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 recently decided that it was time to get back to basics and focus on some skills that I had previously overlooked or ignored. One such skill is sight-reading. While there are certainly books dedicated to the subject, I thought it would be immensely more enjoyable to learn actual compositions. To that aim, I bought the book Classical Studies For Pick-Style Guitar, by Berklee Press.

For this months exercise, we are playing the first piece in the book, titled simply "Caprice". "Caprice" is a very minor-sounding, melodic piece that relies heavily on open strings. You will also notice that no two consecutive notes fall on the same string. This constant moving from string to string will certainly improve your coordination!

I know you are probably accustomed to seeing my exercises tabbed out. I purposefully left out tab so that you can familiarize yourself with sight reading. If you are unable to read music, then I suggest sitting down with a teacher or learning through online resources or a book. If you look closely, you'll see numbers written next to most notes. These numbers indicate the finger. So the first measure tabbed out would be

E----------------1-----------
B----------3-----------3-----
G-------2----2-----2-----2-
D----0-----------------------
A----------------------------
E----------------------------

and the fingering would be as indicated in the sheet music.

The other important thing to note is that the piece is played almost entirely with alternate picking.

Hope you enjoy!