FretMeUp

Free Guitar Lessons

Guitar Spider Exercises

By 14 Comments

The spider exercise comes in a few different forms but they are all based on the same thing. Whatever versions you use, they are great for building dexterity, synchronisation and speed, in fact they are just all round useful for improving your guitar technique.

I haven’t shown any picking patterns in these Tabs because as always, I think you should practice them all. Do the whole thing starting on a up stroke, then do it again starting with a down stroke, alternate picked, economy picked. There’s always a lot of questions about how you should pick scales and exercises. I always have a simple answer for this… try them all! If something’s difficult then you can only benefit from practicing it.

Spider Exercise 1

exercise 1 tab

Spider Exercise 2 Up and down the strings

exercise 1 tab

Spider Exercise – Variation 1

variation 1 tab

Spider Exercise – Variation 2

variation 2 tab

Spider Exercise played in triplets. This is difficult, make sure you play with an accent on the beat (every third note) to get the most benefit from this exercise.

triplet exercise tab

Spider Exercise – variation of the first played in reverse

reverse exercise tab

You can create many variations of this exercise, try to find others yourself.

Have fun!

Comments

    • Jimmy, the finger numbers strike me as obvious. You’re playing the same four frets throughout the exercise, you just do the entire thing in the fifth position.

      Reply

  11. I have been doing the exercises for hours and days and my left fingers are getting stronger than even my right fingers.They are helpful but is that the only benefit of the execise.Where can i apply it to for example how can i use them in a song?
    But they are superb and splendid.i’m grateful for your help.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

twenty + 2 =