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.

My quest has always been, and continues to be, achieving uniqueness in my guitar playing. One way to achieve uniqueness is to look at common structures (chords, scales) and consider unorthodox means of applying them. Consider scales. Most scalar playing involves very linear passages that lend themselves to speed. However, what such passages have in speed and fire, they lack in grace and imagination. As I picked up my guitar and pondered what I would do for this month's guitar lesson, I found my fingers wanting to pick intricate patterns within a standard mixolydian scale shape. I had no rhyme or reason. I simply knew that it was wide intervals that I was after, and it didn't matter if they were thirds, fourths, fifths, etc - I just wanted to "mix" them up.

Though the standard approach to this sort of guitar riff would be to use sweep picking for the cases where notes pare played across adjacent strings, I think there is more to be gained by using alternate picking, and I have marked up the tab with this in mind. Alternate picking such a riff fosters a degree of coordination and picking confidence that you simply can't get by any other means. After practicing this riff for a while, you'll find that your left and right hands take on a life of their own and engage in limitless dances across the strings and fretboard, seeking out new and exciting riffs.

Enjoy!

Brian Huether