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Practice Toolkit Masterclass

Jake Willson / Practice Toolkit Masterclass 2
INTRODUCTION
With this Masterclass we found ourselves pondering some of

the big questions: what is practice, why should you practise,
what should you practise? This Masterclass is Jake’s answer.
It’s not an objective, academic text; it’s a deeply personal
reflection on the subject, based on Jake’s experience as a
performer and teacher. He’s a really good player, too, so this
is well worth reading!
Over to you, Jake…

CHAPTER 1
THE “HOW” AND “WHY” OF PRACTICE

There are only so many hours in the day, and we only have
so much energy to expend on it. This is a fact of life, and it
most acutely affects people with busy schedules and laundry
lists of responsibilities.
It’s an almost inextricable symptom of adulthood, and even dedicated

professional musicians struggle to maintain even the most basic of practice
schedules. If you’ve bought this Masterclass, however, it’s likely that you feel
strongly about moving your guitar playing forward and achieving your goals
as a musician. Take a moment to reflect on the statement (or commitment)
that you have made to yourself by simply reading these words; you want to
be a better guitarist than you currently are, and because time and energy are
finite, it’s crucial that we develop efficient and targetted practice schedules
to meet our goals.
This Masterclass is as much about setting up habits to increase productivity

as it is about exercises and working on our technique. Many people really
struggle to maintain a practice schedule in the first place (sometimes
picking up your guitar is the hardest part) so we’ll spend some time on using
discipline and rudimentary productivity techniques to make our practice
sessions more fruitful. I’m not an expert in “motivation” or “productivity”
by any stretch of the imagination, but I have noticed how my own personal
development has affected my growth as a musician; the advice in this PDF
is based on what has worked for me. I suspect a lot of musicians spend
very little time reflecting on how aspects of our character interact with our
musicianship. I don’t feel in any way remotely qualified to continue down the
Jake Willson / Practise Toolkit Masterclass 4
path of psychoanalysis, but I would just ask you to reflect on your habits,
your needs, your wants, your goals, your beliefs and principles etc. and where
your musicianship and practice sits within that framework.
What are you practising for?
We all know that practice is important and that we need to be doing it, even
if it’s just to maintain our current skill/fluency levels, but take a moment to
really clarify, for yourself, what you’re practicing for. Is it for your next gig?
Are you preparing to jam a jazz standard? Do you want to be the next Stevie
Ray Vaughan? Clarify your goals at the beginning and try to keep them in
your mind. When we forget why we’re doing it, practice can feel like a chore,
but keeping a target in mind can maintain the focus and enthusiasm.
As well as the rational angle, try to also attach an emotional significance

to your goal; we like to think we are rational agents, but we are generally
¹ Check out more powerfully motivated by emotions and feelings¹. For example, if you
‘Thinking Fast and
Slow’ by Daniel
ask yourself “Why do I want to improve my guitar playing?” you might be
Kahneman to inclined to answer “I just want to be better at guitar”, but this doesn’t have
explore the ways
in which rational the same emotional resonance as “because if I improve my guitar playing, I
thought and will achieve my goals and thus have a happier, more exciting and fulfilling life,
emotion interact
in our thought while showing to myself that I’m capable of achieving my goals, giving me the
processes and
confidence to take on any challenge.”
decision making.
Does that last statement ring true to you? When I was a teenager, I was
compelled by a dream of really “making it” as a musician and that dream
fuelled many, many hours of practice – I kept coming back to it. It was a
powerful delusion. It wasn’t rational, it wasn’t clever, but it compelled me to
sit down and work. My advice is that you find out what really compels you,
and work from there.
That doesn’t mean it’s wrong to practise “for the sake of it”; a practice
session can be a moment of peace or meditation in our busy lives. I love
to practise for the sake of practising and the feeling of having made
some progress in my playing without assigning it any great significance. I
suppose the important thing is that I’ve made myself aware that I simply
enjoy practising. Just acknowledging this in writing makes me want to do
it right now! Of course, things get a bit more serious (even a “chore”!) if I’m
preparing for something specific like a show, but I’ll still happily run through
the C major scale for 20 minutes and then work on triads (you can never
practise that stuff enough!)
So far, we’ve only just begun to explore the issue of “what makes us tick” as
practitioners, and there’s a huge body of literature about the psychology of
motivation that I would encourage you to explore and research. It’s one thing
to have drive, motivation and all the good habits, but we also need a PLAN…
“What specific things should I do to achieve my goals (and/or sub-goals)?”
“I’ve only got so much time and energy, so how can I create a plan that
reaches my goals in an efficient manner?”
An inefficient or misguided plan can result in diminishing enthusiasm for

our goals; time is precious, and momentum is everything, so it’s a subject
that needs to be seriously considered here. Your plans will change, and
so will your goals, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t approach the issue
with rigour; you just need to be prepared to adjust your approach based on
experience and reflection.
How do I practice efficiently?
“Efficiency” is a somewhat mercurial term when it comes to creative or

artistic pursuits; it assumes that there is some measurement or metric
by which we can gauge our progress. If I reflect on my time learning the
guitar, genuine progress has been slow, and some activities have been more
effective than others, but my awareness of progress was most noticeable
when focused upon very specific goals that were maintained over a period of
weeks or months. In many ways, the “efficiency” aspect of the activities was
only measurable (in some loose sense) after reflecting on the progress after
it was made and examining how it was achieved.
Another way of looking at this: imagine you decide to learn something (a

tricky jazz tune like Donna Lee, for example) but you don’t manage to learn it
or you fail to really “embed” it into your playing. The unfinished work towards
that goal was largely wasted and inefficient. An abandoned, “half-learned”
Donna Lee is of virtually no use! Therefore, one part of efficient practice is to
maintain momentum until you achieve your goals – only then can you reflect
on what you’ve been doing and tweak your approach for your next goal or
set of goals. I have seen far too many students get “half way” to their goal
only to stall, lose interest and do something else. It’s not a problem if you
simply discover that it’s not something you want to do, but when people start
a task, stop, then return to it at some point… this is so frustrating to watch
and remarkably inefficient. You have to start along the same process from
a point not much further along the path than where you started. Persevere,
even if only to avoid this madness!
The other part of “efficiency” is the quality of the attention you apply to the
task. Some people are gifted in their ability to focus intensely on their work
for long periods, but if you’re like most people, your attention span leaves
much to be desired. Don’t fret, though; I’ve found techniques and habits that
can help with this perfectly normal facet of life (as an epic procrastinator, I’ve
had to work particularly hard at this). They are as follows:
1. Assuming you have defined specific goals and know why

you’re practising, create a week-long practice schedule that is compatible
with your other life schedules and contains activities targetted towards your
musical goal. The activities can be flexible, so you can adjust the amount of
time you need to spend on them. Similarly, some things can take longer than
expected, so don’t neglect the idea of “revision”. It is important, therefore,
to stick to a schedule, but to be adaptable in how you fill it. Personally, I
find it easier to stick to a practice schedule if I define it the night before (I
make more beneficial choices if I work in advance than if I do stuff on the
spur of the moment) and also schedule other activities around practice, so
I know that there’s time to do the laundry, eat etc. I can then practise in the
knowledge that I’m not stealing time from my other responsibilities. I also
find it helpful to include breaks; I find that I can apply concentrated effort
for about 20 minutes at a time. Also, give yourself a “reward”; typically, I’ll
watch a film or play video games. I will go into more detail about effective
scheduling later on in this document.
² Obviously, if you’re 2. Use a metronome whenever appropriate². I find that this really
just beginning to
learn an exercise,
helps me maintain my focus and stops me from drifting off into playing my
you don’t need to favourite blues licks. If your concentration drifts, the metronome guides you
use the metronome.
It should also be
back to the task at hand and has the added benefit of helping you measure
said that it can how accurate your rhythmic placement is. This isn’t about speed; it’s about
be beneficial to
practise playing choosing the right tempo or rhythmic subdivision for your current level of
in time without a playing and what you’re trying to do, and letting yourself get into the groove.
metronome; you
won’t always have Increase the tempo if you like, but the main benefit, for me, is keeping the
one in the real
practice session ‘on the rails’.
world.
3. Keep a diary of what you worked on and reflect on how your

practice session went and what you need to work on. I find that this helps
you to structure practice sessions with an awareness of what you need to

work on, and also allows you to reflect on progress made over time. It might
say something like “I practised improvising on Stella By Starlight, but I kept
stumbling when it came to the m7b5 chords”. With that in mind, you might
want to transcribe some relevant licks and work on visualising m7b5 chords
in different areas of the fretboard. Then, at the end of your practice session,
try to play over Stella, again, gauge your progress and make a note of it in
your diary!
4. Record yourself playing. Without doing this, it’s really hard

to truly gauge the quality of your playing. It’s nearly impossible to listen
attentively (receive information) and to play (transmit information) at the
same time, especially if you’re still getting to grips with the content of your
playing. Your mental ‘CPU’ will be mostly occupied with playing, leaving very
few resources left for accurate listening. Listening back to your playing can
be a humbling experience, especially if you limit yourself to very few ‘takes’.
Be honest with yourself with regard to your strengths and weaknesses,
and focus on these strengths and weaknesses as you plan your practice
sessions. You will never run out of things to work on if you do this.
5. Mindless drills can be really helpful. Assuming that it won’t

drive your friends/family crazy, you can actually help ‘embed’ some content
into your playing while watching a film or box set. The idea, here, is that you
pay conscious attention to what you’re watching while developing muscle
memory and further acclimatising your left-hand to the fretboard. This clearly
isn’t an ideal form of “practice” for many, many subject areas, but I’ve found
that it’s worth doing when “drilling” things such as scales or arpeggios
(mainly left-hand content). I wouldn’t want to distract you from Police
Academy 4 too much, so I’d suggest that you’ll enjoy the film more if you’re
drilling stuff you already know quite well.
You could be forgiven for thinking that I see practice as a kind of “work-out”,
but that’s not quite the case: I’m a firm believer that you need to schedule
time to be creative and “open ended” in your practice (we are, after all,
pursuing a creative goal). Of course, the relationship between “efficiency”
and “creativity” is an awkward one, but here are some guidelines to help
keep you moving your practice forward with creativity and efficiency in mind,
simultaneously:
1. Don’t forget to practise ‘ugly’ and try to engage with what

you’re doing on a deep level of understanding; don’t just go through the
motions and practise stuff you already know or already know you can play.
Push the limits of your understanding and set yourself mental challenges:
“Can I play this if I start on a different string?” “What does this sound like if I
play the same pattern, but descending, and do I need to adapt the fingering
to make it work?” “What limitation exercises (more on these later) can I apply
to develop my understanding of a certain area of the fretboard?” Trying to
answer these questions and pushing yourself in this manner will help you to
become more mentally agile and ensure that you aren’t neglecting important
aspects of guitar playing by using the path of least resistance to give the
false impression of progress.
2. Apply what you’re working on in your own playing. Try to

keep your practice material “alive” by using it in your improvisations and/or
compositions. You might make something cool out of what you’ve learned,
and you’ll also likely develop a deeper, less superficial understanding of
what you’re working on. Of course, this allows you to apply things more
flexibly and, ideally, without much conscious effort. Even if you don’t
intend to “become an artist”, as it were, you’ll still benefit from the activity,
intellectually.
3. Allow yourself to play freely. While it’s obviously important to

practise with discipline, focus and a clear goal-based direction, you should
also allow your subconscious mind to process the information that it’s taking
on. Try to spend some time with your instrument without a clear purpose
and just play! Be attentive to the quality of your sound and the kind of music
you’re playing while trying to think very little (on a conscious level). Working
on understanding the subtleties between mental states is vitally important
when it comes to improvising or performing live. Unfortunately, this is an
enormous subject this goes beyond the scope of this document, but there’s
a wealth of performance psychology literature that can help you to better
understand your “inner game” (more on this later).
4. Allow yourself to create. If inspiration strikes, feel free to get

carried away – you needn’t let the practice schedule become an obstacle.
Such moments are fleeting and should be pursued with enthusiasm.
Similarly, if you’re of a mind to sit and play the blues for half an hour, go for
it. With proper attention to the quality of your playing, you’ll be honing your
vocabulary and developing fluency (hopefully you’ll be aware if what you’re
doing is aimless nonsense or not!)
5. Study the best and listen widely. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel
– study what the greats played and how they played it. Transcribe, listen and
analyse. Moreover, the more music you listen to, and the more you expose
yourself to new things, the more you feed your subconscious mind with
‘musical food’.
How much practice is enough practice?

It really depends on what you want to achieve, but the answer is usually
“more than you might think!” (or, more philosophically, it is impossible to
practise anything “enough”). My guidance to my students has been that you
should aspire to the unrealistic goal: not just playing something right, but
never playing it wrong. This is clearly not practical, but the sentiment is that
you aim at that goal. When a student first comes to me, I usually ask them
if they know the C major scale in all of its positions. The answer is usually
“of course”, so I ask them to demonstrate, and almost invariably they make
mistakes or play hesitantly. This is not sufficient if you’re aiming to become
an effective improviser: if any of your mental energy is spent on locating
notes, you will play hesitantly, ruining your time feel, and, in turn, ruining your
playing.
One technique I’ve recommended to my students is to aim to be able to

play whatever you’re studying seven consecutive times without error. This
is really rather difficult (and time consuming), but it’s a realistic target for
exercises, ensuring that you’ve really processed the material to a point where
³ Another indicator you can play it without conscious effort³. It’s reasonable to scale this down
that you have
something really
for when you’re working on tunes, or whole shows (I aim to be able to play a
‘down’ is that you whole show without error twice before I play it for the first time).
can read a book
or maintain a
conversation while
There’s no getting around the fact that this does take a long time, but in my
playing. view, you have to put in the work over the years to reap the benefits. You
don’t get half as far by putting in half the effort, and doing things half right.
The crucial thing is that you sustain your efforts and form useful habits that
keep you working towards your goals.
Practice and time: creating schedules that work and

negotiating mindsets
a) Procrastination hacks and the power of emotion
Try this: sit still and do nothing for 10 minutes (use a timer). No, really.
There’s a powerful lesson, here. 10 minutes is a longer time than people
think, and 10 minutes concerted effort and attention (if done with adequate
focus) is a valuable unit of time, and things can be achieved in such a

short amount time as this. Clearly, it’s not enough time for the “seven
times” method, but bear with me. Concentration uses energy, and the
conventional wisdom is that humans are capable of applying concentration
in short bursts. One consequence of this is that you will have a more
effective practice session if you plan breaks. The Pomodoro Technique is
a productivity method where you do 25-minute bursts of activity followed
by 5-minute breaks. It works by conceptualising time as an opportunity to
achieve something and using short breaks to maintain concentration4. So,
if you’re looking at time as an opportunity of gradual growth, then over the
span of months and years you will really be reaping the rewards of your
practice, even if you’re looking at doing less than an hour of practice a day;
it will accumulate as long as you’re applying consistent and concentrated
effort towards clearly defined goals.
I’ve mentioned before in this document that humans are not, for the most
part, influenced by pure rationality; we are emotional beings. We react more
empathetically if we hear of one starving child called Mary than if there’s a
5 I honestly can’t million starving children5. Charities know this. The story of one child is more
recommend Daniel
vivid to us and is easy to visualise; as such we are more compelled to try
Kahneman’s
Thinking Fast and help. If we hear of a million starving children, something short-circuits
and Slow enough:
in us and we no longer feel the same level of empathy despite the level of
he very clearly
demonstrates the suffering being unimaginably greater.
mechanics behind
these errors in
judgement.
4 There appears to be a fair amount of evidence to support the efficacy of the pomodoro technique- check out the
following articles for further reading: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110208131529.htm and
https://facilethings.com/blog/en/science-behind-pomodoro-technique
Here’s how this relates to our practice; we negotiate with ourselves more
effectively if we appeal to our emotions. If we say to ourselves “how great
would I feel if I could play effortlessly over Giant Steps?” or “Imagine how
great it’ll feel, gigging in front of 30000 people!” we have a better chance
of following through on our ambitions. On the other hand if we base our
self-negotiations on cold, hard logic (“if I practice for 10 hours a week, I’ll be
better at guitar”) we won’t have those same feelings about what that actually
means.
Using emotional imagery or language to appeal to your feelings and to

motivate yourself will help you to move forward, focusing on what this stuff
actually means to you and keeping your aspirations in mind when trying to
find the energy to practise. Simply put, remind yourself why you’re doing this
and feel good about it. For some, regret is also a powerful motivator; think
about how much you’ll regret not doing the work if you look back in 5 years,
having made little or no progress.
b) Preparation as Procrastination
It should go without saying that keeping your practice space tidy and
functional is a good thing, but I want to take a moment to warn you about
something I’ve noticed: it can also stop you from working. I know so many
people who use preparation as a means of procrastination, and will spend
weeks setting up a great practice studio and buying the right books etc.
These things are certainly worth doing, but they shouldn’t be getting in the
way of actually practising, as they are prone to do. Work with what you have;
plug in your guitar and play.
Try to spend no longer than 15 minutes setting up. This is a very vulnerable
time in my practice schedule; I find that 15 minutes of preparation can soon
turn into 2 hours as the vague nature of “setting up” can introduce many
distractions (procrastination itself has the treacherous habit of providing
you with more reasons to procrastinate). The important thing is to start

playing – there are always distractions, but it’s harder to be distracted when
you are seriously engaged in the act of practising. Judging by my well-
prepared friends, getting rid of distractions doesn’t stop you from becoming
distracted…
c) Powerful Scheduling
I find that I can think about Jake-in-the-future with much greater clarity than
about Jake-right-now. Thinking about the present, I tend to procrastinate
because my present self is bad at making decisions about what to do (there
are too many options available and I tend to get overwhelmed in the moment
and that leads to more procrastination). If you’re planning for your future
self, you can take a more strategic approach and know that if you spend two
hours practising, you’ll still have time to go shopping and meet your friend for
dinner etc. If you leave it to your present self to schedule your time, you risk
procrastination by weighing up all of these options ‘in the moment’. Here’s
how I see these two ‘selves’ at work:
Jake-right-now: “I could do this, or I could do that, let me watch TV while I

decide, I fancy a cup of tea, I’ll go have that and work out what to do afterwards,
oh it’s a nice day, I’ll see if anyone wants to meet down the pub”.
The voice of Jake-from-the-future: “I have some resources that I could use

wisely tomorrow, I just need to schedule my time so that I don’t neglect aspects
of my long-term projects. I can then reward myself because I’ll actually have a
little bit of time in the evening – I’ll watch that film I’ve been wanting to watch
for a while. Oh, it looks like I don’t have much time on Wednesday or Friday, but
I’ll make sure I schedule in something so I keep up momentum and continue to

reinforce good habits”
If these descriptions resonate with you (as they do with most of my

6 Well, that’s what students6) you might want to reflect on periods in your own past where
they tell me, at
least!
you were either really productive or really unproductive. It may be worth
also reflecting on how such periods in your life make you feel today and if
there are any discernible characteristics to those episodes that you feel are
7 Lie down on the pertinent to your current situation. How does all this make you feel7?
couch and tell
me about your
d) Incorporating the resources in this Masterclass into your schedule
childhood…
Most of us have busy lives, but if you’re lucky enough to be able to practise
1-2 hours a day, and have loosely defined goals of working on technique and
fretboard fluency… your week-long schedule might look something like the
example below. It is fine to adapt your schedule as you go, so don’t worry if
things are a little vague at first. However, try to confirm what you’ll be doing
the night before.
Monday
• 12.30: 25 minutes of alternate picking exercises (Ex. 1 and Ex. 2).

• 5 minute Break
• 25 minutes of Scale Sequence Exercises (Ex. 5 and Ex. 6)
• 5 minute Break
• 25 minutes of free play over the C dominant 7 practice backing track –
record the last 5 minutes
• 5 minute break
• Free play, or continuation of previously looked at exercises
• Make a diary entry and plan Tuesday’s session.
• After dinner: watch Groundhog Day and run the melodic minor scale.
Tuesday
• I only have an hour, so I’ll repeat the first hour of my schedule from
Monday.
• I’ll write a diary entry and shore up my practice schedule for Wednesday
before I go to bed.
Wednesday
• …I’ll have two hours on Wednesday. I’ll see how I’m getting on with those
exercises – maybe I’ll go for the ‘seven times through’ goal. I’ll also work
on Legato…
Thursday
• I’ve got the day off on Thursday, so I’ll go for a run and then spend the
afternoon practising. Content to be confirmed on Wednesday evening.
Friday
• Very busy day – might not have time (better make the most of Thursday’s
session).
…and so on…
This loose schedule should give you some idea about how you might go
about preparing for the week ahead. Remember, you should keep revisiting
the schedule to add more specific details about what you’re doing the
following day (otherwise it defeats the object of the flexible schedule).
Of course, the exercises you choose to work with are entirely specific to what
your goals are, but there’s nothing wrong at all with using them as a kind
of ‘pick and mix’ when you’re running low on direction: they might help you
discover a new path.
CHAPTER 2
THE VALUE OF A TEACHER’S INSIGHT

Lessons with an experienced teacher can be worth their weight in gold. When
I look back at the lessons I’ve had, the most valuable things that came out of
them were insights into where I needed to improve and what to do to improve
it. Criticism is famously hard to swallow, but if you are open to what a teacher
has to say and you act on their advice, you’ll make great strides forward. It’s
exceptionally hard to evaluate your own playing with the same level of clarity
that a good teacher can, and getting good advice will stop you from falling
into competency traps (look up the “Dunning Kruger effect”).
CHAPTER 3
RECOMMENDED FURTHER READING

While much of this essay draws from personal reflection and
experience, I’ve also taken an active interest in performance
psychology and philosophy since my days at university. I’ve
not drawn directly on any one source, but my outlook on
this subject has been informed by having read the following
books in particular (which I wholeheartedly recommend):
• The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey
• Strangers to Ourselves by Timonth Wilson
• The Mastery of Music by Barry Green

• Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner
• Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
8 This is a slightly • Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance8 by Robert M. Pirsig
‘fruity’ novel, but it
has some wisdom
in it for performers.
Having outlined my general approach towards the issue of practice, I thought

it would also be useful to provide some guidance on how to approach
practising specific areas of musicianship. There will be many different
perspectives and strategies on how best to work on these areas, so please
take my guidance as AN approach, not THE approach. For example, my
approach to alternate picking is to develop a strong and flexible “base”
technique that sounds good and is solidly in time, whereas another teacher
might be more interested in the mechanics of playing as fast as possible;
for this reason, I’ll try to be clear about what I see as the key aspects of each
area are before outlining how I’d work on them.
CHAPTER 4
READING MUSIC
“Sight reading” is a famously neglected area for guitarists,
much to the amusement of other instrumentalists.
Here’s the thing: it’s really, really hard to sight read on the guitar. This is
mainly because there are too many ways to play each note; with a polyphonic
passage, this means we have to see into future to in order to know which
position to start in (which might make later parts of the passage impossible
to reach). Very few guitarists can “sight read” instantly on the instrument, and
for many of us “competent” readers, preparation time is required even for
relatively simplistic passages of music.
Unfortunately there are no shortcuts here – it’s a bit like learning to operate
fluently in a foreign language. Even in your native language, your current
level of competency is the result of your life’s work, and you probably still
make the odd error, so why should we expect to be sight reading fluently in
6 months? Thankfully, getting your reading to a competent level won’t take
longer than a few years (and if it takes you less time, then great!). Don’t be
dispirited if your first forays into sight reading feel exceptionally slow-going
– most people find reading on the guitar so difficult that they think they’re
permanently defeated by it. That doesn’t have to be the case, but it does take
time.
If you’re only just starting your sight-reading journey, you’ll have a

dramatically easier time if you do these three things…
• Work on your knowledge of note locations on the fretboard

• Make sure you have a secure understanding of basic music theory (key
signatures, time signatures, clefs, rests, ties etc.)
• Learn to read rhythm notation with fluency and accuracy. By working on
rhythm first, you’ll be able to allot more mental energy to pitch/fretboard-
related issues. It’s also true that in the “real world” you’ll probably be
reading more “rhythm slashes” rather than single-note lines, so it’s useful
to have a really solid foundation here.
To work on your rhythmic comprehension, there’s a few books that I

recommend: Sight Read Any Rhythm Instantly by Mark Phillips is a really
good method book, and Louis Bellson’s Modern Reading Text in 4/4: For
All Instruments provides an extremely useful array of examples to practise
with. There are also various apps that can help you with this. I recommend
‘ReadRhythm’ from the App Store – it’s simple, quick and provides you with
feedback on your rhythmic accuracy.
For pitch comprehension, it’s easy to find plenty of resources out there,
including lots of apps. I recommend that you work on basic pitch recognition
until you can instantly recognise notes without conscious effort (as though
they were letters of the alphabet). Recognising the notes on a sheet of music
is only one part of the job; you then need to be able to locate them on the
guitar. For this purpose, you might then try writing out a stream of notes to
practise both your pitch recognition and your fretboard knowledge.
Once your basic reading skills are at an adequate level, I highly recommend
that you ditch the apps and exercise books and go find some real music
to read (even if you find it difficult or slow at first). We’re very lucky to have
thousands of public domain masterpieces available online at IMSLP.org and
plenty of violin pieces will work fairly well on guitar (such as the incredible
single-line partitas by J.S. Bach). For me, learning whole pieces of music is a
longer process that exercises all kinds of musical muscles, and I find it much
more effective and enjoyable than running through throwaway exercises. You
might also want to check out thefluentguitarist.com, which (at the time of
writing) has a “daily study” page that shows – you guessed it – a new piece
of music each day.
To summarise, by working on actual pieces of music, you develop your

musicality, find new harmonic “moves”, and you stumble upon on issues that
might crop up in the real world (such as making decisions about position and
tone).
Another excellent and essential resource (although people’s opinions

vary) is The Real Book. If you’re not familiar, The Real Book contains “lead
sheets” (main melody plus chords) for what’s often referred to as the “Great
American Songbook”… jazz standards, modern jazz classics, some show

tunes and jazzy pop tunes. There are several versions of The Real Book
(some official, some bootleg) but they mostly have the same kind of content.
A lead sheet is useful to musicians as it presents us with a condensed
summary of a jazz tune: melody and harmony. The book is a great resource
for working on both your melodic reading and chord chart interpretation.
For years I’ve used my Real Book in various ways, but I often simply open
it on a random page and work through the chords and the melody (as your
sight-reading skills improve, you can try putting them both together). For
more specific “rhythm slashes”, you might wish to look at a guitar part from
a musical (I’m sure these can be found easily online).
All of these strategies highlight the real benefit of musical literacy – it’s
utterly priceless to be able to delve into the rich and seemingly endless vein
of written music, and it opens up so many opportunities, both professionally
and in terms of pure study. Writing music down to communicate ideas is
also really handy in certain situations and can save enormous amounts of
time (leaving you more time to practice!).
I feel I must reiterate this point: be patient and persistent when working
on your reading. It’s a skill that builds from your experience in recognising
patterns and familiar “objects”, and building that experience simply takes a
lot of time. Stick with it – it’s worth it.
CHAPTER 5
EAR TRAINING
If there’s one thing that guitarists neglect working on
that would make the most difference to their playing and
musicianship, it’s ear training. Much like sight reading,
ear training takes a long time to really fall into place. It can
be a difficult thing to approach at first because it means
confronting the fact that, despite what we want to think
about ourselves, our ears are probably not that sharp.
My journey with ear training really began when I first went to Berklee College
of Music in Boston. During the induction week, each student was assessed
and assigned a “level” for various aspects of their musical ability; one of
these categories was “aural skills”. Up to this point, I believed I had a good
ear; I could work out some pretty complex stuff by listening to it and working
out how to play it on guitar, and I had the impression I was much better than
my schoolmates. But I was wrong.
It’s fair to say that my pride took a hit when I was placed in the lowest
class. After the first session, I even walked up to the (excellent) tutor and
suggested that I’d found that week’s tasks quite easy, so perhaps I was the
wrong class. Her response was something like “give it a few weeks and see
if that’s still the case”. And of course, as the weeks rolled on, I discovered
that she was right: I was exactly where I should have been and I learned a
huge amount in that class.
My confusion arose because I didn’t understand how I was listening. When

I figured things out by ear, I was actually guessing until I hit the right notes.
I was simply recognising when the notes matched up, rather than actually
nailing the correct note first time. Similarly, my improvisation relied on
knowing what frets to use for certain harmonies, but I couldn’t really audiate
what I was about to play. This is not good enough in the professional world.
That day at Berklee was the first time I had had any formal guidance on how
to train my ear, and I worked really hard on developing it. As time passed,
it began to feel like a kind of “super power” (even at fairly basic levels) to
be able to pre-hear what I was about to play or even to be able to write
down basic phrases or chord progressions without having an instrument
for reference. Again, this was a very slow process and I’d describe my
9 If you haven’t seen experience as being similar to looking at those 1990s “magic eye” puzzles9:
one of these, each
page contains an
every time something became truly familiar to my ear there was a moment
abstract mess of when it just locked into place, becoming automatically recognisable.
colours and shapes,
but if you let your
After returning from America (I dropped out) I studied at Surrey University.
eye find the right
level of focus a I took an active role in the University Choir and was astounded by the aural
pseudo-3D image
“pops out” of the
agility of the more talented singers around me. They could look at a melody
chaos and you can for the first time and sing it with note-perfect precision. We’re not talking
no longer “unsee” it.
about virtuosos here, but run-of-the-mill choral singers. The difference
between them and the rest of us is that they grew up through a tradition of
singing that put a great emphasis on aural training and sight singing in their
formative years. This had the effect of creating really solid connections in
their brains between the written pitch and its embodied sound. We should
aspire to emulate them, but if we have never worked on our ear, how do we
start?
Here’s where things are vague. There are many different schools of
thought when it comes to ear training, and each have their merits and their
limitations. The Berklee way relies heavily on a system called “Solfège”
(do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do) whereas other schools emphasize intervallic
recognition (semitone = Jaws theme, and so on). There are many resources
and apps that can help you work on your aural skills and I recommend that
you try a few approaches and see which works best for you. One book that
I found useful is Sight-Sing Any Melody Instantly by Mark Phillips, and you
might also want to check out a very good book on general musicianship
by Ron Gorow: Hearing and Writing Music: Professional Training for Today’s
Musician.
Many people have also developed their aural abilities through years of
transcribing music and figuring things out by ear: these activities are also
extremely useful for building up our aural skills.
With harmony, my formal training has focused more on recognising chord

progressions than being able to identify individual notes within clusters. As
such, my aural skills in this area have relied upon my familiarity with Roman
¹0 There are Numeral Analysis of harmonic function¹0 and a good aural repertoire of
many, many
online resources
common progressions.
concerning this
subject, and Strong audiation (the practice of learning to “hear” music in your head) is
the take-home
message is that
beneficial to many areas of playing, so it’s worth making a concerted effort
when you analyse to work on your aural skills. When you can “pre-hear” what you are about
something and give
it a label, you can to play, or recognise a chord sequence and play it back, you liberate your
then recognise it music making in all kinds of ways. Like many aspects of musicianship, aural
more easily when it
reappears. ability needs to be nurtured on a regular basis in order to make meaningful
progress. I’m still a “work in progress” myself! Furthermore, the art of “active
listening” (listening with an intense, critical focus) is a really worthwhile
activity, and a chance to reflect upon the nature of aesthetics, music and
working towards real artistry. The more you are engaged in aural tasks, the
¹1 I don’t want to
more you will develop the impulse for habitual active listening, and this, of
get into a “nature vs course, can only be a good thing.
nurture” or “biology
vs training” debate,
but you may wish to
It is often said that some people are “tone deaf” or have “perfect pitch”. The
look further into it! received wisdom is that these people do indeed exist¹¹, but they are very rare;
the vast majority of us sit somewhere in the middle of the bell curve. In other
words, most of us have the potential to improve using the standard methods.
CHAPTER 6
WORKING ON TECHNIQUE
What is “technique”? To have a “technique” presupposes
a goal, and the nature of your technique lies in the way
you achieve the goal. So it’s very difficult to discuss how to
improve technique unless we define what the goal is. If you
said “I want to improve my alternate picking technique”, you
would need to define an “outcome” before working out what
you should do. What are you trying to play? How do you want
(it) to sound? Is you current technique working, and if not,
how can you adapt it?
If you look at some of the best guitarists in the world, you’ll find that they
have drastically different techniques: check out videos of Pat Metheny, then
look at George Benson, then Django Reinhardt, then Yngwie Malmsteen,
and then SRV, and you’ll see exactly what I mean. Each of these players
developed their technique along with the kind of music they wanted to make,
and came at the solution that best suited their purposes. Chances are, you’re
just looking for an improvement to your current level of ability: faster, cleaner,
better sounding etc. This is fine, but I propose a slight shift in approach: work
on making better music. Obviously, there’s a bit of a mental game at play
here, but allow me to explain: when you work through the exercises in this
package, they are not intended as “targets” to hit; instead, they are a way
for you to measure where your technique is at and provide an opportunity
for adjustment. Continually ask “is my playing in time? Is it dynamically

appropriate and with a good strong tone? If not, why not?”
As well as listening, we also need to be cognisant of how playing feels in

terms of physical feedback “Am I tense? Do I get tired quickly? Do I keep
going wrong on a certain move?” By paying attention both to how we sound
(and want to sound) and how we feel (and want to feel) we can really get
deep into the issue of “technique”.
Obviously, when you get into specifics there will be mechanical things that
you can do to improve your technique, and you should be always listen to the
feedback from your body. Try to stay relaxed, identify and address any issues
you encounter regularly.
When you do adjust any aspect of your technique, you’ll need some time
for it to become the “new normal”. This step is difficult for some, because
you commit to doing things a certain way, abandoning the comfortable
old habits. It also requires enforcing some “stasis” in your practice and not
continually moving your technique around in search of some “holy grail” (for
example, continually changing the angle of your pick). It can be difficult to
know when to stick with something and when to move on, but I think you
gradually develop a feel for it as you progress.
While this might all seem like common sense, there’s perhaps another
aspect to consider: the “inner game” of finding your technique. There is a
growing body of literature around this idea, and it largely puts the emphasis
on the genius of the subconscious mind and its ability to solve problems.
For example, there’s no way that the legendary footballer Lionel Messi
is consciously thinking of each step when he takes the ball round three
world-class defenders; he just does it! Overthinking leads to tension, and
unchecked tension is the enemy of a good technique. It makes playing an
instrument into a chore, and can also contribute to injury. I’ve previously
referenced a few books that deal with performance psychology, but The
Inner Game of Tennis (Timothy Galwey) and Strangers To Ourselves (Timothy
Wilson) in particular can help you understand the concept of “getting out
of your own way”. I recommend exploring issues surrounding sports and
performance psychology if you’re serious about raising your game. Speaking
from personal experience, my research into these areas has provided me
with valuable insights that have gotten me through high-pressure situations.
Finally, remember that the more time that you spend working on your
technique, the more you are aware of weaknesses, the more you listen
closely to physical feedback when playing, the more likely you are to stumble
upon major advances in your playing. I practised a hell of a lot as a teenager,
and experienced a few of these moments where things just “clicked” into
place, but they always seemed to come towards the end of long sessions:
unconscious calibration, perhaps?
This Masterclass does not serve as a “technique” manual, but by working

through the exercises and applying the advice above you’ll have a framework
by which to work on your technique and become sensitive towards where
improvements can be made.
CHAPTER 7
THE TECHNIQUE TRAP

Before moving on, I thought I’d share some experiences I’ve
had with my students. Often, a student will approach me
wishing to work on their technique. However, in many cases,
they sounded great, as long as they knew what they were
playing and had practised properly. There was nothing really
wrong with their technique, but they blamed it for stumbling
while improvising. I understand why they blamed their
technique (it’s easy to see a simple connection with physical
performance) but really what was happening was that there
was some deficiency in another area:
• Fretboard fluency
• Harmonic knowledge and application
• Depth and fluency of vocabulary
• Rhythmic range (being able to play things quickly and slowly and in
different subdivisions)
• General confidence (there’s a certain skill in being able to play fearlessly
– sometimes we can hesitate or tense up as we anticipate playing
something difficult).
Time and again, I see people working at their technique without ever
diagnosing what’s really causing these stumbles. There may well be a
specific mechanical issue that needs negotiating (for example, a picking
pattern or position shift) and if this is the case, see if you can change
how the line fits on the guitar. Nowadays, I naturally gravitate to lines that
my technique can easily accommodate and avoid things that might get
me into trouble. For example, I’ve never been good at Paul Gilbert–style
“outside” picking, so I naturally veer away from it and seek alternative means
of playing the notes. I’m not alone in this: when I listen to Pat Metheny
repeatedly playing certain patterns throughout his career, I think to myself
that maybe even one of the greatest improvisers of all time is doing the
same!
CHAPTER 8
IMPROVISING THROUGH CHORD

CHANGES
This is an increasingly common subject that my students
want to work on, and it requires a lot of preparation to break
into. First, you’ll need a really strong (theoretical and aural)
understanding of harmonic function and you’ll need to
be able to fluently apply and connect arpeggios and scales.
Without these aspects in place, you’ll find improvising
through changes extremely difficult.
Remember, each time you hesitate or play a bum note because you don’t
know where you are on the fretboard, you totally wreck your phrasing and
convince the listener that you don’t know what you’re doing. I really cannot
emphasise enough how important this preparation is to this task. Study your
arpeggios and your scales (plenty of exercises in this Masterclass), and find
ways to apply them to real-life musical scenarios. When you move from one
harmony to the next, you have to hold features of both harmonic fields in
your head as you approach the transition, so an agile mind is required to run
these computations when performing: there is no such thing as too much
preparation!
You can use backing tracks to measure your progress and to apply your
knowledge in a musical context. In this Masterclass, I’ve included some
backing tracks that are specifically designed to help you work on this and
measure your fluency. That said, you should also work on spelling out
harmonic changes in your single-line playing without accompaniment. This
will help you sound really “in control” and help you locate those magical lines
that pull the emotion from the harmony. This is far too big a subject to go
into in any depth here, but I deal with it in some detail in my Melodic Phrasing
Masterclass¹² (also available on JTC!)
One thing you might want to investigate is the use of “limitation exercises”.
Essentially, you place restrictions on what you’re allowed to play… ”don’t go
above the 5th fret”; “only use the G and B strings”; “avoid root notes”. Let your
creativity run wild with these, but, of course, anything that limits how you
use the fretboard will force you out of familiar patterns and encourage you
to find ways of being creative within the limitations. These exercises are
amazing for exposing gaps in your knowledge and giving your musical brain
a real work-out: if you can enforce these limitations and still sound musical,
then you’re really onto something!
¹² https://jtcguitar.com/store/package/melodic-phrasing-masterclass/
Here are some more limitation exercises that’ll help you build on your ability
to get round the chord changes (feel free to get creative and come up with
your own!):
• Only use frets 0-1-2.

• You can only move by a maximum of a minor third interval.
• No semitones allowed.
• Two notes at a time only.
• No consecutive notes on the same string allowed.
• One string only
• Phrases must end on or a semitone either side of G
• Start each phrase on a non-chord tone from the appropriate scale (and
make your second note a chord tone).
CHAPTER 9
IMPROVING YOUR SOUND AND

PHRASING
Here’s where things get a little messy. I don’t want to
get bogged down in questions of “good sound” or “good
phrasing”, but I think that if you’re reading this, you’ll have
an idea of the kind of playing/player you admire in terms of
sound and phrasing.
Good phrasing sounds best when it’s fed by good content, so it’s very difficult
to work on your phrasing unless you have quality content to apply it to –
this is where transcription and vocabulary study is invaluable. When I work
on my phrasing, the first thing I do is to listen deeply to someone I admire,
trying to pick up on any general patterns. After that, I transcribe something

specific, as accurately as possible. I include notation such as dynamics
and articulation, and try to locate which strings are being used. With this
information, you can sometimes spot details of phrasing that might not
have been immediately obvious… they might play more accents on off-beats
or have some kind of “motif” that they return to. It’s all about processing
and analysing this information. You can then pick up your guitar and try to
emulate (or maybe even “improve upon”) what you’ve been learning.
The above will help you to look more closely at the mechanics of good
phrasing and sound, but you’ll also need to listen to how YOU sound. This
can be tricky as our perceptions are distorted while we’re playing in real time.
Again, it’s vital to record yourself and then listen with a critical, analytical ear.
If you make a habit of this, you can get a picture of how you’re progressing
and have a record of how far you’ve come.
When I use the word “sound”, I’m not referring to equipment (it’s important,
but beyond the scope of this Masterclass). I’m referring to your physical
touch on the instrument, producing dynamics, vibrato and articulation, and
providing the raw timbre that is amplified through your rig. Think of this as
your “musical fingerprint”. I haven’t really consciously worked on this, but
it has been shaped by my own preferences and I’ve adjusted how I play
through years and years of recording and appraising my own playing: put out
a few JTC Masterclasses and you’ll see what I mean!
You can work on your sound by playing a lot, recording a lot and really
developing a critical ear for how you want to sound and making that a priority
for parts of your practice session. It’s a long journey that’s different for
everyone, and requires a good amount of experimentation and continuous
reflection on your own personal aesthetic.
CHAPTER 10
13
This is a huge
area, and you
may wish to
check out the JTC
RHYTHM
‘Rhythmic Control’
masterclass for
Your journey in the study of rhythm will be accelerated if
more specific
information. you’ve learned to sight read rhythmic material (see the “sight
reading” portion of this booklet for more guidance on how
to work on this this). This will provide you with rhythmic
studies and help you to visually conceptualise the division of
metric units (bars/beats etc).
When I work on my rhythm, I focus on what’s loosely described as ‘time

feel’: how time is punctuated by placement, duration and accent of notes,
and space between phrases. Of course, this area comprises a huge part
of “sound and phrasing”, but there are specific areas that require separate
understanding, because our “time feel” doesn’t just concern our lead playing,
but also (appropriately) our rhythm playing. Essentially, we’re looking at
building on our accuracy of placement and relative weight of accent13. The
exact parameters of what is “desirable” is dependent on what you’re trying
to do, but here are a few things you can do in order to work on your overall
control of rhythm:
• Play in time all the time. Whenever you pick up guitar, count in and try
to stick to a tempo, even when just noodling. This is a fantastic habit to
develop, and it can really build toward developing a solid “internal clock”.
• When you work through the exercises in this Masterclass, really strive
for rhythmic accuracy. Play exactly on the click before you try “dragging”
(playing just behind the beat) or “pushing” (playing just ahead of the beat).
• Practise with the metronome only clicking on beat 2 and 4. This is hard to
“feel” at first, but do work through it: you might find it helps if you verbally
count the beats (“2,3,4,1,2,3,4”). This approach is very popular with jazz
musicians, and helps you to reduce your reliance on the metronome
clicks, helping you to develop your internal clock. If this ever becomes
too easy, try playing a tune or exercise with the click in a really odd place
(like the “3-and” of every bar) and THEN see how you get on – if it always
lands on what you think is “3-and”, then you’re doing it right and your
internal clock is in very good shape!
All of this requires some acknowledgement of how “accurately” you’re

playing, so… sorry if I sound like a broken record here, but review your playing
by recording yourself and listening critically.
You might have noticed a common theme while talking about all the topics
above: they are heavily interrelated. Each part of your musicianship seems
to rely every other part. The lesson, for me, is that by building a strong
foundation to your musicianship, the progress you make when practising
will be a lot more fruitful. If you find that you have any gaps in your basic
musicianship, you benefit by proactively working on those areas: this will
save time in the long run.
CHAPTER 11
201 EXERCISES
Having discussed my philosophy towards practice and how
to go about achieving specific goals, it’s now time to get
into the “nitty gritty” and talk about the exercises. It wasn’t
my intention to write a “course” or to teach any specific
technique, but rather to provide a bank of accessible, easily-
learned exercises that most guitarists can use to make their
practice sessions more productive, more varied and more
enjoyable.
As you can see, the exercises are organised into categories, generally
progressing from “basic” to “a little trickier”. The categories are distinct, but
you’ll also find a little overlap between them and you may wish to be creative
with how you use them (an arpeggio exercise may make a wonderful
alternate picking exercise if you speed it up a bit!) and you can, of course,
vary the tempos at your leisure.
While they are mostly easy to learn, none of these exercises are “easy” to
play if you strive to use them properly – with accuracy, tone and time – so,
don’t rush. Try them all, even if you think you don’t need to. You might find
that you fix some problems that you never knew you had.
For the sake of comprehension and consistency, I’ve performed most of the
exercises in C, but if you’ve equipped yourself with the appropriate tools,
you’ll get a lifetime’s worth of practising out of these by transposing the
concepts into different harmonies or modalities.
The exercises fall into two main categories: “technical exercises” and
“fretboard fluency”. The technical exercises are relatively self-explanatory,
but the fretboard fluency exercises are all about building an understanding of
the mechanics of the fretboard for the purpose of improvisation, in the shape
of drills that allow our muscle memory to understand at a subconscious
level.
With the fretboard fluency exercises, don’t just get them “under your fingers”
– really drill them hard so that they become totally internalised. You can
never work on this stuff enough, and if you work hard at them, you’ll start
to notice how much more fluently you can improvise around the fretboard,
especially if you take the time to explore multiple permutations of their
underlying concepts (moving keys around and exploring things in different
positions etc).
I hope you enjoy practising these exercises as much as I have enjoyed

putting them together for you!
Happy practising!
Alternate Picking
The cornerstone of guitar technique, guitarists all over the planet are
constantly working on their alternate picking. Everyone has their own
preferences for picking mechanics, picking angles, pick slanting, pick choice
etc, and everyone’s needs are different. We don’t all want to be Shredmaster
General with a machine gun right hand, but a solid alternate picking
technique is fundamental to the successful execution of any lines, even the
most basic. Moreover, our right hand plays a major part in accent, rhythmic
accuracy and articulation, so it’s always worth sharpening up our picking
technique. It’s typically what we use most, so we should probably work on it

proportion to that (I work on it every practice session).
These exercises cover a range of technical challenges, and if you feel that
they are too easy or difficult, adjust the tempo accordingly. Aim to maintain
a solid tone and accurate timing, and try not to use too much gain and
compression – you need to be able to gauge your accuracy and projection.
Ex. 1 – Ups and Downs: This one’s definitely not as easy as it looks! For a lot
of people, the main challenge here will be to make the “up-down-up” picking
pattern sound as smooth and in-time as the “down-up-down” pattern. If you
find this easy, try speeding it up or only using the up-down-up pattern!
Ex. 2 – Ups and Downs 2: This exercise takes a simple picking pattern
across two strings and then reverses it upon repetition. Your goal should be
to make the phrase beginning on an upstroke as smooth and in-time as the
phrase beginning on a downstroke.
Ex. 3 – Ups and Downs 3: through the gears: The idea is to keep both 8th and
16th notes in time and as accurate as possible, even when we start with an
upstroke in bar 3.
Ex. 4 – Ups and Downs 4: triplet edition: Triplets have a slightly different
feel from groups of two or four – make sure you accent appropriately, and
that your playing sounds in time and smooth (even when you switch up the
picking pattern by starting on an upbeat!).
Ex. 5 – In and out: string crossing: The first pattern helps us to work on our
“outside” picking (where the downstroke on the G string is followed by an
upstroke on the B string, meaning we have to pass right over the B string).
When you return to the G string, the opposite is true: your upstroke continues
past the G string before hitting the next downstroke.
In the second pattern, we play each string twice, meaning we’re now using
“inside” picking: the pick is moving from the space between the G and B
strings.
Outside and inside picking feel quite different to each other and can be
helped by subtle moves of the pick angle and wrist rotation; if you’re finding
either of these difficult, it might be time to experiment with your picking style.
Ex. 6 – In and out: outside triplets: If you need an explanation of what

“outside picking” is, checkout the description for Ex. 5.
This exercise is great for outside picking because when you change string,
you’re always coming back on the outside of it (a downstroke for the G string
and an upstroke for the B string).
Ex. 7 – In and out: Outside string skipping: In this exercise, we’re using
“outside picking” but skipping strings. String skipping can be tricky at speed
as you have to cover more distance, but it’s really useful to have a very
reliable string skipping technique for moderate tempi, as it can crop up a
fair bit in standard practice and is often neglected. If you’re feeling sadistic,
try this exercise with the picking pattern reversed (it’s tricky to miss the “in-
between” string when inside picking this exercise!).
Ex. 8 – In and out: up, down, and start again: In this exercise, we ascend up
the C major scale up to the 5th, and then descend back to the root. If we start
the phrase with a downstroke, the string change uses “outside” picking (both
ascending and descending), but if we start the phrase with an upstroke,
the string change uses “inside” picking. For me, starting the phrase with
an upstroke is significantly more difficult, so do aim for some consistency
between the two versions.
Ex. 9 – In and out: sequenced arpeggiation: It’s not at all rare to be playing
passages similar to this, and I’d highly recommend spending some time
getting this consistent and clean. Like Ex. 7, this will help you to develop a
really solid string-skipping technique.
Ex. 10 – In and out: double and skip: In this exercise, we’re doubling each
pitch we play in this arpeggio sequence, which produces an interesting mix
of “inside” and “outside” string skips. Moreover, mixing up small movements
(alternate picking on one string) and larger movements (string skipping)
helps you to develop a real sense of right hand control. Try this exercise with
the picking reversed, if you’re feeling brave!
Ex. 11 – Ups and downs: consistent doubles: I’ve always found exercises
like this to be surprisingly tricky to get really clean, but it really does help
for developing your right hand “motor”. I aim for exercises like this to feel
as though the string isn’t there and that the up/down movement is just
incidental or automatic: this one’s great for showing up any tension in your
technique, so if you think that applies to you, spend some time moving things
around and getting to feel a little more “free”.
Ex. 12 – Ins and outs: terrible twos: We’re playing a predominantly 2-note-
per-string line here By starting with a downstroke, we get a lot of “inside
picking”, making these lines a little tricky for some. We’re using the minor
pentatonic scale, but of course you could use whatever you like.
Ex. 13 – Ins and outs: double trouble: We’re playing the same notes as Ex.
12, but we’re playing each of them twice! This straightforward adjustment
causes a few potential hazards for our right hand: while we ascend the
scale, we’re using inside picking for the string changes, but as we turn and
descend, we’re using outside picking. Overall, it’s a great tester for the right
hand.
Ex. 14 – Mixed sequence: This is a classic scalic sequence that is mainly

about developing good coordination between the right and left hands.
So many people think their right hand picking isn’t weak, but the problem
actually lies in the accuracy between the hands. Exercises like this can reveal
problems in this area, so give it a go and don’t be afraid to push the pace a
little!
Ex. 15 – Mixed sequence #2: Much like Ex. 14, this is all about coordination
between the hands. If you find it easy, try upping the tempo – if you are a
sadist, try reversing the picking pattern!
Ex. 16 – Mixed sequence #3 (pentatonic threes): Another sequence that

works on the coordination between the hands, but this time we’re using
the pentatonic scale and triplets. Read Ex. 14 if you feel you need more
guidance.
If you’re finding this easy, try starting on a different beat (e.g. beat 2 or 3 of
the triplet).
Ex. 17 – Displacement and coordination study: This is one of those

deceptively tricky exercises that can trip up even experienced players. It’s a
very simple concept – we’re just changing the starting point of a three-note
set, but for some reason certain formations of it can confuse the hands a
little. The trick, here, is to be really firm with the accent of the starting note
and to hear the line as clearly as possible while playing.
Ex. 18 – 32nd note bursts: Sounds fast, doesn’t it? And, yes, it’s quite tricky.
However, it’s worth looking at because you might find that by working on
such “bursts” that you’ll discover a good foundation for faster alternate
picking. Try to keep it even and accurate, and make sure you play the 16th
notes cleanly, too!
Top tip: it might help to think of the “burst’” as one “movement” rather than
four strokes. Playing complex moves as “chunks” can help you to overcome
(mostly) mental obstacles (the stress that occurs when the body thinks it’s
about to do something difficult). If you think of it as a single movement, you’ll

hopefully find a way to stay relaxed while playing it.
Ex. 19 – 32nd note bursts #2: This exercise takes the basic concept of
the previous exercise and simply displaces it so that the burst starts on an
upstroke. This makes the burst so much more difficult, and it really tests
how in control of your upstrokes you are. If you find this one tricky at first, try
slowing it down and then building speed. Expect some very ‘ugly’ sounding
practice with this one, but that’s often where the gold is!
Ex. 20 – Ins and outs: classic outside cycle: This is a classic cyclical
exercise for faster playing. The hardest part of it is keeping the “double
outside” picked string change smooth at speed. Feel free to push this line
to the limits of tempo – it’s the right thing to do. I find that focusing on the
accented note on the E string can help me play this line fluidly, but I’m not
sure why…?
Ex. 21 – Ins and outs: classic inside cycle: We’re playing the exact same
notes as the previous exercise, here, but we’re starting with an upstroke,
which gives us a “double inside” string change to manage. This line can also
be very fast!
Some player prefer the feel of Ex. 20 to Ex. 21, or vice versa: which one do
you prefer and why?
Ex. 22 – Ins and outs: classic cycle, displaced: This takes the same “shape”
of the previous two exercises, but starts on the highest note. I find it
interesting how this changes the feel of the entire phrase. I include both
ways of picking it; which do you find easiest and why?
Ex. 23 – Ins and Outs: classic cycle, metrically modulated: Here, we’ve taken
the same shape as the last three exercises, but rather than play it with its
natural triplet rhythm, we play it using 16th notes. This causes the accent to
fall in a different part of the bar upon repetition – some people find this quite
tricky at first, but it’s a great exercise for developing coordination between
the hands and maintaining control of rhythm and accent.
Ex. 24 – Ins and Outs: outside sixes: This exercise is another good workout
for our outside picked string changes. Try to observe whether you find the
“cycle” part of this exercise easier or harder than the earlier, divided part of
the exercise.
Ex. 25 – Ins and Outs: inside sixes: This exercise is a kind of reversal of Ex.
24, and is a great workout for your inside picking.
Ex. 26 – Triplet workout: This is a great sequence for playing at speed

because of its convenient placement of accents on downbeats/
downstrokes. This is a good one for working on building your alternate
picking speed, and it’s a pattern that’s easy to move around.
Ex. 27 – Triplet workout #2: This one is a kind of reversal of Ex. 26, which,
for some reason is a little trickier for me (perhaps the descending outside
picked string change at speed?).
Ex. 28 – Displaced fives: Playing a sequence of 5 notes against a 16th note

grid can produce some fun displacement effects. This can trip people up
at first, but it’s worth working on in order to develop strong coordination
between the hands and mental agility.
Ex. 29 – Cyclical workout: This one’s a nice, simple pattern for building
speed and coordination, as well as providing you with a nice sequence to use
in your lines.
Ex. 30 – Chromatic fours: Up until this point, we’ve been mostly using 2- and
3-note-per-string patterns. Using the chromatic scale, we can play a nice
linear pattern that uses all the left hand fingers, with the right hand working
out both inside picking (ascending) and outside picking (descending). A very
handy exercise, which loops well!
Ex. 31 – Chromatic scale limited to one position: We’re playing similar notes
to Ex. 30, here, but instead of shifting position, we cram five notes on some
of the strings to stay within the same position, giving us an asymmetric
picking pattern. Try to keep this sounding smooth, with the “slides” sounding
like individually articulated notes.
Ex. 32 – Speed pattern cycle: Nothing new, here, just another pattern to work
on and build into your faster playing – you can never have enough of these!
Ex. 33 – Pentatonic speed cycle: Again, this pattern is great for playing at
speed, but, due to the limited time spent on each string, it can be tricky to
maintain accuracy and smoothness.
Ex. 34 – Blues scale speed pattern cycle: This is another simple, cyclical
exercise that you can apply to your own playing with ease.
Ex. 35 – Zig-zag scale sequence: I quite like this one because each string
change occurs with an upstroke – the trick is to not accent the change too
much!
Ex. 36 – 16th sixes scale sequence: Nothing much to report, here, but do
keep an eye on the syncopation with the accents. This one’s great when
played with some speed!
Ex. 37 – Scale sequence with position shifts: This simple exercise is

yet another one to add to your arsenal when it comes to working on your
coordination.
Ex. 38 – Fast sextuplets scale sequence: Oh yeah! Now it’s time to focus on
building speed, here’s a really useful pattern that fits under the hands well.
The success of the line really depends on how cleanly the accents are played
– even though it’s fast, try to keep it accurate and in time.
Ex. 39 – Weak finger coordination exercise: The emphasis, here, is on the

use of the left hand’s weaker fingers. Unchecked, these guys can really ruin
your flow and play havoc with your coordination. On the bright side, when
you’ve got this line down, there’s nothing stopping you playing it very quickly
indeed! A great pattern to add to your arsenal!
Ex. 40 – String-skipping study: This mixed pattern is a great little workout

for your string skipping, and it’s fun to really try revving up the tempo on this
one!
Ex. 41 – String-skipping study #2: Not particularly useful, but a great

workout for both hands! Try to get that “skip” as seamless as you possibly
can and try not to let it affect your timing.
Ex. 42 – String-crossing arpeggio cycle: This exercise uses a sequence

of two arpeggios (C major and G major), and we’ve got quite a bit of string
crossing to do, all the while maintaining strict alternate picking.
Ex. 43 – String-crossing arpeggio cycle #2: Much like Ex. 42, this exercise
contains a lot of string crossing, but also uses arpeggio shapes that change
string groups.
Ex. 44 – String-skipping arpeggio: This exercise takes an E major arpeggio

shape and, rather than play the notes in sequence, plays them in a manner
that uses string skipping.
Legato Exercises
These exercises are not just about developing our blistering and fluid
legato chops; they’re also about really getting control over our fretting
hand technique (which can only be a good thing). If our fretting hand
isn’t performing as we’d like, our picking hand doesn’t have a chance to
synchronise with it, so it’s worth giving it individual attention when we
practise. In a strange way, these exercises will also help with your alternate
picking; it’s all about accuracy and coordination between the hands!
Ex. 1 – Hammer and pull: Anchored finger independence: We’re looking for
a really seamless sound, here, no matter what combination of fingers we
use. This exercise uses the index finger as a kind of “anchor”, and then we
hammer-on and pull-off with the remaining fingers. Try to get this as smooth
and accurate as possible – you might find this more difficult than it first
appears!
Ex. 2 – Hammer and Pull: four-note chromatic roll: The goal here is to keep
the “roll” in time and sounding smooth. Try to make the hammer-ons sound
as even as the pull-offs and avoid letting your sense of time slip. Again, don’t
take this one for granted; it’s surprisingly difficult to nail!
Ex. 3 – Hammer and Pull: rolling in pairs: This exercise is great for working
on the strength of each pair of fingers. It’s another of those exercises that
looks easier than it actually is, and it’ll really challenge each finger’s control
when either hammering on or pulling off. If you find this difficult using your
weaker fingers, don’t worry; you’ll soon develop the strength, but it might be
frustrating for a bit!
Ex. 4 – Hammer and Pull: common ascending threes: Clearly, this simple
exercise ensures that your 1-2-4 and 1-3-4 fingerings are equally effective.
I would wager that these are the most common fingerings for legato lines/
patterns, so it’s really worth having this stuff down!
Ex. 5 – Hammer and Pull: ascending threes with weak-finger turns: This
exercise uses the same basic shape as Ex. 4, but uses 16th notes instead of
triplets and focuses a little more on the strength and accuracy of the weak
fingers. This is a really useful pattern for applying in your improvisation, so
do spend some time getting it clean.
Ex. 6 – Hammer and Pull: descending threes with turns: This one’s very
similar to Ex. 5, but we’re working on our pull-offs a little more. People tend
to find “chains” of hammer-ons easier than pull-offs, so this is a vital exercise
for making sure your technique is really working for you.
Ex. 7 – Hammer and Pull: Rhythm check: We’re simply ascending and
descending through a chromatic, four-note pattern, here, but when
convenient, we change from 8th notes, to 8th-note triplet. This exercise will
make sure your fretboard hand is flexible enough to accurately “feel” these
gear shifts.
Ex. 8 – Legato speed sequence: So far, we’ve been looking at “pure” legato
(without using our picking hand) but in this exercise, we’re looking at
engaging more than one string, and, for the most part, that means getting
our picking hand involved. In this example, we’re dealing with a common
mixed pattern that’ll be useful in all kinds of ways: well work working on!
Ex. 9 – Legato speed sequence #2: This classic-rock-style sequence is very

useful and crops up all over the place (in various guises). Try moving the
tempo with this one and making sure that your hammer-ons and pull-offs are
sounding even and in time (I’ve noticed that some people tend to rush their
pull-offs a bit).
Ex. 10 – Hammer and Pull: up and down with slides: It’s fairly obvious what’s
going on here, but the hardest part is trying to maintain the string vibration,
even with the slides. This is a real challenge, and demands a really efficient
technique to avoid the string “dying away” (even with loads of gain!). Many
people can have trouble with playing slides in time – just be aware if that’s
an issue for you.
Ex. 11 – Hammer and Pull: all the major shapes: This exercise works out the
three “major trichord” left-hand shapes: Tone-Tone (C-D-E), Tone-Semitone
(A-B-C) and Semitone-Tone (B-C-E). As well has working out these left-hand
shapes, Ex. 11 represents a very common formulation for ascending and
descending runs à la your favourite 80s legato shredders!
Ex. 12 – Cyclical sequence: This one’s just another configuration to work on

your fretboard hand. I like this pattern as the mixture of intervals makes the
line sound more sophisticated (than the likes of Ex. 11) at speed.
Ex. 13 – Cycle to descent: Another useful shape, here, and I’ve felt that we’ve
neglected the lower strings a bit – they get a bit of air time here (especially
the final note…)
Ex. 14 – Ascending sequence: This one’s an expandable line that gives the
fretting hand a workout, but starting a little lower. Get a feel for the different
string weights under the hand and aim for a consistent tone.
Ex. 15 – Cycle to descent #2: You really can’t have enough variation in your
left hand arsenal. Nothing special going on here, just keep building up your
chops!
Ex. 16 – Up and down sequence: This is a really useful line for playing at
speed, and sounds a lot more interesting than simply running up and down
as fast as you can. Also, adding a bit of complexity to your lines also help
them to last longer, which can be handy! With sequences like this, I’m not so
interested in the intervallic makeup, or whether the ascending/descending

versions “match” intervallically, but rather how things feel under the hand,
and how useful they are as “legato shapes”.
Ex. 17 – Up and down sequence #2: Another variation for you to get your
hands around – if you’re at this point, you know the drill!
Ex. 18 – Up and down sequence #3: Full shred ahead! Again, there’s no
mystery about what’s going on, here, it’s just a case of trying to get things
clean and even.
Ex. 19 – Up and down sequence #4: This one’s potentially tricky when it
comes to keeping the sound even between legato and picked notes, but it’s a
great and flexible idea to throw into your lines.
Ex. 20 – Middle finger pivot: Another useful shape, here, and another good
one for drilling!
Ex. 21 – Descending shred line: This one’s a classic legato shape, and well
worth having down!
Ex. 22 – Pull-off focus: You might think that there’s not much actual LEGATO
happening, here, but it really shows up any coordination between the hands.
Again, try to keep the pull-offs sounding strong and in time at either tempo.
Ex. 23 – Wide, pentatonic left hand shapes: We’re moving away from the
more compact shapes here, and focusing on those wider, 3-note-per-string
pentatonic patterns. Try not to let the stretch and wide feel affect your
timing/tone too much, and don’t hesitate to apply the concept to other
pentatonic shapes.
Ex. 24 – Double-note cycle: Here, we’re playing a D pentatonic shape, but

staying in the same position gives us a double D note in the line. Try not to
get thrown by this, and treat each D with its own space and some separation
– if your technique is lacking, this line might sound a little vague or blurry, so
it’s a good acid test for your left hand!
Economy Picking
Economy picking could be defined as the employment of a continued picking
motion in order to facilitate smooth and/or rapid string changes; in other
words, ascending strings with two or more consecutive downstrokes or
descending strings with two or more consecutive upstrokes. This reduces
the picking-hand movement compared to alternate picking.
While speed is a potential advantage of this technique, it has three potential

pitfalls:
• At slower tempos, it can be hard to achieve an even sound.

• You can only really accent the first stroke of any chain of down or
upstroke (which can ruin the “groove” of certain passages).
• It’s mechanically primed for “constant” motion, and as such is near
impossible to use when playing “swung” rhythms.
It’s also worth noting that economy or sweep picking is often used to play
arpeggios at speed: the challenge here is ensuring that each note is distinct
and clear, without ringing into each other and losing clarity. This will be more
of an issue in some passages than others, but you should be continually
conscious of how the hands are synchronised (the fretting hand has to
release or mute pitches at the appropriate moments.
By the way, I consider the term “sweep picking” to refer to economy picking
through three or more strings consecutively.
The first challenge people have with economy picking is getting a feel for the
smooth, continuous motion while also building in the appropriate tension
required to move through each string without it disturbing your flow. Some
people prefer a continuous motion, but many economy pickers, like Gypsy
Jazzers, prefer to use something more akin to a ‘“rest stroke”, letting the pick
stop on a string very briefly before continuing to the next string. Personally,
I do both... I use the “rest stroke” technique for more rhythmically distinct
passages (moderately fast) and the smooth sweeping technique for very
fast, gestural playing. Do whatever works best for you.
Knowing when to use alternate picking and when to use economy picking is
part of the battle, and it’s open to some interpretation - use it with discretion
and it’ll be a worthy ally! These exercises are designed to help you hone
your economy picking so that it can become an effective and reliable part
of your playing while trying, as much as possible, to mitigate the challenges
mentioned above.
Ideally, you’d want the angle of your pick to be similar, whether you’re
using alternate picking or economy picking, but you might find that slight
adjustments can be beneficial.
Some of these exercises don’t require much explanation; most of what you
need to know is covered in the first few exercises.
Ex. 1 – ||:Down Down Up Up:||
The right hand picking pattern is evident from the video/tab, but do spend
some time getting a feel for the optimal picking-hand movement.
As well as working on your picking-hand technique, this exercise also

challenges us to achieve a parity in tone and sound between using different
fretting fingers for each string and “rolling” a single finger across multiple
strings at the same fret: aim for clarity and separation.
Ex. 2 – ||:Down Down Up:||
We’re only looking at economy picking using downstrokes in this exercise,

but we’re using “outside”, alternate picking to return to the first downstroke.
Ex. 3 – ||: Up Up Down :||
Like Ex. 2, but in reverse. If you’re anything like me, you find this a little
trickier than Ex. 2; all the more reason to work more on it!
Ex. 4 – Rolling each finger: Nothing new in the picking hand here. Instead
we’re making sure we can effectively “roll” each fretboard-hand finger. We’re
looking to achieve separation between each note, without things becoming
too separate (avoid a staccato sound).
Ex. 5 – Rolling each finger across 3 strings: This exercise follows the same
principle as Ex. 4, but adds an extra string.
Ex. 6 – Four-string grips: In this exercise, we’re making sure that our
coordination isn’t hampered by our left hand shape (this can happen). The
exercise begins with a pattern wherein the index finger is (physically) above
the other fingers and then changes so that it below the other fingers. Ensure
that you’re comfortable with both, and that they’re as comfortable as each
other.
Ex. 7 – Economy-picked scale: We’re applying economy picking to scalic

playing here. Note how we change direction... by using an even number of
notes on a string (two, in this case). Using an odd number of notes per string
means that our picking continues in the same direction.
Ex. 8 – Economy Picked Scale Sequence
Ex. 9 – Economy pic’n’mix
Ex. 10 – Economy pic’n’mix 2

Ex. 11 – Economy picking with string skipping
Ex. 12 –Melodic middle strings
Ex. 13 – Economy picking with ‘inside’ string skipping
Ex. 14 – Momentary economy flourish
Ex. 15 – ‘3,1,2’ pattern
Ex. 16 – Common arpeggio shapes
Ex: 17 – diatonic “3,1,2” pattern: In this exercise, note how we use (outside)
alternate picking when changing strings (rather than economy picking) in
order to start each new iteration of the sequence with a downstroke.
Ex. 18 – unholy mix of inside picking, economy picking and legato: This
one’s not as bad as the title suggests, but keeping our picking consistent
(given the variety of techniques) can be potentially challenging. It’s definitely
worth getting to a point where it’s secure, however, as inside alternate
picking and economy picking can be really effective when used together:
very little movement is required of the right hand.
Ex. 19 – Unison test: This exercise is designed to help you make sure
that your fretting hand isn’t covering for the sins of your picking hand. By
removing melodic movement and maintaining sustain, we’re relying only on
our picking hand movement to create the rhythmic content (there will likely
be a slight accent when you change direction, adding a little punctuation to
the phrase).
Hybrid Picking
These exercises are designed to help you get to grips with the fundamentals
and common configurations of hybrid picking. This is a really useful and
increasingly common part of contemporary playing (especially in the worlds
of fusion and country). I don’t have long nails on my right hand, so I use the
flesh of my fingertips, but if you are endowed with sufficient nails, feel free to
use them (they’ll sound more like a pick).
Ex. 1 – Hybrid basics: introducing the middle finger: Just using our pick and
middle finger, here, but we’re getting used to the spacing difference between
adjacent and distant strings. We’re aiming for a smooth, but articulate sound,
here – if you’re unfamiliar with this technique, you may find the timing hard
at first, but you’ll soon get the hang of it!
Ex. 2 – Hybrid basics: middle finger agility: A similar concept to Ex. 1,

but we’re making the middle finger do a bit more work, and more quickly! I
wonder if it’d be easier if we got another finger involved…?
Ex. 3 – Hybrid basics: introducing the ring finger: We’re playing a similar
line to Ex. 2, here, but we’re using our ring finger to play the E string and
interchanging between pick and fingers more quickly. Try not to let your
fingers collide, or you’ll lose the rhythm. Again, this can take a little while
to get used to if you’ve not done it before, but to get it bang in time is very
difficult for most people, even heavy hitters of the hybrid world.
Ex. 4 – Hybrid basics: introducing alternate picking: I’ve always found this
difficult: fingerpicking after an upstroke. However, lots of players do it, and
it’s worth building this part of your game up to keep you flexible.
Ex. 5 – Country cliché: Not much to say here beyond the tab/music. This is
a great ‘country cliché’ pattern that you can apply to all kinds of harmonic
scenarios.
Ex. 6 – Country cliché variant: This is a variation of Ex. 5. You can never have
too many clichés under your belt!
Ex. 7 – Ascending arpeggios: These kinds of patterns crop up all the time,
and using our fingers really helps to keep things even and sustaining. Also,
we welcome our little finger into the fold with this exercise! The basic pattern
is pick-middle-ring-pinky.
Ex. 8 – Country cliché: double-stops: There’s a combination of techniques

here, but it’s a great pattern to help you work on using your middle and ring
fingers together.
Ex. 9 – Country cliché: available moves: Here, we’re taking a kind of “box
shape”, exploring the available fingerings and aiming for an accurate
coordination between pick, fingers and a variety of fretboard-hand fingerings.
Aim for clean articulation and appropriate accenting.
Ex. 10 – Hybrid Legato rolls: This is a useful technique for faster

improvisation, as our fretting hand is in a static position, with the 1st and 4th
fingers “in place” (this will be the case in most common three-note-per-string
fingerings). The hardest part about this lick is getting the “rolled” fourth
interval on the little finger sounding smooth but with enough separation
between the notes. You can apply this concept to all kinds of fretboard
configurations, so feel free to move it around and experiment.
Ex. 11 – Scale work: In Ex. 11, we’re applying the logic of hybrid picking to
standard scalic playing. Ascending hybrid picking is easily applicable to
the pattern, but when descending we need to adjust the pattern in order to
accommodate the right hand technique.
Ex. 12 – G Mixolydian with available open strings: So many great country-

style runs obtain their unique texture by using open strings where possible.
This can result in some unusual moves, but they’re worth getting smooth as
they have an inherently interesting sound (the combination of ringing open

strings and fretted strings). Try applying this concept to other scales that
include open strings and see how you get on. In fact, how about the next
exercise…
Ex. 13 – C major with available open strings: Carrying on from Ex. 12, this
exercise uses the available open strings (excluding the low E and A) in the C
major scale. This combination of high fretted notes and ringing open strings
is really pleasing, but it’s a bit of a counter-intuitive mind-bender to play at
any speed at all!
Ex. 14 – C major with pedal note: Hybrid picking makes patterns like this
much easier than if you had to pick it, and it can be a really musical and
effective thing to throw into your playing. Try turning the tables and picking a
lower pedal note while playing a line on top.
Ex. 15 – Double note combination: This is a deceptively tricky exercise.

Essentially, we’re making the string change a little smoother for our picking
hand by picking the string change, but then we allow our pick to take over.
Playing the same note twice, but exchanging between pick and finger really
draws into focus the accuracy of our picking hand, and it can be devilishly
hard to play this exercise in time.
Ex. 16 – Left hand combination: This little drill is designed to remind you of
the various useful configurations you can use when employing hybrid picking
and legato – not much to say other than what’s in the music! Try to apply this
concept to other fingerings and see what’s available!
Tapping
There’s a time and a place for really showing your flair, and for us guitarists,
getting your right hand involved in a bit of tapping can be just the trick!
Joking aside, tapping can be expressive and exciting, and if we’re going to
do it, we better do it properly; we lose a bit of the magic of the flourish if we
don’t really nail it. These exercises are performed at deliberately awkward
tempos and are designed to help you really hone your tapping technique.
Ex. 1 – Right hand tapping technique focus: This exercise draws into focus
the effectiveness of our right hand tapping technique. As you’ll hear from
the demonstration video, simply hammering on the fret gives a much weaker
tone on the lower note (shown in brackets in the tab). You really need to get
your tapping finger partially under the string, like a regular pull-off (even a
slight bend movement) when releasing the tap. Moreover, endeavor to keep
your tapping hand in time on the pull-offs as much as possible.
Ex. 2 – Three-note groups of three configurations: In Ex. 2, we’re getting

used to coordinating different configurations of fretboard-hand movement
and tapping. Nothing too difficult, here, but do try ensure some evenness of
tone and consistent timing.
Ex. 3 – Three-note groups of four configurations: Much like, Ex. 2, but now
we’re using common groups of four. Just adding one pitch to the left hand
makes it that much more difficult to keep the string “alive”, which can cause
us to rush in places. Again, try as much as possible to keep things even and
in time.
Ex. 4 – Four note groups of six configurations: This one’s like Ex. 2 and Ex.
3, except that we’ve added another pitch to the fretboard hand part, so we’re
having to keep the string alive and ringing for that little bit longer. Again, the
challenge is to achieve a strong tone (remember to pull-off nicely) and solid

timing.
Ex. 5 – Four note groups of six configurations (including open string):

Again, with this exercise, we’re just looking to make sure that our hands are
cooperating with each other, even with the involvement of the slightly awkard
open string.
Ex. 6 – Tapping agility: While the fretboard hand is static, the tapping hand
goes up and down the scale. Accuracy can be tricky, as this is a movement
we don’t spend much time practicing, but if you want to get into the more
“technical” side of playing, you’ll want to build up your right hand’s ability to
move around in this manner.
Ex. 7 – Multi-string tapping: This looping lick works on our ability to

change string while tapping. Due to the nature of the technique, some
configurations/fingerings are more idiomatic or effective than others, so
do try working out what those limitations are and what works for you. One
challenging aspect of this exercise is trying to keep the strings alive while
always “hammering on from nowhere” – try not to overdo it with the gain so
that you can gauge how effective your technique is.
Ex. 8 – Multi-string tapping with skips: If you’re ready to give this a go, you
probably don’t need much guidance on this. That said, do aim for as little
unwanted string noise as possible when changing string. Some people use a
hair band (or similar) to mute the open strings, but I recommend building up
your technique so as to not rely on them.
Ex. 9 – Unison taps: In this exercise, it can be easy to rush through the
unison pitches, but I find this kind of phrase most effective if there’s just a
little separation between them. Getting back to the low E string from the
G string is really rather tricky and not all that common/useful – don’t beat
yourself up if you find it a bit sloppy at first.
Ex. 10 – Middle finger and ring finger tapping: For me, this is really rather
awkward and I rarely use it. It feels very unnatural at first, but there are plenty
of players who can deploy this kind of stuff with ease and to great effect. I
find that achieving solid timing is really tricky when tapping like this, and you
might find that it sounds best at high speeds and on the top two strings. You
may also try substituting the right hand move for a slide!
Ex. 11 – Middle finger and ring finger tapping with string skips: Not much
to say here beyond what’s in the example. I find these kinds of licks are very
difficult to play in perfect time at moderate speed, but much easier when
fast: when sustain isn’t an issue, we can just focus on the initial attack of
each note.
Ex. 12 – Tapping arpeggios: Here’s one way to approach tapping an

arpeggio-type line – we’ve got several challenges facing us with this line, but
for me the main difficulty is changing fret with the tapping hand and applying
it at the right time. Much like previous exercises, this exercise is performed
at a very difficult medium tempo: get it right, here and you’ll find it easy to
play faster (again, removing sustain from the equation makes things a little
easier).
Ex. 13 – Tapping arpeggios #2: Where Ex. 12 has an arpeggio in a static

position, this exercise requires an “octave up” position shift. It’s a particularly
difficult one to keep clean-sounding, so do keep an ear out for any unwanted
noise and work on finding ways to mute the unwanted strings.
Ex. 14 – Pentatonic configuration: I’ve mentioned earlier in this section

that some patterns are more idiomatic than others, and this is a particularly
useful one for navigating and elongating pentatonic (or similar) tapping lines.
Much like the exercises similar to this, keeping open strings quiet is a major
challenge, so be vigilant!
Ex. 15 – Scalic pentatonic tapping: This is a bit of a long one, but you can
probably see how string skipping and tapping has been used to create
a linear/scalic effect. Note, in particular, the fingering being used when
descending through adjacent strings.
String Bending
Bending is another one of those ubiquitous techniques that we really neglect
to work on properly – and, unfortunately, it can really show!
These exercises are designed to help you hone the accuracy of your bending
and develop your range of expression when using the technique.
Feel free to apply the concept behind each exercise to different scenarios
(i.e. different strings).
Ex. 1 – Bending tones and semitones: In this exercise, we’re looking at

making sure the fundamentals of bending are in place. We are playing the
pitches without bending, first, as a “reference” pitch. When we later bend the
pitch, we are looking to match the bent pitch to our memory of the reference
pitch. Focus on your pitching to begin with, but once that’s solid, look at the
timing of the bend and keeping it smooth and even.
Ex. 2 – Pre-bending tones and semitones: We use the same “reference

pitch” technique as Ex. 1, here, but instead of bending up to the pitch, we’re
starting at the top of the bent pitch. This is a particular challenge as it relies
purely on your muscle memory of where the pitch should be. It may take you
a little time to get this really clean, but it’s a technique that’s definitely worth
working on: pre-bends appear all over the place, and they require specific
attention. Like the last exercise, just aim for pitch accuracy to begin with and
when that’s really strong you can begin to work on the timing.
Ex. 3 – Reference memory and timing challenge: Now we’re distancing

ourselves from the reference pitches (by adding in a bit of time), and we’ll
also be learning to pace ourselves through the duration of the bend. We’re
aiming to reach the top of the bend at exactly the right moment and that
takes a lot of control. Essentially, building this kind of control gives you
access to a huge range of expression, and is the kind of thing that really
sorts the pros from the amateurs.
Ex. 4 – Combination etude: Pay close attention to the use of fingering in this
exercise – it should help you achieve the required control over the bends.
There are all kinds of bends in this line, so if you find yourself stumbling over
anything specific, go back to one of the first three exercises to isolate that
particular issue.
Ex. 5 – Chromatic bending: We get our reference pitches, but we’re in for
a real muscle memory challenge! This is really rather difficult, but simple
enough to understand. I personally find it harder to strategically release
tension for the descending bends (the memory of the reference pitches may
be fading at this point, also).
Ex. 6 – Chromatic bending: staccato challenge!: If you thought Ex. 5 was

a walk in the park, here’s where things get devilishly hard: by making the
pitches “staccato”, we’re not allowing ourselves to hear the ascent of the
bend, so we’re kind of pre-bending the entire phrase. We’re relying almost
purely muscle memory, here: it’s one of those exercises that might drive you
crazy, but it’s worth it!
Ex. 7 – Multi string arpeggio bend: We’re simply bending up to each pitch
from a fret below, here, but by changing strings, we’re getting our left hand
used to all sorts of different tensions. If you haven’t done this kind of thing
before, it can be very difficult, but it’s not as treacherous as it sounds. Once
you’ve mastered this, try playing the same thing, but bending up a tone (just
go an extra fret back) each time!
Ex. 8 – Quasi-unison bending: This common technique in rock and blues is

under the microscope in this exercise. We’re looking for the unison pitches to
be as close to each other as possible, while being careful to silently ‘release’
the bend so as to not cause pitching issues via the floating tremolo system
(of course, this isn’t as much of an issue on hardtails, but it’s a good habit/
discipline to adopt).
Diatonic Interval Studies

In this section, we’re familiarising ourselves with the diatonic intervals
that make up the major scale. The study of intervals is extremely useful in
your improvisation and music in general, as it’s the main building block of
harmony and melody: the relationship between one note and another.
I don’t think it’s enough to know the theory behind intervals; you have to
have them under your hands, too. We’re running them, diatonically, through
the major scale, here, in order to explore common permutations. Of course,
things can get a little trickier if you start applying them to other modes. I find
that the 3-note-per-string system provides a logical basis for these exercises,
and while it may bring up some awkward fingerings, it does give us a useful
and consistent way to visualise how the intervals interact.
Of course, working through these studies will also improve your technique
and your knowledge of the major scale (or whatever scale you decide to
transpose the exercises to).
Clearly, just playing the intervals in sequences is useful, but I’ve tried to make
things a little more interesting by mixing things up a bit.
It’s not necessary to comment on each exercise, here, so I’ve just provided
14
Each title refers the title14 of each for reference.
to the starting,
ascending
sequences: assume
a somewhat logical
reversal when Ex. 1 – Thirds: up and down
descending if
applicable. Ex. 2 – Thirds: down and up
Ex. 3 – Fourths: up to down
Ex. 4 – Fourths: up to up to down
Ex. 5 – Fourths: all up
Ex. 6 – Fifths: all up, doubled up
Ex. 7 – Sixths: up and down with slides
Ex. 8 – Sixths: up to down
Ex. 9 – Sevenths: up to down
Ex. 10 – Every ascending interval (up to octave) from each scale degree.
Ex. 11 – Every descending interval (up to octave) from each scale degree.
Triad studies
It’s hard to overemphasise just how important triads are in western music,
as such, it’s really astonishing how little time many guitarists spend working
on them. These exercises are designed to provide you with multiple ways to
work on your knowledge of triads on the fretboard and provide you with the
fluency for deploying them in interesting ways in your improvisation.
Some of these exercises don’t require much explanation, so I’ve just included
exercise titles where appropriate. Of course, feel free to apply the concepts
in this section to other modes/harmonies.
Ex. 1 – Root position triads: up to down
Ex. 2 – Root position triads: descending triads while ascending the scale
and vice versa.
Ex. 3 – C major (nearly) all over the fretboard
Ex. 4 – C major, D minor, B diminished on B and E strings with different

fingerings: In this exercise, we’re looking at the different ways of fingering
triads across two strings. I’ve deliberately chosen the progression in the title
so as to include each variation of the triad that occurs in the major scale
(major triad, minor triad and diminished triad).
Ex. 5 – C major, D minor, B diminished on B and E strings: three variations:

Here, we’re exploring the difference between using consistent fingerings (i.e.
two pitches on the B string and one on the E string) for each passage of the
first two passages, and then in the third pass, we mix the fingerings so as to
stay (roughly) in position.
Ex. 6 – C major, D minor, B diminished: voice-led, three string arpeggios: In

this exercise, we are limiting ourselves to having to use the top three strings
for each arpeggio, and for each chord change to be relatively nearby to the
previous chord (“voice leading” means that each note moves to the closest
note in the next chord). This method allows us to play each three-string
shape of each triad.
Ex. 7 – C major, D minor, B diminished: voice-led, three string arpeggios #2:

Much like, Ex. 6, this exercise takes the various ways these triads could be
played on the D, G and B strings.
Ex. 8 – C major and minor study: This exercise looks at each arpeggio shape
from both C major and C minor that uses two notes on the high E, and one
note on the B and G strings.
Ex. 9 – C minor almost all over the neck
Ex. 10 – Diatonic open triads: We’re changing the order in which the triad is
played, with this exercise: root-5th-3rd from low to high. This gives the triad a
more expansive/open sound.
Ex. 11 – Diatonic open triads: second inversion: We’re doing the same thing
as Ex. 10, here, except that we’re playing 2nd inversion triads (5th-3rd-root,
low to high).
Ex. 12 – Diatonic open triads: first inversion: Continuing on from the last
two exercises, this is the most difficult (due to the fingering) inversion of the
open triad (3rd-root-5th, low to high).
Ex. 13 – C major open triad variations: In this exercise, we look at various

fingerings for open C major triads.
Ex. 14 – Diatonic first inversion triads
Ex. 15 – Diatonic second inversion triads
Ex. 16 – Linear root position triads

Ex. 17 – Linear root position triads #2
Ex. 18 – Linear first inversion triads
Ex. 19 – Linear first inversion triads #2
Ex. 20 – Linear second inversion triads
Ex. 21 – Diatonic first inversion triads #2
Ex. 22 – Diatonic second inversion triads #2
Four-note chords
In this section, we’re essentially looking at common arpeggios that contain
four pitches. Again, I won’t go into the theory lesson, here (there’s plenty
on this stuff in other courses/online) but do spend some time getting this
stuff really under your fingers: it’s really useful stuff for contemporary
styles. Obviously, all of the concepts from these exercises can be applied to
different modalities and harmonies.
Some exercises don’t require too much by way of explanation, so I’ve

included titles for your reference when appropriate.
Ex. 1 – Diatonic 7th chords
Ex. 2 – Diatonic 7th chords #2
Ex. 3 – C major 7 study
Ex. 4 – C major 7 study #2
Ex. 5 – G7 study
Ex. 6 – G7 study #2
Ex. 7 – G minor 7 study
Ex. 8 – G minor 7 study #2
Ex. 9 – G minor 7b5 study
Ex. 10 - G minor 7b5 study #2
Ex. 11 – Diatonic 7th chords in first inversion
Ex. 12 – Diatonic 7th chords in second inversion
Ex. 13 – Linear Diatonic 7th chords in third inversion
Ex. 14 – Diatonic 9th chords: Ok, we’re cheating a little bit, here, as this is
technically 5-note harmony. You can add more thirds to this concept and try
the exercise using diatonic 11th arpeggios (6-note chords) and diatonic 13th
arpeggios (7-note chords)... I’ll leave you to explore this!
Scale Sequences
There’s not a great deal to say about each individual exercise in this category,
but the idea is to drill each one with a view to familiarising your ear as well
as your fingers to various scale sequences. These sequences have been
generated using a mixture of intervals and triads, but they traverse the scale
in a strictly diatonic way; there will be things that are awkward to play, and
not ideal for playing at high speeds.
There’s a lot of “beauty” to be derived from the use of patterns, and the more
you’re intimately familiar with various diatonic patterns, the more you’ll find
yourself employing them in your improvisation. These are things that the
listener can really hear as “intelligible musical objects” and they carry with
them the ability to create an immense sense of expectation; the listener can
kind of predict where you’re going with the line. It can be really satisfying and
interesting when this sense of expectation is played with, and sequences can
be a really direct means to play with this concept.
Personally, I find that the 3-note-per-string system allows for a more logical
way of applying this information as there’s some consistency between
fingerings and picking patterns, but feel free to apply the sequences to scale
shapes of your choice.
It didn’t strike me as pertinent to name each exercise, here, as the titles

would be rather convoluted: just look at the music and work out what’s going
on!
Feel free to employ the intervallic makeup of each pattern to various scales
and modes.
Ex. 1-15
Pentatonic Studies
While many of us are probably overly familiar with the main pentatonic “box
shape”, we might be less knowledgeable or fluent when it comes to other
positions and applications. This set of exercises is designed to help you
to expand your fluency with the pentatonic scale, but the most important
thing to remember is to apply the overall concept all over the neck (where
applicable).
I’m a firm believer in the pentatonic scale, but it gets so much bad press.
Here’s my thinking; we use the major and minor pentatonic scales all the
time, so we can never really have enough pentatonic ammunition in our
lickbag!
Some of these exercises don’t require a great amount of explanation, but I’ve
included basic titles for ease of reference.
Ex. 1 – Pentatonic sequence: groups of four
Ex. 2 – Pentatonic shape sequence
Ex. 3 – Linear pentatonic sequence with slide
Ex. 4 – Pentatonic sequence using fourths
Ex. 5 – Pentatonic “ladder” sequence
Position shift studies

The main point of this section is to explore some fingering mechanisms
that can aid in moving horizontally around the fretboard (which, of course is
useful for all kinds of reasons). As you’ll see, I’ve not really concerned myself
with trying to keep the intervallic sequences identical; it’s more about how
the left hand can navigate the fretboard.
Some of these moves can be trickier in certain places (i.e. when applying
them to the G and B string change), but the important thing is to pay
attention to how the shift is being achieved and then to seek out ways of
applying it to the fretboard. Once you’ve gotten the hang of each one, you
can start trying to apply them to other modalities/harmonies and building up
speed.
The nature of the exercises is such that there aren’t snappy, clear titles for
each one, so I’ve just used the exercise numbers.
Ex. 1 - 8
CHAPTER 12
PRACTICE BACKINGS
I hope you’ve enjoyed this Masterclass so far! These backing
tracks are designed to be extremely simplistic and roughly
ten minutes long. The logic of this is that you can work on
your harmonic chops/vocabulary over them for long periods
and without feeling penned in by having too many parts in
the accompaniment.
The backing tracks are divided into three sections:
• One Chord Vamps in C

• Single Chord Cycles
• ii V I variations
There are some aspects to each section that require a little explanation, and
there are a few things that may not be totally obvious at first glance, so I’d
recommend that you have a quick read of each before cracking on.
One Chord Vamps in C

These are pretty straightforward: each is a one chord for vamp for around 10
minutes!
The chord name is in the title, and I’ll leave it to you to decide what modes
etc. can be played over each one.
I’ve left the drums playing straight 8th notes, as such there is room for you to
experiment with playing swung or straight 16th notes while you practice.
C Major 7 and C dominant 7 loops both omit the 5th degree of the chord so
that you can also use the following modes (as well as the obvious ones):
C Major 7: C Lydian #5, C Augmented scale (C,D#,E,G,Ab,B).
C Dominant 7: C Superlocrian, C Mixolydian b6, C Lydian Dominant, Half-

Whole Diminished, Phrygian Dominant, Whole-Tone Scale etc.
I’ve also kept similar chords in other parts of the practice backing tracks very
bare so as to allow for more modal choice (it also saves me having to create
one for each chord type!).
Single Chord Cycles

In these, we start on C, and then descend either by a cycle of Major Thirds or
Minor Thirds. There are two sections: 2 bar changes (chord changes every
two bars) and 4 bar changes (chord changes every 4 bars).
So, for example, the ‘C major 7 going down in minor thirds’ file will have a
loop of these changes:
||: C Maj7 – A Maj7 – F# Maj7 – EbMaj7 :||
The ‘down major thirds’ variant would look like this:
||: C Maj7 – Ab Maj7 – E Maj7 :||
You may be wondering why the ‘minor triad’ cycles aren’t ‘minor 7’; it’s so you
can play minMaj7 if you like, too.
The dominant cycle omits the 5th, and if you want to experiment with the
chords or mix them up, use the ‘bass only’ versions. These bass only cycles
can be of greaet use as you have to create the harmony with the line.
IV over V (IV/V) is my shorthand label for the Bb/C chord and is not to be
understood as an analytical term, here.
‘ii V I’ Variations
Here, we have a load of variations of the most commonly used progression

in Jazz (the ‘ii V I’ progression) and a few cycles of it as a bit of a workout!
Again, things have been kept relatively simple to allow you to get the most
mileage out of the practice tracks. The progressions provided are not
exhaustive, so feel free to use the ‘bass only’ track to experiment.
Any resolving dominant will work with the dominant 7 chords, but A7s may
work best with Superlocrian or Phyrigian Dominant (or some b13/b9 variant).
Here are the progressions for each track with some harmony suggestions for
the ‘bass only’ versions:
ii V I (just bass and drums): D (could be -7,-7b5,or dom 7 | G (any dominant) |

C (either maj 7 or min 7) | % |.
ii V I VI (just bass and drums): D (could be -7,-7b5,or dom 7 | G (any

dominant) | C (either maj 7 or min 7) | A (could be A-7 or A7).
ii-7 IVoverV Imaj7: D min7 | F/G | Cmaj7 | %
ii-7 V7 Imaj7 V/ii: D min7 | G7 | Cmaj 7 | A7
ii-7 V7 Imaj7: D min 7 | G7 | Cmaj 7 | %

ii-7flat5 V7 i-7 V7/ii: D min7b5 | G7 | Cmin7 | A7
ii-7flat5 V7 i-7: D min7b5 | G7 | Cmin7 | %
ii-7flat5 V7 Imaj: D min7b5 | G7 | Cmin7 | %
Major ii V I descending ‘down a tone cycle’: D min 7 | G7 | C major 7| % || C

min 7 | F7 | Bb major 7| % || Bb min 7 | Eb7 | Ab major 7 | % | etc.
Minor ii V I descending ‘down a tone’ cycle: same as previous but replace: ii

with minor7flat5 and I with minor7.
Major ii V I descending cycle of 5ths: D min 7 | G7 | C major 7| % || G min 7 |

C7 | F major 7 |% || C min 7 | F7 | Bb major 7|%| etc.
Minor ii V I descending cycle of 5ths. same as previous but replace: ii with

minor7flat5 and I with minor7.
I sincerely hope you get a lot of use out of these! Happy Practicing!
Jake
J T C G U I TA R . C O M

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STUDY

Practice Toolkit Masterclass

With this Masterclass we found ourselves pondering some of

Over to you, Jake…

THE “HOW” AND “WHY” OF PRACTICE

It’s an almost inextricable symptom of adulthood, and even dedicated

This Masterclass is as much about setting up habits to increase productivity

your musicianship and practice sits within that framework.

What are you practising for?

As well as the rational angle, try to also attach an emotional significance

“What specific things should I do to achieve my goals (and/or sub-goals)?”

An inefficient or misguided plan can result in diminishing enthusiasm for

How do I practice efficiently?

“Efficiency” is a somewhat mercurial term when it comes to creative or

Another way of looking at this: imagine you decide to learn something (a

1. Assuming you have defined specific goals and know why

3. Keep a diary of what you worked on and reflect on how your

you to structure practice sessions with an awareness of what you need to

4. Record yourself playing. Without doing this, it’s really hard

5. Mindless drills can be really helpful. Assuming that it won’t

1. Don’t forget to practise ‘ugly’ and try to engage with what

2. Apply what you’re working on in your own playing. Try to

3. Allow yourself to play freely. While it’s obviously important to

4. Allow yourself to create. If inspiration strikes, feel free to get

How much practice is enough practice?

One technique I’ve recommended to my students is to aim to be able to

Practice and time: creating schedules that work and

focus) is a valuable unit of time, and things can be achieved in such a

Using emotional imagery or language to appeal to your feelings and to

you with more reasons to procrastinate). The important thing is to start

Jake-right-now: “I could do this, or I could do that, let me watch TV while I

The voice of Jake-from-the-future: “I have some resources that I could use

I’ll make sure I schedule in something so I keep up momentum and continue to

If these descriptions resonate with you (as they do with most of my

• 12.30: 25 minutes of alternate picking exercises (Ex. 1 and Ex. 2).

THE VALUE OF A TEACHER’S INSIGHT

RECOMMENDED FURTHER READING

• The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey

• Strangers to Ourselves by Timonth Wilson

• The Mastery of Music by Barry Green

• Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner

• Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Having outlined my general approach towards the issue of practice, I thought

If you’re only just starting your sight-reading journey, you’ll have a

• Work on your knowledge of note locations on the fretboard

To work on your rhythmic comprehension, there’s a few books that I

To summarise, by working on actual pieces of music, you develop your

Another excellent and essential resource (although people’s opinions

American Songbook”… jazz standards, modern jazz classics, some show

My confusion arose because I didn’t understand how I was listening. When

With harmony, my formal training has focused more on recognising chord

for adjustment. Continually ask “is my playing in time? Is it dynamically

As well as listening, we also need to be cognisant of how playing feels in

This Masterclass does not serve as a “technique” manual, but by working

THE TECHNIQUE TRAP

IMPROVISING THROUGH CHORD

• Only use frets 0-1-2.

IMPROVING YOUR SOUND AND

trying to pick up on any general patterns. After that, I transcribe something

When I work on my rhythm, I focus on what’s loosely described as ‘time

All of this requires some acknowledgement of how “accurately” you’re

I hope you enjoy practising these exercises as much as I have enjoyed

technique. It’s typically what we use most, so we should probably work on it