Hello everybody, This post is about the importance of exercises in preparing your hands for difficult musical situations you will encounter when you play. I think the biggest challenge with exercises is know how and when balance the practicing of exercises with the practicing of playing music. I feel it is very important to “plug-in” the exercise material you have been practicing into your musical lines so they can start to become part of your natural musical vocabulary. Work on making that material musical and full of groove otherwise your lines will end up sounding and feeling like exercises instead of music. The following video of a Skype lesson talks about how to get your left and right hand ready for navigating string to string movement within the same fret. Thanks for your time!! – Russ