Alternate Picking

Chromatic workout. Part 1

July 3, 2009 Warming Up | No comments yet

Workout is not just for sportsmen, it is necessary for musicians as well. Exercise that I will show you today, is played by generations of guitar players. Perhaps it is single best exercise to develop and keep the chops up. It is equally great for the fretting hand (finger independence) and picking hand (alternate picking) as well as for two hands synchronization.

Here is the basic form of the exercise:

chromatic

As you can see each finger is responsible for one fret. I start with the 1st fret only because the pattern is more obvious there (fret number corresponds to the finger number). It is advised to start playing the pattern higher on the neck (say 12th fret and then move down to the nut).

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