The tab shows pretty much the same run (with slight alterations at the endings) [...]]]> Now we are going to take our previous run highlighted here in blue, and play it in various other G root note positions and at different octaves on the fret board, indicated in yellow and red.

The tab shows pretty much the same run (with slight alterations at the endings) but starts from different G’s so the pattern of notes you play as you ascend is exactly the same as before. If you have the previous ascending pattern memorised then you shouldn’t even need the tab.

One thing you have to keep an eye in this first example on is when you play the ending few notes. As you cross from string 3 to string 2, due to the nature of the way the guitar is tuned, you have to remember to step up one fret on string 2, and instead of playing frets 15, 17 and 19, you play 16, 18 and 20.

The last exercise on the page takes the same run again and transposes it to Em. Without having to work anything out, just move the whole thing down to fret 0 on strings 5 and 6. Easy.

Here’s the Em scale.

Try playing it at all the other E root notes as well.

In fact, have a go at playing this all over the fret board, in keys of Cm, Am, Fm, Bbm, Dm and any other key you can think of. The more you mess around with any run or lick you learn, the more versatile you will become. While you are doing this and transposing into various keys, you are also learning where all the different root notes are on the fret board which will really put you in good stead for your future playing.

When you’ve finished messing around with these, have a go at moving and transposing the descending run you learned on the previous page, and then make up a run or two of your own. That should keep you busy until my next post.

Loads more stuff to come..

In the next lesson we’re going to mess with this some more, alter the picking patterns, change it from minor to a major scale and just about anything else I can think of.

Kier

Other Posts of Interest

Chromatic Scales and Exercises
No Nonsense Guide to Scales
Strum Like the Pro’s
Guitar Chords Made Easy

Posted 11.04.09

Back Home

First we’re going to take an easy minor scale run on strings 5 and 6. [...]]]> Below is a full scale diagram of the G minor scale. We are going to work on some runs from one end of the fret board right the way to the other and back again.

First we’re going to take an easy minor scale run on strings 5 and 6. You can see from the diagrams below that once you have got the pattern sussed starting from the root note G on the 3rd fret, the pattern repeats itself in most other places on the neck where you find the same root note.

This means that you can easily move it around to almost all the other G root notes on the fret board. This is shown by the coloured zones in the diagram below.

The only string you can’t do this on is when you place the pattern on a root note on string 3. This is because the pattern crosses strings 2 and 3 which due to the way the guitar is set up are out of symmetry by one fret.

The great thing about any run or lick you make up in a certain key is that it can easily be used in any other key you like by simply keeping the same shape and pattern of the run and moving the root note to a new one.

Take a look at this Em scale below.

I have used the exact same colour map and run as in the Gm and simply placed it over the E root notes. It now becomes an E minor run.

Here’s a tab exercise of a G minor scale run. Start with your first finger on the 3rd fret, 6th string and using alternate picking and preferably a metronome, play 3 notes per string, making your way up to the 17 fret. Start the exercise at a slow manageable pace until you have got it sussed and then gradually increase your speed until you are playing it as fast as and as accurately as you can.

Once you are at your top speed, work on getting it cleaner and faster over the next week or so. You will soon find your speed and finger strength noticeably improve.

These exercises sound best when played with some mean distortion and a bit of delay, but you really should try and get into the habit of playing them with a clean tone and as little fx as possible as they tend to mask what’s actually going on with your playing. Just switch off your racks or pedals every once in a while just know whether your playing is messy or accurate.

G Minor Scale Runs

Note : These scale runs are designed to be relatively easy to learn and great for building speed, strength and picking skills etc. They are not supposed to be amazingly technical, flashy, or melodic, but they are great starting blocks and should get you into the habit of creating your own runs and licks in your favourite keys and scales once you get used to it.

Feel free to improvise with these first 2 exercises and vary them as much as you like. Try making up your own start or finish to each run.

Over the next few sections we will be working through these and other simple runs and exercises, moving them around, changing keys and varying the patterns to give you and idea of how you can mess with ideas and take them anywhere you like across the fret board. The main aim is to get you used to doing this and for you to feel comfortable in making up your own more complex and better sounding runs and licks in the future.

Once you’ve got the hang of the exercises above, try the next section where we are going to shift these runs to different root note positions, like in the Gm colour map, and then change the key of the runs, as in the Em example.

Moving and transposing the scale run.

Other Posts of Interest

Chromatic Scales and Exercises
No Nonsense Guide to Scales
Strum Like the Pro’s
Guitar Chords Made Easy

Posted 05.04.09

Back Home

Now you’ve got the hang of the first few exercises, here are some more combinations that start with your 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers.

Keep practicing these with your metronome, or on-line metronome and remember to improvise with your own techniques such as string skipping, hammer on’s and pull offs [...]]]>

Now you’ve got the hang of the first few exercises, here are some more combinations that start with your 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers.

Keep practicing these with your metronome, or on-line metronome and remember to improvise with your own techniques such as string skipping, hammer on’s and pull offs etc. wherever you can, but only do this once you have got the hang of the exercises shown. Don’t run before you can walk. Start with alternate picking and continue as before.

Obviously, I’ve only tabbed the first few bars of each exercise, take them as far up the fret board as you like and back down again.

Chromatic Exercises 8 – 13

Chromatic Exercises 14 – 19

Chromatic Exercises 20 – 24

Posted 10.03.09

Back Home

The chromatic scale consists of 12 half step or semi tone intervals and comprises of every note in the common musical scale.

As you [...]]]> Chromatic scales play a huge part in building a guitarists finger strength, speed, agility and co-ordination and their importance should not be underestimated.

The chromatic scale consists of 12 half step or semi tone intervals and comprises of every note in the common musical scale.

The Chromatic Scale

As you can see, there’s not much to learn as it includes every note on the fret board.

As a beginner, I used to think there wasn’t much point in practicing chromatics as after spending 5 minutes playing them, I concluded they were so easy that they were probably not worth bothering with. I never realised the importance they play in training your mind and fingers to be able to cope with the much more difficult and strenuous tasks a guitarist encounters as he or she progresses up the skill ranks.

If I had spent a little more time and delved a little further into the subject, I would have realised that once you get passed the first couple of obvious ones they become a complete nightmare, and to master them, your brain must be trained to work in perfect harmony with your fingers, and at high speed.

The great thing is, once you get to grips with them, which doesn’t take long, you’ll find your playing really starts to gain a fluidity and your timing, co-ordination, agility and finger strength will become much stronger and more synchronised with your thoughts and movements

The exercises shown below start of with some very simple chromatic runs and build to provide almost every four finger combination possible.

These exercises should be performed using alternate picking, and ideally you should use a metronome set at a pace you feel comfortable with at first until you get used to the patterns. This should then be gradually increased bit by bit over the next few weeks as you gain finger strength and speed.

Set your metronome to tick once or twice a bar and make sure you are able to comfortably strike the notes on each beat before you increase your speed. There is no point trying to play as fast as you can if your timing is out. Just be patient and get each exercise right before you move on.

If you do not own a metronome, Google ‘on line metronome’ and you will find many free ones to choose from.

Feel free to improvise with these exercises as much as possible, play them anywhere you wish. Take them as far up the fret board as you like and back down again.

Notice the string skipping technique in exercise 2. It’s a good idea to try and apply this to each of the more difficult chromatic exercises as you become more confident in your practice.

Try and memorise the patterns from as many exercises as you can, and when you’ve got them sussed, play as many combinations as you can every day for 10 – 15 minutes before you start your main guitar session.

Once you have got a few of them under your belt and have practiced them regularly for a couple of weeks, you should notice quite an improvement in your playing, and instead of being a chore, they should become quite fun.

Chromatic Exercises

This next exercise involves string skipping. As you progress through these exercises, try and implement the string skipping technique in all the other chromatics as you become more advanced and start to improvise your own patterns and routines.

This is where the exercises start to become slightly more tricky and really start to test your finger strength and co-ordination.

Our next section contains more chromatic exercises using different combinations starting with your 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers.

You may think that once you’ve got the hang of chromatic exercises 1 to 7 there is no point in repeating the same sort of exercises with fingers 2,3 and 4, but it is important you get used to these other combinations as most riffs, licks and solo’s don’t conveniently start on your first finger.

Although similar, you will find the next set of chromatic exercises more challenging and you’ll need to get used to combining them with the exercises above to achieve the best results and increase your speed and agility to great levels.

More Chromatic Exercises

Posted 08.03.09

Back Home

For this scale we will be starting on G (3rd fret 6th string), work our way up to C (13th fret 2nd string) and back down again to G or below. Follow the exercise shown in the video and start with a gentle humming.

Major scale vocal warm up using guitar.

For this scale we will be starting on G (3rd fret 6th string), work our way up to C (13th fret 2nd string) and back down again to G or below. Follow the exercise shown in the video and start with a gentle humming.

Follow the exercises in the video and when you’ve got the hang of it repeat the process using lip rolls or tongue trills.

Check out my Vocal Warm Up Techniques page for details on how to perform lip rolls and tongue trills.

Vocal Warm Up Scales 1

Here’s the vid again.

Here’s the pdf tab for the exercise
Adobe reader is required to view this file.

Here’s the midi file and here’s the Guitar pro exercise file for those who use Guitar Pro.

Click here for the tabs for exercise 2 and 3 or take a look at our vocal warm up scales page.

Back Home

Check out my Vocal Warm Up Techniques page for details on how to hum and perform lip rolls and tongue trills.

This second exercise uses an octave and a half scale range. This is slightly more difficult and takes a bit of concentration to get right. Match your fingers with your vocals.

Check out my Vocal Warm Up Techniques page for details on how to hum and perform lip rolls and tongue trills.

Here is the video for the tab above.

Here is the guitar pro file, the pdf for the exercise, and the midi.

Click here for the tabs for exercise 1 and 3 or take a look at our vocal warm up scales page.

Back Home

This will give [...]]]> This 3rd exercise is the most awkward until you get used to it. The scale spans one and a half octaves and 5 strings and as you move up the fret board and across the strings the fingering patterns change as the scale ascends and descends with your vocals.

This will give your voice, fingers and brain a good work out while you are trying to follow the notes up the scale.

Check out my Vocal Warm Up Techniques page for details on how to hum and perform lip rolls and tongue trills.

Here is the video for the tab above.

Here’s the pdf, guitar pro file and the midi.

Click here for the tabs for exercise 1 and 2 or take a look at our vocal warm up scales page.

Back Home