Right Hand Exercises

Practice the following exercise using the “Touch, Rest, Pluck” method. Be sure to work on each finger slowly and pay careful attention to each finger movement. You should spend about 2-3 minutes each practice session on each combination of fingerings to fully develop the technique. 

It is extremely important to play each finger slowly and out of time at first because you are learning a new technique that takes time to fully develop. These exercises are not meant to be rushed through, but taken seriously and deliberately in order to understand the technique.

Exercise 1.1 - Individual Finger Exercises

With the exercise below, it is vital to develop finger independence, which means that only the finger playing a note is moving, while the other fingers remain touching their respective strings in the home position. Be sure not to move any other fingers while playing these exercises, and this will develop the independence needed to successfully play any possible combination of fingers required by the music . 

Exercise 1.2 - Playing in Pairs 

The following exercises use combinations of the I, M, and A fingers in different combinations. If you find these exercises challenging, it is highly recommended to start with the lower finger first, and then add in the higher finger subsequently to get a feel for how they are used together, and then gradually reduce the time between fingers until they play simultaneously. Again, make sure only to move the fingers being used, and to have the others, including the thumb, resting on their strings when not in use. 

Exercise 1.3 - Adding The Thumb

Now we are going to add the thumb to each of our finger combinations. Make sure that the thumb and the other fingers do not collide with each other as they move through their strings. As with the exercises above, keep any fingers not used in the exercise resting on their strings. Only the fingers playing should be moving.  

Exercise 1.4 - Adding The Thumb with Pairs

Now we are going to add the thumb to each of our finger pair combinations from exercise 2. Again, make sure that the thumb and the other fingers do not collide with each other as they move through their strings.  

Each of these combinations should feel natural and comfortable before moving on to the next chapter. The fundamentals of the right hand will have an effect on each technique we learn from here, and so it is important to take as much time as necessary to learn complete right hand finger independence, and be in control of your right hand motion before moving on.