I am looking at getting an Ibanez guitar & practice amp from a friend so I can FINALLY join the ranks of the real musicians (not just the vocalists pretending to be musicians!). I need some guidance as to what finger exercises or practice routines to do to get up to speed fast. Any suggestions?

best thing is to learn all your open chords first..and maybe a couple major/minor scales

I know a lot of open chords, and of course I can play power chords and bar chords from years ago messing w/ my acoustic, but I'm looking for either suggestions of songs to learn up front to help me build dexterity in my hands/fingers, or finger exercises I can do to get my strength up quickly, as well as any tips/techniques for learning quickly.

http://www.freewebs.com/edeninruins/stevevai30hourpathtovirtuosoenlightenment.pdf

download that and do it, after which, your hands will HATE me for recommending it and Vai for making it available to people. lol

dude that thing works...im a better player after jsut half an hour!

Go to guitarbackingtrack.com if u want to learn to play at speed to songs. I know mortificatios german site has some tabs if u want to learn some of that lol. Also try www.ultimate-guitar.com www.gibson.com www.guitarplayer.com/ultimatemetal for a cool magazine that I just got. Theres some free video lessons too.

Learn some music theory. Practice scales. The practice with a metronome. You'll be shredding in no time

MetalFRO wrote:

I am looking at getting an Ibanez guitar & practice amp from a friend so I can FINALLY join the ranks of the real musicians (not just the vocalists pretending to be musicians!).

Haha, thing is, a lot of us with instruments are still pretending to be musicians
That being said, I'm going to check out that Vai article, too.

MetLHed4GZus wrote:

dude that thing works...im a better player after jsut half an hour!

I won't lie, I only do a few of those exercises and my hands hate me but my abilities are much, much better now.

Just focus on memorizing your scales.. everywhere on the fret board. And Jam with them as much as possible.

Once those are memorized, you'll be unstoppable with your ability to jam with anyone, make up great melodies, etc and so forth.

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone! Todd, my hands might hate you or I for that PDF, but I'm guessing my increased skillset will be thanking you

I'm hoping to get the guitar next weekend from my friend, so I'll have to try this out & see how it goes!

Get a metronome, set it at a certain speed, and pick to each click or pop. You should also play patterns of notes on the first four frets along with the metronome, such as

1234
1423
4321
1243
etc.

1995
John Petrucci
Rock Discipline - dvd
Warner Brothers

It will be one of the best investments you can make as a guitarist IMO.

^Ur avatar is scary.....Just sayin.

lol , its buckethead...he is awsome:p

Definitely go for the metronome, and when practicing scales and finger excercises, do it on a clean channel. Distortion can sometimes mask mistakes and flaws, you want to make sure every note is played clean and precise.

scales help, but what really does the trick is to understand the theory behind them. It is best to understand the spacing between the different tones for a scale type. For example, a natural minor scale's musical tones are spaced 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7 8. Or: A B C D E F G♯ A (A Minor)
It seems like a bit of a doozy, however, if you could memorize this, it would be like a trick up your sleeve no matter what key you are in. In terms of this scales, it also important to understand the concept of whole notes and half notes.

Also, it isnt enough to understand theory. You have to be able to go through the mechanics of playing your instrument in order to be a musician. For that I recommend this book. It has served me well.
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&safe=active&q=Speed+Mechanics+for+Lead+Guitar&cid=4214487781298382041&sa=title#p

here are a few last bits of advice
1)As many have said, get a metronome. This cannot be debated.
2)Do not ignore your picking hand. Your fretting hand could have belong to yngwie malmsteens in a past life, but it does you no good if your picking hand is lackluster, both in strength and technique.
3)RELAX! It seems like a basic thing, but if you watch all the best musicians playing their complicated bits and pieces, it looks like they are cutting through butter. The way they do this is...
4)Start slow. If you are going so fast that you are screwing up, than stop. There is no reason why it will sound any better the 5,000th time if you practice this way. The way guitarist get to be speed monsters is by practicing slow and getting the movements imbued into their muscle memory. Hence the "butter smooth" appearance.
5)Remember, you are a musician. It's about the music, not how fast you go. If you play really fast, but suck at playing MUSIC, you may just as well play sports. Keep this in mind when comparing some lacklustre powermetal band to say, the slow and steady fingers of david gilmour.

Anyway, good luck my friend.

take some lessons...
keep a journal
focus your practices
play daily, and learn proper form (both with hands and the way you sit/stand etc)
Pray

i'd advise getting a metronome man as everyone above has said. i would recommend learning scales before you learn your chords because chords are derived from scales. for example the A minor chord is derived from the A harmonic minor scale. once you learn scales chords will make sense. when you learn scales learn all the different positions that the single scales are played all over the neck so you can play any given scale in any given position on the fretboard (this is a fundamental part of shredding so you can know where you're going at all times all over the fretboard)
if you're familiar with music theory get comfortable with each key ie: the scale degrees such as your root position in each key, your third scale degree, your fifth scale degree. once you develop this knowledge you can get into inversions etc. start with that dude! if you develop these few skills, you will be able to understand the bigger picture instead of just learning songs from guitar tabs

Something that wasn't mentioned but I'd throw out there is an exercise to work on evenness for fast passages:

First off, take any new or awkward riff slowly (with a metronome) to get the idea. Then, practice the pattern syncopated (like "long-short-long-short-long" etc.). After going through the riff a couple o' times like that, then syncopate the riff the other way (like "short-long-short-long" etc.). Then play the riff evenly again with a metronome. You should see more fluidity with your playing.

Also, don't be afraid to experiment (especially with chords).

Good luck!