Studies

Learning technique, theory, scales, arpeggios, … all good. But you need to be able to apply that knowledge! These studies apply what you’ve learned in our lessons to musical examples. Each study is accompanied by three different styles of backing tracks. There’s always a primary style (the recommended one) that I think sounds best, but you should play through all of the styles to get a feel for how the techniques and concepts can be applied across genres. This also expands your musical vocabulary by playing styles of music you might not otherwise play.

Here’s the recommended practice sequence:

Watch the video to see the performance of the study and get the overall feel in your ears.
Download the transcription and watch the video again, following along with the transcription.
Play through the transcription in chunks (chunking – like we do in our lessons) without regard for timing. Just start working out little sections.
Reduce the backing track speed to about 60% speed and play along a few times.
Slowly increase the speed of the backing track and work up to playing the study at full speed along with each of the three backing tracks.

Throughout all of this, be aware of the chord changes and the scales used for each bar. Knowing the theory behind the music helps to tie it all together. If you can recognize the scale or arpeggio pattern you’re playing, it will have more meaning to you than just playing a bunch of random notes and wondering why they sound good against the chord. Remember to try each of the different styles of backing tracks.

Fretting Hand Studies

Focus on your fretting hand hammer-ons and pull-offs with minimal picking. The main goals are to build finger strength and independence and maintain equal durations of notes.

Legato Study #2 (Melodic Power Rock)

This study is primarily in C melodic minor, but uses some non-diatonic chords and borrows from C harmonic minor to add movement and interest. The piece is basically two sections with section A repeated at the end with a slight variation. The tab is six pages, but...

Legato Study #1 (Pop Punk)

This legato study has a pretty cool melody with a nice dynamic octave change at the bridge. As with any legato, the challenge is to play it perfectly in time. It's not particularly fast, but maintaining equal durations across all 8th notes will take practice. Adding...

Picking Hand Studies

Focus on your picking hand. Practice inside/outside picking, down slant/up slant, alternate picking, and economy picking.

Outside Picking Study #2 (metal)

This outside picking study in A harmonic minor is carefully composed so that every string cross is accomplished with outside picking - so pay close attention to the pick strokes in the tab. The piece starts on a downstroke and is alternate picked from there. Section A...

Outside Picking Study #1 (Ska)

Inside Picking Study #2 (Tex-Mex)

This inside picking study - as the name implies - crosses every string change with an inside picking motion (as opposed to outside pick strokes). There are some rests between phrases where inside picking isn't used. but it is used consistently within each phrase. The...

Inside Picking Study #1 (70’s Progressive Rock)

This inside picking study - as the name implies - crosses every string change with an inside picking motion (as opposed to outside pick strokes). Extra credit if you can figure out what Kansas song I was listening to when I wrote this.StylesMore Studies

Inside/Outside Picking Study #1 (Bluegrass)

This inside-outside picking study will force you to become intimately aware of approaching a string from the inside or outside, so minor adjustments to your picking hand's wrist and thumb bends will be required. The arrangement for this piece features a 16 bar blues...

Concept Studies

Rather than focusing on a single technique, these studies are holistic in that they combine techniques with theoretical concepts.

Busted Windows

This intermediate solo comes in two flavors: Level 1 and Level 2. They are essentially the same melody, but Level 2 incorporates bends and faster runs in bars 8 and 16. There are two harmonies - a high and low for each level. The chord progression puts us in the key...

Shreddy Solo in E Phrygian op. 1

This advanced solo focuses on shred techniques such as fast alternate picking and legato runs. It's in E Phrygian (C major), but includes a non-diatonic B7 chord which pulls the tonality towards E harmonic minor for a few bars. Scale usage includes C major (to create...

Sweeping Studies

Put the chord shapes we’ve learned in our lessons to the test with the sweeping studies from three to six strings.

Sweeping Study 1c

This study focuses on jazz chords. Major 7, minor 7, dominant 7, and minor 7b5 (half-diminished).Backing TrackMore Studies

Sweeping Study 1b

Now that you've developed a smooth sweeping motion from Sweeping Study 1a, this sweeping study (1b) focuses on a few new three-string shapes: dominant 7 and diminished. Backing TrackMore Studies

Sweeping Study 1a

This sweeping study focuses on the E-B-G strings and integrates all inversions of major and minor triads. The chord progression is played a total of four times with each iteration varying the sweeps. It starts easy and gets pretty challenging. Think of this as four...

Classical Studies

Focus on a variety of picking techniques through Bach, Paganini, and Mozart.

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Mozart). When I was about 16 years old, I received a few cassette tapes from 15 year old Paul Gilbert shortly after he was featured in Guitar Player magazine's Spotlight column. (The same issue/Spotlight that also featured an unknown Yngwie...

Fundamentals

Focus on fundamentals.

Bending Basics

This study focuses the basics of bending with double-stops, pre-bends, standard bends, and releases.Full SoloBacking TrackMore Studies