Building Speed On The Fret Board

This lesson, I will cover all of the speed training on the E panotonic scale and some on the Mixolydian mode. It is one of the more easier scale to memorize once you start the practice, plus the Mixolydian mode has a good stretch at the beginning of the pattern. Plus you want to start simple and then move on to more complex scales.

Explaining My Method

The method I use, I like to call Single Time to Double Time, simple! ( I'm sure I'm not the only one that figured this method out, I just wanted to get better. I have showed my friends and this works really good for us, maybe it will work for you). You will need a metronome to keep you in time. So every beep of the metronome will represent a quarter note also, in between the beeps will represent the eight notes. What you want to do is take a pattern of a scale and run through it with a basic quarter note rythm. You will play each note of the scale pattern on a beep (single time). Once you get back to the top of the pattern you will go back through the pattern with eight notes (double time). Not only will you play the beeps of the metronome but you will play in between the beeps. (Important: The picking you will use for this practice will be down, up, down, up etc... All the way down the patern and back up. To know if your picking the pattern right, the first note you pick will be a down pick. Once you go all the way down the pattern and back up, the last note you pick will be a down pick.) Also before I forget, you will start at a low bpm (beat per minute), try using 60bpm on your metronome to start with. Then once you get confortable with this speed, increase the bpm by 5bpm everytime. Untill you reach about 120bpm, then you want to go back down to about 80 bpms then work your way back up. This will help your fingers with stanima, also you will remember the scale this way. The more times you play a scale the better chance your going to remember the scale. Also you want to keep your fingers loose so when you switch from single time to double time it won't be a strain on your fingers.

Remember! The first time through the position (pattern) use quarter notes and then the second time through use eight notes. (Scroll down to lick section for a good example.)

E panotonic scale.
 
1st position.
    q q q q ect.
e I---------------------0-3-0----------------------I
B I-----------------0-3-------3-0------------------I
G I-------------0-2---------------2-0--------------I
D I---------0-2-----------------------2-0----------I
A I-----0-2-------------------------------2-0------I
E I-0-3---------------------------------------3-0--I
 
2nd position.
 
e I-------------------------3-5-3------------------------I
B I--------------------3-5--------5-3--------------------I
G I---------------2-4------------------4-2---------------I
D I----------2-5---------------------------5-2-----------I
A I------2-5-----------------------------------5-2-------I
E I-3-5--------------------------------------------5-3---I
 
3rd position.
 
e I-----------------------5-7-5--------------------------I
B I------------------5-8---------8-5---------------------I
G I-------------4-7------------------7-4-----------------I
D I---------5-7---------------------------7-5------------I
A I-----5-7------------------------------------7-5-------I
E I-5-7---------------------------------------------7-5--I
 
4th position.
 
e I---------------------------7-10-7---------------------------I
B I---------------------8-10----------10-8---------------------I
G I----------------7-9----------------------9-7----------------I
D I-----------7-9-------------------------------9-7------------I
A I------7-10---------------------------------------10-7-------I
E I-7-10--------------------------------------------------10-7-I
 
5th position.
 
e I---------------------------------10-12-10-------------------------------I
B I--------------------------10-12-----------12-10-------------------------I
G I--------------------9-12-------------------------12-9-------------------I
D I--------------9-12-------------------------------------12-9-------------I
A I-------10-12------------------------------------------------12-10-------I
E I-10-12------------------------------------------------------------12-10-I

Those are the 5 positions of the E panotonic scale. I'm not going to tab out the whole scale twice and put Q (quarter notes) and E (eight notes) at the top of the positions, it would take to long and I would never get done with this lesson. But I will tab out some practice lick using the same method. With the Q's and E's abouve the Tab.

*These licks are from the Mixolydian mode.

Lick #1
 
    q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q   e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e        
A I----------10-12-14-12-10------I----------10-12-14-12-10--------I
E I-10-12-14---------------14-12-I-10-12-14----------------14-12--I
i
Lick #2
 
    q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q   e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e     
G I----------11-12-14-12-11------I----------11-12-14-12-11-------I
D I-10-12-14---------------14-12-I-10-12-14----------------14-12-I
 
Lick #3
 
    q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q    e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  
e I----------12-14-15-14-12-------I----------12-14-15-14-12-------I
B I-12-13-15----------------15-13-I-12-13-15----------------15-13-I
 
Lick #4
 
    q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q  q  
D I-------------------10-12-14-12-10----------------I
A I----------10-12-14----------------14-12-10-------I  cont.
E I-10-12-14----------------------------------14-12-I
 
    e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  e  
D I-------------------10-12-14-12-10-----------------I
A I----------10-12-14----------------14-12-10--------I
E I-10-12-14----------------------------------14-12--I

You can see Lick 1-3, I'm just focusing on two strings and then in Lick 4 I'm just adding a string. After you get done with lick number 4 and are up to a nice fast speed, just add the G string in the Lick, then add the B, then the e. You can practice this with any mode or pattern of a scale. Instead of me tabbing out 100 diffenent Licks, just make some up of your own or explore different scale. The licks matter, don't get me wrong. But using the ideal of Single time to Double time is the main focus here. Plus Putting the Q's and the E's above the licks take alot of time to get it even with the numbers.

Comments

[axeldarkman420]

COOL

[David Blackbird]

Technically, when you play twice as fast, it's called 'cut time', not 'double time'. You lose some points for grammar; however, it's a good idea to tell people to try to make up their own exercises, as this helps with improvisation. After all, the immortal opening of 'Sweet Child O' Mine' started as an exercise Slash develpoed. Overall, good job.

[Jastul]

yeah' i've been doing something like this for scales for a while, i also add in eight note triplets (three notes per beat) and sixteenth notes and some funkier syncopation for the sake of it, good lesson tho

^acutally the intro to Sweet Child came from a simple pattern Slash messed around with one day while making goofy faces to another one of the guys ( i wanna say Duff) for shits and giggles, axl just happened to like it and decided to mix it with a poem he wrote for his then girlfriend now ex-wife

[Sengir]

Ain't this a lesson for dummies? I'm not advanced, but I found no problem going to over 200 bpm, so playing quarters and eights at 80-120 bpm seems strange. Good stuff, but too slow. 9 for you.

[Shredtohell]

Sengir wrote:

Ain't this a lesson for dummies? I'm not advanced, but I found no problem going to over 200 bpm, so playing quarters and eights at 80-120 bpm seems strange. Good stuff, but too slow. 9 for you.

Understandable that you can play at quarters and eights notes over a 200 bpm range. But once you get that far, try 8th to 16th notes or even 16th to 32nd notes. Keep going up..

[BladeSlinger]

It's pentatonic. Panotonic was bugging me to no end.

[Drake00]

Thankx im getting the hank of it