Fave exercises

clarky

clarky

Axe-Master
wondering if you guys have any fave exercises...

I have one I call "G everywhere" which is essentially G major, all 7 fingerings up to the octave and back..
I use it for technique sharpening.. especially alternate picking...
been sat here working on it.. and boom... 2 hours passed...

jeez.. I'm such a saddo..
 
On an 8 string guitar I run all 7 modes (3 notes per string) up and down built off the 8th, 7th ,6th, 5th, 4th, and 3rd strings. I do the same with the 5 pattens/modes/positions of the pentatonic scale (2 notes per string).
Then I pick up a 5 string bass and do it all over again, but on the 5th, 4th, and 3rd strings. Picked both with alternate picking and directional/economy picking. Always alternating on the bass with fingers, no pick.
Good for the hands, good for the head.
 
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I think if you play slow enough, a) alternate picking is unnecessary and, b) you'll never mess up. As a side bonus, any two notes, played far enough apart in time, at worst don't sound bad - and if they do, next time spread them out (like one on Tuesday and the next on Thursday, or even Friday if you're a crazy man!).
 
I play like if it were the last day..
On a last day I would not do exercises. Just play :mrgreen

If I am in great shape and lucky I might have an Eureka! moment. It's worth every exercises :mrgreen
 
A lot of scales and arpeggiated patterns. To break the monotony I'll learn a new song to backing tracks. When I can play, "Trilogy Suite op. V" then I'm in shape. :)
 
Mine is an X-pattern sweep picking pattern as described here: Let's Talk About…

Not so much because I'm a sweep picking maven but because its a great workout for the left hand. I use it to work on finger curl, light fret pressure, and fretting without looking at the fingerboard.

I also run through all the modes, both ascending in a particular key and with the same root.
 
personally, I'm not one to spend lots of time / focus on exercises...
many of them sound very un-musical, they just chew up tons of time and their benefits can be questionable..

I tend to practice by playing something musical...
a lick, riff, so it tends to be part exercise, part experimentation / part compositional
or I'll have a go at one of my silly classical things...
I like to get hold of a classical piece written for a different instrument and try to make it work on guitar...
then I'll turn it into an exercise by alt picking it throughout...
things like the Italian Concerto by JS Bach, the Lute Suite in E by JS Bach, Toccata and Fugue in Dm by erm... Bach again.. lmao..
these pieces throw some serious asks of your technique

and if I want to sharpen up a few things I have my G Everywhere thing..
for me it's a 'back to basics' thing
it's just G major, three notes per string in all 7 positions to the octave and back..
so it's G starting at G, then starting from A, then from B and so on..
 
I stretch out a bit and fool around a bit with a chromatic scale, maybe a bit of blues, some chick’n’picking all with a metronome of course, Just to get warmed up :)
After that I fire away!
 
I do some exercises every day. I suppose my favorite ones are my collection of chromatic exercises. They limber up all the fingers. It takes me about 30 minutes to an hour to get through them all. But if I feel like I need to get my chops up this is what I'll do. I use a metronome and do half notes, triplets, quarter notes, triplets, 8th notes, triplets, 16th notes. I'll alter my picking on the triplets so they're down, up, up, or down, up down. But these are applied to my many variations and chromatic patterns.

And my next, that I do every day, are my picking exercises. I give my left hand a rest for the 40 minutes it takes to go through them.

I also have my arpeggio exercises and scale exercises, but I don't feel the need to do those much any more. They come and go in cycles.
 
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Chromatic patterns mostly. There is a specific exercise I regularly use that I picked up somewhere in the past... may have been from Petrucci but not sure. Starting on E (or lowest string), 1-2-3-4, then on A, 2-3-4-1, then on D, 3-4-1-2, then G, 4-1-2-3, etc., etc. Up, back down, up again while walking the entire fretboard.
 
Recently have been learning Scarified (live version) by Paul Gilbert, and the fingering has been breaking me out of some bad habits i've formed over the years.. not really bad habits per se, just a different way of doing things. Helping with finger independance greatly.
 
Lots of different things at different times. There's a guy named Dennis Sandole who wrote a book called Guitar Lore Guitar Lore: Dennis Sandole: 9781598060874: Amazon.com: Books It's an amazing set of everything from chromatics, open strings, chords, scales, etc. He was a teacher for Pat Martino and John Coltrane among others. You get why when you look through this stuff.

I run a bunch of exercises from Jazz Guitar Technique by Andrew Green sometimes. That gets me playing shapes, lines and fingerings I'd never have thought of. It really opens up the guitar for me when I've been consistent with it for a while.

The thing I come back to the most is from my old teacher, Mike Elliott (monster jazzer and studio guy). He was a student and music store co-owner with the legendary Johnny Smith. Also rep'd for Gibson and did tons of duets with Howard Roberts. Friends with Pat Martino and lots of the other jazz guitar monsters. He got an exercise from Johnny Smith that was his technical thing every day when he practiced. It's 3 octave arpeggios, major, then relative minor with specific fingerings through all 12 keys, then the same thing for major, then harmonic minor scales. HUGE emphasis on doing it cleanly, evenly and with every note well articulated. If not, slow down. He'd say minimum pro level execution was Arps at 120 and scales at 132. He could get them up over 180 on a jazz box with at least a 15 on his high E, but then he broke a tendon in his picking hand. The last time I heard him play before his health went on a total down slide he said he'd gotten up to something like 158. He was completely dancing on the jazz tunes he played. It was some of the most amazing shit I'd ever heard and the freedom of execution was startling and always musical.

I don't often use the fingerings of the 3 octave stuff I practice when playing, but doing that stuff has totally freed up the fingerboard and I find myself comfortable all over the place.

On the slow side of things which I almost never hear anyone talk about when they talk about practice, I practice a lot of chord melody stuff which strengthens me hugely and is actually playing music as practice.
 
MikeyB59 said:
Lots of different things at different times. There's a guy named Dennis Sandole who wrote a book called Guitar Lore Guitar Lore: Dennis Sandole: 9781598060874: Amazon.com: Books It's an amazing set of everything from chromatics, open strings, chords, scales, etc. He was a teacher for Pat Martino and John Coltrane among others. You get why when you look through this stuff.

I run a bunch of exercises from Jazz Guitar Technique by Andrew Green sometimes. That gets me playing shapes, lines and fingerings I'd never have thought of. It really opens up the guitar for me when I've been consistent with it for a while.

The thing I come back to the most is from my old teacher, Mike Elliott (monster jazzer and studio guy). He was a student and music store co-owner with the legendary Johnny Smith. Also rep'd for Gibson and did tons of duets with Howard Roberts. Friends with Pat Martino and lots of the other jazz guitar monsters. He got an exercise from Johnny Smith that was his technical thing every day when he practiced. It's 3 octave arpeggios, major, then relative minor with specific fingerings through all 12 keys, then the same thing for major, then harmonic minor scales. HUGE emphasis on doing it cleanly, evenly and with every note well articulated. If not, slow down. He'd say minimum pro level execution was Arps at 120 and scales at 132. He could get them up over 180 on a jazz box with at least a 15 on his high E, but then he broke a tendon in his picking hand. The last time I heard him play before his health went on a total down slide he said he'd gotten up to something like 158. He was completely dancing on the jazz tunes he played. It was some of the most amazing shit I'd ever heard and the freedom of execution was startling and always musical.

I don't often use the fingerings of the 3 octave stuff I practice when playing, but doing that stuff has totally freed up the fingerboard and I find myself comfortable all over the place.

On the slow side of things which I almost never hear anyone talk about when they talk about practice, I practice a lot of chord melody stuff which strengthens me hugely and is actually playing music as practice.
Click to expand...
You sold me on it. LOL. Just went to Amazon and purchased it. I'm not a Jazz player, although I studied it during my music performance degree in college. I am hoping to get back into "learning" on the guitar. I need some kind of structured practice sessions with exercises like these. Thanks for the tip.
 
here's a nice one I do from time to time.... it's all about timing [and more difficult than you'd expect]

set the metro up at a nice easy 50 or 60 bpm
the 'tick' = 1/4 note
all alternate picking on an open D string
move straight from one note value to the next.. so no stopping...
one bar of:
1/4
1/4 triplet
1/8
1/8 triplet
1/16
1/16 triplet
1/32 [if you can get up there]
1/32 triplet [if you're real quick]
and then work your way back down to the 1/4 [which is more difficult than going up]

you a looking for:
- uniformity in tone and volume
- precise and even spacing between notes
- nice gentle accents on the count [note that the 1/4 triplet will accent on the 1st and 3rd 1/4 notes]
- seamless transitions between the different note values

note: even though the tempo is low, the transition from 1/8 to 1/4 triplet is surprisingly tricky at first..
so don't be too surprised if this trips you up a few times....

you can also do this with two bars at each note value
the difficulty here is that you kind of get 'settled' in the note value you're on..
so the transition can catch you out if you lose concentration

EDIT: forgot to mention...
this exercise is one of the rare cases when the slower the metro is set, the more difficult it can become
 
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Yes, that'd be hard. S - L - O - W like 50 or 60 bpm can be difficult, at least it is for me! As I said I do a similar thing not going beyond 16 triplets, but I basically start with 140-150 bpm with 1/2 notes. I just did this. Cool. Having great right hand technique in line with a metronome at various tempi gives one great control. I still like doing triplets, at lower tempos coming down on the downbeat with a downstroke. It sounds like a triplet then. Helps with your phrasing.
 
totally... this sort of thing allows you to switch freely between note lengths..
it does wonders for your timing and phrasing and allows you to step out of the "all 1/16's comfort zone" and add more rhythmic interest to your playing...
the killer thing with the metro set at such low tempi is the spacial awareness for such large gaps between the count [clicks]..
so you have to think.. and feel for the time...
haaa... 50bpm.. sounds like child's play don't it... lol..
 
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