Practical Work

As a first experiment, try playing a succession of notes on the top string, starting with i and alternating with m. Try to keep the notes even and matching each other in sound. Then do the same thing starting with m.

Note that some players, particularly those specializing in flamenco, develop a preference for starting single-note runs with a particular finger, usually i. This is in fact counterproductive because the best finger for starting a run depends on the specific passage.

Now try the second string, playing i-m-i-m-i-m-i-m, then m-i-m-i-m-i-m-i.

Finally, do the same practice on the third string.

After that, try the same exercise that you did with the left hand alone, playing the first four frets of each string, this time with both hands.

When you reach the highest note, come back down the guitar playing the frets in the order four, three, two, one on all the strings. This makes an excellent daily warm-up exercise.

If you try the string changes reversing the fingers, i.e., using i-m where I have suggested m-i, you will find making the change from string to string harder. This is a basic principle of fingering—where possible, we cross strings as shown above. However, we need to be able to do it both ways, because the easy method of crossing is not always practical.