The Spider Walk exercise is one of the most challenging finger studies known to guitar players. But, one of the problems with learning it is that this exercise is rarely ever shown to students correctly. In this post we're going to explain the proper way to study the Spider Walk and we'll discuss the benefits that it can provide within just 30 days of practice...




There are the basic, (1, 2, 3, 4), guitar fingering exercises that almost everyone's tried, and then there are more structured guitar exercises (hardly anyone does).

In this video, I will show you the unique "Spider Walk" guitar exercise that hardly anyone does correctly. Plus, I'll talk about the value in doing it for as little as just 30 days. The results will literally blow you away!


WATCH THE FULL VIDEO:




HOW TO DO IT:
This exercise is best practiced in two ways. The first is by using a "fixed finger" approach. The second method of study involves designing a pattern to follow within a playing position of the neck. Then, as you continue your practice, you just keep modifying that pattern as you play the "Spider" within a two string region.


THIS REALLY WORKS:
For years now, I’ve always made it a point that with each and every one of my new private guitar students, I always start off with the very first class dedicated entirely to learning about guitar technique.

At the class, I cover; practice philosophy, playing posture, sitting positions, left and right hand technique, dexterity, coordination. We run through everything that’s important to becoming the best guitar player that you can be.

Now, throughout this initial technique class, there is one exercise that truly stands out. And, when it’s practiced, it makes the biggest impact, and that’s the exercise that I’ve always referred to as the, “Spider-Walk.”




EVER HEARD OF THIS?
You might have come across this exercise yourself at some point, and possibly heard it called by different names. I have had a few students tell me that they’ve seen it in the past.

But, even for guitar players who’ve been exposed to this study, I’ve normally found that the biggest problem has been that they’ve never actually integrated it into their practice routine for a long enough period of time.


LENGTH OF STUDY IS CRITICAL:
It’s important to clarify that any technique exercise will generally require anywhere from 3 to 4 weeks to build up the basic skill reinforcement that is required to have the exercise integrate into your playing and produce the very first levels of effectiveness.

Many exercises will need a much longer period. This might be anywhere from 3 months to possibly even up to as much as 2 years in order to really burn in the results at a high level of perfection.




GETTING STARTED:
Let’s get started on learning the details about exactly how to practice the “Spider Walk Exercise.”

We’re going to learn this exercise in two parts. The first part has to do with what I call the fixed finger approach. If you’ve studied classical guitar (with a formal instructor) you’re probably already somewhat familiar with doing fixed-finger studies.


FIXED FINGER APPROACH:

The "Fixed Finger" Approach:


Keep the fingers "glued" to the neck, moving only one finger at a time onto the next adjacent guitar string. As you perform the exercise, be sure not to even flinch any of the other fingers from their fretted placement within the position.

Watch the Video Clip below to fully comprehend how this Fixed-Finger concept works when it's applied to the, “Spider Walk.”

FIXED FINGER VIDEO:



Now that you understand the basics of how the “Spider Walk,” exercise can be developed from the fixed finger perspective, let’s move on to the next level of practicing this exercise by getting sorted out on a single-string approach with the "Spider Walk."





SINGLE-STRING PATTERN APPROACH:
The next level of practice with this exercise is to create a 2-string playing pattern that walks the notes of this chromatic run along through the position.

There are endless ways of doing this, but the concept is always the same. You need to maintain a run of notes within the applied region of frets. Each fret needs to be accounted for between the two strings.

Study the examples below to fully comprehend how this idea would be applied with regard to the single-string application of the Spider Walk.







Spider Walk /Single-String
Exercise 2:



Spider Walk /Single-String
Exercise 3:



Spider Walk /Single-String
Exercise 4:



Watch the Video Clip below to fully comprehend how this Single-String concept works when it's applied to the, “Spider Walk.”

SINGLE STRING VIDEO: 







CONCLUSION:
I’ve practiced this exercise on and off for years now, and I keep coming back to it for a 30 day routine whenever I ever feel like I need the extra work.

My suggestion is to practice the “Spider Walk,” exercise for at least 30 days and if you do that, I can guarantee that you will notice a whole bunch of fantastic results start pouring in.

From increased left and right hand accuracy, to improved coordination, better fretting ability, and better dexterity for the fret-board hand.

But, keep in mind that the level of skill (and especially accuracy), will have a lot to do with you practicing this exercise with the help of a metronome.

If you don’t have a metronome, I’d suggest checking out a great online metronome that’s posted over at, “sessiontown.com,” and before we wrap things up here, let me give you a quick breakdown of how to use their metronome.

SESSION TOWN METRONOME VIDEO:





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