Development of Technique

7/23/2019 Development of Technique

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Development of Technique

UNT Masterclass Jan 28th

2005 –

by Noel Johnston

Warm-ups without the guitar; Preventing injuries.

Stretch before you start playing.

If you experience pain while playing, don’t immediately stretch – let your muscles relax or “deflate.” If you

stretch while you are tense, you may do damage because you are pulling tendons through inflamed tissue.

1. Arm stretches:

Stretch arms out front; keep shoulders down: Stretch arms to the side; reach far.

2. Arm circles: 3. Hand stretches:

Make circles with your arms; clockwise and counter-clockwise:



Warm-ups on the guitar; digital patterns; coordination.

To sync up Left hand/Right hand: Note: This exercise focuses on the weakest finger (4th); don’t let fingers “flail”

Digital Patterns

24 possibilities from 4 fingers:

1234 2341 3412 4123

1243 2431 3124 4312

1324 2413 3241 4132

1342 2134 3421 4213

1423 2314 3142 4231

1432 2143 3214 4321

•

Be creative with these – invent your own exercises – find your weakness(es)• Keep an idea book.

“Star-Trek Shifters” (brainless stuff you can do while watching TV)

1234 (slide up) 4321 (slide up) 1234 etc.

4321 (slide down) 1234 (slide down) 4321 etc.



1234 (go down a string) 1234 etc.

1234 (go up a string) 1234 etc.

4321 (go down a string) 4321 etc

4321 (go up a string) 4321 etc

Cross-string stuff:

You can apply the digital patterns across strings:

For example, the 1234 pattern across strings would be this:

Or, you could do any other pattern across strings, like 1243:



Another variation using the 1234 pattern:

Try this one…Hybrid pattern “1324-3142” and across strings:



Scales:Don’t neglect scales/modes. Keep practicing them. Also, try to change up the pattern when practicing them.

For example: instead of just: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7

Try: 1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6-5-7 etc.

Or: 1-2-3-1-2-3-4-2-3-4-5-3 etc.

Also: try practicing scales up one string, or two strings, or three strings.

1-3-2-4- etc. up & down

1-2-3-1-2-3-4-2- etc. up & down:















3. Speed:

The best way to get faster, cleaner technique is to work at it. There are no shortcuts. Focus on your

weaknesses – be your own teacher.

Setting goals for yourself is a good thing to do:

Like: “scales at 16th

notes @ 160 by August” Or “playing that transcription of Countdown by the end ofsummer.”

4. Different ways of practicing with the metronomeGet out of the habit of practicing with the metronome on beats 1-2-3-4 – this does you little good as it

merely spoon-feeds the time to you.

You want the groove to come from within you - the metronome should check your time, not make you lazy. Not only should you practice with the metronome on 2 & 4, but there are other things you can try:

•

Set it to whole notes starting on beat 4• Set it to half-notes starting on the “and” of one (swing or straight)

• Set it to half notes starting on the “a” of 2

• Set it to dotted half notes

• Set it to dotted quarters or eighths

… Use you imagination – there’s plenty you can do other than 2 & 4.

5. Picking; swing

Here’s an arpeggio exercise that has helped me. It uses sweep picking and it focuses on the 4th

finger

playing adjacent strings. It has tripped me up in the past, so I invented an exercise to strengthen it.

This pattern can also be applied to other arpeggios and their inversions…











Swing feel:

A lot of guitar players don’t know to accent up-beats or they don’t know how.

If you play swing feel and accent down-beats you’ll sound like you’re playing bluegrass, rockabilly or

country… not Jazz.

You can help your swing feel in several ways:• Start and end phrases on up-beats.

• when playing 8

th note passages, ghost the downbeats and accent the upbeats

• Change strings on up-beats instead of downbeats

• Make it a habit to alternate pick, so that the ghosting/accenting is a consistent part of your bodymovement.

Accenting vs. ghosting can come from:1. Difference in pick tension – i.e. how hard/soft your thumb grips the pick.

2. Left hand or right hand muting

3. Picking vs. Hammering on, Pulling off, or sliding to a note.

Try practicing scales with these swing accents:

Do this either by ghosting/accenting with the pick, or by legato phrasing:

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Development of Technique