An etude is defined as “a short musical composition, typically for one instrument, designed as an exercise to improve the technique or demonstrate the skill of the player.” I have written the following etude to give you practice in string skipping, increase your finger strength and independence, provide practice in the I chord and V chord arpeggios within the scale pattern and give you something fun and impressive to play!
This piece should be played using scale pattern #1, which means that you will be in the 7th position. If you are ready to give your left hand an exercise that will increase finger independence, play all fretted notes, exactly as they occur in the scale pattern. You will hold down any notes that you can, such as the E’s in the first measure and the G’s in the second one, while playing the surrounding notes. If, however, you find that too physically taxing, you can play the E’s and G’s as open strings and still get a lot of benefits from your etude.
