Legato
Lick

By
Kris Barras

Here
is an ultra-smooth Legato lick incorporating Hammer-ons and Pull-offs
with Right-hand taps. This lick must be practised slowly at first,
and then build up the speed with time. The are some fairly wide
stretches involved so ensure that you are thoroughly warmed up
before attempting this phrase at any kind of speed.

Most
people find, that when learning this type of lick, it sounds very
messy. This is due to the unwanted string noise from the un-played
strings. To solve this you must ensure that you are muting the
strings with both hands. The fret-hand should be muting the unplayed
top strings via your index finger. This involves laying the finger
slighty flat and fretting notes with the tip, but not the very
tip. To mute the unplayed bottom strings, use the palm of your
picking hand to rest slightly, preventing them from ringing out.

The
Lick is using the E Altered Blues scale (E mixolydian with chromatic
notes) and is best situated over an E7, E7#9 or an E alt chord.

Legato
Lick Tab

Legato
Lick MP3 (fast)

Check out more from Kris at www.krisbarras.com

C Ionian Lick & How To Use It

By
Randall Padilla

Ex. 3:
           This is a C Ionian scale run, that ascends through the scale at a very high rate of speed (21 notes per second) with each note being individually picked.  The trick to facilitating this cleanly, accurately, and at tempo, is to, One: Believe that you can do it; and Two: Use economy picking in the ascending portion of the run.  The lick encompasses a total of 51 individual notes in roughly 2.42 seconds.  This level of speed is easily grasped by doing this: “Practice it slowly and accurately, repeat.”  I cover speed drills similar to this in my instructitonal DVD [Randall Padilla: Tao of Shred] and the real key to grasping techniques such as this, is to consistently with discipline, practice them “slowly/precisely; repeat.”

As always, divide this lick into segments and learn each proficiently and successively, adding on a new section only after the previous is attained.  Have fun and enjoy!
-Randall Padilla
You can reach Padilla at youtube.com/randypadilla209 or email at:

randallpadillashred@gmail.com
 

Introduction to Sweep Picking Sample

By
Randall Padilla

This video is a short sample of the full-length video available in the shop.
Click Here for details!

Q&A Session 9

By
Zack Uidl

Over the Top Tapping Arpeggios

By
Niels Vejlyt

Micro Practicing – The Art of Breaking Things Down

By
Joe Pinnavaia

One of the most overlooked aspects of practicing any instrument is what I would call micro practicing or isolating a small passage of a musical piece or technique that may contain a challenging element. This challenging element is what we focus on when we micro-practice. The entire solo, riff, lick, composition etc. is not repeated over and over again – only the area that may contain whatever it is that we find challenging and thus prevents us from performing at our optimum level.

Why use Micro practicing? plain and simple – it saves you time and keeps you focused on the real issue that is causing you to make mistakes or compromises your consistency. While I was attending the University at Buffalo studying classical guitar, Joanne Castellani (Castellani/Andriaccio Duo, www.fleurdeson.com/duo/duo.html) had me do this technique at my lessons and it was very intensive. I walked out of those lessons energized and ready to study further. I did not internalize this idea of practicing on my own and soon found myself involved for hours on one piece of music never really feeling comfortable or confident that I could perform it without making "stupid" mistakes. As I found out later, these mistakes were not "stupid" but were from a weakness in an element in my playing like a slide, hand shift, placing capo with the left hand, synchronization of the both the left and right hands. It was not all these issues at once but only one or two at a time! At my lessons Joanne made me focus on just one or two elements and that was the whole hour lesson. I would remember her saying: "Work on this shift here – good now do it again, and again, now 10 times without making a mistake and if you do – start over." At times I may have thought this was a form of cruel torture but I still was not understanding the concept. Now many years later I have been using this type of practicing and seeing huge results.

To apply the idea of Micro practice is very simple. Take anything on your instrument that you have been working on and play through it completely from beginning to end and note the areas that you were stumbling, fumbling all over the place. Note any weak areas or even a feeling of a lack of confidence. Now go back to those areas and take your metronome out (I know everyone has one and should use it ALL the time!) and set it to 40 or 45. Painfully slow right! Good! Take each area and, in time, loop your trouble spots paying close attention to what each hand is doing. With the metronome this slow your brain has a chance to fully map what each hand is doing and in essence you give yourself a chance to play it in time and learn it the correct way. Repeat each area 10 times – PERFECTLY (If not then start over!) and then move the metronome up a notch or two and repeat the process. Once the neuromuscular pathway is strengthened, this area is no longer a weakness, you build your confidence, learn faster and become a better player in less time. Even if you practiced for only 15 minutes to a half hour a day, you would see faster results than if you were to try and force yourself to play from beginning to end and hope that the mistakes will just go away.

So keep practicing and I wish you well on your road to excellence with whatever instrument it is that you play!
This is just one of many techniques I use with my own students to help get them the results that they want faster! If you live in the Western New York area and wish to pursue guitar instruction with me, please visit the website below and fill out the Guitar Lessons Evaluation form to help give me a better understanding of where you are in you musical venture and sign up for the free eBook on techniques Builders.

Thanks,
Joe Pinnavaia

Guitarist, Composer, Instructor
http://www.digital-nations.com/artists/testtuberhino
http://www.joepinnavaia.weebly.com

Sweep Picking & Tapping Arpeggios

By
Daniel Owen