online guitar lessonfree from guitarwombat
Building A Technique
C Major Scale In Thirds
Get a killer guitar technique with this simple but effective chops builder
This online guitar lesson from guitarwombat.com uses the C Major Scale moving in thirds. This basically means that instead of playing the scale as a sequence of ascending or descending notes you need to follow a "two steps forward and one step back" pattern.
It's one of the things that filters through into your "real" playing by helping to ensure that your solos don't just sound like someone running up and down scales" By constantly changing direction within a scale shape you will help yourself develop the ability to use a scale as a "toolkit" of notes rather than just a sequence of them. Guitar shops are full of people who bore the cack out of everyone by flying up and down scales at warp speed 10 convinced that they are playing solos. Only playing scales in strict sequence is about as clever as deciding that every scentence that you speak should be structured so that all of the words are arranged in alphabetical order! It might be hard to do but it does not make a lot of sense to anyone else!
How to work with this guitar technique builder
Don't make the big mistake of looking at the tab and playing straight through the sequence of notes!It might seem like the only logical thing to do but what will happen is that you will never "learn" the exercise. By relying on the tab your brain will process the notes one at a time and although when you get to the end you will have sounded the right notes in the right order you will not be able to play the sequence again without access to the computer screen (or to the handout that accompanies this online guitar technique builder that you can get by clicking the button at the bottom of the page).
The Right Way To Do It
Learn the first two notes. Play them a few times and then add the third and fourth notes of the sequence. When you can play the first four notes without looking at the screen or the printed sheet then add the next two notes and so on until the entire thing is in your head and in your fingers. this way you are reinforcing technique and knowledge at every stage rather than just processing information without retaining it! Tab (if used the wrong way) can lead to a situation where the music "goes in through the eyes and out through the fingers" without anything remaining inside the player.One Octave C Major Scale In Thirds (ascending)
The numbers underneath the tab refer to the fretting hand fingering. as you will see the fretting hand starts with the second finger at the third fret of the A sting and observes a rule of one finger per fret throughout the exercise.
Developing killer right and left hand technique
It may sound simplistic but developing an effective guitar technique can be divided into two areas.
1:Left Hand Technique
and
2:Right Hand Technique.
If you try to learn right and left hand patterns at the same time it will take more than twice as long and will be more than twice as difficult!
Learn the left (fretting) hand fingering two notes at a time to the point that you can play it without thinking about it before working on the correct right hand approach. The way to build effective right hand techniqe is to develop the ability to play alternate down and up strokes with the plectrum. The first note (A string-third fret-second finger) should be played with a downstroke and the second note (A string-second fret-first finger) would be an upstroke of the plectrum and so on. What you are working towards is the development of a beneficial subconcious technique (the way that you play the guitar without thinking about it)
One Octave C Major Scale in Thirds (descending)
Below is the descending form of the excercise. You should again play with alternate down and up strokes of the plectrum. The first note (G string-fifth fret-fourth finger) will be a downstroke etc. Go to the foot of the page to get a free printable version of this chops builder. Have Fun!
