Warming up, Part 2 Variations on a theme
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It's no secret that I like to play a lot 929d34j of technique-oriented exercises: since they're primarily designed to build speed and accuracy, they help me maintain my technical edge. You can kill two birds with one stone with these types of exercises: you can use them primarily to warm-up, or, if you're not happy with your technique, use them to attain a much higher level of proficiency by practicing them consistently. Those of you who have read my past columns already know that I'm a big fan of the chromatic scale. I actually got into it when I first started playing guitar. For some strange reason (probably because I was a mathematically-inclined kid), I ended up gravitating toward the countless chromatic exercises found in my instruction books. I liked how playing all the permutations helped me to develop my speed and agility on the guitar. On top of that, I also loved the way Steve Morse used chromatic lines in his fast single-line playing, so I wanted to get a handle on his approach too. Eventually, my chromatic style evolved out of combination of those two influences. Mastering the chromatic scale can really help you develop your technique, as it enables you to cover all the possible left-hand fingering combinations and develop excellent right-and left-hand coordination as well. Though I mostly write my own exercises now, one of the things I still love to do is figure out all their possible permutations. That keeps me from playing the same things over and over (and getting bored), as each permutation focuses on a different aspect of my technique. And eventually, I always end up applying them in one form or another to real-life musical situations. Let's look at a typical chromatic exercise that I warm up with. The first thing I do is come up with a pattern, like the one depicted in FIGURE 1, which will function as the foundation for all the possible permutations. The pattern in FIGURE 1 also happens to be a rather tricky one, as it's in 5/4 meter and includes notes on the adjacent E and A strings.
Now comes the fun part: once you have FIGURE 1 wired in one position, start moving it around. The first thing you can do is keep the pattern on the same two strings, but move it up chromatically, as FIGURE 2 illustrates. Make sure you use alternate (down-up) picking to execute this and all the subsequent exercises. Once you master FIGURE 2, try playing FIGURE 3, which entails keeping your left hand in the same position while moving the pattern over to the next adjacent string pair. This exercise focuses on developing your picking mobility across all six strings.
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FILES FIGURE 2
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FILES FIGURE 3 As you can see, though the basic pattern is the same, the ensuing exercises get progressively more and more difficult to play. FIGURE 4 is the hardest of the bunch. It forces you to move this 10-note idea not only across all the strings, but chromatically up the fretboard as well. You should start off playing this exercise slowly, making sure your right and left hands are synchronized. Once you get a feel for all the position shifts, try increasing the tempo. And it goes without saying that you should be practicing all these exercises with a metronome.
By now you're probably getting bored playing the same idea all over the neck, so try flipping the basic pattern around-play it backwards! In other words, start on the high E string and work your way down the neck,playing the chromatic line descending instead of ascending, while keeping the same melodic contour. FIGURE 5 depicts this idea (which some music theoreticians call a retrograde). Of course, you can now apply all the variations found in FIGURES 2, 3 and 4 to FIGURE 5, but I'll let you figure those out on your own. The next step is for you to write your own chromatic warm-ups and work out all their possible variations. Use your imagination and have fun!
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