Logical Lead Guitar

15 More
Fret-Hand Exercises



By Adam St. James




LogicalLeadGuitar.com













Copyright 2007


Adam St. James
LogicalLeadGuitar.com
PO Box 5706
Woodridge, IL 60517
Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 1
By Adam St. James
Logical Lead Guitar

Bonus Section:
15 More Fret-Hand Exercises

This book includes a collection of fret-hand
exercises I've been using for decades to improve
the speed, agility, accuracy, and stamina of my
fret-hand fingers. I consider these exercises to be
essential to any player's practice regimen,
especially those who are closer to beginner than
pro though that's not to say you shouldn't keep
using them throughout your guitar-playing life.

In fact, I just spent a couple hours this week
(May, 2007) going through all the exercises in this
book and I've already been doing them for 30
years. Like I said, I still use them regularly to
boost my speed, accuracy and agility!

The following exercises are what I believe to be
the most time-efficient way to improve your fret-
hand abilities better than playing scales, or
even lead guitar, at least to some degree. When I
go out and play a show, and leave the club
disappointed with my playing, you can bet I hit
these exercises hard within the next few days.
They've always worked wonders for my lead playing.

Also, they're so easy to remember and to play
(after you've put in a little time with them), that
you can do them even while you're actually
concentrating on something else. Hey, multi-tasking
is even possible with guitar practice!!!

Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 2
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


That's right. I've done these exercises sitting at
my kitchen table with a magazine spread out in
front of me, taking breaks only to turn pages. I've
put in countless nights hitting these exercises
while watching a movie or a sporting event.

By the way, these exercises will improve your
rhythm guitar playing as well as your lead playing
because they improve overall finger dexterity, not
just your lead guitar playing abilities. Like I
said, they're essential exercises all guitarists
should utilize.

Just go for it!

Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 3
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


Exercise 1

You'll use your first and second fingers for this
exercise. Also, use alternate picking if possible.
If you don't know what alternate picking is, read
and study "Bonus Section: More Pick-Hand
Exercises," and/or watch the video segments of this
course.

Play the 1
st
fret on the sixth string with your
first finger, then the 2
nd
fret with your second
finger. Then play the same thing on the fifth
string, followed by the fourth string, etc., until
you've crawled your first and second fingers all
the way across the strings, and back again. When
coming back from the first to the sixth string,
continue to play the first fret with your first
finger, followed by the second fret with your
second finger.

When you've played from the sixth string to the
first and back again, slide your first finger up
one fret and do it again, this time playing the 2
nd

and 3
rd
frets with your first and second fingers.
Continue this process, using nothing but your first
and second fingers, as far up the neck as possible.

Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 4
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


Exercise 2

Now we'll do the same with your second and third
fingers. Play the 2
nd
fret on the sixth string with
your second finger, then the 3
rd
fret with your
third finger. Do the same on each string, to the
first string, then back again to the sixth string.
Then move up one fret and continue up the neck as
far as possible.

Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 5
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


Exercise 3

And of course we'll continue the trend by using the
third and fourth fingers on our fret hands. Play
the 3
rd
fret on the sixth string with your third
finger, then the 4
th
fret with your fourth finger.
Crawl across all six strings this way, then back to
down to the sixth string again. Then continue up
the whole neck as far as possible. Your third and
fourth fingers will probably seem the least
coordinated, so obviously they'll need the most
exercise. Work on them twice as much as you do with
the other fingers and you're playing will grow by
leaps and bounds.

Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 6
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


Exercise 4

Now we'll start combining groups of fingers. Let's
put the first three fingers together and play 1-2-3
on each string, as follows:

Play the 1
st
fret on the sixth string using your
first finger, then the 2
nd
fret using your second
finger, and the 3
rd
fret using your third finger.
Now repeat this fingering across the neck and back,
and then up as far as possible.


Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 7
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


Exercise 5

And now let's put the second, third, and fourth
fingers to work. This will be a little tougher, so
give these three more regular work, and you'll
benefit trememdously.

Play the 1
st
fret on the sixth string with your
second finger, then the 2
nd
fret with your third
finger, then the 3
rd
fret with your fourth finger.
Continue as usual.

Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 8
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


Exercise 6

And now of course to put all four fingers together.

Play the 1
st
fret on the sixth string using your
first finger, the 2
nd
fret using your second finger,
the 3
rd
fret using your third finger, and the 4
th

fret with your fourth finger. Now repeat this
fingering across the neck and back, and then up as
far as possible.



Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 9
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


Exercise 7

With Exercise 7 we'll start putting the fingers in
the groups of two we haven't covered yet.

Play the 1
st
fret with your first finger, then the
3
rd
fret with your third finger. Repeat as usual.


Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 10
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


Exercise 8

Now let's play the 1
st
fret with your first finger,
and the 4
th
fret with your fourth finger. This one
might need more work because your fourth finger
probably won't be as nimble as your third finger.


Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 11
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


Exercise 9

And finally let's put the second and fourth finger
together they'll certainly need some work!

Play the 1st fret with your second finger, then the
3
rd
fret with your fourth finger. Repeat here,
there, and everywhere.


Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 12
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


Exercise 10

With Exercise 10 we'll start mixing it up even
more.

Play the 1
st
fret with your first finger, the 2
nd

fret with your second finger, and the 4
th
fret with
your fourth finger. We'll skip the third finger in
this exercise, and just play 1-2-4 across the neck.
Repeat as usual.


Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 13
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


Exercise 11

This one is a little more tricky, but you should be
able to handle it.

Play the 1
st
fret with your first finger, the 3
rd

fret with your third finger, and the 4
th
fret with
your fourth finger. We'll skip the second finger in
this exercise, and just play 1-3-4 across the neck.
Repeat.


Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 14
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


Exercise 12

Now we'll get a little crazier. I'm going to have
you stretch your fingers a bit, as you'll certainly
have to do occasionally when playing lead guitar.

Play the 1
st
fret with your first finger, the 3
rd

fret with your second finger, and the 4
th
fret with
your third finger. Stretch it out like this across
and up the neck.


Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 15
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


Exercise 13

Now let's take that a little farther.

Play the 1
st
fret with your first finger, the 3
rd

fret with your second finger, and the 5
th
fret with
your fourth finger stretching two frets between
each finger. You'll need this one for certain lead
licks, and there's no better way to play this
pattern believe me, I've already tried all the
alternate fingerings.


Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 16
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


Exercise 14

And now I'm going to make it even tougher but no
pain, no gain, right? This exercise will really
strengthen your fourth finger.

Play the 1
st
fret with your first finger, the 2
nd

fret with your second finger, and the 5
th
fret with
your fourth finger.



Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 17
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


Exercise 15

Now we'll take the same approach, but substitute
the third finger for the second finger.

Play the 1
st
fret with your first finger, the 4
th

fret with your third finger, and the 5
th
fret with
your fourth finger. This is an excellent workout!



Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 18
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)



Extra Credit

Great now do it all backwards! Start each
exercise on the first string instead of the sixth
string, and start with the highest fretted note,
and descend to the lowest on each string. As an
example, for Exercise 1, you'd play the 2
nd
fret on
the first string with your second finger, then the
1
st
fret with your first finger. Then you'd go
across all six strings down to the sixth string,
and then back up to the first string. Then, of
course, you'd slide up one fret and repeat.

I actually shifted to doing almost all these
exercises in this backwards motion after a few
years of doing them "forwards." I found that I
actually got more important exercise for the
fingers that needed it most the third and fourth
by going backwards. Again, I've been doing these
exercises for decades, and still use them as an
essential part of my practice regimen especially
if I've been playing less than I'd like to (that's
when they seem to be most important to my
satisfaction with my playing).

Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 19
By Adam St. James
Bonus Section: 15 More Fret-Hand Exercises (cont'd)


An interesting note: I remember beginning to write
my first guitar instructional book back in the
early '80s on these exact exercises, but, not
knowing anything about the book publishing business
at that time, I never completed the process and
15 or more years went by before my first
instructional book actually came out through
publisher Hal Leonard. But somewhere in my house
I've got the original, hand-made, pencil drawings
of these exercises. Yeah, I had a computer, back
then, but I couldn't create the necessary sheet
music and tablature with it at that time. I often
wonder how might my life had been different if I'd
put out all this stuff 25 years ago? And how might
your guitar-playing have been changed if you'd seen
and started practicing all the exercises years ago!
Well, there's no time like the present, so get
going!!!

Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 20
By Adam St. James
Logical Lead Guitar

LogicalLeadGuitar.com

By Adam St. James

For the complete course, and our free lead guitar
tips newsletter, visit us at
www.LogicalLeadGuitar.com.

The entire Logical Lead Guitar course is a DVD-
based guitar lesson course featuring nearly four
hours of professionally produced video footage,
with detailed close-ups of the instructor's hands
so you can easily duplicate the riffs, licks, tips,
and tricks taught in the videos. If you play the
DVDs in your computer, you can easily loop sections
for repeated viewing, allowing you to view an
example over and over until you can understand and
play along with it properly yourself.

The Logical Lead Guitar course comes with two DVDs,
one audio CD and 11 separate course books of
which "15 More Fret-Hand Exercises" is just one.
Nearly every example played in the videos is
written out in Tab (tablature) and sheet music in
the course books, which total 200+ pages of
professional instruction. There are more than 450
examples demonstrated on video and 100+ additional
examples demonstrated on the audio CD including
full solos at beginner, intermediate, and advanced
levels of playing.

Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 21
By Adam St. James
The course provides a lifetime worth of musical
knowledge, and essential information you'll use for
the rest of your guitar playing life! When you
finish studying the Logical Lead Guitar course,
your playing will have forever changed and you will
be on your way to playing at the pro level of all
your favorite guitar heroes!

Thank you again for checking out Logical Lead
Guitar!
Logical Lead Guitar 15 More Fret Hand Exercises 22
By Adam St. James
For additional music and guitar instructional
resources, including songbooks with exact
transcriptions of your favorite artists' music,
plus other DVD- or CD-based method books covering
virtually every style of music, please also check
out our other websites:

www.RockinRhythmGuitar.com

www.RockChops.com

www.BluesLessons.com

www.JazzGurus.com

For more information on the author, please visit:

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or email adam@LogicalLeadGuitar.com