Spider Exercises for Finger Dexterity
While I typically like to make use of scale exercises for finger dexterity, sometimes I enjoy the pure mechanics and challenging nature of non-musical finger exercises. They’re great for situations where you feel mentally burnt out and just want the physicality of playing the guitar. Exercises that make a great option for this style of practice are spider exercises.
What are spider exercises?
For me, spider exercises are exercises that span four frets and each finger, index through pinky, is assigned a specific fret. They typically run vertically across the fretboard, but can be shifted up and down the neck. They’re great for building coordination and dexterity in the fretting hand.
Spider Exercises
For the exercises, important to maintain the fret assignment for each finger. For example, if you’re working on frets 1-4, the fingering should be as follows:
- Fret 1: Index finger
- Fret 2: Middle finger
- Fret 3: Ring finger
- Fret 4: Pinky finger
As always, play with a metronome to keep time.
Spider Exercise 1:
This first spider exercise is a chromatic ascending/descending run that moves one finger across the fretboard at a time.
Ascending:
Descending:
Spider Exercise 2:
This exercise is similar to exercise 1, but instead of transitioning each finger to the adjacent string on each pass, you alternate fingers and return back to the starting string before moving completely to the next string.
Ascending:
Descending:
Spider Exercise 3:
The following exercise was the original spider exercise I had learned years ago and still break out on occasion today. It’s a coordination challenger at first, but quickly turns into a fun exercise.
Spider Exercise 4:
This next exercise is very similar to exercise three, only you’re skipping a string. This small change adds a good bit of difficulty to the exercise, so take your time and be sure to play cleanly and evenly.
Spider Exercise 5:
Exercise five uses an alternating 1324 single string pattern as it ascends across the fretboard, then reverses the pattern when descending.
Spider Exercise 6:
This exercise (and the following three) takes a detour from primarily working between two strings to working across four strings at a time. Playing across a single fret on each string like this can prove to be pretty challenging, especially if utilizing alternate picking. Take it slow, work to a metronome, and only increase the tempo once you’re able to play cleanly.
Spider Exercise 7:
With this variation, you’re leading with the pinky finger first. It’s a small change, but creates a different feel as you move across the fretboard.
Spider Exercise 8:
In this exercise we’re sticking with an ascending finger pattern starting with the index finger as we ascend/descend vertically across the fretboard.
Spider Exercise 9:
For the last exercise, we’re reversing course on Ex. 8 and playing a descending finger pattern across the fretboard, leading with the pinky finger.
Wrap Up
As stated before, I’ve relied mostly on scale exercises when it comes to developing coordination and overall physical conditioning of the fretting (and picking) hand. However, there are times when I just want to physicality and challenge of playing patterns that challenge me. Spider exercises fit the mold and the benefits you get from challenging yourself with these types of exercises will transfer to the musical aspects of playing the guitar.
Cheat Sheet: Spider Exercises
Download the cheat sheet for this lesson:
Need More?
Break Free from the Fretboard Fog
If you’ve ever felt lost on the fretboard, frozen in a jam session, or unsure of what you’re really playing — this book is your breakthrough!
