Basic String Crossing Exercise for Classical Guitar

This is a video lesson for my ebook: 20 Favorite Exercises for Classical Guitar – For beginner to intermediate classical guitarists (Includes: notation, TAB, fingerings, practice tips). I’ve been meaning to re-record some of these with better video quality.

This exercise, No. 8 – Right Hand Cross-String Exercises (open strings) for Classical Guitar, aims to expose the beginner player to what is required of alternating fingers during awkward string crossings.Because the right-hand approaches the strings at an angle, certain fingers are closer to certain strings. However, we often need to alternate the fingers so awkward fingerings appear often. This exercise is designed to get you comfortable with the cross-strings. Use one right-hand position only, that is, don’t change your hand position when the patterns change. Try all free-stroke but then try a light rest-stroke in the thumb while maintaining free-stroke in the fingers. I walk through the exercise and then give a lesson with a few tips. For more free weekly lessons join the Email Newsletter for updates and please consider donating to the site or sharing this post to support.

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Bradford Werner
Bradford Werner

Bradford Werner is a classical guitarist and music publisher from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He originally created this site for his students at the Victoria Conservatory of Music but now shares content worldwide. Curating guitar content helps students absorb the culture, musical ideas, and technique of the classical guitar. Bradford also has a YouTube channel with over 94,000 subscribers and 13 million views. He taught classical guitar at the Victoria Conservatory of Music for 16 years and freelanced in Greater Victoria for 20 years and now dedicates much of his time curating content online and helping connect the classical guitar community. See more at his personal website.

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