Allright. I've gotten request for more tips, so I'll throw around some good concepts of practice and maintaining an effectice practice regimen.

First of all, any regiment should contain a warmup of at least 15-20 minutes. this warmup isn't meant to build chops, it's so your hands stretch and ease up to avoid injury. in other words, warmup slowly.




this is an excellent right hand sync exercise. it looks easy. but it isn't if you have trouble taming your individual fingers.

you finger all four notes as a chord. arpeggiating each note individually. then you invert the two middle fingers. MAKE SURE YOU MOVE THEM AT THE SAME TIME. NOT ONE AT A TIME. this is critical since this is what the exercise will build. also, your index and pinky fingers (on the 9th fret of the 4th string and 12th of the first string) should remain where they are. arpeggiate again. then invert the index and pinky fingers, at the same time, symmetrically (imagine a mirror between fingers 2 and 3...). repeat until you end the sequence. repeat this for around two minutes.



if you find the previous exercise is too easy, work on this one. even now i find it very useful to build finger strenghth.

notice the picking pattern changes. it goes like this, upstroke on the 1st note, down stroke on the second, up stroke on the third, and downstroke on the fourth note. this way you remain inside your strings. this exercise warms up both the left and right hand.

one thing. once you're done playing the sequence in one position, slide up one fret, and do it again. until you reach fret 12-15. you should feel your hand limber up.

if you feel the stretches at the first fret are too hard, start at the 7th fret, and work your way down to the first fret, then up to the 15th fret.

those two should be played freely, at no speed. as i said, speed is irrelevent in a warmup.

you all know the other classic warmup exercises. linear chromatic scales with different permutations, i'll toss around a few chromatic fingerings.

1234 (duh)
4123
1324
1423
2314

the possibilities are endless. those are finger patterns you can apply everywhere on the fretboard. so finish your warmup by playing all the frets of your guitar with the finger pattern you wish.


allright. now that you're warmed up. the rest is up to you.

Personally i practice scales with different finger sequences in order to get used to different groupings while learning my scales. you kill two birds with one stone.

(for those who missed, here's a sheet of all the major scale patterns organized in a 3 note per string system. as a rock guitarist, i prefer learning my scales this way)



I'm going to give the finger sequences assuming we're using this scale pattern to make it shorter.

|-x-xx-|

this pattern is played with fingers 1-34. the other two patterns are played with fingers 12-4 and 1-2-4 (the - represents the space). so to apply the sequences i'm going to give to the other two patterns, just replace the third finger by the second one (middle)

allright, here goes.


16th notes

1434
4313
3431
3134
1314

16th Quintuplets (5 notes per beat

41341
13431
14343

16th triplets (6 notes per beat)
413431
431431
134134

16th septuplets (7 notes per beat)

1434134
3134314
3431341

to apply those, simply go up and down your scale all over the fretboard up until the 17th/19th fret (depending how tough you're feeling). so if you were to apply the first pattern in septuplets to a c major scale in the first position, you'd get this:


|-----------------------------------------------------------------------3-7-5-7-3-5-7--| |---------------------------------------------------------3-6-5-6-3-5-6----------------| |-------------------------------------------2-5-4-5-2-4-5------------------------------| |-----------------------------2-5-3-5-2-3-5--------------------------------------------| |---------------2-5-3-5-2-3-5----------------------------------------------------------| |-1-5-3-5-1-3-5------------------------------------------------------------------------|

I recommend you start with 16th notes and 16th triplets before tackling 5 and 7 note groupings, those are a real brain ****er, for lack of a better word.

those exercises should be played with a metronome, set to a speed you don't struggle to play at first, then gradually bring it up each time you become more comfortable. ALWAYS accent the note that falls on the beat. (in 1434134 you'd pick the first "1" harder than the rest.) this will define your timing alot better and make it easier to know where you're going when playing in a band setting.

I hope those help you build a good practice routine. it's essential to become a solid player.

now, a little challenge for you guys.

|-8-5---------------------------5----|
|-----7-----------------------7------|
|-------8-5---------------5-8--------|
|-----------7-----------7------------|
|-------------9-6---9-6--------------|
|-----------------8------------------|
4 1 3 4 1 2 4 1 3 1 4 2 1 4 3 1
D U U U D U U D U D U D D U D D

this is a diminished arpeggio in strict 16th notes. the trick behind this exercise it the fingering. and as opposed to your run of the mill diminished arpeggio, this one isn't legato. every note is picked according to the picking pattern i wrote under the fingerings.

remember, always have fun with those. if it gets tedious, stop practicing for a day or two and just play to clear your head. if you've been practicing for a while, you'll feel guilty for just playing and then get right back into it.

'till next time!

I love you.

^Thirded.

I dont love you as much as I should.

Yay.

I'm glad you guys appreciate the lessons. if you have anything you want me to cover on the next batch, now's the time to ask.

Are there any pills that can make you into a good musician? You know, like how diet pills make you skinny and sick. If so, please cover this in your next lesson.

I wish I understood what all that chart means, I suck at theory.

it's simple. first of all. each dot represents the note you play. second of all, it's like a tab, low string on the bottom, high E on top. third of all, the blue notes are your roots. (if you're playing a c major scale, the root is C) all those patterns can be transposed. move all the patterns up one fret (take the first one, and start it at the second fret instead of the first) and you'd get a C# major scale.

charts like these aren't a score, they're a tab but instead of numbers they show all the note locations of your scale. and with those fingerings you apply the sequences ( 1434134 and so on) I gave to practice.

if you still have trouble on this give me a ring through AIM. you have my sn.