Chromatic/Alternate Picking

neverend · #1 01-16-2002, 10:55 PM

I've been playing roughly 5 years and decided it was about time I cleaned up my picking and practiced some chromatic stuff, since 4 note per string runs have always given me problems - hence I tend to stick to 3 note per string patterns which I find easy in comparison.
So, it seems its pretty popular to practice the familiar 1234, 1342, 2341 etc. across strings (I find this stuff awkwardly difficult at speed) and I just had a couple of questions about them..

Firstly, what do you find is a decent way to practice these? *10 minutes for each one? *Or work each one up to a set speed then move on to the next? *All I tend to do is play 1234, decide its not fast enough and so stick at it for an hour or two. *Every day. *This actually is getting me nowhere

Also what is a good speed to be playing these at? (as 16ths).

Hmm, and finally..I find it much more difficult picking on and moving from the 5th string to 6th and vice versa, than moving between any of the other strings so this slows down the whole thing..argh its really frustrating. *Is this umm...normal?

Anyway any help would be great,
I realise this is pretty trivial stuff but im useless and not getting any less useless despite the 4 or so hours a day I am putting into this

-Paul

(Edited by neverend at 11:22 pm on Jan. 16, 2002)

jeffrey · #2 01-17-2002, 01:15 PM

Ahhh chromatics. I love'em, not a lotta people do tho.

I have a really simple exercise that shown me great benefit.

It's very simple.

Let me attempt to tab this out.

d - downpick * u - up pick *sl - slide

----dudu-------------------------------------------------------------dudu----dudu
6 --1234 dudu --------------------------------------------------dudu 5432-sl-3456 etc.
5 --------1234 dudu---------------------------------------dudu 5432---------------
4 --------------1234 dudu---------------------------dudu 5432---------------------
3 --------------------1234 dudu---------------dudu 5432---------------------------
2 -------------------------1234 dudu---dudu 5432----------------------------------
1 -------------------------------1234-sl-5432--------------------------------------

Notes: If you do this correctly you will begin every string with a down pick. It's also good to practice this starting with an up pick so you don't favor one pick stroke over another. Also make sure you use four fingers to a string; I know this is obvious, but you'd be surprised.

The key to this exercise for me is the little slide at the bottom and the top. I generally play this from the 1st to the 12th and back down on all 7 strings (notated in 6 here; adjust as needed). It also helps to accent the first note of each string since these are straight 16ths. Unlike three note per string shapes which are 16th note triplets.

It's very simple, but effective imo. Other more complicated exercises, like the "crawl" you are currently doing, aren't so effective for chromatic ideas imo. But very useful for individual finger dexterity.

Hope this helps.

Jeroenn · #3 01-17-2002, 02:37 PM

At last, a topic to were I can add something.
I use this as my warming up. I start with the metronome at 60 and end at 100
So it's like starting at 60bpm, doing 8, then 80 then 100, going back to 60 and doing 16, up to 80 and end at 100

Play it completely, then speed up the metronome.

(borrowing some tabs here..

)

6 1234 --- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 13 14 15
5 ------2345 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 12 13 14---------------
4 ------------3456 -------------------------------------------------- *10 11 12 13---------------------
3 ------------------4567 ----------------------------- ---9 10 11 12---------------------------
2 -----------------------5678 -------------- --89 10 11----------------------------------
1 -----------------------------6789---78910--------------------------------------

----

6 12 13 14 15
5 --------------12 13 14 15
4 ----------------------------12 13 14 15
3 ---------------------------------------------12 13 14 15
2 --------------------------------------------------------------12 13 14 15
1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------12 13 14 15

after this play the first part backwards, and starting from the low string (15 14 13 12) towards the high string (10 9 8 7, *9 8 7 6), ending at the low string again *(4 3 2 1) , so it's like the mirror of the above .
When you arrive at the first string fret one, do as the second part going to the high string, so that basicly the same there too. After that, I go like

1234 2345 3456 4567 5678 6789 etc until 12 13 14 15 *and then backwards 15 14 13 12 until 4 3 2 1.

After that the run is complete, and I increase the speed of the metronome and start at the beginning.

This is really great to enhance the legato, speed and power in your fingers. When you are in the easy slow speeds, press a little harder on the strings, that will increase your finger strength.
This excercise, by the way, came from Marc Seal's Guitar mania Warming up show at www.digivent.com.
I've been doing it for 5 weeks now, and it has increased my speed SO much that I'm totally stunned about it. It's all alternate picking, and that feels the most comfortable to me. My picking technique is now like it should, speed of picking is going faster and faster, and my lefthand is MUCH more powerfull and faster. It is totally unbelievable for me, so I swear by this excercice..

You can also alternate between starting with an up or down stroke, it feels diffrent, but if you can do that both, it's great!

So here you go.

(EDIT some layout and those time signatures. Don't know how to translate them properly..

)

(Edited by Jeroenn at 2:49 pm on Jan. 17, 2002)

Jeroenn · #4 01-17-2002, 03:05 PM

I just made a quick mp3 with a complete run. If you're interested, mail me at jeroen.noordhuis@planet.nl
It's about 1.5 Mb. (need to learn how to make small sound files..)