Posts tagged: Play Guitar

October 6, 2010

Guitar Technique Tutorial: How to Sweep Pick

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Alternate picking is an extremely efficient picking technique for melodic patterns that ascend or descend on a single string or a group of strings.  However, when you encounter a situation where there is only one note played per string you will find sweep picking to be much more effective.

Sweep Picking

An arpeggio is produced by playing the notes of a chord one-by-one.  Arpeggios are often played with just one note per string.  Instead of using alternate picking to play arpeggios, you will find sweep picking to be more efficient.

In sweep picking, you use as many continuous down or up-strokes as possible.  If the arpeggio changes direction, you simply reverse your picking.

In Sweep Picking Exercise #1 you will see an E major arpeggio.  In this fingering for the arpeggio, there is one note on each string.  The way to play this is to use one continuous down-stroke for strings 5-1 and then one continuous up-stroke for strings 2-4.

Sweep picking gets its name from the way it looks when performed—it looks like you are sweeping across the strings with your pick.

Sweep Picking Exercise # 1

E major arpeggio

Sweep Picking Exercise # 2

E major arpeggio

In some arpeggios you will need to play two notes on a string.  To do this use alternate picking on the strings that have two notes and sweep pick the rest.

In Sweep Picking Exercise #2 you will see that we have added in one additional chord tone for the arpeggio.  There are now two notes played on the first string.  This means you will need to use a combination of sweep picking and alternate picking.

For more powerful guitar technique building exercises check out my courses How I Got Killer Guitar Chops While I Was Still in High School: Confessions of a High School Shredder and Mega Chops: Scale Mastery Beyond Hanon.

October 4, 2010

Guitar Tutorial: 6 Simple and Effective Stretching Exercises

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Finger stretches are often required for performing scales, chords and songs.

The following exercises will help promote flexibility and stretching capability in your fret-hand.

It is best to perform some warm-up alternate picking and hammer-on/pull-off exercises before you begin the stretching exercises—this means that your muscles will be warm.  The most effective stretching occurs when muscles are warm.

The stretching exercises presented here should first be performed with alternate picking.  Once you begin to find the stretches relatively easy to perform, you should then begin to play these exercises as hammer-ons and pull-offs.

The next step is to increase the actual stretch.  If the stretch is one fret, make it two frets; if the stretch is three frets, make it four frets, etc.

As you move each exercise up the fretboard it will get easier to perform the stretches because the frets get smaller.

Each of the exercises shown here begin on the first fret.  If you find the stretch very difficult to perform you can begin the exercise on the fifth, sixth or seventh frets, etc.  Also, you can decrease the required inter-finger stretch by one fret or more if required.

Remember, when you stretch you should stretch only to the point of mild discomfort and then back off a little.  Remember, stretching will not increase your flexibility if you experience any pain.

Stretching Exercise # 1

This exercise uses fingers one and two.  The stretch is one fret.  Remember to practice these exercises on each fret.

Stretching Exercise # 2

This exercise uses fingers one and three.

Stretching Exercise # 3

This exercise uses fingers one and four.

Stretching Exercise # 4

This exercise uses fingers two and three.

Stretching Exercise # 5

This exercise uses fingers two and four.

Stretching Exercise # 6

This exercise uses fingers three and four.

Want more stretching?  Check out my post -> Simple and Effective Guitar Flexibility and Finger Stretching Exercise.

For more powerful guitar technique building exercises check out my course How I Got Killer Guitar Chops While I Was Still in High School: Confessions of a High School Shredder.

October 1, 2010

Guitar Tutorial: The Forgotten Art of Warming Up the Right Way

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Would you ever even think of doing this?

You go the gym…

You put on your workout clothes…

You load up a barbell with a huge stack of weights and then…

You just start lifting.

That’s right.  No warm-up, or anything like that.  You just jump right in and go full-out.

You would never think of doing that would you?

Of course not.

You know that’s a recipe for disaster.

But let me ask you this: “Before you start playing guitar, do you warm-up?

Most guitar players don’t warm-up at all.  They simply grab their guitar and start to play.

Well, let me ask you this:

“Are you at your best on guitar when your fingers feel cold and stiff, or are you going to play at your best when your fingers are warm, loose and limber?”

The answer is obvious.

There are many effective things you can do to properly warm-up.  There are two broad categories of warm-up: off-instrument and on-instrument.  Today we will look at the off-instrument component.

A warm-up should contain a sufficient number of exercises that will warm your body’s core temperature and allow for mental readiness and focus on the task at hand.

A warm-up will increase deep muscle temperature, increase the viscosity of joint fluids and increase the range of motion in joints.

In other words, a warm-up gets you ready to play!

The Off-Instrument Warm-up

The idea behind the off-instrument warm-up is that you warm-up your body before you even pick up the guitar.  This means you would do some very light cardio and some very light stretching.  You would do this for 2-5 minutes and then start your true practice session with your on-instrument warm-up exercises.

The light cardio can be as simple as walking or marching in place, running in place,  or jumping jacks.  The idea here is to simply warm your whole body up.

For stretching, you should perform some light stretches that will get your whole body ready for practice.  Remember that your whole body is involved when you play guitar, not just your hands.

Obviously the focus is on the hands and forearms, but other body parts are used and some will need to remain stationary for extended periods of time.  This is not easy on the supporting body parts.  This is why you want to warm them all up.  For example, think of what your neck, shoulders, and back have to do when you practice.  So it just makes sense to perform some light stretches for your neck, shoulders, back, abs, arms, hands and legs.

Here you will find a PDF you can download with 12 stretching/warm-up body exercises  – PDF.  These stretches were created for the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine.

Before you begin the light cardio and light stretching, remember it’s always best to consult with your doctor before you start any physical fitness program regardless of how light it is─just to be safe.  Don’t take any chances.  Also, if you experience any pain it’s time to stop.

So there you go, you now know the basics of how to do a simple off-instrument warm-up.  Try it out at the beginning of your next practice session and I’m sure you will notice better results from your practice time.

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