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5 Effective Pentatonic Exercises For Building Speed

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Photo by JD Hancock
Building speed is not just for guitar players who want to play fast and look good (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but building speed is good for any aspect of guitar playing.

Once you’ve got a good technique and finger dexterity everything you play becomes easier from rhythm playing to soloing and everything in between. Life on the guitar gets better.

I’ve written down 5 exercises that will help you build up speed but also to get a good grip on your pentatonic scale so you can learn to play them inside out.

Go through each exercise slowly a couple of times before you try to speed up.

Set up a slow tempo on your metronome and when you feel comfortable enough gradually increase the tempo. Play as accurate as possible and keep your notes clear and clean.

Try to avoid extra sounding notes that aren’t supposed to be there by muting the strings you don’t want to hear with either your left hand or right hand.

Practice with focus and dedication and reap the benefits.
Have fun!Continue Reading

Musically Gorgeous One Octave Arpeggio Pattern

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one octave guitar arpeggio

There are some exercises, licks or riffs you have learned early on in your life that you will never forget.

For me this gorgeous one octave arpeggio pattern over Cmaj7 is one of them.

When I first learned it I just thought it was beautiful. I would memorize it and try to play it as fast as I could.

Later on I figured out how to incorporate these arpeggios in my playing and they’re still part of my guitar improvisation vocabulary today.

It’s nice to practice this pattern over a Cmaj7 chord progression.
Spotify has great guitar backingtracks you can use for this.

You can try the sweep picking technique to make the pattern sound more fluent.
For the first bar (arpeggios 1 till 4) pick the first note with a downstroke and the next three with an upstroke. For the second bar (arpeggios 5 till 8) pick the first three notes with a downstroke and the fourth note with an upstroke.

Take the time you need to memorize the whole pattern. First learn to play it slow, clear and accurately. Speed comes second.

Enjoy the ride and have a wonderful day!Continue Reading

4 Furious 4 Notes-Per-String Exercises!

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I couldn’t resist the temptation to write one final post on notes-per-string licks.

I just love ‘m! They’re great for warm-ups and to work on your alternate picking.

Previously I wrote a post on 2-notes-per string called “10 Smoking 2 Notes-Per-String Licks to Rock On!” and a 3-notes-per strings article (my most popular post) “21 Cool 3 Notes-Per-String Exercises”, but today we’re gonna take it one step further and dive into some 4 notes-per-string exercises for the adventurers among us.

You can play all 4 notes on each string with all your four fingers, that would be a nice finger stretch exercise which is good for building strength and reach. Or you can play it a more easier way which feels and sounds really nice too. You can see below the tabs with which fingers to play each note.

i = indexfinger, m = middlefinger, r = ringfinger, p = pink

Building speed:
– First play the exercise slow a couple of times.
– Memorize the exercise.
– Gradually increase your tempo. (play the exercise a couple of times)
– Now play the exercise slow and accurately. (a couple of times)
– Increase your tempo a little more. (play the exercise a couple of times)Continue Reading

10 Smoking 2 Notes-Per-String Licks to Rock On!

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Photo by John Hope
A lot of you who are working on “developing technique and increasing speed” have probably put some blood sweat and tears in my 21 Cool 3 Notes-Per-String Exercises.

If you haven’t and you got the nerve be sure to check it out.

But today I present to you 10 smoking 2 notes-per-string licks”.

A technique that feels different from the 3 notes per string and will definitely improve your technique in many ways if you work hard at it. Also the licks are perfect to incorporate into your improvisations.

While there are a lot of great guitar players known for their 3 notes-per-string, don’t underestimate what people like Zakk Wylde, Eric Johnson and John McLaughlin can do with 2 notes per string. They rock!

So let’s get your hands back in the dirt and work on these smoking licks.

Note: Don’t forget to use the alternate picking technique (up,down,up,down,up,down…)

Make yourself proud!


EXERCISE #1 (A minor pentatonic)
e--------------------------------------------------------5-8-|
B-----------------------------------------5-8-------5-8------|
G--------------------------5-7-------5-7-------5-7-----------|
D-----------5-7-------5-7-------5-7--------------------------|
A------5-7-------5-7-----------------------------------------|
E-5-8--------------------------------------------------------|
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