guitar Callisthenics

what's the point

Guitar callisthenics are an important part of any professional guitarists routine. They are meant to help maintain fretboard fluency and other techniques for both hands.

But it's all too easy for guitarists to slip into using the same old chromatic scales up and down the neck as a way to get all your fingers into line. They aren't necessarily bad exercises, but maybe they are just too boring to be that useful?

Guitar Callisthenics don't have to be boring. What I think is important for each exercise is being aware of the specific technique or set of techniques that you want to drill.

"...I stumbled here and discovered a fresh weakness.."

So what we have to do is find weaknesses in our techniques, then fix them to get better.

We can use guitar callisthenics to help strengthen these areas, once we've done a little work of course.

more than a warm up

There isn't a lot of sense in drilling through exercises that don't challenge you at all, unless all you want is a warm up of course.

For example, have you ever tried doing a pull-off from your 2nd finger to your 3rd finger? Anyone can pull-off from 3rd finger to first, but 2nd to 3rd or 4th to 2nd - these are much harder, especially in lower positions and on heavier strings.

These kind of movements aren't commonly needed when you play, or even necessary all the time. So of course, over time they can become weaker elements of your technique that let you down when you do need them.

"...Layering on other techniques like this just forces me to stay mentally engaged with what I am doing for longer..."

I have been designing my own callisthenics for many years. I find a weakness in my technique, I come up with an interesting exercise that drills the weakness until it becomes a strength.

"...The timing is off and it's not clean in that position, even though I did it perfectly in 3rd position..."

legato drills

Here's one I use specifically for legato drills on all fingers. I'm playing this one using G scale over 2 strings only so that all my pull-off finger combinations get a work out. While I drill this exercise over rhythmic divisions, I will discover more weaknesses in specific areas that prompt me to work on those techniques.

My metronome here is at 126 bpm. I start with 8th notes, then 8th note triplets, then 16th notes.

To get the most out of these exercises it's important to avoid getting bored - and that isn't always easy.

bored is bad

It is precisely because these kind of exercises are boring that you might not be getting all the benefits you think you are.

Using Rhythmic divisions means that I am jacking up the speed quite steeply from 8th note triplets to 16th notes. Doing this really helps me to stay alert. If I start to drift mentally, I can just add accents to upstrokes or play staccato notes by pick-muting. Layering on any other technique like this just forces me to stay mentally engaged with what I am doing for longer.

I intentionally start with a metronome speed that will challenge me at 16th notes in order to expose new weaknesses.

Remember, callisthenics are not like regular workouts, they can really help you build fluency and improve your motor skills.

weakness exposed

So apart from helping me maintain focus by challenging me a little when I drill over rhythm divisions, my calisthenic also shows me when I have a problem with a certain technical aspect. Then I can go away and work on that separately.

Here's what happened during one particular calisthenic. All was good until I reached 10th position on the neck at 126bpm 16th notes. I stumbled here and discovered a fresh weakness. Listen carefully and you'll notice I fluff the pull-off from 4th finger to 3rd slightly. The timing is off and it's not clean in that position, even though I did it perfectly in 3rd position. I know that sounds extremely pedantic, but it's these tiny kinks in your technique that can really mess you up at faster tempos.

What I did next was create a new exercise for myself with reduced complexity - ie; a single string workout focusing only the problem semi-tone pull-off with 4th finger to 3rd.

I ran that exercise for 2 days against rhythm divisions with the single pull-off focus and then returned to this calisthenic exercise and problem was fixed. This a tried and well tested method I have used for many years to correct my techniques.

You can find other examples of my callisthenics on my videos page and on my Free TABs page.

Why does this method work so well? Because it follows the well established Blooms Taxonomy learning principles which you can find out about here.

So that's really all I have to say about callisthenics on the guitar for now. You can find lots of calisthenic exercises in modern guitar methods and websites all over the place. But most of them a pretty boring to play, if you don't mind that.

None of us have a lot of time to do all the things we want to, so I try not to waste any being bored.

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