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GP Vault - FREE

31 Exercises to Improve Your PlayingRight Now! | TAB

BY GP STAFF
July 21, 2015

4K

261

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8. Step Outside the Scale

If most of your lead lines are vanilla, its time to cram in some flavorful chromaticsnotes outside of a given key, most commonly heard in country and jazz. Start by learning the chromatic
scale (FIGURE

8A), which is composed of 12 notes, each a half step apart. Then, compare that to the seven-note C major scale (C D E F G A B). Finally, try making some lines in the
8B).

key of C, using chromatic pitches as passing tonesthat is, tones that connect the scales pitches (FIGURE

FIGURE 8AB

9. Skip Strings
Want to add some excitement to your playing? Try some string-skipping lickspatterns involving leaps between nonadjacent strings. FIGURE
derived from a standard three-notes-per string fingering. FIGURE

9A depicts a rudimentary shred-style lick

9B shows the same concept, only with a less predictable melody.

FIGURE 9AB

10. Cut Your Picking in Half

Wouldnt it be awesome to cut your overall picking activity by 50 percent? Try economy pickingusing a single upstroke or downstroke to articulate notes on neighboring strings, as in
FIGURE 10, measure 1.
Similarly, the arpeggio lick in FIGURE 10, measure 2, requires minimal picking motion. Articulate the first note with a downstroke, rest the pick against the next string, then push the pick
through this higher string, continuing the motion until each string has been picked. To avoid sounding as though youre playing a strummed chord, fret each note one at a time, releasing each
before playing the next in line. Economy picking may also be used with scalar fragments featuring an odd number of notes per string (FIGURE

10, measure 3).

FIGURE 10

11. Press Mute

Sick of hearing random open strings go clunk in the midst of single-note licks like the one shown in FIGURE

11A? Fret-hand muting is just what you need to clean up this crud. In
FIGURE 11B, after you play the 6th-string notes, fret notes on the 5th string in a way that allows you to barely touch the 6th string with the tip of your 1st finger. This will prevent it from
ringing open. Also, note that when youre playing on the higher strings, you can mute the lower strings by placing your fret hands thumb over the top of the neck.

FIGURE 11AB

12. Name That Note

You can learn all the theory in the world, but if you dont know where the notes are on the guitar, youll never really get those concepts off paper and into your playing. At the very least, strive
to learn the equivalent of the pianos white keys (the C major scale: C D E F G A B) on each string. Realizing that EF and BC are half-step intervals, find all the notes in the C scale first
along the low E string, saying them aloud as you ascend/descend (FIGURE
find these notes, one at a time, on all six strings, as in FIGURE

12, measure 1). Too easy? Break them up in 3rds, say, on the A string (FIGURE 12, measure 2). Next,
12, measure 3, and then try visualizing the notes within all of your C-scale shapes.

FIGURE 12

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4 Comments

Yhon Montes

thank you very much, a lot of useful tips, this magazine rocks!!!

SkipCycle

Is it just me or does anyone else wish they would have sound clips included with ALL of their lessons? Some of us just can't look at the Tab
and know what it's supposed to sound like. Sure would make it a lot easier for me to learn.

Uncle Ernie aka Keith Moon

agreed, i got nothing out of it

Nathan Mansfield

I know i want to learn read sheet music but right now i'm not there and ready. These exercises are lost on me.

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