1

19 Finger
Exercises by Jovan Ilic

Table of Contents
Intro 3
What you can expect 3
3
I admit it 4
Practical ways to use this book 4
About the notation 4
“Are you crazy?” 5
Don't Forget The Metronome 5
How to quickly and easily make massive progress 5
A word of caution 6
How far should you go? 6
Be present my friend 7
Use Zoom 7
Time to play! 7
Exercise 1 8
Exercise 2 9
Exercise 3 10
Exercise 4 11
Exercise 5 12
Exercise 6 13
Exercise 7 14
Exercise 8 15
Exercise 9 16
Exercise 10 17
Exercise 11 18
Exercise 12 19
Exercise 13 20
Exercise 14 21
Exercise 15 22
Exercise 16 23
Exercise 17 24
Exercise 18 25
Exercise 19 26
Final thoughts 27

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 by Jovan Ilic
19 Finger
Exercises

Intro

I see many guitar players struggle with the same basic things, like fretting correctly, playing chords, barre chords,
riffs, etc...

The problem is simply in their fingers, they lack finger strength because they don't practice very often, if they
practice at all. I don't understand why this isn't thought at schools, even my professor who was great didn't focus
much on finger strength and these kind of exercises.

When you are a professional athlete, for example footballer, you need to constantly practice, every singe day just to
stay in the form. It's the same with the guitar. Imagine if pro footballer decided to stop practicing and just show up
for a match, he wouldn't last even if 15 minutes. He would run out of breath so quickly because he is out of shape.
For guitar players it's the same, you need to practice to stay in the shape, imagine if SRV showed up to a concert
without practicing for hours and hours every day, he would last one song.

There is an inherent disconnect between what your brain wants to play and what your muscles are capable of
playing. In order to bring your brain and your muscles together in perfect harmony, you’ve got to put in a
little work.

What You Can Expect

Here’s the deal. If you will commit yourself to practicing one of these twenty exercises for 5 minutes a day
for twenty straight days, you’ll be a different guitar player then before. You will have much better control of
your guitar playing, increased speed, accuracy, and much more. Playing these exercises the first thing in your
practice routine will do you much good. They are a great warm-up for advanced players, and a good practice
routine as themselves for beginners and intermediate players.

What’s amazing about these exercises is that they have a double effect: one on your left hand, and one on
your right. In other words, not only will your left hand (if that’s the one your use to fret with) be much
stronger, but your right hand will be much more accurate! Why? Well, think about it.

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19 Finger
Exercises by Jovan Ilic

All these exercises involve your and hand. So as your practicing them you’ll not only get a much
stronger and more agile left hand, you’ll also be able to pick with greater speed and accuracy.

I Admit
Ok, I’m going to go ahead and admit it, right on the front end. Playing these exercises isn’t that fun. It's
the truth, but you must understand something. Ronaldo didn't enjoy staying after practice to shoot at an
empty goal by himself. But he did it. It was not as much fun as playing the Champion League, but without it,
he wouldn't be Ronaldo
Think of these exercises as a traning for the big league, for learning complex songs later in your journey and
preforming live.

In other words, if you want to play the solo guitar part in “Free Bird” (Lynyrd Skynyrd) you better get in
shape. Why? Well, because that song is long. I think it’s something like ten minutes. And it has a lot of
hammer-on’s and pull-off’s. It takes a lot of strength, agility and speed.

Even if you don't want to play complicated guitar parts and solos, you should still practice these exercises. Why? To
get endurance and finger strength. Even if you want to play only three chord songs, you still need endurance to keep
up the pace for hours.

The point I’m driving at is this: no matter what your goals are for guitar, having hand and

Practical ways to use this book

Ok, now that we’ve gotten the philosophical “Why?” questions out of the way, let’s talk about real-world,
practical, down-to-earth ways to use this book.

About the notation

I’ve written 19 exercises for you. They are all here for your enjoyment. I’ve given you both the
standard notation and the tablature for each exercise. This will help you start to memorize the notes on the
fretboard. Try to ask yourself as you practice, “What note am I playing?” Then relate the note on the staff to
the string you are fretting.

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19 Finger
Exercises

Most of the symbols you will be familiar with. A few you may not be. For those symbols that might be out
of the ordinary, I’ve created a few notes next to the diagram to explain.

“Are you crazy?”

If someone walks in the room while you’re playing these, she’ll probably look at you as if you have three
eyes. The immediate thought might be, “OK, he’s completely lost it.” But never fear. I assure you. You’re not
nuts. You’re practicing. And that’s going to make you that much better when it does come time to play your
favorite songs.

One nice thing about these exercises is that they are . In other words, they aren’t based the diatonic
scales, modes or pentatonic scales. They’re just exercises. So they aren’t supposed to be sweet to your ears.

Don't Forget The Metronome

If you don't have a metronome, you need to get one. It's pretty easy to use ones you know how, and to learn
that check out the post I made on my skool platform. You can always use online metronome or download an
app for free

When you use metronome you can TRACK how much you improved the previous day, you can actually see
your progress day by day. Day 1 you did 60bmp, day 5 you did 65bmp, day 10 you did 70bmp, etc...

And it’s a good idea to keep a journal of your practice. Write down what you practiced and for how

long. For you might notice that you’ve increased that same exercise to 120 BPM! That kind of feedback is

good for now, you’ll be amazed at how much better you’ve gotten, in such a short amount of time.

How to quickly and easily make massive progress

to the twentieth one, you’ll be doing some pretty advanced stuff. But it’s kind of like math. You can’t multiply

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19 Finger
Exercises by Jovan Ilic

work. You need to go

What I suggest is that you practice number one for five minutes, at a given BPM. Tomorrow, you practice
number two for five minutes. The next day, you practice number three for five minutes.
After 19 days, you will be exposed to every exercise on this list.

At the end of those twenty days, you start to put more than exercise into your practice routine. For example,

stronger and faster, you’ll be able to play more exercises in the same amount of time.

When you really get smoking, you’ll be able to do say one exercise per minute. So, in ten minutes you’ll have
half of these done! That will put you on a two-day routine (ten one day, ten on the next).

Keep in mind that this is a recommendation. I don't know on which level are you, so practice accordingly to
your level.

A word of caution
This probably goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. If you ever feel any pain whatsoever while you’re
playing these exercises, stop immediately. Put your guitar down for a day or at least the rest of the after-
noon and come back later.

Use good common sense. You wouldn’t sign up for the marathon if you couldn’t even run two miles would
you? It’s the same principle. Just like going to the gym, start with 5kg weight then you go with 7,5 kg, 10kg...
Progressive overload.

How far should you go?

You'll notice that all exercises ends abruptly. In fact, I didn't even create a final ending bar to indicate where
to stop, especially with 1212 exercise. This means that you can take all of the exercises up to the end of the
guitar neck, or you can go up till the fifth fret. It's up to you and your practice routine.

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19 Finger
Exercises

Be present my friend
One more thing before you get started. You want to make sure that you play each of the exercises with
exacting You don’t want any dead notes (where the note doesn’t sound because it
wasn’t fretted properly).

Keep in mind that speed cannot come until you have control. Always, always stay in control. You don’t want
to ever feel like the guitar and metronome are running from you.
Remember, YOU are playing the guitar, the guitar is not playing you.

Use Zoom!
When using this PDF, I recommend using the zoom feature if you are struggling to see the exercises.

You can Zoom in with "+" and Zoom out with "-", it's pretty easy.

Time to play!
Well that’s enough talk. It’s time to play. So pick up your favorite guitar, lock yourself in the room and let's get
some quality practice time.

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19 Finger
Exercises by Jovan Ilic

1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4

2 3 4 5
2 3 4 5
2 3 4 5
2 3 4 5
2 3 4 5
2 3 4 5

3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6

4 5 6 7
4 5 6 7
4 5 6 7
4 5 6 7

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19 Finger
Exercises

4 3 2 1
4 3 2 1
4 3 2 1
4 3 2 1
4 3 2 1
4 3 2 1

5 4 3 2
5 4 3 2
5 4 3 2
5 4 3 2
5 4 3 2
5 4 3 2

6 5 4 3
6 5 4 3
6 5 4 3
6 5 4 3
6 5 4 3
6 5 4 3

7 6 5 4
7 6 5 4
7 6 5 4
7 6 5 4
7 6 5 4
7 6 5 4

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19 Finger
Exercises by Jovan Ilic

1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4

5 4 3 2
5 4 3 2
5 4 3 2
5 4 3 2
5 4 3 2
5 4 3 2

3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6

7 6 5 4
7 6 5 4
7 6 5 4
7 6 5 4

5 6 7 8
7 6 5 4 5 6 7 8
7 6 5 4 5 6 7 8

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 by Jovan Ilic
19 Finger
Exercises

18

  1 2 3

                         

 1 2 1 2 3 2 1 2 3 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 4 3 4 3 2 3 4 3


 4

        

 2 1 2 3 4 3 2 1

This tab is not very long, it would be very confusing to continue because it's all on the same
string. The pattern when going down the neck is this:
1212-3212-3432-1234.

Then you go one fret down and do this pattern again until you arrive at twelve fret. When
coming back, up the neck pattern is this:
4343-2343-2123-4321
.
Do this pattern until you come back at first fret.
It's complex patter so you can develop more finger
independence.

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 by Jovan Ilic
19 Finger
Exercises

4 3 2 1
1 2 3 4
4 3 2 1
1 2 3 4
4 3 2 1
1 2 3 4

5 4 3 2
2 3 4 5
5 4 3 2
2 3 4 5
5 4 3 2
2 3 4 5

6 5 4 3
3 4 5 6
6 5 4 3
3 4 5 6
6 5 4 3
3 4 5 6

7 6 5 4
4 5 6 7
7 6 5 4
4 5 6 7

5 6 7 8
7 6 5 4 8 7 6 5
4 5 6 7 5 6 7 8

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19 Finger
Exercises by Jovan Ilic

1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4 2 3 4 5
2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 2 3 4 5
2 3 4 5

2 3 4 5
2 3 4 5 3 4 5 6
2 3 4 5
2 3 4 5 3 4 5 6

3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6

3 4 5 6 4 5 6 7
4 5 6 7
3 4 5 6 4 5 6 7

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 by Jovan Ilic
19 Finger
Exercises

4 3 2 1
4 3 2 1
4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1
4 3 2 1
4 3 2 1

4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2
5 4 3 2
4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2
5 4 3 2

5 4 3 2
5 4 3 2 6 5 4 3
5 4 3 2
5 4 3 2 6 5 4 3

6 5 4 3
6 5 4 3
6 5 4 3
6 5 4 3

6 5 4 3 7 6 5 4
7 6 5 4
6 5 4 3 7 6 5 4

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19 Finger
Exercises by Jovan Ilic

1 3 2 4
1 3 2 4
1 3 2 4
1 3 2 4
1 3 2 4
1 3 2 4

2 4 3 5
2 4 3 5
2 4 3 5
2 4 3 5
2 4 3 5
2 4 3 5

3 5 4 6
3 5 4 6
3 5 4 6
3 5 4 6
3 5 4 6
3 5 4 6

4 6 5 7
4 6 5 7
4 6 5 7
4 6 5 7

5 7 6 8
4 6 5 7 5 7 6 8
4 6 5 7 5 7 6 8

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 by Jovan Ilic
19 Finger
Exercises

4 2 3 1
4 2 3 1
4 2 3 1
4 2 3 1
4 2 3 1
4 2 3 1

5 3 4 2
5 3 4 2
5 3 4 2
5 3 4 2
5 3 4 2
5 3 4 2

6 4 5 3
6 4 5 3
6 4 5 3
6 4 5 3
6 4 5 3
6 4 5 3

7 5 6 4
7 5 6 4
7 5 6 4
7 5 6 4

6 4 5 3
7 5 6 4 8 6 7 5
8 6 7 5

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19 Finger
Exercises by Jovan Ilic

1 3 2 4
1 3 2 4
1 3 2 4 1 3 2 4
1 3 2 4
1 3 2 4

1 3 2 4 2 4 3 5
2 4 3 5
1 3 2 4 2 4 3 5
2 4 3 5

2 4 3 5
2 4 3 5 3 5 4 6
2 4 3 5
2 4 3 5 3 5 4 6

1
1 2 3 5 4
3 4 1
1 3 5 4
3 5 4

3 5 4 6 4 6 5 7
4 6 5 7
3 5 4 6 4 6 5 7

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 by Jovan Ilic
19 Finger
Exercises

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4 2 3 1
4 2 3 1
4 2 3 1 4 2 3 1
4 2 3 1
4 2 3 1

4 2 3 1 5 3 4 2
5 3 4 2
4 2 3 1 5 3 4 2
5 3 4 2

5 3 4 2
5 3 4 2
5 3 4 1
5 3 4 2

6 4 5 3
6 4 5 3
6 4 5 3

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 by Jovan Ilic
19 Finger
Exercises

This exercise is called "The Anchor" because you will always have one finger anchored on the fretboard. This is actually 4
different exercises, because with first line of tab you are anchoring your index finger, with second line of tab you are
anchoring your middle finger, with third line of tab your ring finger and with fourth line your pinky finger.
You should anchor your fingers on third string, I usually acnhor my index at fourth fret, middle at fifth, ring at sixth, and
pinky at seventh.
You can do as you like. Here is a picture if you are still confused

    
  1 3 3
  3 2           3 3 3 3
             
   3
3 3 3 3
3
  

6 7 8 8 7 6
6 7 8 8 7 6
 6 7 8
6 7 8 8 7 6
8 7 6
6 7 8 8 7 6
 6 7 8 8 7 6

      
 4 3 3
    
3 5
        3 6 3 3
         
    3
3 3 3 3
3
  
5 7 8 8 7 5
5 7 8 8 7 5
 5 7 8
6 7 8 8 7 6
8 7 5
5 7 8 8 7 5
 5 7 8 8 7 5

    
 7 3 3
   3 8
          3 3 3 9

          
    
   3
3 3 3 3
3
5 6 8 8 6 5
5 6 8 8 6 5
 5 6 8
7 7 8 8 7 7
8 6 5
5 6 8 8 6 5
 5 6 8 8 6 5

     
 10 3 3 3
   
11
         3 3 3 12

         
   3 3 3 3
    
3 3
5 6 7 7 6 5
5 6 7 7 6 5
 5 6 7
8 8 8 8 8 8
7 6 5
5 6 7 7 6 5
 5 6 7 7 6 5

This is example for the first line of tab,

anchoring your index finger. Follow the tab
while not moving your index finger.

Do this with all fingers, anchoring middle,

ring and pinky finger.

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19 Finger
Exercises by Jovan Ilic

  1 2
  3  
    
 
 

1 3
1 3
 1 3 1 3
1 3

 1 3

  4  5
 6

     
   
2 4
2 4
 2 4
2 4
2 4
2 4

 7

  
 
 2 4
 2 4

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19 Finger
Exercises by Jovan Ilic

11

1 3 5 2 4 6
1 3 5 2 4 6
1 3 5
1 3 5
1 3 5
1 3 5

2 4 6 3 5 7
2 4 6 3 5 7
2 4 6 3 5 7
2 4 6 3 5 7

3 5 7 4 6 8
3 5 7 4 6 8
4 6 8
4 6 8

4 6 8 5 7 9
4 6 8 5 7 9

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 by Jovan Ilic
19 Finger
Exercises

12

5 3 1 6 4 2
5 3 1 6 4 2
5 3 1
5 3 1
5 3 1
5 3 1

6 4 2 7 5 3
6 4 2 7 5 3
6 4 2 7 5 3
6 4 2 7 5 3

7 5 3 8 6 4
7 5 3 8 6 4
8 6 4
8 6 4

8 6 4 9 7 5
8 6 4 9 7 5

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19 Finger
Exercises by Jovan Ilic

13

1 3 5
1 3 5
1 3 5 1 3 5
1 3 5 1 3 5
1 3 5
1 3 5

2 4 6
2 4 6
2 4 6 2 4 6
2 4 6 2 4 6
2 4 6
2 4 6

3 5 7
3 5 7
3 5 7 3 5 7
3 5 7
3 5 7

3 5 7 4 6 8
3 5 7 4 6 8

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 by Jovan Ilic
19 Finger
Exercises

14

5 3 1
5 3 1
5 3 1 5 3 1
5 3 1 5 3 1
5 3 1
5 3 1

6 4 2
6 4 2
6 4 2 6 4 2
6 4 2 1 6 4 2
4 2
6 4 2

7 5 3
7 5 3
7 5 3 7 5 3
7 5 3
7 5 3

7 5 3 8 6 4
7 5 3 8 6 4

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19 Finger
Exercises by Jovan Ilic

19
In this exercise, you should use all 4 fingers. So in this tab for 1 and 3 you should use index and ring
finger and for 2 and 4 you should use middle and pinky finger.

Just follow the chord diagram I made for you.

    

 
  1 2 3

          
            
 

 3 4 1 2
3
1
4
2
1
3
2
4
3 4 1 2 1 2 3 4
 1 2 3 4

  4
  5       6
       
         
3 4 1 2 2 1 4 3
3 4 1 2 1 2 3 4 4 3 2 1
 1 2 3 4


  7 8 9

        
     
   
       
2 1 4 3
 4 3 2 1 2
4
1
3
4
2
3
1 2 1 4 3
4 3 2 1

 10


          

2 1 4 3
 4 3 2 1

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19 Finger
Exercises by Jovan Ilic

17
This is just like exercise above but with sinle notes instead of two notes at the same time.
Be sure that only one note rings out when you play.

  1 2 3

        


             

 3 4 1 2 1
3
2
4
3
1
4
2
3 4 1 2 1 2 3 4
 1 2 3 4



 
4
       5
       6
       

3 4 1 2 2 1 4 3
3 4 1 2 1 2 3 4 4 3 2 1
 1 2 3 4


 7
  8 9

                      
2 1 4 3
 4 3 2 1
4
2
3
1
2
4
1
3
2 1 4 3
4 3 2 1

 10


       

2 1 4 3
 4 3 2 1

26
19 Finger
Exercises by Jovan Ilic

Final thoughts
I hope you have enjoyed this little collection of exercises.
If you practice this everyday you will 100% increase your dexterity, endurance, finger strength, and general
feeling of control when playing.

Thank you for reading this far and don't forget to check a lot more guitar related stuff at my skool.

CCheck the skool here

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