Guitar Theory - Using 4 Fingers To Play 1 Note

In this exercise, we anchor the thumb near the 9th fret dot marker,

And then fret the E string at the 12th fret, with each of your 4 fingers, one after another, back and forth until it is smooth and legato.

This exercise is meant to do two things,

1) break the bad mental habit of thinking that you need to use a certain finger to make a certain sound.

2) make the good mental habit of thinking you can use any finger to make any sound.

So, after you have mastered this exercise in the position shown, practice the exercise everywhere, on all strings, and all frets.

While you would probably never actually play guitar this way, it does nimble up your fingers so that you can naturally “adjust” on the fly.

Also, if you are a beginner guitar player who needs to develop callouses on your fingertips, this would be a good exercise for that.

Also, if you are a beginner guitar player who needs to practice strengthening and conditioning your finger muscles evenly, this is a good exercise for that.

By playing the exact same note with each finger, your ear can discern the differences on each finger, which you can then work on until each finger sounds the same.