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About the Author
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Will Landrum is a guitarist and composer from Virginia who dabbles in heavy rock Instrumentals with blues and neo-classical influences.
His latest CD is entitled Living Digits, which features eight compositions produced by Landrum and Michael Fath.
Send comments or questions to Will Landrum.
© Will Landrum
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Howdy! Today, I want to share one of my favorite exercises.
Don't worry, just because it's an exercise, doesn't mean it
will be boring!
When practiced enough, this exercise will single handedly
improve multiple areas of your playing and thinking!
- It will teach you fretting accuracy.
- It will challenge your alternate picking.
- It will stretch your fingers.
(This kind of stretching permanently improves your reach!)
- It will help you visualize important scale patterns.
- It will inspire your soloing.
This run begins with the G Ionian, 3 note per string pattern,
moves you up the neck in position to descend in the A Dorian
position, right back to where you began in G Ionian. For more
info, you can see these patterns here.
This is like riding a roller coaster without having to stop! It makes a perfect "circle" of notes.
Since there are three notes on each string, the best way to
play is using triplets or sextuplets if you dare! Start
off with your metronome set to 60 beats per minute and
increase the tempo as you see fit.
When you reach the first string, eighth fret, make sure that
you stay in time when nailing the next note at the 10th
fret. This is a great place to practice your accuracy!
Now, once you are familiar with this run, try recording
yourself playing a G chord and do this run against it. You
will hear some great sounds that you may have never played
before!
Also, isolate areas of this run and try mixing things up,
particularly in places where you are stretching to play
those whole steps.
OK, enough talk, let's rock...
Tablature Legend
- G A B etc. are the notes.
- 1 2 4 etc. are the fingers you should use for fretting.
- d is downstroke.
- u is upstroke.
You ascend in the Ionian Major scale pattern...
G A B C D E F# G A B C D E F# G A B C D
1 2 4 1 2 4 1 2 4 1 2 4 1 3 4 1 3 4 4
d u d u d u d u d u d u d u d u d u d
----------------------------------------------5--7--8--10---
-------------------------------------5--7--8----------------
----------------------------4--5--7-------------------------
-------------------4--5--7----------------------------------
----------3--5--7-------------------------------------------
-3--5--7----------------------------------------------------
..and descend in the Dorian minor scale pattern.
C B A G F# E D C B A G F# E D C B A G
2 1 4 2 1 4 2 1 4 2 1 4 2 1 4 3 1 1
u d u d u d u d u d u d u d u d u d
-8--7-------------------------------------------------------
-------10--8--7---------------------------------------------
-----------------9--7--5------------------------------------
--------------------------9--7--5---------------------------
-----------------------------------9--7--5------------------
--------------------------------------------8--7--5--3------
Even though these notes are in a scale sequence, they can still be quite effective in your composition and soloing. I used this technique to enhance the harmony on my tune "Change Your Mind".
Practice this faithfully and I guarantee your playing will improve!
Subscribe to Will's free guitar teaching ezine at www.willlandrum.com.
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