Chromatic Scale Exercise Advice Needed?

Question

Ok, I play guitar and I decided to work on my speed. Now they say to start slow and play clearly and I've been having a problem. Say you start on the top string and play four notes then go down to the next string when take your pinky off the string vibrates so what I've been doing is playing the first not on the next string then bringing my index finger back up to mute the string above the one that I'm on. Is this necessary? What do you guys do? I only do this while ascending the scale. Should I be training my index finger to do this?

Answer 1

This isn't really going to be what you needed, as I do not play guitar, but I'm just going to tell you what I did when I needed to perfect my chromatic scale:

I just started from the lowest note, and worked my way up.  I didn't play it slow like you said, I just sort of made myself a little melody, I would play the bits that I was comfortable with, faster, and I would slow my 'melody' down when I hit a hard/technical part.

It really helped me, and another person that I met when I used to play at this huge symphony, did it also. Try playing it the way that you feel comfortable with, first.

If, in fact, it doesn't work for you, you can always go back to playing it slow, all at the same speed, until you get it, and then gradually speed it up.

I hope that this has helped at least somewhat.

Good luck on that, and sorry that I couldn't give you help with specifics, but, frankly, I'm complete **** at guitar.

Answer 2

Get your fingers up on their tips so that when you lift your pinky off the string, it goes straight up, perpendicular to the fretboard, and doesn't pluck the string.