This is the first easy reading and playing exercise I teach my guitar beginner students.

It is a very simple, though very nice and helpful exercise. You will develop your fretting and plucking skills. And you will develop your musical taste and musical appreciation too.

All my students love it.

Every exercise or study has its own goals, requirements and particularities.

So, what are the goals of this first one?

To mention just a few, among many others:

• To grow flexibility of both hands fingers.
• To evolve independence between left and right hand fingers.
• To create the ability to bring quality sound out of your guitar.
• To improve your aptitudes for reading tablatures or music scores.
• To expand your discerning ability for quality music playing

So we can understand each other, we'll state some name conventions.

From now on, your left hand fingers will be referred as:

Index finger = 1

Middle finger = 2

Ring finger = 3

Small finger = 4

And your right hand fingers will be referred as:

Thumb finger = p

Index finger = i

Middle finger = m

Ring finger = a

Now, let's go to exercise!

(You can download a tab, a music score and a midi file of this exercise from the URL you will find in the resource box).

E||-----------------0----|-----------------0----|-----------------0----|

B||------------1---------|------------1---------|------------0---------|

G||-------2--------------|-------2--------------|-------1--------------|

D||----------------------|----------------------|----------------------|

A||--0-------------------|--0-------------------|----------------------|

E||----------------------|----------------------|--0-------------------|

-----------------0----|-----------------0----|-----------------0----|

------------0---------|------------1---------|------------1---------|

-------1--------------|-------2--------------|-------2--------------|

----------------------|----------------------|----------------------|

----------------------|--0-------------------|--0-------------------|

--0-------------------|----------------------|----------------------|

-----------------0----|-----------------0----|-----------||

------------3---------|------------3---------|-----------||

-------1--------------|-------1--------------|--2--------||

----------------------|----------------------|-----------||

----------------------|----------------------|--0--------||

--0-------------------|--0-------------------|-----------||

Does it seem to have too many figures, letters and lines?

No! Not at all!

Now, what does all that means?

Let's start with the first bar.

You will press the 3rd string at the 2nd fret with the middle finger of your left hand, and, at the same time, you will also press de 2nd string at the 1st fret with the index finger of your left hand.

Now, with your left hand position set, you will:

• First pluck the open 5th string with the thumb finger of your right hand .
• Then the 3rd string with the index finger of your right hand.
• Then the 2nd string with the middle finger of your right hand.
• And then the 1st string with the ring finger of your right hand.
• Then you will proceed with the second bar, fretting the 3rd string at the 1st fret with your finger 1.

For 7th and 8th bars, you will need to fret the 3rd string at the 1st fret with your finger 1 and the 2nd string at the 3rd fret with your finger 3 (or 4).

At 9th bar, you will play together (at the same time), the 5th string open and the 3rd string pressed at the 2nd fret with your finger 2.

When you press a string with a finger of your left hand, that finger should not touch another string, as then that string will not sound correctly if plucked.

Remember to pluck strings with your right hand fingers and to press strings with your left hand fingers with the necessary strength to get a clean sound.

Keep trying until you get:

• A clean sound each time you pluck a string
• A continuous playing, without delaying from one bar to he next

Now, come on! Go try it!

You'll find out that it's easy.

See you soon in the next exercise.