Right Hand Excercises

These are my exercises for the right hand (plucking hand). I got the idea when I was working on Albeniz' "Leyenda" I didn't want to switch RH fingerings from pim to pmi then back again to pim in the triplet section involving the lone 2nd string so I decided to work on the pim fingering with i and m playing the 2nd string only. The Leyenda section was too short and I didn't want to play the piece to death (it's overplayed as it is J) just because I had to work on some technical issues. After a bit of thought I came up with the 2-octave Em scale fingering below. This fingering is perfect for my purposes since it frees up the treble strings for i m a work, especially the fingering for the last pattern.

These exercises tackle several issues, some even simultaneously: scale practice, fret board position shifts, RH thumb strengthening, arpeggio practice and tremolo (for the 16th note quadruplets pattern).

Notes:

  1. Play through each pattern slowly with a metronome. Once you get the feel for each pattern, turn the click up a notch.

  2. Alternate the strokes you use. If you play rest strokes with the thumb, play free strokes with i m a and vice versa: p free strokes with i m a rest strokes.

  3. Play each repeat differently. You can play the first pass dolce then sul pont. With the 2nd pass. Or the other way around.

  4. These are also effective warm ups prior to playing. I usually run through each pattern twice before a concert. They take me around 10-15 minutes to do.

  5. You don't have to play through these everyday for your practice times. Run through the whole thing once a week. For the other days, just pick out the RH fingering patterns that give you trouble and work on those.

  6. If you get tired of hearing the Em scale, change it! You can use any of the minor scale modes in the Key of E: E Phrygian, E Locrian, E harmonic minor, E melodic minor, etc. The major modes can work if you're working with only the 1st and 2nd strings. The open 3rd string, g (sol), is the minor 3rd in the key of E which is an automatic clash in tonality. However, if that doesn't bother you, go right ahead.

There are a lot more possible patterns using this approach but I've chosen to use these basic ones to illustrate my idea. Feel free to figure out some more patterns for yourself. For example, another possible exercise can be based on RH patterns in Pujol's "El Abejorro".

Disclaimer: These patterns are born out of my own discovery. Any similarity to existing exercises authored by someone else is purely coincidental. Kindly let me know if there is a violation and I will gladly do my part to correct it.

Em scale played with p (practice with rest and free strokes)

8th note pattern: Bring out the scale by using p rest strokes. Follow the pluck hand fingering on the image. When comfortable with the thumb-single finger alternation try the following as a preparatory exercise for the next sets:
p i p m/ p m p i/ p m p a/ p a p m/ p i p a/ p a p i/

8th note triplet pattern: follow the prescribed pluck hand fingering. Use p rest strokes to bring out the scale.

16th note pattern: These are useful for building as strong tremolo as well as for training i, m, a for playing scalar passages with thumb bass notes. If you use the scale fingering for the 16th note triplet pattern below, you can practice the tremolo on the 3rd string.

16th note triplet pattern: plucking hand finger buster! The scale fingering has been changed to accommodate playing on the 3rd string. As mentioned before, you can use this scale fingering if you want to transfer the repeated notes of the previous exercises to the G string.

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