Odd Time Signatures for Fingerstyle Technique and Theory Practice

We most often play guitar in 4/4 or 3/4 time - and that can give us enough trouble! However, I think practicing guitar in odd time signatures can heighten our rhythmic awareness and make us better guitarists overall. In this guitar tutorial, I show you how we can play a great little drill in 11/8 time that simultaneously works on not just our timing but our technique (great for the often-weak ring finger!) and even exercises the music theory part of our brain.

We'll start by tuning down to drop D and playing only the bass strings. Using your ring (a), middle (m) and index (i) fingers respectively, play three groups of three immediately followed by one group of two: 

Tricky right? Once we feel good with this, we'll start to explore the neck with different scales and even consolidate these groups together with barre chords. Watch the full tutorial here: 

As I mention in this guitar lesson, you can take the famous Spanish guitar ballad Romanza and turn it into a piece in 11/8 time. If you're not familiar with this piece, I highly recommend learning it as it features some essential arpeggio movements and can be played in a variety of ways to practice even more techniques. You can learn how to play Romanza here.