We've reached the home stretch of this series of exercises for developing guitarists' technical skills (and for keeping them, too), the main goal of these installments, along with learning the major scale across the whole neck through several examples, with which we try to develop the scale in a way that's understandable and as manageable as possible, both for beginning guitarists and for more seasoned players.
One type of exercise we hadn't covered yet, and which will be necessary to finish working through these installments, is exercises with chords or several notes played at once; so for these workouts we'll use the fingers of the picking hand (the bridge-side hand) instead of the pick. This was one of the exercises I promised to cover in this chapter, so we'll start with it.
- Developing Your Technique I
- Developing Your Technique II
- Developing Your Technique III
- Developing Your Technique IV
We'll start with full chord exercises and continue, as planned, with some exercises of several notes (mostly two) played at the same time. I've also added an even harder Hammer On – Pull Off exercise to finish, which will be the third of its kind across all these installments. Now then, let's begin:
Chord exercise
We'll start with one of the exercises on using the fingers of the bridge-side hand and the fretting hand to play chords. It doesn't matter if you haven't studied chord construction, since you'll be able to see the chords in the score/tab without any problems; you'll have the chord in front of you and the way to play it. That last part is very important in order to play the exercises correctly; we'll look at how chords are built in the future.
The fingers of the bridge-side hand must “attack” all the strings marked in the score at the same time, and if there are more notes than fingers (quite literally), you'll arpeggiate them. You'll see chords that can be played with a barre and others without; follow this strictly, because that's where the difficulty lies, and it will be a way for you to get to know chords of different “characters”: some geared more toward Pop-Rock styles and others more toward Jazz, where those barres are "economized" and, with them, the doubling of certain notes, leaving you free to add bass movements to those chords on the guitar. We may come across more “funky” chords where, in many cases, only a few notes are needed to define the chord for the rhythm we're playing, and there the motion of the picking hand is extremely important. We can also see other styles where the approach may vary. As you'll see, there are many combinations and possibilities when it comes to building chords, so we'll mainly look at chord shapes with the bass note or tonic (also called the root) on the fifth, sixth and fourth strings. Each of these positions, with its chords, will be one key (eight chords in total, counting the octave of the first degree in each key), so take the opportunity to memorize them, since they could come in very handy in the future.
In figure 1 you have the chart showing how to play each chord shape. To avoid mistakes with figure 1, check whether the chord has its bass on the sixth, fifth or fourth string, since you may find two identical chords (in name) that belong to one of the other two keys rather than the one you're practicing. Even so, they're in order to avoid confusion.
So you'll be working through three keys: the first in C major (with the bass on the fifth string), the second in G major (with the bass on the sixth string) and the third in F major (with the bass on the fourth string), although the key analysis doesn't matter either, since we're still dealing with the technical side of the guitar. For now, just try to do these exercises exactly as I present them. It will be very easy for you to work out which chords use a barre and which don't; even so, pay attention to the score and to figure one, since everything is laid out perfectly there. In figure 1 you'll see the position of the chords on the neck; in figure 2, the chord movement and therefore their sequence. As you play them, you'll be able to hear the (aural) feel of the major scale corresponding to each one. As always, the tempo of this and the other exercises is a guideline; in fact, in the mp3 demos I sometimes change the note values so you can hear and understand it better. So play it at whatever pace you think best, so you can go at your own speed. This will be the first key exercise in this chapter.
Just because it's a chord change exercise doesn't mean we'll stop practicing it without a metronome. We'll start by trying it out without one, to make sure of the finger changes, and then, as always, we'll set the metronome going at a slower speed than the one I've given. We'll gradually increase it until we reach the tempo in the score.
Exercise with two simultaneous notes
Let's continue with another exercise with several notes at once. This one will be easier than the previous one, because of the type of movements of the fretting hand. This hand will be challenged by crossing finger changes, which requires more concentration. It's a short, simple exercise, but very effective for “warming up your fingers”.
Hammer On-Pull Off exercise
We also have another, even harder Hammer On - Pull Off (legato) exercise, the third of its kind across all these chapters, as promised, so let's pick up the pick again and start practicing. Once again you'll have to memorize the exercise little by little, for example two bars at a time. Then you'll go back to the beginning to remember it and, at the same time, learn the next bars one by one, adding them on until the end. Commit to using the metronome from the start so you can get through the whole exercise successfully, since it's tricky enough that you could get lost halfway through. This will be the second key exercise in the chapter.
Alternate picking exercise chart (2)
In the previous installment we saw a technique chart for controlling the fretting-hand fingers within a four-fret box. This time it's about stretching the fingers further. Specifically, in exercises one and two we'll use the index, middle and pinky fingers of the fretting hand. In exercises three and four we'll use the index, ring and pinky fingers. Be especially careful to start this exercise very slowly, bearing in mind everything we said about taking care when playing in chapter 1. It's a stretching exercise and very demanding on your fingers.
Although we're doing the exercise with alternate picking, we could also do it with Hammer On-Pull Off (legato). This would increase the difficulty, so you should be even more careful when playing the exercise and with your fingers.
To finish
You now have all the exercises you'll need to complete the chart we've been building up little by little. In short, keep in mind the exercises we've covered in all the chapters. Once you've reached a level where they're easy to play, all you'll need to do is go over the ones we've called “key exercises” from time to time to get back to that level. As you've seen, this chapter has two “key exercises”.
You've probably noticed new sounds while practicing and playing the exercises and scales, which will be very useful for learning to tell apart by ear the contrasts between scales and knowing at any moment what you're using or what you can turn to.
We've seen several examples of the major scale extended across the neck, and even (quite a few) technical exercises where the notes we used belonged to that key.
“Developing Your Technique” comes to an end, but we'll keep trying to “Make the Difficult Easy”. Soon we'll be talking about other guitar techniques I'm sure you'll be interested in, in particular a devastating technique for giving your solos more style than ever, a technique that, by the way, is surely used by many of your favorite guitarists. So don't lose sight of the Hammer On – Pull Off (legato) exercises, since they'll come in very handy for the new installments. See you very soon.
