Welcome 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 to episode 2, if you missed episode 1 you can check it out here. In this part we will be combining string skipping with some tapping using our middle and ring fingers (T2 and T3).
We’ll be in the key of E minor and are going to learn 4 chords. We will play these using string skipping and tapping to create arpeggios in sequence to form a progression. Each pattern can be practiced individually until you get the hang of them and then we can link them together at the end.
Continue ReadingToday we’re going to look at some basic string skipping drills to help improve your speed and precision. The string skipping technique, as the name suggests, involves skipping over one or more strings to the next.
For example you might be playing on the low E string and then skip the A string and move straight to the D string. Remember to practice these string skipping basics slowly until you have built up your ‘muscle memory’. In this lesson we will be focusing on string skipping whilst alternate picking.
Continue ReadingThis week we’re going to look at a rippin’ alternate picking lick that switches between 4 and 3 fingers per string. We’re going to be using sequences of sevens and fives to play through this lick in octaves across all 6 strings. In this alternate picking lick we will be utilising the Harmonic Minor scale
Typically an alternate picking sequence of 5’s or 7’s will be using a 3 finger shape, however because we are switching between 3 and 4 fingers per string, a sequence of 7’s now becomes a 4 finger shape. You’ll notice that when you start over on the next octave you begin again with your pinky. The really unique thing about this lick is that the sequences start at opposite ends, this makes for an unconventional sound to a picking lick.
Read more