Classical Guitar Right Hand: Keep i–m Alternation Across Barlines and Rests

For these open-string exercises, begin with i and alternate i–m at every new pluck. Keep the next finger through rests, barlines, and string changes. This is our practice policy; your teacher may choose a different starting finger or fingering in repertoire.

This lesson uses two original two-bar cells and short reading and repair studies. You should already have a teacher-checked plucking position and a comfortable open-string sound. Handout 443: Alternate the Plucks, Not the Beats is an optional companion. Exercise 137: Which Finger Plucks Next? supplies further blanks, repairs, and reading. The article examples below stand on their own.

1. The rule stated at the pluck level

Bradford Werner’s beginner alternation lesson encourages practicing the habit without becoming frustrated by occasional repeated fingers. Here we choose a fixed sequence so you can plan each pluck, then compare the plan with your movement. A different fingering chosen for a piece is a separate musical decision.

The key word is pluck. A pluck — also called an attack — is the moment a string is set in motion by a finger. Every other event in a bar (a rest, a barline, a held note continuing to ring, a string you pass over but do not touch) is not a pluck. The rule applies only to plucks.

This matters because learners often apply the rule to beats rather than plucks. In these 4/4 exercises, a quarter rest occupies one beat, exactly like a quarter note, so it is easy to assume that the rest "uses up" a turn. It does not. The beat continues; the finger index does not move.

Our exercise policy: count each new pluck as one turn; rests and barlines use no turn.

To make counting concrete, number every pluck in a phrase starting from zero. Attack index 0 is i in these exercises (index finger), attack index 1 is m (middle finger), index 2 is i again, and so on. Even index = i; odd index = m. The formula: finger(n) = i if n is even, m if n is odd.

You can calculate the intended label yourself. To check execution, ask someone to watch the plucking fingers, or review a clear video. A correct written answer and a correct movement are two different checks; use both. Keep the plucks even in time and similar in volume, and make the printed rests silent.

2. Tracking the count on paper

For one attempt, let your partner follow only the fingers; for the next, listen together for the rests. Checking one feature at a time makes the feedback specific. Compare the result with the printed notes before choosing what to repeat.

Before playing anything, trace a phrase on paper. Assign index 0 to the first pluck in the phrase. Skip rests and barlines. Number only the pluck events. The numbers describe order, not beats: a half note gets one attack number even though you keep it ringing for two beats. There are no ties or technical slurs in these introductory studies.

i identifies the index finger and m the middle finger. This schematic names fingers; your teacher demonstrates the playing position and stroke.

Finger letters name the plucking hand; left-hand numbers 1–4 name fretting fingers. String 1 is the thinnest high E; string 2 is B. For these studies leave both open. The thumb is p, but there is no thumb accompaniment here. Yamaha’s beginner guide lists standard tuning from low to high as E–A–D–G–B–E; our examples use its two highest strings.

Review quarter-note counting if needed. For the octave convention, Werner’s guitar-notation introduction explains that guitar sounds one octave below its written staff. Written E5 in the top space sounds as E4, the open first string. Written B4 on the middle line sounds as B3, the open second string. Circled numbers identify strings, as Berklee’s notation guide explains; the plain numbers below our notes are attack indices.

3. Cell A: three attacks cross the barline

Cell A is a two-bar 4/4 study on the open E string (string 1, written E5). Bar 1 has three quarter-note attacks followed by one quarter rest. Bar 2 has one quarter rest, one half note, and one quarter rest. There are four plucks in the phrase. In bar 2, wait through beat 1, pluck with m on beat 2, hold through beat 3, and stop on beat 4.

Cell A: attack indices 0–3 continue across two rests and a barline. The half note in bar 2 is one pluck lasting two beats.

Trace the count: attack 0 = i, attack 1 = m, attack 2 = i. Then: quarter rest in bar 1 (no advance), barline (no advance), quarter rest in bar 2 (no advance). The next pluck is attack index 3. Is 3 even or odd? Odd: m.

This is the key observation. When you arrive at the half note in bar 2, you are not starting fresh. The phrase did not pause and restart at the barline. The barline is a bookkeeping mark on paper. The sequence continued through it: 0=i, 1=m, 2=i, 3=m.

Read across the top row, then the bottom row. Only the four boxes labeled attack 0–3 consume a finger turn. Rest and barline boxes mark events without adding turns; box widths do not represent duration.

Play Cell A slowly. Before each pluck, say the finger label aloud — "i," "m," "i" — and then say "m" for the entry in bar 2 even though you had a rest and crossed a barline. If your hand instinctively reaches for i on that entry, that is the reset habit at work. Pause, identify index 3 as odd, say "m," and pluck.

Now check the wrong version. Its final finger label breaks our policy. What might have happened?

Only the final letter differs from Cell A: i repeats at attack index 3, where our policy requires m.

The final i repeats the previous plucking finger. One possible cause is counting one of the two rests as a turn; another is restarting with i after the barline. Count only the four plucks: i–m–i–m. Counting both rests as extra turns would preserve parity, so the wrong label cannot prove that both were counted.

Left: the planned i–m–i–m sequence. Right: a repeated i at the final pluck. Miscounting one rest is one possible cause; the label alone cannot establish why it happened.

4. Rests in detail

In these single-line studies, a rest asks you to stop the preceding string at the rest's start and keep counting silently. Ask your teacher to demonstrate gentle damping with the next finger; touching to stop a string is not a new pluck and uses no alternation turn. In Cell A, stop E on beat 4 of bar 1 and beat 4 of bar 2.

In our 4/4 studies, a quarter rest lasts one beat and a half rest lasts two. A whole-bar rest keeps the entire measure silent. The Rests shows these symbols; The Half Note reviews holding a note for two quarter-note beats.

Niedt explains why alternation matters particularly in fast scale passages, while also discussing exceptions. In our slow Cell A, repeating i after the gap breaks the stated practice policy; it does not by itself prove that the rhythm will be uneven. See his right-hand alternation lesson.

Keep track of the next finger without touching a vibrating string before its note is due to end; have your teacher demonstrate preparation and stopping. Listen to the difference between stopping on beat 4 and merely waiting to pluck again. Waiting alone lets an open string ring into the written silence. The damping touch and the next pluck are separate actions even when the same finger performs them.

5. Cell B: string transfers do not reset the count

Cell B is an article variation on the handout’s two-string work. It alternates the open B string (written B4) and open E string (written E5). Bar 1 has four quarter notes: B, E, B, E. Bar 2 has two attacks: B as a quarter note, then E as a half note, followed by a quarter rest. The handout reverses those two pitches in its second bar: E quarter, B half, quarter rest.

Article Cell B: follow circled strings 2–1–2–1, then 2–1, while the attack indices continue 0–5.

The finger index runs: 0=i, 1=m, 2=i, 3=m, 4=i, 5=m. It does not reset when you move from string 2 to string 1 or back. Each pluck still advances the index by one.

On one string, the next pluck naturally replaces the previous vibration. A string change is different: the B can keep ringing after you play E. These examples are a single line, so let each note last its written value and ask your teacher to show how to stop the old string at the next note. Listen for one pitch at a time. If two strings overlap, correct the release as well as the finger sequence. The final E in Cell B should last through beats 2 and 3; silence begins on beat 4. Preparing early must not shorten that half note.

One-transfer attempt: cover the compact answer and fill the four finger blanks before playing B–B–E–E.

Have your teacher choose a comfortable stroke. First try B–B–E–E with i–m–i–m: there is just one string transfer. Keep the pulse and watch that moving to E does not restart the sequence. Then try the alternating-string cell shown here. In repertoire, a teacher may change the starting finger or fingering to suit the passage.

Music Mark’s classical-guitar curriculum, Programme 1 B3, includes alternating pairs, teacher demonstrations, open-string rhythms, and rests made with the next finger. It also introduces second-to-first-string movement from i to m. The one-transfer study below lets you isolate a single crossing; it is a practice step, not a test of speed.

Worked answer: i moves to string 1 at attack index 2; m follows on the same string.

6. Repair technique

Learning the rule is the first step. The second step is being able to find and fix a broken sequence. Start by locating the first mismatch between the planned and printed fingers, then investigate how it happened.

Try these two original repair cards before opening Exercise 137. Each card has exactly one wrong label under our starting-i policy. Identify the attack and write its intended finger before playing. The worksheet uses different rhythms: repair A's fourth attack from i to m and B's third attack from m to i.

Article repair Card A: change the fourth pluck, attack index 3, from i to m. Keep the printed rhythm.

Card A’s error is at attack index 3, the fourth pluck. Change i to m. If an error follows a rest or barline, check whether you restarted or counted a silent beat as a turn; also check earlier labels and the string change.

Article repair Card B: change the third pluck, attack index 2, from m to i. Leave the following m unchanged.

Card B separates its two pairs of plucks with two quarter rests. The first pluck of bar 2 is attack index 2, so its intended finger is i. The card shows m, but the next attack should be i. The label tells us the sequence is wrong; it does not tell us what caused the mistake.

Check the attack count first, then ask where you lost the sequence.

The loop below gives you a different check: carry the sequence into a second pass with a different starting finger. Predict that entry before playing; a rest at the end of the first pass leaves the next finger unchanged.

Three-pluck loop: first pass i–m–i, second pass m–i–m. The rhythm repeats every bar; the starting finger changes.

Use the five-step repair process for an error in these exercises: mark the wrong label, find its attack index by counting only plucks from the start, apply the rule to calculate the correct finger, check whether a rest or barline precedes the error, and then play through the phrase once saying each finger aloud.

7. The four-bar reading study

Here is an additional four-bar reading study for this article. It has twelve attacks, grouped 4 + 4 + 2 + 2. Its finger labels show the intended sequence. Ask a partner to watch the hand while you play; a recording of spoken labels alone cannot confirm which finger moved. Exercise 137 has a different twelve-attack reading, grouped 3 + 3 + 3 + 3.

Additional article reading: twelve attacks, grouped 4 + 4 + 2 + 2. Watch the fingers and keep the rests silent.

This study has twelve attacks, so its final finger is m and a continuous repeat begins with i. After an odd number of attacks, the next repetition begins with m instead. Reset to i only when you deliberately stop and begin a new attempt.

Bars 3 and 4 each have two attacks. Their starting indices are 8 and 10, both i. The rests leave time between the plucks but add no finger turns. In bar 3, stop E on beat 3 and remain silent through beat 4. In bar 4, stop B on beat 3 and hold the silence for two beats. Trace those entries, then try the separate three-pluck loop shown earlier: its second pass begins with m. The loop is short enough to watch the change without adding string transfers.

Ask a partner or teacher to watch whether i and m alternate, ask whether your hand feels comfortable, and listen for a steady pulse through the rests. Audio can check rhythm, but it cannot identify the finger used. Spoken labels report your intention; an observer or a clear video of the hand checks the movement.

Count four silent beats, then begin with i in bar 2. Eight plucks follow; the rests add no finger turns.

The continuation study above begins with a silent bar. This represents a situation you will encounter in ensemble and accompaniment settings: the piece is already in motion when your phrase begins. In this study, the opening rest bar has no attacks, so the phrase genuinely starts at index 0 on beat 1 of bar 2. If you had been playing a previous phrase that ended before the rest, you would continue with the next attack index after the last pluck. Since this study presents the rest bar as the opening, no prior phrase context exists, and index 0 applies.

Practice routine

An optional session can include three stages: cells, repair, and reading. The goal is not to move quickly through the stages; it is to build the habit of computing the finger before the pluck, not guessing it.

Optional fifteen-minute plan: five minutes each for cells, repair, and reading. Choose a tempo that keeps the hand comfortable and the pulse steady.

For the cells, cover the finger labels, name the intended sequence, then uncover and compare. Matching labels show that you know the sequence. If the movement differs, slow down and check both the intended label and the finger that actually plucks. Let your partner watch one short attempt before offering feedback, so stopping to explain does not hide a lost pulse.

For the repair cards, work out the intended sequence before comparing it with the printed letters. Circle the first mismatch and change that label, then check the rest of the card. A following repeated letter may already be correct, as Card B shows: changing the first m in bar 2 to i restores alternation without changing the second m.

Say the finger name just before you pluck, without shifting the note off the beat. If speaking disrupts the pulse, name the fingers once before playing and let your partner watch.

If counting aloud breaks the pulse, try a short attempt without playing: tap four steady beats per bar and point to each note or rest. Say finger letters only at the plucks, and count silent beats without inventing extra finger turns. The Rests provides practice counting silence. Then add the guitar back in.

Keep the numbering systems separate when checking the worksheet. Its first attack is numbered 1; our first attack has index 0. To compare the same pluck, add one to our index: index 3 is the fourth attack. The intended finger does not change when you rename the number. Ask your partner to point to the exact note before discussing an answer, especially after a rest.

A Tissimo lesson gives a teacher a focused task: watch the planned fingers and listen for steady attacks and silent rests. A teacher can watch one slow repetition and help you correct the first place the sequence breaks. Ask your teacher how to adapt the fingering in your next piece.

Free worksheets for this lesson

• Handout 443: Alternate the Plucks, Not the Beats — two labeled open-string cells, finger-name explanations, and a next-finger mini-task.
• Exercise 137: Which Finger Plucks Next? — complete six blanks, repair two cards, and play its twelve-attack reading with an observer.
• The Quarter Note — review of beat and bar structure.
• The Rests — rest values and counting through silence.
• The Half Note — held notes and their count-through duration.

Sources

• Beginner Lesson: Alternating Right-Hand Fingers — Bradford Werner
• Right-Hand Finger Alternation — Douglas Niedt
• A Common Approach: Classical Guitar, Programme 1 B3, p. 7 — Music Mark
• Introduction to Reading Music Notation on Guitar — Bradford Werner
• Guitar Notation Basics — Jonathan Feist, Berklee Online
• Eight Great Tips for Learning Guitar, standard tuning in section 3 — Robbie Calvo, Yamaha