Reddit mentions of Guitar Aerobics: A 52-Week, One-lick-per-day Workout Program for Developing, Improving and Maintaining Guitar Technique Bk/online audio

Maybe look at Guitar Aerobics.

Edit: added linky

Short answer is with your wrist. You also want to ingrain good habits now, that will help you with string skipping, speed, etc, later. First, don't hold the pick between the tips of your fingers and definitely don't use your fingers to move the pick. The fingers hold the pick, your wrist is what moves it. The pick should rest between your thumb tip and the side of your index finger (not the tip). Tighten your grip by making a complete fist, rather than squeezing two fingers.

It's best to not anchor your pinky/ring finger onto the body of the guitar for stability. If you're making a fist, you'll be less inclined to do this. Try to train for accuracy without anchoring and it will pay dividends later. Ideally your only anchor should be your forearm against the guitar body's edge. Lightly anchoring the wrist against the bridge is OK, and sometimes actually necessary to mute strings, either to palm mute the string actually being played, or to silence the lower strings when playing the higher ones not being muted.


You should also be angling your pick on two separate planes. The more important of these being the string horizontal plane. That is, you don't want to hold your pick perfectly horizontal to the string, but rather angle it a bit so your downstroke strikes with the nut (headstock) end of the pick first (the other end being the bridge side). You also want to pick in such a way that your downstroke ends slightly under the strings and your upstroke ends slightly above. Not as important as the horizontal plane, but this second tip will help with moving from string to string.

Start practicing your alternate picking on a single string, using just a single finger on your fretting hand, if necessary.

Use Amazon's "look inside" feature to check out the first exercise in this book. Once you can do that, you can progress to multi-string patterns. With multi-string patterns, you'll have to be more mindful of upstrokes and downstrokes, as they relate to the movement from string to string, but always try to stick to the up/down repitition and try to avoid throwing in consecutive down/down or up/up.

Use a metronome and start as slow as necessary to maintain accuracy. Once you can repeat a pattern flawlessly, bump up the BPM's, rinse, repeat.

EDIT: Fixed Link

For pure technique-building, check out the "Guitar Aerobics" book. It gives one short exercise to play every day for a year. Each day of the week focuses on a different technique, like arpeggios, alternate picking, sweep picking, bends, etc.

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https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Aerobics-One-lick-day-Maintaining/dp/1423414357

Also there is this.

I really enjoyed this book, the rest in the series are a bit blah, but this stood out as helping me a lot.

https://www.musicroom.com/product-detail/product332583/variant332583/guitar-springboard-technical-workout/

Also the popular Guitar Aerobics book might be what you want. I dont own this one, but I will buy it eventually, some friends have it and seemed to really improve when they stuck with the 52 week thing,
When i borrowed it i just went through it at my own pace which might not be best, as I cant remember most of it.

https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Aerobics-One-lick-day-Maintaining/dp/1423414357

This book really helped me - there's an exercise a day for 52 weeks, focusing on alternate picking, arpeggio, sweep picking, string skipping, legato, rhythm and bends.
20 minutes a day slowly building up the speed of the exercise with a metronome really helped me improve!

Troy Nelson Guitar Aerobics (Book & Cd) Gtr Book/Cd https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1423414357/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_4q4IxbVKK1XFC

Guitar Aerobics by Troy Nelson is a book I picked up to supplement my playing with Rocksmith. I do a daily technical exercise from it (it has 365 of them that cover a variety of techniques, starting at an easy level and working up to an advanced one.)

I'm noticing it help me with my overall playing ability and would recommend it to anyone interested in boosting their chops, regardless of level :)


Guitar Aerobics: A 52-Week, One-lick-per-day Workout Program for Developing, Improving and Maintaining Guitar Technique https://www.amazon.com/dp/1423414357/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_vhcgvb0BKS7SR

This one?:

• Guitar Aerobics: A 52-Week, One-lick-per-day Workout Program for Developing, Improving and Maintaining Guitar Technique Bk/online audio

> Carl fisher the exercise book

I'm not familiar with that Guitar Grimore book.

If you want an exercise book "supplemental", you could look into these books:

https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Aerobics-One-lick-day-Maintaining/dp/1423414357/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_cp_0_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1423414357&pd_rd_r=ASP24YKJ6PF4T0ZBPQ14&pd_rd_w=YFFcO&pd_rd_wg=ghssC&psc=1&refRID=ASP24YKJ6PF4T0ZBPQ14

https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Finger-Gym-Stamina-Coordination-Dexterity/dp/1910403717/ref=pd_sbs_14_6?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1910403717&pd_rd_r=RP5P3ED9YD4FNXQA9MG1&pd_rd_w=K0uvq&pd_rd_wg=Epzrf&psc=1&refRID=RP5P3ED9YD4FNXQA9MG1

If you're looking to improve your technique (chops), i HIGHLY recommend checking out guitar aerobics

Its broken down into daily 5-10 minute segments. Really easy to get through it, since it comes accompanying audio tracks that progressively pick-up the BPM. The lesson itself has both notation and tabs (so you can use what you're comfortable with, or try to pick up reading some notation)

Starts of real basic, so in the first two days I did the first week or two. In two weeks I improved so much more than I had in the 6 years I'd been playing up to that point. Forcing you do a technique PROPERLY at slow BPM is just as important as being able to do it quickly.


Best $20 I ever spent on guitar.

Get yourself a book with short exercises like this one. And then do them every day so you focus on different stuff to stay sharp.

I bought this a couple of months ago and whilst it's mainly pretty simple stuff, it really does help! Just pick a couple of exercises and just repeat them for an hour and go through the book. Really helped me move quicker around the neck and get a better picking rhythm, all basic things but stuff that makes the difference when you realise how much easier things are to play http://www.amazon.co.uk/Troy-Nelson-Guitar-Aerobics-Book/dp/1423414357/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412696309&sr=8-1&keywords=guitar+aerobics

I would suggest you pick up:

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Aerobics-One-lick-day-Maintaining/dp/1423414357

Its an awesome practice regime for building chops. It covers alternate picking, string skipping, legato, rhythm, sweep picking, string bending, arpeggios. By the end of the year schedule you should be one bad ass mofo. I've been doing it for a couple weeks now and have already noticed an improvement.

For my practice schedule currently:
I use this book for 15 mins,
Practice chord switching for 15 mins,
Work on a song for a 1/2 hour

The last 2 will switch up but the book with remain a daily activity. I'll add in this book in about a month. That should take me to a crazy skill level with the right focus on my part.
http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Discipline-John-Petrucci/dp/1576234746/ref=pd_sim_74_2

this book helped me improve my picking technique...I can still improve with my speed and dexterity but I feel I'm much better than before I started with this book

I think you should get this book and practice the exercises for 15-20 minutes a day. Done daily, this will develop both your technique, theoretical knowledge and riff vocabulary. If you're not going to practice daily, then just don't bother getting the book - it won't help you.

Edit: You'll need a metronome to use this text properly, but you can download them for free onto your smartphone, so no big deal :)

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Aerobics-One-lick-day-Maintaining/dp/1423414357

www.guitarzoom.com. Look for the course "Music Theory for Life". It's a 12 week online course by Steve Steine. Very good. You can also find many of his videos online that talk about music theory in shorter form but still more than enough to get you started. Here's a good series to follow by him: https://www.lessonface.com/absolute-fretboard-mastery-steve-stine

The other thing that really helps is playing every day. This really helped me get through solos that previously I never even attempted to play because i thought I would never be able to. I use an app on my phone called "habit" to track that. I mark every day I play and end up with a streak. I never want to break that streak so I play every day. I started with a wall calendar where I crossed off the days. After a while, you have a nice long line of days and you will feel really bad breaking that line.

Now comes the question of: "Ok... I can play everyday, but what should I play?" I had that issue. So I went ahead and bought this book: http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Aerobics-One-lick-per-day-Developing-Maintaining/dp/1423414357/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462400123&sr=8-1&keywords=guitar+aerobics

This book is basically a year's worth of every day licks to play and practice. Priceless. It will give you something to do every day by default. No thinking required. It starts off easy and builds up. It will teach you usable licks straight away from different music styles. It will also teach you how to play in time since you should be using a metronome (or the drum tracks they provide).

I use the book when I am not in the mood to practice a song I am working on that day. I make sure I am playing some "challenging" song since it's fun to end up with a song you've been wanting to play. I give it time... no hurry. I've been having fun learning "Hangar 18" for like 2+ weeks now. I am taking it slow and making sure I am not rushing through parts.

Good luck!

Also this book have a lot of really cool exercises for picking (alternate-picking, string-skipping etc.)

Check out the book Guitar Aerobics on Amazon. It is a great beginner excersize book. If you are tight on cash, look at the free preview. The lesson for Saturday is what I used to build up strength for hammer ons and oull offs. You also learn one of the most basic pentatonic scale patterns at the same time. Once you get the hammer ons down, do the same excersize but start with the high note on each string and do pull offs.

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Aerobics-One-lick---day-Maintaining/dp/1423414357/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407603235&sr=8-1&keywords=Guitar+aerobics

Not theory, but "Guitar Aerobics: A 52-Week, One-lick-per-day Workout Program for Developing, Improving and Maintaining Guitar Technique" is a good supplement to RS.
https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Aerobics-One-lick-day-Maintaining/dp/1423414357

Try to grab a copy of Intense Rock by Paul Gilbert, or Troy Stetina's "Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar".

There's also Guitar Aerobics that's full of exercises with alternate picking, string skipping, bending, legato etc... in a more "practical and playable" way than the two previous books I mentionned.

Give guitar aerobics by Troy Nelson a try, the book has lot's of structured lead guitar exercises suitable for all levels.
https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Aerobics-One-lick-day-Maintaining/dp/1423414357/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Buy the book Guitar Aerobics, as shown here. It's got everything you need to keep loose, build up skillz, sharpen your technique, etc. Just a few minutes per day (EVERY DAY!), and you'll see rapid progress.

You're right... I saw 'troy' and assumed the rest since this one is posted out here so often: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Troy-Nelson-Guitar-Aerobics-Book/dp/1423414357/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374160639&sr=1-1&keywords=troy+nelson

get Guitar Aerobics and practice that shit every day!! I've been doing it for the past 6 weeks and i'm loving it, can really see some improvement. LEarn music theory and all that jazz too

I've only been playing for a year, but two things are head-and-shoulders over the rest: the beginners course on justinguitar, and the book Guitar Aerobics.

last year i bought like 3 guitar books. two were mostly theory, but my favorite one was Guitar Aerobics. Its basically a book full of riffs, broken down into 6-7 categories of different mechanical skills (alternate picking, barre chords, rhythm strumming patterns, sweep picking) spread out every week, with backing tracks and sample sound banks of the riff being played. Every day you have something different.

it starts off basing everything on the Am pentatonic and starts building on complexity as it progresses
I didn't really stick to it daily, but i really think it still improved my mechanical abilities a lot. I was basically only using downstrokes to pick but now i find myself naturally alternate picking even across strings.

my favorite aspect of it is that if you don't know how to practice, amd at a certain point in time you only have 10 minutes can open up the book to where you left off, do one of the exercises.

at <15$ on amazon it's cheaper than a guitar lesson but works great for supplementing your spontaneous "i have to learn this song" moments by helping you get the chops to handle harder stuff

I am 21 (well, almost) and I've been playing guitar for two years now. This is how I went about it. I am in no way claiming this to be the best or most efficient way to learn though. First, I learned the major chords: D, A, G, F, E, and so on (I just googled "major chords"). I constantly played them whether it was while watching TV or sitting down and focusing on it. At the same time, I looked up tabs to music I enjoyed. One of the first pieces I learned was "Green Eyes" by Coldplay. It's a great one because it's got pretty much all the basic chords (and a lady killer if I may say so ;). Also if you take a look at the top 100 tabs on Ultimate-Guitar, those are some good pieces to learn not only because they are good songs, but you'll learn a lot about playing guitar in the process. After about six or so months of this, I really wanted to jam, so I began learning scales. I began with a natural scale, then moved on to memorizing the pentatonic scales. I'm still working on that actually! I recently also ordered this book to help get more comfortable as well as a theory book. At the same time as learning all the scales and things I'm constantly looking up tabs, trying to pick up pieces by ear, and all around fiddling with my guitar! If I ever get frustrated, I put that bad boy down and do something else. Been playing for two years now almost every day and I love it. Just take it slow and easy.

Edit: Grammer

I'm working through Troy Nelson's Guitar Aerobics at the moment, and it's really excellent. What makes it is the structure: 365 exercises, one for each day of the year. The techniques repeat on each day of the week. e.g. Monday is always an alternate-picking exercise, Wednesday is always a string-bending exercise, etc. The exercises build on each other, they start off easy and get progressively more difficult. But they do so in an incremental and logical way so you don't feel lost (at least I'm not so far, 6 weeks in).

I'm finding it great to help nail the various techniques....you practice a 2-bar hammer-on lick for half an hour, you'll get the technique pretty well down. Whereas if it was part of a longer song, it'd be easy to half-ass it and move on to the next bit before you'd really got it right.

The structure of the book, where you have your practice plan laid out for you for the next year, is a good motivator too.

I started guitar really late in life and as such, my hand dexterity was really shit. Guitar Aerobics is helping out a lot with increasing my fretting accuracy and speed. I still struggle with the max speed in the individual exercises, but i have noticed improvement week over week.

It's not a cure all and while it may expose areas where you have technique deficits, it won't really be able to tell you what to do to correct it. On the other hand, it's a good addition to and a good warm up in a longer practice session. It's well structured and covers a different technique each day of the week, each week building on the last. It's was definitely worth the $15.

I ripped the CDs that come with it and put them on my phone which made it much easier to use them too. The play along drum tracks are a nice alternative to a metronome.