index

How To Avoid Fretboard Fatigue

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:25:52 +0100

How To Avoid Fretboard Fatigue

Do you need more strength?

Have you ever experience fatigue in your fingers when playing or practicing? Of course you have. I'm not refering to the sore feeling you get AFTER you've practiced all night and day. I'm talking about the inability to produce the notes you want due to lack of endurance and strength in your fingers. Or is that really the problem? Or is it something completely different? In this article I'm going to try and prove that strength and endurance has very little to do with the ability to play for hours.

There's quite a couple of tools out there that you can use to build a terror handshake. You can use the "Gripmaster Pro" - you can use finger weights or how about some Chinese exercise balls? A "Flextend Glove" will also help you build incredible finger strength and if all else fails you can use a "Dynaflex Pro Sports Gyro Wrist Exerciser" to take care of that weak wrist of yours.

The key to maximum endurance

Some years ago I picked up the guitar after several years of not touching the instrument at all. I literally hadn't played any instrument nor had I exercised my hands. And since any muscle strength you build today, will be gone in a few days, if you don't keep working the muscles - you would think I would have weak hands, wrists and fingers and I did! But that didn't impair my ability to play at all. I actually never experience fatigue in my hands when I play at all, except for when I'm practicing something new and very different. And this is the key...

So why are there all these strength building tools on the market? In my experience, it's because of one basic misconception that sounds like this "I experience fatigue in my hands because I'm not strong enough" but the truth is a bit more complex than that. It goes something like this:

The real reason for fatigue

The problem is not lack of strength but lack of control. When ever we practice something new, we are really forcing the brain to create new patterns in the brain. We are trying to replace old patterns with new ones, and this is a process of forcing our hands and fingers to do something they'd rather not. The reason why we find it hard to do something new is because our body would rather do something old. As we try to gain control over our fingers on the fretboard, the brain is desperately trying to run patterns of movement that it knows already. All the while we do what we can to force it into doing something new.

It's like having one arm that's completely uncontrollable and then having to control it with the other good arm you have left. While you struggle to keep the bad arm under control, you will eventually experience fatigue in both arms. The problem is that you can't build enough strength to compensate for the enormous stress you put on your muscles when you practice. Even if you where the Arnold Schwarzenegger of hand strength you would still experience fatigue when practicing something completely new.

Whirlwind Economy Picking Run

For some reason this is a run that you can play incredibly fast once you've practiced it enough. It becomes almost effortless to play in the end. Enjoy!

Burning fuel faster than you can refuel

Fatigue comes because you are using up more muscular energy than the body produces. The body constantly fuels the muscles with energy so that you can play for hours and hours. But if you use the energy faster than the body can fuel the muscles, you experience fatigue. When you exercise you hands and fingers using the tools I mentioned, you improve the body's ability to fuel the muscles. So it does work of course. But your aim shouldn't be to have super strong hands but to use less force when you play.

And the less you have to struggle the less energy you use. So it seems like a good idea to use these tools because they will allow you to practice longer and harder right? Yes but only under one condition: if you use them when you can't practice. The best way to build strength is to use the instrument itself! In my experience it's nuts to put down the instrument to go build strength, when you could practice and build strength at the same time right?

There's a way to practice without experience fatigue at all: Focus on relaxing as your primary objective during the process. This will slow you down enormously but it will also relieve the brain of the struggling - and you'll make progress even faster than with the struggling. It doesn't seem like that in the beginning but as you do it more and more you start developing a much more relaxed style of playing.

Precision or brute force?

Remember how hard it was to play a simple chord in the beginning? Then you also remember how much force you used to use to push those strings towards the fretboard right? It was like you had to push down those su... with all the strength you had in order to produce a clear sounding chord. But now it's easy! Why? Because now you replaced brute force with precision. Your are now able to place your fingertips right behind the fret wire, on that tiny spot that allows you to use the least amount of force and energy. You did not become stronger but you did become more accurate. The same thing goes for playing licks and runs. The less you have to struggle with yourself and the more accurate you get, the less force you have to use, and fatigue disappears forever...

So my advice to you would be this: When you experience fatigue, slow down and focus on relaxing in your hands when you practice. Be like a marathon runner rather than a sprinter: Don't push beyond your muscular limits, because it will put a halt to your progress. Relax, slow down and enjoy getting better faster.

"I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings"

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Multi String Gilbert Mayhem

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:38:54 +0100

Multi String Gilbert Mayhem

Scroll down to see the tabs

This lick is inspired heavily by one of Paul Gilbert's favorite speed picking licks. It's the old four-notes-up-and-down-much-harder-than-you-think-lick that I've taken across the strings while creating an uneven 3/8 feeling. It's an excellent alternate picking exercise since you get to perform the string shift with both and upstroke and a downstroke. Practice playing the first two bars over and over again before you move on to the third. And be patient with yourself! This lick can be a tough nut to crack, but everyone can do it. It's not a matter of ability or intelligence, only focus and persistence works here.

"Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality; the other, a matter of time"

Marabel Morgan

Diminished String Skipping Legato Lick

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:46:47 +0100

Diminished String Skipping Legato Lick

Scroll down to see tabs

The main challenge of this Paul Gilbert inspired string skipping lick, is to get the string skipping right. But the secret to getting it right is to make sure that you are using "outside" picking when you do it. When you move from the G to the high E-string you start with a down stroke and end with an upstroke. This will make it very easy not to hit the B-string in between the two. When you go from the high E-string to the G-string you start with and up stroke and end with a down stroke. It's really quite simple and the picking pattern is described in the tabs as well.

Practice the first bar until you've memorized it completely. Then forget about the tabs for a minute and practice it until you can do it with your eyes closed. It's not important to play it fast at this point. Then forget about the first bar and do the same with the second bar. When you can play that without thinking too much about it, put the two together so they become one. When they're both easy to play at a slow pace you're ready to build some speed. Wear your guitar like a jacket until you master this pattern. What ever you do, don't put it down. If it's there in front of you all day, you'll practice every time your hands are available. You eat, you have conversations, you watch TV, you visit the bathroom, and you do all of these things with your guitar strapped to your body. See if you can go through an entire day like this. Make it a fun challenge!

"In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it"

Robert Heinlein

The Reversed Malmsteen Variation

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:05:44 +0100

The Reversed Malmsteen Variation

Scroll down to see the tabs

In this lick, I use position shifting and a lick from one of the previous articles, to create a third lick. Combining licks in this way is a great way to develop the ability to improvise at very high levels of speed. The more you can combine what you know, the more choices you have.

As an exercise, try to come up with at least one new way of using these ideas used in today's lick. See if you can play the whole thing backwards. Play the lick over multiple strings. Change position with your left hand in another way. Do what ever you can to create something new.

When you feel confident at playing this lick, take it up the fretboard. I'm playing in the key of G-Minor but you can of course play it in any key or scale you like.

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort"

Franklin D. Roosevelt

One String Flying Triplets

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:36:04 +0100

One String Flying Triplets

Scroll down to see the tabs

Playing this lick always makes me smile. It's an insane way to utilize position shifting to create a one string sequence that looks and sounds this frantic. But it's also an incredible left hand exercise (If you're a right handed person) Think about it: In order to play any 3 notes per string scale pattern from string to string, you have to change fingering to match the notes on each of the six strings you play. You do the same thing here, but on one string only.

The only extra challenge you will have to deal with is moving your hand up and down the fretboard horizontally, instead of vertically. I hope that makes sense. The point is this: This lick might seem weird and even impossible to play at first, but give it an extra shot and you'll notice that it really isn't that difficult simply because your fingers are quite used to the task. Your left hand will have to fly across the fretboard so make sure you have a very light touch on the back of the neck.

Picking 3 note triplets in this particular sequence and at this speed, can only be done on a guitar in this way. So that's a good reason to develop this technique - and, as I said, It's a lot of fun.

"Energy and persistence conquer all things"

Benjamin Franklin

The Reversed Malmsteen Sequence

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:04:17 +0100

The Reversed Malmsteen Sequence

I've decided to create a category with nothing but licks in it. This allows me to offer you some value even when I haven't got much time on my hands. This is a sequence I came up with by reversing a well known Yngwie lick. I haven't included the original lick in this video but if you wonder what it is just reverse today's sequence. It feels extremely awkward to play these notes in the beginning. It's almost like there's something wrong with the lick! But be persistent and you'll find that it becomes not only easy to play but it also feels natural with time. Have fun with it!

"I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to"

Elvis Presley

Confusing Names and Symbols

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:47:45 +0100

Confusing Names And Symbols

Scroll down to see tablature

Let's keep the riff raff out

So we know what to call the white keys on the piano. But what about the black ones in between? Well they actually have two names depending on where you're coming from. "There's no reason to keep it simple" the monks said "The more complicated we make it, the easier it is for us to keep the riff raff out." Let's humor these guys from the past and see what they came up with.

The note in between the C and the D is called either a C sharp or a D flat:

And the black key in between the D and the E is referred to as the D sharp or the E flat:

But the E note can also be called an F flat if you refer to it as the lowered F. This is so stupid though, that if you ever hear anyone say "Hey guys let's stay on that F flat for two more bars" you are entitled to call him a monk an go "The F flat is an E, OK!" Also, instead of simply calling the F the F, you could call it an E sharp, since the E sharp is the same as the F but that would be just as pointless. We could create the same confusion around the B and the C because these two notes don't have any black key in between them either. Let's look at a fretboard example:

In this example all the "white key notes" are yellow and all those in between are grey. They are all named by raising the note below them. The note between F and G, is called F sharp, but it could have been called G flat as well.

"Confusion is the first step to knowledge"

Anonymous

Writing this down

The way to write these down on paper is to write a "#" or a "b" after the letter. So the C sharp would look like this: C#. And the B flat would look like this: Bb. I have no idea why these two symbols won the contest over more logical things like "+" and "-" or how about "u" for "Up" and "d" for "Down?" or they could have chosen the letter "R" for "Raised" and "L" for "Lowered" But none of these, very logical alternatives, were sophisticated enough for our monk friends, instead they asked the local town fool what they should do. Seriously, I have no idea why we use these symbols but if you know someone who does, please have him email me.

But the black keys on the piano are not the only notes that have a weird name. The white ones also has a special little sign and an extra name to them. The ABCDEFG notes are called "natural" notes. So now you have sharp and flat notes and also natural ones. Here are all the 3 symbols:

But it doesn't end there! Because sometimes you'll find two sharps after a note when you read music scores. So you'll not only come across the C# but also the C##. And what's a C##!? It's a double raised C of course. And that is the same as the D note. I'm not going to go into the specific reasons for this silly behaviour - because this would require a longer article about the whereabouts of medieval common sense and logical reasoning. But if you run into a classical music teacher, buy him or her a beer and then pop the question. It'll be a long and interesting night. The madness seems to stop there though. I've never seen the note E described as a C####...

It's still the same old game

Again - This knowledge is not essential, it's just basic and it can be very useful at times. You can be a true virtuoso car mechanic and not know the "right" names for any of the parts of the car. But it's going to make it easier to communicate with others if you know the language of the business. And what I've covered so far is just that. Language. It's the same twelve notes we're dealing with. It's the same simple fabric of all music that we're talking about. I'm just putting words to them and that doesn't add anything to the simplicity of music, but it does add something to how we think about that simplicity. Keep it simple. Know that music theory is just that: Theory about music.

Paul Gilbert String Skipping Arpeggio Expansion

Here's a heavily Gilbert inspired idea, involving both string skipping and a little sweeping. Try improvising with this sequence. Mix it up with some scale licks and notice how it feels.

The Fast Practical Approach To Theory

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:43:49 +0100

The Fast Practical Approach To Theory

Scroll down to see tablature

Cut the crap and give me a practical approach

When I decided to get serious about my guitar playing I also decided to become an expert on music theory. And so should you. Because music theory is a nothing less than a basic understanding of the mechanics of music. This understanding will help you immensely when you improvise, when you compose or when you want to learn any chord progression or solo simply by listening to it. When you're clear about the underlying patterns of the music you are playing, the lights are on and you know what you are doing. When you don't know what's going on, it's like trying to find the light switch in a dark room.

Simple truths

When I started studying this field, I got very confused. I read a lot of books on the subject but all of them seemed to have the same approach. The same words and explanations repeated themselves again and again. It felt as though they where explaining something very simple in a very complex way. In other words, they seemed to make it more difficult than it really was. As I discovered the simple truths about music I got more and more exited about developing my own approach to teaching this stuff. Because music theory it is really simple.

In this series of articles I'm going to give you the simple truths of music theory, after all, music theory is a tool that you need to have, but that's all there is to it. You don't want to spend too much time learning "about" music, you want to do the practical stuff like practicing, composing and performing. So join me in this simple step by step approach to easy music theory and I promise you, you'll have this area handled in no time.

The first simple truth

So let's begin. Here's the first simple truth about music theory: Music theory is full of strange ideas and weird terms that don't make logical sense. Don't fight that, it's futile. Just accept that music theory has evolved over time and it has many contributors and authors who have tried to make logical sense of what was created intuitively. First came music from the human spirit and soul. Then someone tried to make sense of it.

A very good example of this is the "H" in European music. In the US the 7 notes of the A-minor scale are: A B C D E F G. Each note is named like the alphabet. But apparently there was a monk in Europe who, when he wrote the letter "B" it looked like the letter "H" instead. This monk must have been the king of the hill because people started using the "H" instead of the "B" consistently. So for a European guy the A-Minor scale looks like this: A H C D E F G. Now that's just plain silly but this is how it is.

The second basic truth

There are 12 notes in the "musical alphabet" These twelve notes is all there is. Every chord, every scale and every melody is made up of these same 12 notes. This goes for 99.9 % of the music that you'll ever hear in your life time. On the guitar neck you'll find the same notes in different places. That's why it can be a bit confusing to try and learn music theory on a guitar neck. But here's another instrument that makes a lot more visual sense than a million dots on a fretboard: The piano.

To play these twelve different notes on a piano, start with the bottom "C" then move on to the key right above that. That's the black one without a letter on it. Then play the white "D" key, then the black one right above that. Right until the point where you get to the "C" again. On a guitar, you can play the same twelve notes on one string, starting in the 8th fret on the high E-string like this:

These twelve notes are also called the "Chromatic scale" The word "Chromatic" comes from the Greek "Chroma" which means "color" There are two ways to interpret that word. One is that the chromatic scale is without color. The other one is that the notes of the chromatic scale is the basic colors that you "paint" your music with. But don't get caught up in words!

Giving the 12 notes a name

Now, the most logical way to name these 12 notes would be to give them a number like 1,2,3,4 and 5. Or to give them a letter like A,B and C. The musical monks of this world chose the letters. But they didn't just name them one by one. They excluded some notes first in order to create the scale from which practically all music is derived, namely what we call "The diatonic scale".

This is the white keys on the piano. Again this is just a name for something you already know very well so don't get confused, get curious! The Diatonic scale is a name for 7 notes out of the 12. 7 notes that make up the C-major scale. Then why not just call it the Major scale? Because this Diatonic baby has 7 different names depending on what note in the scale that plays the leading role in the song! The scale is called a diatonic scale no matter what note you focus on.

Chromatic Versus Diatonic

If you play random black and white keys on the piano it's going to sound like a very modern piece of orchestral music. But if you stick to the white keys, things start sounding a lot better. As I wrote earlier, the scale that these white keys produce has a name for every note in it but for now let's focus on the C and play the C-Major scale 8 notes up and down. On the piano that would be a simple task of playing all the white keys from the low C to the next C on the keyboard. On a guitar the same notes on one string would look like this:

Here's the piano version for comparison:

(Please note that if you start from the "A" instead of the "C" you have the first seven letters in the alphabet: ABCDEFG)

Whole tone and semi tone confusion

Now here's the last piece of information before we wrap this up: Notice how there's an uneven distance between the notes in this scale. Sometimes you have one fret in between notes and sometimes you have two frets. The monks of confusion call the one fret distance "A semitone" and the two fret distance "A whole tone" isn't it wonderful how they could have called it "A half tone" and "A whole tone" But they chose to confuse us students by using inconsistent names. Well, as I said, don't fight it just learn it and move on.

Now on the piano you clearly see how there's no black key in between the "E" and "F" notes. The same thing goes for the "B" and "C" notes. This is what corresponds to the one fret distance on the fretboard. So the keyboard is laid out so it's extremely easy to play in the key of C-major, because that's all the white keys. Any chord, melody or phrase you use in the key of C-Major, would come from and be played on those white keys.

A quick recap to make this information stick:

1. There are only 12 notes in our musical vocabulary
2. When you use all 12 notes you are playing the chromatic scale
3. 7 of the 12 notes is called the Diatonic scale
4. This scale is what we use to produce any song, chord or phrase
5. This scale is made up of semitones and whole tones
6. A semitones is the distance from one fret to another
7. A whole tone is the distance of two frets

I know that the information in this articles rises more questions than it answers. But every question will be answered in the following articles.

E-Minor Circular Neo Classical Lick

Today's lick is in E-Minor. It's a combination of three different techniques (Don't let that scare you) There's alternate picking, economy picking and sweep picking involved here.

Tone Changers & Trem Tricks

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:36:41 +0100

Tone Changers & Trem Tricks

Scroll down to see tablature

Today I'm going to show you three techniques that you can use to bring some variety into the sounds you produce when you play. Use them all the time until they become a part of you. When this happens you'll find yourself using these techniques intuitively, without thinking about it.

Squealers

The first technique is also one of the most used in the "business". Most people call them "pinch harmonics" and they are really very easy to do with a little experimenting and practice. The trick is to pick the string and then to lightly touch it afterwards with the side of the thumb or with the tip of your index finger. I use one technique for down strokes and another one for upstrokes.

Down Stroke Squealers

Let's do the downstrokes first. This is how I hold the pick when I'm not doing pinch harmonics:

And this is how I hold it when I want to make the guitar squeal:

When I perform the downstroke I make sure that it's very easy for my thumb to hit the string right after the pick leaves it. When the pick has done it's job, the strings swings back to it's normal positon but in that swing it lightly touches my thumb. Not because I move my thumb, but because it's there already. - Because of how I hold the pick. You need to experiement with this yourself to get it right. Also, it matters where you pick the string, so try picking it in different places. Start close to the bridge and then gradually move up towards the neck while picking the string.

Up Stroke Squealers

This is a different kind of pinch harmonic, because in this case you have to produce the harmonic, but you also mute the string in the process. I like the tone this produces very much but you judge for yourself. Again this is how to hold the pick when you're not doing the squealy thing:

And this is how I hold it when you want that whiny sound:

Notice how I position the index finger under the tip of the pick, making it impossible for me to do upstrokes and not hit the string with my index finger. Again you have to fool around with this one as well, to get the feel for it. In today's video I've also included a little example of how these upstroke pinch harmonics sound when you use them in conjunction with downward slides. Have fun trying out different combinations of techniques.

These harmonics are best made with the bidge pickup, so remember to have that one kicked in. And if you have no idea what the heck I'm talking about, here's and image of me pointing towards the switch in the bridge pickup position and another image of me pointing towards the actual bridge pickup, just so we're all on the same page :)

When you've learned to do both up stroke and down stroke pinches, try playing every note like that for a couple of days. This will make them part of your vocabulary.

Vintage Flutter

To use the flutter technique, you need to have a guitar with a tremolo that goes both up and down. The vintage 6 point Stratocaster tremolo wont work here because it only goes one way. You can only lower the pitch of the note with this tremolo, not raise it. So you need either a Floyd Rose type of tremolo or a two pivot point tremolo that is set up to go in both directions. In this picture you can see how mine is "floating" above the body of the guitar:

It's not true that you can only get this effect with a Floyd Rose (As you can clearly hear in the video) but a Floyd Rose is certainly very effective.

The trick is very simple. Instead of pushing the tremolo down and releasing it, you relase it like a spring. You press it down and let go of it, so that it bounces back into it's normal position. This will make the tremolo shake back and forth for a fraction of a second, and this creates the "flutter" effect.

One note down - Another one up

This is one of my favorites. You bring a lower note all the way down with the tremolo. Right until the point where the tremolo arm hits the body of the guitar (Or the string looses it's ability to produce a note) Then you pick a high note while still pressing down the tremolo. And while bending the note you bring the tremolo back to it's zero position again. You don't have to bring down an open string note. You can experiment with other notes. The point is to 1. pick a note 2. Push the tremolo all the way down and hold it there 3. Pick another note 4. Bring the tremolo up again.

Now the next step is, as always, for you to expand these techniques and see if you can change them, combine them, refine them, or in any way add to them. Look upon any new technique as an idea that you can expand upon. Expect to be able to develop anything you come across and you will. Have fun with it!

Power Blues Phrasiology - Bending

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:43:57 +0100

Power Blues Phrasiology - Bending

Scroll down to see tablature

A keyboard with strings instead of keys

In this article and the next to come, I'll be touching on something essential to blues rock soloing: Phrasing. When I started out, I looked upon the guitar as sort of a keyboard with strings instead of keys. You fretted the note and picked the string and that was that. This attitude also made me focus on cool effects and gimmicks first and on pickups and amp second, but that's another story.

The point is this: There's a reason why the electric guitar is so popular. It's alive, it's expressive and so versatile. Compared to a piano or a flute, the guitar allows you to produce an immense amount of colours and shades on what you play. furthermore the essence of the blues is emotion. Of course all styles of music is about emotion. But blues is about the darker emotions, sadness melancholy, anger, frustration and desperation even. And in my experience, there's no better instrument than the guitar to give life to these emotions.

Bending features

The speed at which you produce the notes you play are really only one element in your expressive tool box. But it's one that takes the most effort and practice to master. Today I'm going to give you a few licks that evolves around bending the strings. Before we begin, there are a few features of your instrument that you want to be aware of:

1. String gauge

As a rule, the heavier the strings, the harder it is to bend them. If you like the sound of extreme bends then you might want to consider using lighter strings like a set of 0.9

2. String material

The material that your strings are made of, influences how soft and flexible they are, and therefore also how easy they are to bend. Go for nickel wounded steel strings if you want to do some extreme bending.

3. Fret size & scallops

The bigger the frets, the easier it is to push the string sideways. If you have hard strings and small frets on your neck, you tend to "loose" the string in the middle of bending it. It slips out of you fingers and back into it's normal position again. This was the primary reason that Ritchie Blackmore started Scalloping his neck with sand paper. Big frets will give you more room to "get under" the string but if that isn't enough for you, check out a scalloped neck and see how you like it.

“I've said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie [Ray Vaughan] missed on both counts, but I never noticed.”

B. B. King

How to make this easy

On top of that, there are several things you can do to make it easier to do the bending:

1. Use more than one finger

You can use more than on finger to grab the string and bend it.

2. Support the finger that does the work

Also you can strengthen any finger by pressing the other fingers against it.

3. Develop horny skin on your fingers
(Yes that word used to mean something different)

When you practice bending, you wear of the skin on your finger tips. And this hurts! But it's a necessary process. The body responds intelligently and recreates the skin only the new skin is much stronger. Then you wear it of again and the process repeats itself until you have the fingertips from hell.

Today's licks

Here's today's licks. Listen carefully and really get the sound of them in your head. Then play them yourself and don't stop playing them over and over again until it's easy for you to hit the right notes and replicate the rhythm of the lick precisely.

Bending the Blues