Part 2 - "Improve Your Playing In Only 10 Minutes A Day! Strength Training Exercises"
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This article was kindly supplied by Dan Denley, AmazingGuitarSecrets, for readers of PJ's Guitar Chords and Lyrics Newsletter

It is the 2nd part of a 6 part 'mini-series' of lessons contributed by Dan, to promote his recent release of a great new resource for Lead Guitar Players - "Lead Guitar Secrets"

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If you follow this simple plan, you'll immediately and dramatically improve your
playing, guaranteed.

But first, let me give you a real-life example...

How long do you think that Brett Favre (Super Bowl winning QB of the Green Bay Packers)
would have lasted if he said something like...

"I really don't want to work out. I don't like it. It's mundane. Tedious. Boring.
I just want to go out and play."

What if during the off season he sat around and did nothing?

No running. No weight lifting. No swimming. No biking. No conditioning.

Well, you and I both know the answer to that hypothetical situation.

If Favre had refused to condition his body, not only would he not have made it
to the NFL, he wouldn't have made it on the Southern Mississippi football team,
or his local high school team, for that matter.

It's a fact.

If you're an athlete, you MUST train your muscles for competition.

But there's more to it than that.

There's the physiological phenomenon of your body being able to do what your brain
tells it to.

Here's what I mean.

Brett Favre could tell his arm that he wanted to throw a pass 50 yards all day long.
But, unless his arm was physically capable of responding to that "brain command" he
still wouldn't be able to do it.

It's the same way with guitar.

You have to "train" your hand and arm muscles to do what you tell them to.

You have to condition them.

You have to think of your body like an athlete does his or hers.

How do you do this?

By doing a little "conditioning" every day.

You should start, NOW.

Don't put this off.

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QUICK EXPLAINATION OF THE EXERCISES:

* These are tablature.
* Each dashed lined is a string.
* The numbers are frets, not finger numbers.

|---------------------1234-2345---------------------| <-- E string
|-----------------1234---------2345-----------------| <-- B string
|-------------1234-----------------2345-------------| <-- G string
|---------1234-------------------------2345---------| <-- D string
|-----1234---------------------------------2345-----| <-- A string
|-1234-----------------------------------------2345-| <-- E string (big)

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Start with some simple exercises like this:

|---------------------1234-2345---------------------|
|-----------------1234---------2345-----------------|
|-------------1234-----------------2345-------------|
|---------1234-------------------------2345---------|
|-----1234---------------------------------2345-----|
|-1234-----------------------------------------2345-|

Then go to...

|---------------------4321-5432---------------------|
|-----------------4321---------5432-----------------|
|-------------4321-----------------5432-------------|
|---------4321-------------------------5432---------|
|-----4321---------------------------------5432-----|
|-4321-----------------------------------------5432-|

Then go to...

|---------------------1423-2534---------------------|
|-----------------1423---------2534-----------------|
|-------------1423-----------------2534-------------|
|---------1423-------------------------2534---------|
|-----1423---------------------------------2534-----|
|-1423-----------------------------------------2534-|

Then try...

|---------------------1324--2435---------------------|
|-----------------1324----------2435-----------------|
|-------------1324------------------2435-------------|
|---------1324--------------------------2435---------|
|-----1324----------------------------------2435-----|
|-1324------------------------------------------2435-|

You will want to take these all the way up to about the 12th fret. Then reverse them
and come all the way back down. Also, you can practice these same exercises
picking both up and down, then all down, then all up.

And if you really want to get serious grab your metronome and use it while your
practicing. Is this fun? Well... for geeks like me, it kind of is.

But, that's not the point.

Do you think that when Favre was running 3 miles a day,he was grinning the whole way
saying, "Gee, this is great!" No. He was thinking about winning the Super Bowl,
which WOULD be fun.

Even if you play guitar "just for fun" these exercises are still for you.

Why?

Because once you train your fingers to do what you tell them to by conditioning them,
playing guitar will be MORE fun because you'll be in greater control.

I promise you this: if you take seriously these few exercises
and practice them every day for 10 minutes BEFORE you start to play,
you will see a significant improvement in your playing in as little as 14 days.

Hope this helps. Keep in touch...

Cheers,
Dan

P.S. Don't go nuts with this right off the bat. Build up speed and duration,
gradually. And if you feel any PAIN whatsoever, stop immediately.
These should be effortless and smooth.

P.P.S. Can't get enough of this strength and conditioning fun? You can download
20 of them from my site by going here:
http://amazingguitarsecrets.com/newsletters/strength_exercises.pdf

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Special Bonus Article:
"What To Do When You're Completely Out Of Ideas"

Pj

It's REALLY important in order to create your own style.

So, I hope you've found some time to break out your favorite records and try to
play a little "copy-cat."

If you have, you'll probably notice a couple of things:
1) Just by "copying" other people's style you improve yours and
2) You get a flood of new ideas, riffs, licks, etc.

So, today I want you know about something a little weird.

Well, at least I've never really heard anyone talk about it much.

That is, have you thought about trying to imitate other INSTRUMENTS on your guitar?

Now, you're probably thinking, "What the..."

Let me explain.

In the early 1700's there was a tendency to write music for the voice that imitated
instruments.

So, for example, if you listen to Bach's Christmas Oratorio, you'll hear that
he wrote much of the solo vocal music to imitate instruments like the violin or flute.

There would be just a few words in any particular solo. But there would be
hundreds of notes.

And many of these notes are sung a single syllables of a single word.

Later (much later) there were composers who did the opposite.

Think about it.

Where did the Blues come from?

If you ask the average person that question, they'll probably say, "Memphis"
(my home) or "St. Louis" or "New Orleans."

But that's only partially correct. Those are cities where famous Blues and Jazz
musicians come from. But...

Blues actually came from spirituals.

And these Blues guitarists were doing the opposite of what Bach had done.

They would make their guitar sound like the human voice, not vice-versa.

That's where the saying, "He can really make that guitar SING!" came from.
(At least that's my guess.)

But there are other ways to experiment with this idea, too.

Why don't you grab your favorite classical record and try to imitate the oboe solo
from a Beethoven symphony?

Or try to figure out a particular violin passage from a concerto.

Or try to play the melody to a piano concerto.

The point is, you want to think outside the box.

WAY... outside.

I remember playing in a heavy metal band, years ago...

I walked in to a practice session once, and announced that I had some new material
that I wanted to show everybody.

Then I said, "Yeah, this is so cool. I just swiped this right from the sound track
to the Dracula movie." (Which by the way had NO guitar in it, whatsoever.)

There was dead silence.

Everyone was just staring at me.

Then the drummer said, "Dan, you're a freak man. A real freak."

Of course, to me that meant, "Man, you're doing stuff we've never even thought of."

Which to me was a big compliment.

So, there you have secret #2 from me...

Go learn new material by imitating other instruments (including voice) in other
genres of music.

In part 3, I'm going to reveal some more *SECRETS* so, hold on to your hat...

Cheers,

Dan Denley