Greetings! Today we’re going to look at some ways of writing lead melodies and leads over a riff made up of single notes rather than chords. We’ll assess each riff to work out which modes can be used. Included are 3 simple backing tracks. You can use these to improvise over and test out ideas. Let’s get started!
Continue ReadingToday we’re looking at a short arpeggio sequence that uses a 3 string minor 7 pattern. This arpeggio ascent works really well as a warmup. Let’s go over a few variations to help with our timing and coordination.
This Ascending minor 7 warm up is great because it gets all 4 fingers working in a way that isn’t chromatics. Further to this, beyond being just a warm up, this type of idea where we’re moving one arpeggio shape in different intervals is a great way to add ‘outside’ type flavours to your playing because it is essentially an unexpected key change.
Continue ReadingWelcome to Power Up! episode 4. This time we’re looking at Sweep Picking. We’ll be focusing on a 3 string, major chord triad. The idea here is to focus on one shape to help really develop the sweep picking technique without making things too complex.
Continue ReadingIn this lesson we’ll be looking at a couple of quick warmup exercises that uses all 4 fingers. We’ll start with a chromatic pattern and then look at a couple of variations. 4 finger patterns are a perfect way to get warmed up as well as become more accustom to using all 4 fingers more efficiently.
The aim with this guitar warmup exercise is to warmup your picking hand and fretboard hand & fingers. Once warmed up you can start to practice more complex ideas with less risk of strain or injury. When using alternate picking make sure that both hands are really in sync with each other. If you’re used to picking in a 3nps fashion then this will really be a test of your dexterity.
Continue ReadingWelcome to episode 3 of Power Up! This time we’ll be looking at a simple picking lick. The idea is to repeat this slowly over and over to develop coordination between your fretboard hand and your picking hand.
Developing coordination with this odd time alternate picking idea across all 4 fingers on your fretboard hand will help not only with picking ideas like this but also many other aspects of your playing, from advanced chords to riffs and of course shred techniques.
Continue ReadingToday we’re going to look at some arpeggios for seven string guitar. In this episode we’ll learn some of the basic triads across 7 strings and then in future episodes we will expand on these to form more complex chord arpeggios.
If you’re an extended range player you’re probably already curious as to how to expand your ability to include the 7th string. These 7 String Sweep Picking ideas will definitely test your playing and finger dexterity. Always remember to take these ideas slow at first, speed is always a by-product of control! Lets go!
Continue ReadingIn this episode of Power Up! we’re going to look at a simple tapping lick in B minor. This will help you to perfect the technique before moving on to more complex tapping ideas.
Tapping in B Minor – We’re going to tap with both hands rather than pulling off from the picking hand to the fret-board hand, although feel free to play it that way too. This will give us a slight “staccato” feel. Check out the video below:
Continue ReadingWelcome! Today we’re going to look at a simple Legato lick to help ‘power-up’ our playing. The aim is to improve our dexterity, finger strength and stamina.
In traditional musical notation “Legato” means to play or sing notes smoothly transitioning from one to the next with no gaps in between. (The opposite of this would be Staccato, where you cut off each note and have a brief silence before the next note.
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