GUEST COLUMNIST:

MIKE CAMPESE

Musical Segments and Coordination


We're very happy to have Mike involved as guest columnist at CFH!

Hello Everyone!!! Thanks for checking out my lesson. Today we are going to learn some musical examples that will help your coordination between your left and right hands and help develop your speed and accuracy. Most of the examples we will learn are short phrases. First learn them in one location and then move them around the neck. It is very important to start off playing very slow at first then gradually building speed, with your left and right hands in sync. The musical examples have tempos indicated. Work up to those speeds, don't start there. Play the following segments with alternate picking, also play them with all upstrokes and all downstrokes, and use right hand palm muting. Ok, get your metronome and lets get started...

Ex. 1 - Here we have a short musical segment in A major (A,B,C#,D,E,F#G#). In bar one we have a pedal point, which is used in classical music and makes a great pinky exercise. Then we move to an adjacent string looping back to the first string. Start this phrase very slow and then bring it up to tempo. This example is played in 5/4, but it can be played in any time signature. Also make sure you accent on the downbeats.

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Ex. 1a - Now we will take the same phrase and move it down the neck in the key of A Major. Play this phrase on other strings too. This kind of practice is great for learning the neck.

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Ex. 2 - In this Example we use the same phrase, but now we are using string skipping. This adds an interesting twist. We are still in A Major. Move this one around the neck and experiment with other scales. Again, don't forget to accent on the downbeats, as this will make these examples more effective.

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Ex. 3 - This is a 2 string phrase great for developing your coordination. This example is in E minor (E,F#,G,A,B,C,D) using 16th note triplets. Repeat the main phrase over and over and then move down in key. Strive for accuracy, gradually building speed.

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Ex. 3a - These next 4 examples are short segments that can be moved around the neck. In this example we are using the same phrase as ex. 3 but we're using string skipping again. Loop this over and over, then move this up and down the neck in the key of E minor. You will notice in the audio example I move this phrase down the neck.

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Ex. 4 - This is a great single string idea for developing your picking. It is in the key of D major (D,E,F#,G,A,B,C#). Move this one up the neck. Also make sure your right and left hands are in sync, starting slow, gradually building up to the marked tempo.

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Ex. 4a - Now we have a 3 string idea in E Lydian (E,F#,G#A#,B,C#,D#). This is more of an arpeggio style phrase. It is based on an F#m7 arpeggio. Move this up the neck moving through each arpeggio in E lydian. In the audio example, I move up to the next arp, G#m7b5 (G#,B,D,F#).

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Ex. 5 - Our final example is another 3 string phrase using the notes from a D minor pentatonic scale (D,F,G,A,C). Move this pattern up in 4th intervals. For example, the first phrase will start with F then the second one will start with Bb, etc. In the audio example I move this pattern in 4ths. This is a cool way to make use of patterns.

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That wraps up our lesson!!! So remember when practicing, it is really important to start slow then gradually build speed. Make sure your left and right hands are in sync. This is how you develop your coordination. Also check out my CDs "Full Circle" and "Total Freedom". For more info visit www.mikecampese.com. Good Luck!!!

Mike Campese