Lauren Bateman demonstrates a targeted finger-independence exercise for guitar aimed at increasing finger speed within ~1–2 weeks. The tutorial emphasizes relaxing and breathing, practicing a per-finger up/down motion on the 3rd (G) string across frets (typically 5–8, or 7–10 for smaller hands), and performing about 20 up-and-down repetitions per finger. Special focus is given to the typically-linked 3rd and 4th fingers, with safety guidance to avoid overdoing the repetitive motion (risking carpal tunnel).
Questions this video answers
Third string (G string).
Frets 5, 6, 7, and 8 (alternative: frets 7, 8, 9, and 10 if the stretch is too large).
About 20 up-and-down repetitions per finger.
Repeated motion could contribute to developing carpal tunnel.
About one to two weeks with focused practice.
Chapters
I'm going to show you a very special finger exercise that's going to help you get faster fingers in one week. And you don't even need a guitar pick.
A big question I get asked about students all the time is, Lauren, how do I get my fingers faster for playing scales or chord changes? And it all comes down to the same mechanics. Now, I see lots of teachers out there teaching spider exercises, and I teach spider exercises as well. But there is a special exercise that really focuses on the tendons in your hand. Now, why is this so important? I want you to put your hand up in front of your face, okay? And I want you to bend your pinky finger, okay? Just like this, okay? Look what happens to your third finger, all right? When you bend your pinky, even your second finger moves just a little bit. You cannot move your pinky, and you cannot move your third finger without other fingers going with it. So I have a great exercise here that mimics chord changes, but it's also going to help you with playing scales and other stuff as well, too. But it's going to help us get real independence on our fingers. So speed comes down to two things. When playing guitar, it comes down to muscle memory. Okay? Can you actually make these chords changes or can you play these scales without necessarily needing to look at the guitar? Because as soon as you start thinking about things, it starts slowing down, that time factor. So if you can start doing things off muscle memory, that helps a lot too, but also is relaxation. Okay, I used to be a boxer. I used to do amateur boxing. And I always tell people, if you get really tense and you try to force a punch out there, when you have so much tension, there's only so fast you can go. It's going to be slow, but if you relax your arm, relax your body, boom. And you just throw a punch out there, you can do it much quicker when you're relaxed. So speed actually comes for relaxation. And that's what this exercise is going to focus on. Now, this is one of a few exercises that I teach in, in my seven level guitar system to develop finger dexterity. And what we're going to do in this, we're going to go through this step by step, and I'm going to give you some tips. So please stick through the whole thing so that you get the tips on this exercise. We are going to start on the third string, the G string, and we're going to be at frets 5, 6, 7, and 8. Okay, I have all of my fingers now. Now, for some people, this to keep all these fingers down might be too much of a stretch. Now you might have to go up to frets, so 7, 8, 9 and 10. Okay. Because these frets are a little bit shorter. And it doesn't matter. It's not really the distance. The stretch right now we're working on, it's more the tendons. So if this is more comfortable for you, that's totally fine as well. I'm going to go back to 5, 6 and 7 and 8 because that's where I'm used to doing it. And what we're going to do is we're going to do kind of like finger push ups, one finger at a time, individually. And we're going to start with the first finger. And the goal is to try and keep all of these fingers down. Now if you're just getting started and you have a lot of tension, you may have to use your other fingers to hold your other fingers in place. And what we're going to do is take this first finger, go up to the top string and down to the bottom string. Okay? So top string, bottom string, top string, bottom string. And try not to do this with your wrist. Try not to use your wrist to assist you. I'm going to pull up my sleeve so you guys can see my wrist here. Okay. Try to keep your wrist neutral. And it's just the finger that is moving. Top string, bottom string, top string, bottom string. And for a lot of people, the first finger is not going to be a problem at all. You're going to be able to do this. Now I recommend doing up and down about 20 times and moving on to the next finger. Okay, so now we're going to do finger number two. All right? And finger number two also doesn't give people a lot of issues, but again, do it 20 times so you can work on the finger independence. The issue is now going to come in where these next two fingers. And I showed you why. It's because the tendons in the hands, when you move these fingers, especially this third finger. Look, when you move this third finger, you've got the pinky moving and your middle finger moving so that third finger is really connected. And when you guys go to do a C chord to a G chord change. Look at that third finger. Okay, so what we're going to do is we're going to mimic what we're doing in chord changes. That's what we're doing here. So now I'm going to skip the third finger for now because it tends to be the worst and you'll see in a few seconds. Why? Other problem finger is the pinky. Sometimes people, they cannot reach the strings. If you cannot reach the top string with your pinky yet, don't worry. If you can get to the fifth string, that's fine, too. But try your best to get it to go up and down as fast as possible on those strings. Now, when you're doing this exercise, do not forget to breathe, okay? If you are not breathing, you are not getting oxygen to your muscles. You are adding in tension, okay? So just relax. Remember to breathe. Here's the problem finger. Finger number three. Okay? Almost everyone has a problem. I learned this exercise after I had been playing guitar for 10 years, and I was still. I could barely move the third finger. Now, when you go up to the top string, it's probably easy. The hard part is going to come right here, lowering it down to the first string. When I first started, I couldn't do this. So I'm going to give you guys a little tip. In the beginning, you might need to use your other finger to assist you on getting this finger to go up and down, okay? But the important part to remember here is to relax. Breathe. Do not. Do not force the finger down. Do not. Don't muscle it down. That's tension. We want to relax. Breathe. Breathe out. Relax the finger, okay? We want to get this finger to move. Relax. Now you can see I can move this finger up and down pretty, pretty easily. Works really well. I could not do that when I first learned this exercise. Now, now, there is a huge disclaimer, a big warning I have to give you about this exercise. So please do not click, click away just yet, because this is very, very important. So this is what we call a repetitive motion exercise. We're doing the same motion up and down, up and down, up and down. Now, if you overdo this, a little bit of this exercise goes a long way. If you overdo this because of this motion you're doing, you could develop carpal tunnel if you overdo it. So here is my practice recommendation. A little goes a long way. If you were sitting down to practice, 20 up and downs per finger. Okay? So 20 or an up and down, up and down. That's 1, 2, 3, 4. Okay? You're going to do 20 per finger, and then you're done. Okay? That's it. Right? 20 ups and downs per finger. Work on relaxing. If your third and fourth finger are really, really bad, what I would recommend doing is do these two fingers. Do the whole set at the beginning of your practice. And then at the end of your practice just focus on the third and fourth fingers. Do 20 more reps with just those two and I guarantee in the next one to two weeks these core changes are going to be moving much faster because instead of just sitting here and doing spider exercises you're actually focusing on the things that that are mimicking the chord changes and you're actually working on finger independence which will help you relax and that will help you go faster. Now if you found this video super helpful, I have lots of tips like this in my seven level guitar system. It is a beginner guitar system designed to help students just like you go from absolute beginner to playing the songs that you know and love. We work on chords, we work on strumming, we work on finger independence and I've helped so many students just like you finally have more fun playing their guitar. Check out the link in the description below. I hope to see you guys in a lesson video real soon.
