Legato Structures

Legato Structures

The idea for the following exercise came to me by listening to a piano player, and you almost wouldn't say that, because the implementation of this phrase is very "guitaristic" in nature. It involves a diatonic structure in which you play one note on one string followed by three consecutive notes played legato fashion on the upper adjacent string, the first of which is a diatonic third lower than the first note played.

Needless to say, you can, and you should implement this idea in all positions, all usual scales (major, harmonic minor, melodic minor, diminished, wholetone) all over the neck of the guitar. At first you can play the lick in one position and then you might, as it is suggested in the example above, slide from one position to another.

The ability to play this kind of phrases is very valuable in improvisation. Start slow and pay extra attention to the articulation of notes. You can also try the 3/4 version of the lick. The lick creates nice rhythmic effects on both time signatures.

More Directional Picking

I have come up with a great exercise that will help you develop further your directional picking abilities. It is also great for memorizing the fretboard and quickly access fretboard shapes when you're improvising.

The tricky parts of this lick are, as we are already accustomed, the turning points on strings 1 and 5.  The first turning point on string 1 requires the F# note on the second fret to be played with a downstroke followed immediately by an upstroke on the B string, to sound the E note on the 5th fret.

I find the second turning point to be especially difficult: when starting the lick again the first note of the lick will be played with an upstroke followed by a downstroke on the 4th string. This is the part of the lick where you should focus most of your attention. It is particularly difficult because the pick has the tendency either to execute a too wide motion on the upstroke  on the D# (6th fret, 5th string) - which will lead to two problems: either losing fluency either hitting the 5th string again because there is no more time to avoid it in the path to the 4th string - either to execute a to narrow motion in the attempt to strike the 5th string and to miss it. 

I strongly suggest you start practicing the lick at a comfortable speed, even well below the suggested 90 bpm, and work at first at getting all the shapes of the scale under your fingers. (I have provided only the shape for D# Phrygian - scale of B major - you do the rest!). You can then gradually increase the speed. You will see that the problems described above will start to appear at a speed over 100 bpm. It is then when you will be forced to optimize you pick motion and strength, especially when starting the lick from the beginning.

Have fun with the lick. Practice it at least a month, 10-15 minutes a day.