Comments on: Guitar practice exercises: alternate picking chromatic scale

By: Devon

Devon — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 02:06:54 +0000

Forgive my lack of guitar language knowledge,but what is this layover you speak of ?
By the way you have become my new favorite guitarist.I’ve been studying guitar for 20 years and have only revered the most progressive metalists (George Lynch, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Phil Keaggy, Micheal Angelo Batio-in my opinion). You have stunned me with your licks and impressed me with the drive in which you pursue them. I thoroughly enjoy the erie melodies(this is a good erie) that flow in divine unison from your fingrtips to my heart.
I hope I don’t sound like some lovesick groupie.I am just really impressed.
So what’s a layover ?

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:09:11 +0000

Lol, Thylacines. Just, lol.

Anyway, good exercises there. I find that when I start string-skipping, I have trouble hitting the right string, and not hitting any in between either, so I will have to work on these exercises.

By: Hugo

Hugo — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:34:07 +0000

I agree with you on the “cheating” issue. Those who proclaim that using some techniques is “cheating” are those who don’t see beyond the techniques, their purpose, and probably will never become true musicians.
So many wannabe guitarists shout-out-loud about “cheating” techniques and such.
This is not a race! This is not a game! This is Music we’re dealing with…any musician should use every means necessary and available to them to materialize his music into reality! Technique is just a mean to an end!…to creating Music!

Hugo (aka Hvm)

By: jomaheux

jomaheux — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:49:12 +0000

Thanks Lori an David.I’m off to practice now.

By: Dinosaur David B.

Dinosaur David B. — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 13:31:35 +0000

Yeah, Joebuddha (who can AP effortlessly) gave me an exercise for that called the “inside outside” that specifically works that issue, but I never practiced it. I should dig it out. If I find it, I’ll let you know.

By: Dinosaur David B.

Dinosaur David B. — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 13:26:28 +0000

Yeah, Schenker used his third finger for a LOT of stuff I was taught to TRY to use my fourth finger for. I was taught to try and use one finger per fret, and was instilled with a fear if having a weak pinky. I’ve probably been making things more difficult on my self than need be.

Coincidentally, I was trying to shamelessly cop some Schenker licks off a video last night, and there’s some of his trademark pentatonic licks are probably easier to play using the 1-3 rather than the 1-4 because he’s doing some repetitive patterns over the E and B strings then onto to the G and D strings.

While Schenker has made many of these licks his own, a lot of the ideas behind such licks came from Jimmy Page (think of Heartbreaker) - who I think used his pinky more on them.

But Schenker, when he’s playing his stock pentatonic licks, doesn’s use his pinky much, but I think when he rips off a 4 point layover, he uses his pink. I’d have to check some footage to be sure.

By: Dinosaur David B.

Dinosaur David B. — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 13:12:57 +0000

Yes. Those are just the fingerings to use for layovers for standard min penatatonic boxes in any position. 1 is index finger, 3 is ring finger, and 4 is pinky.

I supposed it you looked at those examples as strict TAB, they would be in F, but you’d use the same fingering in any position.

By: Lorinator

Lorinator — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 13:12:52 +0000

I can’t speak for David, but I’d play the 4’s with my pinkie. There are some guitarists, however, (Michael Schenker comes to mind) who rarely use their pinkie. They’d probably use their ring finger for both the 3’s and the 4’s. It will be interesting to see what Dave’s original intention with the exercise is.

By: jomaheux

jomaheux — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 02:51:39 +0000

Hi David,

Just to make shure i have it right.

Does the 4 on your tablature means the pinky and so on?

By: Lorinator

Lorinator — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 23:46:23 +0000

The layover thingies rule, ’tis true. What I like about the chromatics is that they work fingers 2 and 3 (weak points for me). I’ve been practicing the exercise I posted for about a week now, and it’s made a noticeable difference.

It would also be fun to be able to throw in a cool chromatic run now and then (I’ve thought that ever since hearing that chromatic lick at the end of Uli’s solo in the song Firewind).

With respect to layovers, I find that anything that has me picking on the inside of two strings can be problematic. It seems to help to really focus on getting the upstroke right — sometimes I practice totally exaggerating the upstrokes just to drill ‘em into my brain.