Warm-up & Alphabet

This is a simple exercise to use as a warm-up, and to locate a few notes. In the first diagram fig 1 you see the letters in red (A B C D E F G A). These are the notes in the bass side. I chose these notes because they are easy to remember, (it is the alphabet) and also it is a good position to start with. You will also see a "blueA " on the 12th fret. This is the note you will play in the melody hand.

The first step is to play the notes in the bass side in 1/4 notes (one note per beat) satrting with A and continuing through the alphabet until you get to the second A. Use your first finger for A then your second finger for B etc; so the fingering is as followsA=1B=2 C=3D=4 E=1F=2 G=3 A=4

The second diagram Fig 2 shows in standard tabliture, the melody hand playing 1/4 notes and the bass hand playing the alphabet in 1/4th notes. This is a good starting point. After you feel comfortable with this, change the melody hand to 1/2 notes. Next make the bass hand 1/2 notes and return the melody to 1/4 notes. This is a good beginning warm-up exercise.

The thing I like about this exercise is that even for intermediate players, this exercise gets the person to "think" in the left hand. You will notice that the bass hand is doing the movement. This will help you in avoiding becoming too dependent on bass side (memorized) hand motor movement.