Picking Development Exercises for Beginning Guitar

This is some of the basic picking exercises that I start all my guitar students out with.  The goal is to warm up with this daily until picking with control and precision becomes automatic.  Use a metronome, and really focus on developing precise control in conjunction with the click.  When you are picking eighth notes, feel the difference in the emphasis on and off the beat and associate that with the upstroke (and the lifting of the foot as you tap!)

Guitar Picking Exercises PDF

Reading Rhythms, Level 1

It is important to be comfortable reading rhythms, whether in standard notation or tablature.  Practice reading these rhythms at a slow tempo.  Some of them become quite challenging at faster tempos.

I find it best to practice by tapping my foot to the main beat as I tap out the rhythm with my right hand.  If you are just getting started tapping and reading rhythms, count the rhythm out loud. Only say the beats you need to count, meaning a 4/4 measure consisting of:  Quarter Eighth Eighth Rest Eighth Quarter would be read as " 1 2 and 3 and 4"

 

Whole Half Quarter PDF
Eighth Quarter Half PDF