A few days ago, my good friend Mauro sent me a link to a YouTube video by Morten Faerestrand. This video provides excellent insight into some of Pat Metheny's techniques. As well, Morten is a fabulous player and I very much appreciate the time he spends to detail these creative and unique techniques of a truly amazing musician. Hope you enjoy it. Me, I am off to practice ;-) Thanks Mauro! … [Read more...]
Technique: Proper Thumb Positioning
April 11, 2009 by 2 Comments
A question that always comes up is where should my thumb be? Over the neck or behind it? The answer depends on what you are playing. If you are playing scales, there is a great benefit to having your thumb behind the neck as it allows you a much greater stretch. Conversely, having the thumb over the neck is the only way to play some chords and a great help when bending strings. Have a look at the following 3 pictures for an example of where your thumb should be when playing … [Read more...]
Scales: Exercises 123 234 345
April 10, 2009 by 4 Comments
This exercise is aimed at improving your technique and offering you extended scale phrasings. The basic idea in this exercise is to play the first 3 notes in the scale, then, starting at the second note in the scale play 3 more, then, starting from the 3rd note in the scale play 3 more etc. If the scale was numbers, the pattern would be: 123 234 345 456 567 678 789 etc Remember that these exercises can be played anywhere on the neck using any scale. The … [Read more...]
The Spider Exercise
April 8, 2009 by 3 Comments
They say that a picture is worth a 1000 words. Well, have a look at this picture. This is an exercise called the spider. There is no picking required in this exercise. Just place four fingers on your neck on the E string and do exactly what I do in the the animation below. Move your 1st and 3rd fingers up one string. Now move your 2nd and 4th fingers up 2 strings. Now move your 1st and 3rd fingers up 2 strings and continue till your hand is walking like a spider up and down that neck. As … [Read more...]
