How to Practice With Both Hands for Classical Guitar

A classical guitar uses nylon strings and should not be plucked with a plectrum. It must therefore be played with the fingers, making the coordination of the left and right hands essential for this type of guitar. The following steps will show how to practice with both hands for classical guitar.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Use the first three fingers of the playing hand. The shorter length of the little finger would normally require the playing hand to be in an unnatural position. However, some classical guitarists compensate for this with an extremely long nail on the little finger.

2. Practice using the playing fingers in both directions. Classical guitarists should be able to use their fingers going from the index to the ring finger and back in the following order: index, middle, ring, middle and index again.

3. Strive for a smooth continuous motion with the playing fingers. The hand should remain stationary with only the fingers moving.

4. Fret in both directions with the fret hand. The fretting fingers should be able to fret in both directions with a smooth drumming motion in the following order: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0. For this exercise, the number indicates both the fret and the finger to be used. A zero indicates an open string where fretting is not required.

5. Play a variety of fretting orders. The goal of this exercise is to keep the actions of the playing fretting fingers independent of each other. You do not want to associate the use of a specific playing finger with a specific fretting finger.