldesresendiz5700]

I just simple Love your video, thanks for share those tips and excercises. ❤🎉

[@Augury-kd4nr]

Thanks for the exercises! I’ll add them to my routine👍🏽

[@stephengoh5456]

Awesome! Love it! 🥂

[@jguitar23]

Just what I need now. Mucho graçias!

[@bfouryou3885]

Thank-you for the great pointers. Will build them into my exercises.

[@evantaucher]

You're so welcome!

[@tritone3284]

Thank you!

[@burtmantooth8913]

Thank you for sharing this info. 👍🏻

[@sejdailkbahar3801]

Wauh, thx ❣️❣️ iam a beginner guitarist and i think this is a huge help for a lot with my struggles

[@dodoguitar2415]

Thank you, Evan, for putting these exercise in a structured way. I played the Etude #1 as part of the exam, but never thought of playing as an exercise to master the control and tone. I love @Aniello Desiderio, he makes all repertoire sound very beautiful with rich tones, even the most simple ones

[@evantaucher]

I’m so glad you enjoyed!!

[@STANITSAS_GERASIMANGELOS]

Hey dude on what tempo did you play the Etude No1 ?

[@sillyways4610]

thank you very much for sharing these nice exercises! The last one i already know from my teacher, he calls it "telephone digits" and he does it with climbing up the strings as well

[@BrandonDykeGuitar]

Great Exercises Evan! Thanks for sharing! I will certainly pass them on to my students too!

[@evantaucher]

Awesome! Thank you Brandon!

[@Diego_SoundDesigner]

Really nice!!!! Thank you very much!

[@crispycrimps865]

Excellent content! Would be super interesting to see you go through these materials with a real student. Great job with this!

[@chupie]

Excellent. Will definitely incorporate.

[@evantaucher]

Great! Let me know how they work!

[@practice4089]

play the chromatic octaves up and down; play them broken; play with 3 finger tremolo; 4 finger (flamenco) tremolo; play up-down-up-up pattern: E F E F Gb F Gb G Gb G Ab... then in the opposite direction, together, broken, 3/4 finger tremolo. one of Sagreras' books has a great octave study as well as studies in 6ths, 3rds and 10ths, all great for dexterity. I recommend to learn them in that order and leave the octaves for last

[@sasha_samardzija]

Great exercises based on trying to reduce efforts in your left hand and generally playing more relaxed, which brings joy and musicality, generally :) You could even go further with this idea. Actually, I discovered one method which brings speed and relaxation together (it goes together). I practice small chromatic scale (only 4 notes up and down with different tempo) and I even do not produce any sound :) What I do - I place fingers of right hand on a string and lift - do not pluck... Then slowly lightly pluck, which barely produces any sound. And then real plucking with relaxed both hands. Then increase tempo and again. I go to 120 tempo and play 16ts, with this method of not producing any sound firstly, it becomes very easy, so that plucking after that has a different and more relaxed feeling...

[@BenjaminFrenchGuitar]

Great video, congrats for your channel! I see that I often give the same exercises as you on my channel 😀 Good luck on KZbin!

[@OneMusicSchool]

This was amazing!

[@evantaucher]

Means a lot from you!

[@DovidM]

The first exercise from Pavel Steidl addresses a problem many guitarists have, which is that they tend to press down more than one finger of their left hand when only one should be pressed. Pressing two fingers down when only one is needed is a wasted motion. Also, the finger that should not be pressed may need to cross over to another string immediately afterwards. This move to another string will be easier to execute if you don’t have the finger pressed down on the fretboard.

[@GiovanniPiacentiniMusic]

Great explanation! I will try this today!

[@evantaucher]

Hey thanks Giovanni!

[@samuellarochepage]

Cool video Evan ✌️👍 keep up the good work

[@evantaucher]

Thanks Samuel!

[@edwright3219]

Great lesson!

[@evantaucher]

Thanks!! Glad you enjoyed

[@pablonegretesalazar6229]

Very good excercises, man 👌🏼

[@evantaucher]

Thanks Pablo!!

[@Elektrifekt]

Amazing content!

[@evantaucher]

Thanks Ben!

[@jayguilloty6560]

Thank you, good sir.

[@evantaucher]

You’re very welcome!

[@ApCommunityRock]

very helpfull thx :D !!!!!!!!!!!!

[@TheCompleteGuitarist]

Regarding the first exercise you mention. There is a book by John Duarte and Luis Zea called the Guitarist's Hands that actually provides a multitude of shapes and positions to focus on this aspect of finger independence, not just that basic shape. It is a very powerful concept imho.

[@el_tu_amigo]

Really good exercises!

[@Shaknurat]

Невероятно! Даже Касым-Жомарт Кемелевич решил поделиться своим восторгом от упражнений! 🥹

[@SigmundKhebab]

I have to say not only is exercise 1 so friggin GD useful for finger strength, but it also strengthens your "silent finger" technique of not going all "satellite" pinky... something myself (and many other top rock guitarists like EVH) suffer from.

[@ritupabankotoky]

This is Amazing,

[@evantaucher]

Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed!

[@RobertoMartinez-kv5tp]

👍Muy buenos ejercicios.

[@umut7464]

excellent

[@evantaucher]

thanks! glad you enjoyed!

[@kotavijaykumar5048]

Thanks

[@evantaucher]

Hi Vijay! Thanks so much for your generosity!!

[@santiagolatorre3484]

Nice

[@Lanten77]

Do you have any good exercises or tips to practice minimal pressure with left hand THUMB? I have played classical guitar as an amateur for 35 years and have left thumb CMC joint arthritis. I know the basics of using the weight of your arm instead of trying to squeeze but I'm wondering also about maybe releasing thumb pressure completely when possible during playing, basically to give it a rest. Thanks for the great exercises video.

[@Koga-Ed]

Can you please also do a set of exercises that focus on the right/plucking hand ? I’m especially looking for exercises that learn to prevent the nails of my right hand accidentally touching the adjacent string when plucking a note. Since I can’t grow my nails, it seems to happen more quickly because the fingers have to dig in deeper through the strings to pluck a note.

[@marcinmcula99]

Exercise #2 is actually in the song conquer or die

[@angelikaseegers-classicalg8053]

👍👍👍

[@michaelpilgrim8131]

I only accept exercises from guitarists with barbells and punching bags behind them.

[@evantaucher]

hahaha! Darn it... I can greenscreen it in

[@MrPDTaylor]

I still have a vhs copy from the 90s! Scott Tennant is a beast!

[@gtrrobster]

😂😂. Pump it up 😂😂

[@skrumian]

Does this have a music sheet for printing?

[@tritone3284]

The Bruce cromatic ex. How it will go "desennding"?

[@Malcolm.Y]

You have seen the Shearer book?

[@harryjoseph1802]

Evan Teacher!

[@evantaucher]

Haha !

[@liamphillips7315]

You know it's a good exercise when trying to do it the first few times makes you laugh at how ~ perfectly ~ difficult it is...

[@robertcostagliola3741]

What kind of guitar is that?

[@boricua77]

My problem is: How to manage the right hand without a pick?. What is the normal digitation in the right hand for exercises where you have to go chromatically on strings. Please help meee

[@christopherjones534]

check out guitarist hands by John Dwarte

[@MsHabib2007]

i totally get the third exercise😂👊🏻... who else doesn't

[@baegagopa5080]

It was very helpful Thank you. What's the name of Exercise #2?

[@MKiesler1984]

Think its from "etude no1" by villa-lobos.

[@stavrosk.2868]

Is there a time limit you recommend doing these exercises? E.g. I used to play the flute and Marcel Moyse's sound exercises ("De la Sonorité") shouldn't be played more than twenty or thirty minutes at a time otherwise you risk learning the wrong way due to fatigue. Is there a similar rule for specific guitar exercises? I subscribed because your explanations are really really wonderful.

[@evantaucher]

Thanks for the message. Time isn't important ,but focus and quality is. It would be a bad idea to prescribe a time. I suggest working on it for the amount of time to where you feel you learned something and it was useful for you.

[@IsothermeMusic]

Evan, what is that black clip at the top of your headstock, above the g string tuner? I’ve seen this in guitars for other players, too.

[@evantaucher]

its a D'addario clip on tuner!

[@LostSoulAscension]

Awesome examples! I'll definitely have to try the 4 of them out. I personally do not like the buzzing exercise. From my own experience, I've realized the buzzing exercise is moreso an example than an exercise. It shows us what is possible in understanding the pressure we put on the fretboard with the left hand, but I don't believe in practicing this buzzing, or using it as a warm up for your repertoire if such that this exercise actually causes more buzzing in a player's technique. And this drilling of an exercise is exactly why I don't encourage it for anyone. I believe the guitarist can learn to relax the hand without this exercise and practicing "not enough pressure" as a technique. Think about the fact that the exercise itself has a learning curve to achieve buzzing on all notes of the exercise. It's absolutely nonsense, if I may say so myself. Ironically it's the most popular exercise, and I just don't believe it should be an exercise. Anyways, that's just my two cents on that and the negative experience I had with that exercise. It serves to get a point across, but I don't believe achieving a buzz sound should be our goal in any practice or warm up.

[@evantaucher]

I understand your perspective on the buzzing exercise but I respectfully disagree. Also, because a learning curve exist on any particular exercise, doesn't mean it isn't worth doing. There is, of course a limit to it's effectiveness. I would never recommend someone to practice this as a large chunk of their practice, for instance. Discovering how much pressure is needed on the string to make a clear note is the purpose of the exercise, and it's been a helpful tool for myself, my colleagues, and countless students for this reason. Exercises are just tools for discovery and growth, and I think the buzzing exercise falls nicely into that. ' Some guitarists play for quite some time with an abundance of pressure and never realizing that it's not needed. I'm certain it's helped more than a few. I also don't believe that practicing it causes more buzzing in a players technique. That's apropos to saying if you practice whispering a few minutes a day, you'll whisper by accident when you mean to speak. Glad you enjoyed the exercises, and feel free to still disagree!

[@mitsanut5869]

I think he is explaining pretty eloquently why that exercise is done or recommended. There are plenty of exercises anyone could consider "absolutely insane" where those same exercises would be ones that helped someone else to make the next step in getting better. I myself do not believe in accommodating everything anyone else tells me as a "must do exercise", I like to do my short cuts or what I'd call wormholes to get me to the next level faster without compromising the quality, so I often choose a more complex skill exercise over several simple ones that would take longer to achieve the same progress. I used that not just in music but essentially in anything I've ever either practiced or taught others, and it works for me much more often than not (of course, there were some trials and errors). Originally a piano player with formal education, I picked up a guitar in my sixties, and I'm using same strategy. I ommit many so called "must do" things in exchange for more complex initial exercise where I get a chance to add my own steps to it. While I find the guitar an extremely difficult instrument to play when compared to keyboards or synths, it's a struggle I really enjoy. The man is showing you what helped him to get better. If it doesn't work for you, I don't think he'll lose any sleep over it. But to dismiss it as an absolute nonsense seems a bit too harsh. I guarantee you electric guitar players who will see this will be all over that exercise in particular - for obvious reasons.

[@SigmundKhebab]

For those of us that work 9 hr days, and have maybe 15 hours of practice a week or 2 hours per day, what percentage of time should we spend on these exercises?

[@evantaucher]

a few minutes on each? I'd focus less on how much time you spend on them and more focus on the quality of the time you spend with them. Do them slow and understand both the exercises and what your hands are doing

[@SigmundKhebab]

@@evantaucher Thanks, I'm trying to figure out a schedule to get the most out of my free time. I appreciate your comment.

[@patrickcasey357]

Aaron Shearer had a book of exercises just like this.

[@DovidM]

Do you mean Shearer’s Slurs, Ornaments and Reach Development for Guitar? Pages 35-44 cover the reach development exercises. Some of these take a lot of work.

[@patrickcasey357]

@@DovidM yes they do.

[@Boots-zh9iu]

Yeah I see your fingers shaking like an incoming earthquake imagine what us Mortals are going to struggle with lolollol!!!!

[@Euro.Patriot]

Now I can be like Franz Liszt and Wes Montgomery.

[@user-qe6yc9pc4h]

Пиздатые упражнения

[@johndrillcheran]

Mm eye couldn't see clearly

[@davehumphreys1725]

Some of these exercises are very complex. It would take me months of daily practice to get to the sort of speed that you play them at. But here's my question. Why spend time on these exercises when you can use the same time learning a piece of music that contains similar movements? Tremolo, legato, natural and artificial harmonics are obvious examples. I'd much rather spend my time learning these techniques by practicing actual pieces than these tuneless exercises.

[@evantaucher]

Good question - there is definitely a balance to strike between practicing isolated exercises and practicing pieces and etudes to apply them. The point of isolated exercises is within the name itself- it isolates the skill you’re trying to improve upon. What you’re trying to improve at must be clear in order for them to be effective. A specific example - you can spend your whole life practicing recuerdos de la Alhambra, and I’m positive you will not develop good tremolo. You may develop tremolo that satisfies you, but it won’t be objectively good. However, if you spent some time on some specific exercises that help improve your tremolo, you will get better at the piece 10x faster because you have trained your fingers. It might be true that you would much rather spend your time on actual pieces. But that begs the question - do you want to get better in the most efficient way, or do you want to just enjoy playing without taking it too seriously. This is of course, a personal question. Also - these exercises are certainly not for the beginner level. I would recommend checking out “Pumping Nylon” by Scott Tenant or “Kitharologus” by Iznaola for some great exercises that you can chip away at over time and at your own pace. I hope this helps.

[@davehumphreys1725]

@@evantaucher Thanks for the reply. Now, you mentioned Recuerdos de la Alhambra. The point I was trying to make is that you can isolate the tremolo, a couple of bars at a time, and use those as an exercise for tremolo technique, following all the advice you may give for practicing that technique. At the same time, you are learning the piece. There is a piece of music called Capricho Arabe. Now, that piece is well beyond my ability to play, but I sometimes just isolate the legato runs and use those to practice my legato technique. The same applies to artificial harmonics. I have an arrangement of Claire de Lune and the tune Memories, from the musical Cats, that contain runs using artificial harmonics. So I isolate those phrases and practice them as an exercise. I'd much rather do that than practice pedagogic exercises that rarely hold my attention for more than a few minutes.

[@evantaucher]

@@davehumphreys1725 Hey Dave, sounds like you found a great way that works for you. That is what is important. A big part of my teaching -is- applying exercises to musical passages. That being said, it might be worth exploring trying to hold your attention on an exercise for more than a few minutes. That is a great discipline exercise within itself. Also, considering the stage you suggested you are in, I wouldn't be so closed off to trying some fresh ideas. Who knows, it could help!

[@proxyme3628]

The practices look good ones but sadly the presentation may need massive improvement... it is a pity.

[@evantaucher]

Go on…?