Been doing this fingers exercise with the metronome for like an hour. Fml 🙃

Ids Schiere said:

Try to keep your fingers as close to the fretboard as you can definitely helps. Another thing is that it seems like you down pick everything. Try to alternate pock instead (so down-up-down-up). There are some other exercises for alternate picking in the school as well.

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Alex Cain said:

I've been playing for 14 years and still do this exercise. After I go down and up once, then I move up one fret and keep going until I reach the 12th fret. Another good tip is try to keep your fingers as close to the fretboard as possible so you don't waste time getting them back to the fretboard. You can also try variations of this. Instead of 1-2-3-4 you can do 1-4-2-3 or 1-3-2-4 or whatever you want. I believe Papa Gates talks about these in the Intro to Alternate Picking and the lessons right after that.

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William Byerley said:

I think Syn listed all possible combinations, haven't tried them all for sure. Crazy that he knows them all. I train Chromatics too, started after like 2 years, I learned it from part of the Bat Country solo. If I remember correctly Syn said he wrote it for Zacky in an interview, he also said it's good to start training 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
pattern fast, until your tired and with palm mutes for stamina and speed. Probably best to start on the low E string to get the feel, because it won't break so fast if it's wrong. Syn said practice upstroke too in a different interview, 4 times up

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Firsty Lasty said:

The purpose of exercises like this (often called spider drills) is to slow way down and focus on details.

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Firsty Lasty said:

Ok, time to stop putting this off. I tried filming a video demonstrating a couple of things earlier today but I couldn't find a good setup where I could play comfortably and you could see what my fingers were doing. I think I would have to tape my phone to a clothes rack or something like that to get what I want. I'll just type things out and if there's something which isn't clear (there likely will be) ask and we can go into details.

First, attitudes come from expectations so let's talk about this exercise real quick. I hope you don't think that this is some easy thing that you "should be able to" get good at quickly. There are a couple of things which make it hard. First, chromatic lines are tricky because of the way your middle two fingers work. It's not a natural-feeling motion. Second, this exercise is big. It has a lot of notes and it involves going from every string to the next in both directions. For perspective I can comfortably play the Alternate Picking X etude a lot faster than I can play this.

The purpose of exercises like this (often called spider drills) is to slow way down and focus on details. Trying to go faster is going in the wrong direction; trying to move more perfectly is the right way. These are three details to focus on, when you feel ready:
1: precise fretting
2: finger independence
3: going from one string to the next cleanly.

Precise fretting- this is a good exercise to practice aiming at fretting notes with the finger close to the fret instead of halfway between frets. This can help with good articulation and with staying in tune. It's harder to press a note sharp if your finger is closer to the fret. On the higher frets it can also be possible to force a note flat by dragging the string slightly towards the bridge; precise fretting avoids that. This isn't always worth being picky about, for example there are some chords that I can only play by putting my fingers wherever they can go and not worrying about details.

Finger independence- the better you can move one finger at a time the more control you will have over your playing. This is difficult to practice but rewarding. One of the things I wish I could figure out how to show on camera.

Moving from one string to another- the other thing I wanted to show on camera. listen to the duration of the notes you played. Sometimes the last note on each string gets cut short. The way to avoid this is to learn to reach for the next string earlier, even while the last note is still playing. This requires a fair bit of flexibility, strength, and coordination. It might feel difficult at first. This is because it's difficult.

You're doing a good job of being aware of timing. That will save you a lot of trouble in the future.

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