Originally, I thought I could keep up with my Exercise of the Week lesson, but I just don't have the time to be doing that on a weekly basis. So here is a toned down version - the Exercise of the Month. You can expect to see quite a wide variety of exercises here that will help you in many areas of your playing.

I almost thought I wasn't going to get around to an exercise for January! I know what some of you are thinking - I had no better ideas, so I took the easy way out and made an exercise nearly identical to last month. Ahh, but if you look closer you will see that the subtle difference makes them worlds apart.

Last month, I showed you how to take advantage of the similarlity between the Diatonic Modes as a means to add some flavor to your lead playing, and brought up my "Neighbor Mode" philosophy. Specifically, the exercise reinforced the similarity between the Major and Mixolydian modes. This time, we are drawing from the Harmonic Minor modes. I highly suggest you take a look at my Harmonic Minor lesson as well as last month's exercise, in order to better understand and appreciate this exercise.

The idea is to get a more exotic sound by combining similar Diatonic and Harmonic Minor modes. Consider G Phrygian, in the key of Eb Major. That particular mode already has a very Spanish feel going for it, but you may recall from the Harmonic Minor lesson, that the Harmonic Minor mode that matches most closely with the Phrygian mode is the Spanish Gypsy (aka Phrygian Dominant).

Here we see the Phrygian and Spanish Gypsy modes. The green note - the B - would be played in place of Bb in order to turn the G Phrygian into G Spanish Gypsy. The purple note is simply the root note.

Here is the exercise, which is identical in structure to last month's exercise. Now I know - some of you may wish that the exercise was a more meaningful, cool sounding riff. While I certainly could have come up with a nice flashy riff for you, I think this exercise better reinforces the fundamental concepts that will lead you towards your own unique riffs, etc.

What you are doing here is ascending as G Phrygian, descending and then ascending in G Spanish Gypsy, and finally returning to G Phrygian for the descent.

I hope you enjoy this exercise and appreciate the doors that it can open up for you.

Note: The slow audio is played as triplets (3-notes-per-beat) at 60 BPM: the medium and fast clips are played as sextuplets (6-notes-per-beat) at 100 BPM and 135 BPM, respectively.