WEBVTT 00:00:05.389 --> 00:00:07.500 Hey, how ya doing? Justin here today. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:07.500 --> 00:00:09.454 I'm gonna share with you an awesome little exercise NOTE Paragraph 00:00:09.454 --> 00:00:11.056 called "Minimum Movement". 00:00:11.056 --> 00:00:14.560 It's a small idea with big consequences, this one. 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:17.047 Uh, we're gonna be using the G major scale. 00:00:17.047 --> 00:00:19.143 Doesn't really matter what scale you use. 00:00:19.143 --> 00:00:21.898 This is just a good one because it's using all of your fingers. 00:00:21.898 --> 00:00:24.416 Um, but you could use another scale if you like. 00:00:24.416 --> 00:00:29.060 Um, and the idea here really, it's all just about learning to control your fingers. 00:00:29.060 --> 00:00:32.252 I'm gonna talk about it a little bit more after I've given you the close up 00:00:32.252 --> 00:00:33.175 and the proper example of it. 00:00:33.175 --> 00:00:34.260 But, uh, let's get to our close up 00:00:34.260 --> 00:00:38.229 and, uh, check out actually how to do this exercise. 00:00:38.229 --> 00:00:40.729 Let me start by playing you the G major scale 00:00:40.729 --> 00:00:44.372 the one way I most commonly see it if I ask a student to play me the scale. 00:00:44.372 --> 00:00:45.696 So, it might look something like this. 00:00:45.696 --> 00:00:53.376 'playing' 00:00:53.376 --> 00:00:55.386 Okay? Now let me play it another way 00:00:55.386 --> 00:00:56.689 and see if you can spot the difference 00:00:56.689 --> 00:01:02.649 'playing' 00:01:02.649 --> 00:01:03.589 Looks pretty different, doesn't it? 00:01:03.589 --> 00:01:14.699 'playing' 00:01:14.699 --> 00:01:17.252 So the difference is that my fingers are under control. 00:01:17.252 --> 00:01:19.811 I call it "Flying Fingers" when people's fingers, you know 00:01:19.811 --> 00:01:22.396 particularly little fingers, for a lot of people they really 00:01:22.396 --> 00:01:25.370 want to fly right off the neck as soon as they finish playing the note. 00:01:25.370 --> 00:01:27.219 Whee! Off goes little finger. 00:01:27.219 --> 00:01:29.650 So, what you want to do with this exercise is 00:01:29.650 --> 00:01:38.560 play the G major scale really slowly and try not to let any finger move more than a millimeter or two from the fingerboard. 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:42.449 Right? Doesn't sound like that difficult a thing but when you try it you're gonna find it is. 00:01:42.449 --> 00:01:47.252 So, first note. Now, let's just put the little finger down. 00:01:47.252 --> 00:01:50.856 There we go, now first finger's actually already kind of in place. 00:01:50.856 --> 00:01:54.559 Now second finger has just got to move over there, there we go. 00:01:54.559 --> 00:01:58.478 Little finger, now don't let it move up, there we go. 00:01:58.478 --> 00:02:00.476 First finger over now, and it's just really 00:02:00.476 --> 00:02:05.097 slowly trying to get the fingers 00:02:05.097 --> 00:02:08.010 cause you are gonna find I'm almost certain that 00:02:08.010 --> 00:02:14.651 some of the fingers want to lift right up off the fingerboard. 00:02:14.651 --> 00:02:17.316 Particularly like here, moving that third finger over. 00:02:17.316 --> 00:02:19.056 Little finger wants to go "Hey!" 00:02:19.056 --> 00:02:23.377 But you gotta try and keep it under control there. 00:02:23.377 --> 00:02:25.849 The whole way, especially here agian, that- th- 00:02:25.849 --> 00:02:30.500 could really feel my little finger wanting to lift up there. 00:02:30.500 --> 00:02:35.309 Wo- wait- actually, I let them all have a bit of a run there. 00:02:35.309 --> 00:02:38.974 So we're just really trying to get those fingers 00:02:38.974 --> 00:02:43.934 so they're hardly moving at all, and you really want to go slow with this. 00:02:43.934 --> 00:02:48.415 There's absolutely no point in trying to do it fast. 00:02:48.415 --> 00:02:51.564 And you're gonna find when you try and do this exercise yourself 00:02:51.564 --> 00:02:54.695 it's actually a lot more difficult than it looks. 00:02:54.695 --> 00:02:59.897 Oh, little finger just had a little bit of a wander as well. 00:02:59.897 --> 00:03:03.209 It's difficult! You know, especially there as well. 00:03:03.209 --> 00:03:07.980 When you're changing fingers behind little finger when it's already off. 00:03:07.980 --> 00:03:11.255 Like now, it wants to lift up, and you have to really 00:03:11.255 --> 00:03:15.064 concentrate to make sure 00:03:15.064 --> 00:03:16.652 oh, there it goes again 00:03:16.652 --> 00:03:20.177 You stay down, you little rumin. 00:03:20.177 --> 00:03:21.481 Again, it was jumping a little bit. 00:03:21.481 --> 00:03:23.651 But that's the exercise. 00:03:23.651 --> 00:03:26.121 So this exercise is all about controlling your fingers. 00:03:26.121 --> 00:03:29.323 The speed thing is really-really not important here 00:03:29.323 --> 00:03:30.432 It's not at all 00:03:30.432 --> 00:03:33.222 So doing it fast will just spoil the excercise 00:03:33.222 --> 00:03:34.442 And there'd be no point in doing it 00:03:34.442 --> 00:03:39.042 You really wanna be doing slow, careful, controlled movements 00:03:39.042 --> 00:03:41.832 And making sure that you're in control of all of your fingers 00:03:41.832 --> 00:03:45.794 All the time. Most people struggle with the little finger particularly 00:03:45.794 --> 00:03:48.653 The fact is that it'll just play and as soon as I finish playing the note 00:03:48.653 --> 00:03:49.871 it jumps right off the fingerboard 00:03:49.871 --> 00:03:52.531 and that's really normal but you'll just have to do it 00:03:52.531 --> 00:03:55.983 slowly enough to get it right. Okay, now I'm gonna move over 00:03:55.983 --> 00:03:59.513 to my 1st finger now, little finger you'll just stay there and just concentrate 00:03:59.513 --> 00:04:01.860 on that little finger, making sure it doesn't lift off. 00:04:01.860 --> 00:04:04.517 Concentrate 'n' concentrate and try, and you will find 00:04:04.517 --> 00:04:07.437 that you can control it! You can do it! 00:04:07.437 --> 00:04:08.978 Even if it feels like you can't originally, 00:04:08.978 --> 00:04:11.747 you can definitely control your fingers properly. 00:04:11.747 --> 00:04:16.382 You just have to practice doing it and learn how to make sure that 00:04:16.382 --> 00:04:20.179 there's no kinda instinctive muscle reactions thrown out 00:04:20.179 --> 00:04:22.944 by your brain while you're playing. You wanna be in control of 00:04:22.944 --> 00:04:26.780 every little movement that they make. Now, what you gonna find, it's really 00:04:26.780 --> 00:04:29.610 interesting is this has a big effect on your playing all over. 00:04:29.610 --> 00:04:33.358 Without having to practice individual things, so if you'd work on this 00:04:33.358 --> 00:04:36.315 using the G major scale, as I'm suggesting, you'll find that 00:04:36.315 --> 00:04:39.658 it's just naturally kind of infects your blues scale and the licks 00:04:39.658 --> 00:04:41.690 that you're playing and songs that you're working on. 00:04:41.690 --> 00:04:44.420 Your fingers will naturally be a lot more under control and 00:04:44.420 --> 00:04:47.460 you'll find them flying off a little bit more, if you do find it, 00:04:47.488 --> 00:04:50.126 particularly, for a, you know, well, a particular tune or 00:04:50.126 --> 00:04:52.641 a riff that you're learning when your fingers are flying about a bit, 00:04:52.641 --> 00:04:54.893 then, you might wanna spend little bit of time with that 00:04:54.893 --> 00:04:56.961 one riff, or that one lick, or whatever it is, that you're 00:04:56.961 --> 00:04:59.276 struggling with, but generally you're gonna find that this 00:04:59.276 --> 00:05:02.912 one exercise, 5 minutes a day this one, is a really big deal. 00:05:02.912 --> 00:05:04.870 It's a great thing to have in your practice routine. 00:05:04.870 --> 00:05:08.191 Good little warm-up thing as well, because it's not very strenous and 00:05:08.191 --> 00:05:11.312 not very fast, so you can just really get you know, get your brain 00:05:11.312 --> 00:05:14.272 into the zone there, so really, unbelievably great 00:05:14.287 --> 00:05:16.398 exercise is it. It was a real game-changer for me 00:05:16.398 --> 00:05:19.628 to, made a huge impact on my technique generally, so 00:05:19.628 --> 00:05:21.414 I hope it does the same for you. 00:05:21.414 --> 00:05:23.603 See you for plenty more lessons and songs very soon, 00:05:23.603 --> 00:05:25.303 You take care of yourselves! Bye-bye!