The Guitar Player's Resource
Hello and happy International Guitar Month. I’m writing this lesson during the COVID-19 outbreak and most of us are stuck inside. During these times as a musician it is important to take advantage of the time and challenge yourself to get to the next level. Every master musician has spent countless hours working on their craft and has endured many sacrifices and hardships. Also, this can be a perfect opportunity to finish songs you have written or recorded.
For this lesson, I will be showing you some lines I came up with that will help with your technique, such as alternate picking, moving across the fingerboard, arpeggio practice, etc. All of the examples are alternate picked, and make sure you make up your own lines.
Example 1 is in the key of F#m (F#, G#, A, B, C#, D, E). It starts up high on the fretboard and it descends down the neck until the low F#. This is constructed with three-note scale shapes, played in sixteenths and it puts the accents in odd places. Be sure to play this precise and make up several of these type of lines that get you across the neck.
MP3 - Quarantine Lines - Example 1
Example 2 stays strictly in the A minor scale (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) and it is constructed with 16th note triplets, with six-note patterns that are ascending very quickly up the fingerboard. The main part of this line is a two-string, sequential down - up pattern with six notes at a time, that is played between 2 strings. Also, you will notice a three-string pattern at the end of bar one and at the beginning of bar 2, that connects the two-string patterns. This connecting pattern occurs in the last bar, but it climbs up four strings.
MP3 - Quarantine Lines - Example 2
Finally, Example 3 is an arpeggio based example that is in the A Phrygian Dominant scale (A, Bb, C#, D, E, F, G). It is constructed with seventh chord and triad arpeggios that are inside the scale. The progression in the first bar is A7, Bb, Gm7 and the second bar is A, Fmaj7#5, Gm. The last bar begins with an Em7b5 to DmMaj7 and finally to a C# dim7th arpeggio. It is important to know the spellings of these arpeggios and I alternate pick this. although you could sweep pick as well.
MP3 - Quarantine Lines - Example 3
That is it for this lesson! Be sure to make up your own examples and visit www.mikecampese.com for more information. Stay safe!
Mike Campese is an all-around music performer, session artist and teacher competent in many musical styles, electric and acoustic. He has studied at G.I.T. (Honors Graduate), and with Paul Gilbert, Norman Brown, Stanley Jordan, Scott Henderson and Keith Wyatt.
