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.

In my arpeggios guitar lessons, I generally use the sweep pcking technique to execute arpeggios. But lately, I find that alternate picking arpeggios is a much more articulate way to play them, and does wonders for hand coordination. Recall my previous monthly guitar exercise, titled Alternate Universe. In that exercise, I had you alternate pick your way through a arpeggio pattern sequenced in triplets - you were always alternate picking across 3 consecutive strings. This time we play the arpeggios straight through, which is actually more challenging because you are traversing 5 consecutive strings.

Most guitar players are very unaccustomed to this sort of technique, and strictly use the sweep technique to pick across consecutive strings. Sweep picking is not a very articulate way to play arpeggios. Guitar players have a tendency to sweep through arpeggios at ludicrous speeds, because the tecnhique lends itself to speed and is not difficult to execute, contrary to popular belief. In fact, if you are accsutomed to sweeping, I think you will especially appreciate this exercise, because alterate picking through arpeggios is far more challenging than sweeping!

Here we see the tab for this guitar exercise. Note that I indicate alternate picking for the entire duration. I recorded the audio clip at 190 BPM. That tempo is child's play with the sweep technique, but makes for a challening workout when played with alternate picking!

The last couple guitar lessons have focused pretty heavily on picking technique. So I decided to mix things up a bit. In fact, with this lesson, you don't even need a pick. You will be playing a legato lick strictly with your fret hand. I find that this technique lends itself to the smoothest sounding legato possible, especially when you use you pick hand to muffle the strings behind your fret hand.

Basically, what is going on with this exercise, is you are sequencing some triad arpeggios into a nice sounding pattern. Namely, the progression goes from C Maj to D Maj to E Min. The build-up to the E Min arpeggio works well, especially when played up to tempo.

Here you see the basic shapes involved. You are probably accustomed to playing arpeggios of this sort with the sweep technique. But forget sweeping - you will be using legato to burn through these arpeggios. And it will sound far smoother than sweeping could ever sound!

The toughest part of this lick is figuring out what to do with the picking hand. Basically, you want to reach across your body and wrap it around the neck at a spot that is sufficiently far enough behind where all the action is. THis will result in a muting of the strings, which is what gives way to the incredibly smooth sound. So basically wrap your hand around the 7th fret (i.e. because at the end of the lick, you basically want to play an improvised descending run and so you want to leave yourself with some decent fretboard real estate).

Good luck!

Brian

PS - sorry, but I only recorded it at a fast tempo. It gets time consuming to record at various speeds... But that is what the MIDI is for. With a proper MIDI player, you can set the tempo to whatever you desire.

I have been studying quite a bit of classical music lately (even bought a classical guitar!). I am always keeping my ears tuned to nice melodic sounding pieces, especially violin solos. When I heard this piece, I knew I had to learn it. It is certainly one of the more difficult pieces I have learned (I am still larning it!). Like a lot of Paganini pieces, this solo involves a lot of position shifting, which keeps you on your toes - I mean fingers!

Like any piece of music, there are an unlimited number of ways to play it on the guitar. Each player should adapt a piece to their own tastes. The tab you see above is simply my personal taste. You might find it awkward, or it might work for you. The point is, I highly encourage that you try to establish fingerings that work for you.

Also note that I didn't indicate whether certain parts are to be played with alternate picking or sweep picking, etc. Play it how you wish. I played it almost entirely with alternate picking, except for a very few spots. I find that alternate picking through arpeggios helps tremendously with coordination when jumping across strings (note that some of my recent exercises have involved alterante picking arpeggios...). That newfound coordination translates to everyday playing as you find yourself able to pick intricate lines that you otherwise wouldn't have been able to play.

This piece is not about ludicrous speed. For one thing, the position shifting does not lend itself to blazing speed, and secondly, if played too fast the beauty of the melody is compromised. The speed I played it at is comprable to the speed with which most violinists play the piece.

Enjoy, and persevere - this is a tough one!

-Brisn Huether

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

Having an electric, acoustic and classical guitar to choose from, sometimes I never know what my fingers will be drawn to on any given day. Today I had the acoustic on my mind and it wasn't before long that I found myself trying to emulate the firey style of Flamenco. By arming yourself with some basic chords, you can come fairly close to capturing the essence of Flamenco. Well, I imagine a true Flamenco master would laugh at such an attempt, but in any case, let's add some Spanish flavor to our playing.

I came up with the basis of this lesson as I was trying to teach myself some Flamenco basics on my classical guitar. I was practicing an exercise that had me strumming a simple 3 chord rhythm with 8th notes. The exercise was

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

I was addicted to the sound and I suddenly found myself embellishing upon this simple motif - arpeggiating the notes, varying the strumming patterns, etc. The rhythm lends itself very well to improvising lead lines with A Harmonic Minor.

Above we see the 5th mode of the A Harmonic Minor scale. Many Flamenco guitarists rely heavily on this scale since it goes so well with the open chords that Flamenco players often play.

First, let me emphasize that this exercise isn't about the tab. I have tabbed out the exercise to be similar to what I played, but this piece is really about using the basic chords of the exercise to create your own ideas. At the end of the exercise I improvised a Harmonic Minor lick based on the scale shape above.

One other thing to note is that I have indicated alternate picking for the arpeggiations. You might not otherwise think to play such parts with alternate picking, but using alternate picking for these sorts of lines does wonders for your alternate picking chops and you will find yourself with newfound abilities to alternate pick very intricate lines.

Good luck!

Brian Huether