The Spider - "Real-World" Usage

Like many introductory finger independence development techniques, the "Spider" is very boring and does not sound pleasant to the ears. It is one of those warm-ups that you have to do to reach an intermediate level to create better music. When you watch YouTube videos of very advanced players, you probably observed that their fingers move very efficiently. Sometimes you wonder how they can play so many notes while their fingers seem to move slower than the notes that they churn out. The Spider is one of the building blocks for this. Here is a real-world Spider-like run that you can try by using what you have learned from the Spider. You might want to play this "Spider" style by having only one finger lifted from the strings and then compare it to the way you would play it without having this restriction. I hope you can observe that the "Spider" way sounds more like a liquid and even run. This example is still not a Legato example because you have to pick each note and you don't do any tapping, hammer-ons or pulls but it nurtures your ability to play legato.
This example is inspired by John Petrucci.
The vexflow software can't show sextoles so please consider all six notes to be one beat. One thing you might do to emphasize the flow is to accentuate the first stroke of the six notes a bit.
You will initially find out that playing it the "Spider" way is slower but more fluid ...

tabstave notation=true notes :w 12/6 14/6 15/6 12/5 14/5 15/5 | notes :w 14/6 15/6 17/6 14/5 15/5 17/5 | tabstave notation=true notes :w 14/5 15/5 17/5 14/4 16/4 17/4 | notes :w 14/4 16/4 17/4 14/3 16/3 17/3 | tabstave notation=true notes :w 16/4 17/4 19/4 16/3 17/3 19/3 | notes :w 16/3 17/3 19/3 17/2 19/2 20/2 | tabstave notation=true notes :w 17/2 19/2 20/2 17/1 19/1 20/1 | notes :w 19/2 20/2 22/2 19/1 20/1 22/1 | tabstave notation=true notes :w 15/2 17/2 19/2 15/1 19/2 17/2 | notes :w 15/2 17/2 19/2 15/1 17/1 19/1 | tabstave notation=true notes :w 16/4 17/4 19/4 15/2 19/4 17/4 | notes :w 16/4 17/4 19/4 16/3 17/3 19/3 | tabstave notation=true notes :w 14/4 16/4 17/4 14/3 17/4 16/4 | notes :w 14/4 16/4 17/4 14/3 16/3 17/3 | tabstave notation=true notes :w 14/5 15/5 17/5 14/3 17/5 15/5 | notes :w 14/5 15/5 17/5 14/4 16/4 17/4 | tabstave notation=true notes :w 14/6 15/6 17/6 14/5 17/6 15/6 | notes :w 14/6 15/6 17/6 14/5 15/5 17/5 | tabstave notation=true notes :w 12/6 14/6 15/6 12/4 15/6 14/6 | notes :w 12/6 14/6 15/6 12/5 14/5 15/5 | tabstave notation=true notes :w 12/6 |

The Spider II -Advanced Warm Up-

The first "The Spider" post should have helped you to get used to move your fingers independently. One variation of that is combining this with string skipping. So you start on the E string and jump to the G string and back. Another variation is to combine the Spider with stretching by changing from a chromatic scale to always moving by one note. This will stretch your middle and ring finger and train their independence.

tabstave notation=true notes :8 14/6 16/6 18/6 20/6 | notes :8 14/5 16/5 18/5 20/5 | notes :8 14/4 16/4 18/4 20/4 | tabstave notation=true notes :8 14/3 | tabstave notation=true notes :8 14/1 16/1 18/1 20/1 | notes :8 14/2 16/2 18/2 20/2 | notes :8 14/3 16/3 18/3 20/3 |

The next step would be to skip strings by going from the E string to the D string and then to the B string and vice versa.

The Spider - Building Block of Legato

To make progress on the guitar, you want to look at the smallest building blogs of your guitar playing. Most tutorials or books show you how to play a large number of notes in a short amount of time but fail to actually show how to use your hands to play the guitar.
In other words how does one finger press on one string and then on the next one. Here is a simple chromatic scale that is sometimes called "The Spider". The idea is that only one finger is up in the air while all the other fingers press down a string. In other words, while your first finger is already on the next string the other three fingers still press the previous string. Try this with higher speeds on the metronome. The main idea is that your fingers move independently ... that is one of the basic requirements of playing fast and fluid. This training is also a building block for playing legato ... make a habit out of only lifting one finger for all your scales and runs. All the other fingers stay on the strings ...

tabstave notation=true key=A notes :8 5/6 6/6 7/6 8/6 | notes :8 5/5 6/5 7/5 8/5 | notes :8 5/4 6/4 7/4 8/4 | tabstave notation=true notes :8 5/3 | tabstave notation=true notes :8 8/1 7/1 6/1 5/1 | notes :8 8/2 7/2 6/2 5/2 | notes :8 8/3 7/3 6/3 5/3 |