Guitar Finger Gymnastics

Playing a musical instrument is an interesting engagement of the heart, soul, mind, and body. It is both mental and very physical. No matter how much understanding a musician has, they will not have mastery over their instrument that goes beyond their physical capabilities.  

Physical skills, though limited to a certain degree by our natural giftings, are trainable skills. Just as a basketball player who is 5’9” may have a difficult time in the NBA, musicians do have certain caps physically. But that does not mean that they cannot become excellent professional-level players.

Since musicians are essentially minor-muscle-group athletes, muscle training is as important for musicians as it is for professional athletes. The old saying that genius is 90% perspiration, 10% inspiration absolutely applies to musical studies. Thomas Edison, who coined that phrase, understood that many of us have dreams, aspirations and great ideas, but only a few are willing to suffer and persevere long and hard enough to realize those dreams.  

A study was done years ago that basically concluded that there was only one element that all musical virtuosos had in common. It was not genetics, background, education, or environment, though all of these were important. The single common factor was the amount of time they practiced. On average, they had practiced over 10,000 hours. That is about 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 10 years.

Now, obviously, you don’t have to practice that much to become a good, capable musician who can enjoy music, play well, have fun, and say something on your instrument. But if you want to play like Yo Yo Ma or Guthrie Govan, you probably do.  

Guitar Finger Gymnastics is simply designed to train your fingers for dexterity, strength, and independence. These are not ‘musical’ exercises per se. They do not translate directly to music like all other elements of the Daily Workout will. But they will help your fingers to strengthen and work in complex patterns so that when your brain hears a musical phrase, your muscles will be able to respond and fire in time accurately.

This is vital in music. Since players can typically hear timing issues within about 5 milliseconds, having highly accurate muscle acuteness is imperative. Guitar Finger Gymnastics in all Systems will help you to physically achieve that muscle competence.