Simple dexterity and coordination exercises?

TimmyO

I’m returning to playing after a long time not doing so - looking for any suggestions for simple (inasmuch as easy to remember to do as warmups or at the end of a home jamming session) exercises to do to recover and develop dexterity and coordination. 

What do you reckon? 

hollywoodrox

Ben Higgins has a free set of exercises called The Warmup for just such situations
  

  https://courses.benhigginsofficial.com/the-warm-up

VimFuego

I like string skips for the picking hand. Pick a string, miss one, hit one etc. You could make it a bit of a memory twister as well but picking out scale notes.

Old_Swanner

These sort of things can be a boring (and often unproductive) time sap but they don't have to be. Draw them up and keep measurements alongside of the top speeds at which you can execute them perfectly. Working out how to beat your "high score" keeps it interesting and effective.

I covered a few of these a while back. Here's the first of the series, on "Spider exercises":

https://www.oldswannerguitartuition.com/post/finger-independence-the-holy-grail-for-guitarists-1-basic-spider-patterns

PickNick

'Basic Guitar Workout' by David Mead is quite a handy little book which is small enough to fit in a guitar case, too. The three chapters cover: Warm Ups; Co-Ordination and Ear Training - but you could use any of the exercises for a warm up, really.

Roland

When I need to warm up quickly I use spider exercises, eg:

Mattharrier

Another good one is to play frets 1 and 2 on each string with index and middle finger (so index on fret 1 of low E, then middlemon fret 2, then index on fret 1 of A then middle of fret etc) then playing 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2 with ring and middle back to low E, then 3, 4, 3, 4 etc back to high E with pinky and ring. Then slide up one fret and reverse.

digitalkettle

Here's one I sketched out a while back...try it with any articulation you like:

BillDL

I would suggest that you get a set of Baoding Balls, and when you aren't playing guitar exercise your fretting hand with them.  I find the gentle chiming of them quite relaxing and it keeps my hand loosened up and warmed up.

digitalkettle

BillDL said:

I would suggest that you get a set of Baoding Balls, and when you aren't playing guitar exercise your fretting hand with them.  I find the gentle chiming of them quite relaxing and it keeps my hand loosened up and warmed up.

On a similar note, get yourself a simple Powerball ( https://rpmpower.com/product-category/nsd-powerball-gyro/ ).

It came up five years ago on this thread: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/85632/goodbye-tinnitus-hello-rsi
and I've been thankful for the recommendation (from our resident physio) ever since.

M1ck

BillDL said:

I would suggest that you get a set of Baoding Balls, and when you aren't playing guitar exercise your fretting hand with them.  I find the gentle chiming of them quite relaxing and it keeps my hand loosened up and warmed up.

This /\ /\
Not quite boarding balls but golf balls work well - I saw a noticeable improvement in my dexterity using them - I also managed to get some steel balls a similar size to golf balls - they become difficult then with the weight but you soon learn not to drop them!