[MUSIC]
All right, in this next lesson we
are gonna be over some of my favorite
exercises that I've learned and
used throughout the years to
really start giving us that
foundation of creating
different techniques and
getting our fingers nice and
stretched and mobile.
For example, one of my favorite
exercises was actually introduced
to me by my great friend,
great ukulele player, Algine Guerrero.
Now, what we're gonna do is we're
gonna start off with all four fingers
on the first four frets of the G string,
which is again the string
closest to your face.
So we have all four fingers down.
Your thumb should be nice and
rested on the side there, not behind.
So we have four fingers
down on the G string,
we're gonna label those fingers one,
two, three and four.
Now we're gonna pick up three and
four at the same time.
[SOUND] Okay, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, make
sure [LAUGH] we got the right fingers.
Now, we're gonna drop them down at
the same time to the C string, okay?
So, we're going from all four
on the G string, three and
four comes off, and drop them down
at the same time on the C string,
which is the string right below it.
Then, we're gonna lift off one and
two at the same time,
drop them down to match three and
four at the C string.
Okay, so one more time from the beginning.
So we had three and four come off,
drop down one string, one and two follow.
Three and four down another string,
one and two follow, three and
four down to the bottom
string which is the A string.
One and two follow.
Now, coming back up, three and four again.
Followed by one and two.
Three and four up again.
Followed by one and two.
Three and four up.
And one and two.
Now, it's very easy to cheat and
do one finger at a time,
so you gotta make sure that
you are using them in pairs.
And do think of a little hop rather than
sliding down to that next string, okay?
So it should have a little hop
as you go from string to string.
Now, version two [LAUGH], we're gonna
reset four fingers on the G string.
And we're gonna lift off this time.
One and four, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.
So we have one and four off,
we're gonna drop them down one string.
Followed by two and three.
One and four down.
Followed by two and three.
One and four down.
Followed by two and three.
We'll come back up.
One and four, two and three follow.
One and four up, two and three follow.
One and four, two and three.
All right, take a deep breath.
[SOUND] All right, reset one more time.
This is gonna be the hardest one,
I'm sorry.
All right, so again, one, two, three,
four, stare at your fingers [LAUGH] and
we're gonna lift off two and
four at the same time.
So two and four, off,
wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.
I'll give you some extra time,
just in case.
[LAUGH] All right two and four off,
we're gonna drop them down at
the same time to the C string.
One and three this time off,
wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.
Follow to that C string, two and
four down followed by one and three.
You can do it.
[LAUGH] Two and four.
One and three.
Come back up two and four, one and three.
Two and four, one and three,
two and four, one and three.
Great job.
Now, this exercise really does prove that
we don't have as much control or
fingers that we think.
[LAUGH] But
we use our fingers every single day.
But the way we interact with objects, so
we grab things, are so paired up already,
are so
ingrained in how we manipulate them.
That some of these things
that we're doing on
the ukulele we need some of this
[MUSIC]
individual finger control.
So, this is gonna really start breaking
the mold of how we pair certain
fingers up with each other.
And again, you don't have to spend
like three hours a day doing this.
But just once through every version,
once a day,
it'll take maybe a few
minutes at the most.
But I promise you after a week or
two of doing these you're gonna feel so
much more comfortable with everything
that you do on the ukulele.
And you can also be at a red light
while driving or on the bus and
you can take your thumb and
you can press the two and four together,
one and three, two and
four, one and three.
But just to get the ball rolling to
start getting that muscle memory going,
so that when you do apply it to
the ukulele it will feel so much easier.
[MUSIC]
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