No. 8 – Right Hand Cross-String Exercise for Classical Guitar – From my pdf book 20 Favorite Exercises for Classical Guitar for beginner to intermediate classical guitarists. Includes: notation, TAB, fingerings, practice tips, video lessons. YouTube Lesson Link.
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. This is important to both scales and arpeggios. The video explains it but I’ll just say that this is a normal part of guitar playing that must be addressed. You can’t always micro-manage your right hand fingering so it’s best to just get comfortable with awkward string crossings. 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.
