Paganini was known for his over the top playing, and the Italian fiddling style in general was more flambouyant and flashy than other regions’ styles. Paganini’s 24 Caprices have tons of little wacky melodic lines in them, as they were sort of a showcase of boundary-pushing techniques. Many of the sections are blown through so fast, or slurred and played legato, hiding the intricacy of what he was doing. When you break them apart and slow them down, you can find some really cool lines that adapt to guitar (or other instruments) well.

Jascha Heifetz, the turn of the century violin master, was one of the first guys to play the pieces with accompaniment. They were originally meant to be played solo, but they have such a musical nature to them, they fit well over chord changes.

The 24th caprice is made up of 11 variations on a theme, each getting more and more ‘out’ there. This piece has been covered by composers throughout the last couple of centuries, because it is well suited to reharmonization, improv, etc…

Ok, enough jabber…here’s the MP3 of it over a simple minor 2-5-1 to dominant 2-5-1 through a couple of keys. The lines fit nice and cozy over the chords, and the notes fall very well on the fretboard.

24th Caprice Excerpt:

And here is the tab for the whole section. (It’s also a great alternate picking workout)

Don’t forget the chords…

Be sure to keep your fingers nice and low to the fretboard…don’t lift them any higher than needed to get to the next note. Since it is mostly chromatic, you can be very economical in your movement – always anticipate the next finger’s position so it flows nice and smoothly. If you really speed it up you may want to use economy picking (sweep picking) to get the notes. Speaking of that…

I can’t forget the metalheads out there…

sloppy shred version:

Do yourself a favor and buy the whole 24 caprices if you don’t have them. They will keep you busy for the rest of your life if you start breaking them apart and pulling out cool little lines from them. My favorite performances of them on violin are from Itzhak Perlman, Nathan Milstein, Ilya Kaler, Shlomo Mintz. Elliot Fisk recorded them for classical guitar, and there have been many others. Check ‘em out!

Let’s face it…it’s not fun to just play full barre chords all the time, and sometimes it’s already being done by the other guitarist in your band. Or perhaps your keyboard player is squatting all of the sonic real-estate and you only have a wee little bit of space to claim as your own.

That is where fragments come in. Instead of playing the entire chord, you can play little pieces of them, and make fills and ornaments that add some style to whatever you’re playing. Hendrix is a well-known user of such tactics, among others.

I’m going to assume you have a basic understanding of the barre chords and how they move up the neck, so let’s jump in.

The biggest challenge when you first dig into this is just knowing how to navigate the fretboard for any given position, in any key. Once you get a handle on how the notes connect, you can pretty much wander freely around the neck making up little pieces as you go. BAM! Guitar is fun again, people are happy, dancing breaks out in the streets…

Here’s a quick and dirty tab of some fragments in the key of C. Note that the C chord is carried all the way up the neck through it’s inversions. You can do this for all 12 keys, and all chord types. (Sounds overwhelming, huh?) But really, once you get a few strategic ideas under your fingers, moving to other keys is a snap.

Each line shows the chord and then some simple shapes to play around it. You’ll quickly see the same basic ideas popping up again and again, in each position on the fretboard. Did I plan it that way? You betcha! Once you learn how to find the same sounds in multiple locations on the neck, what do you have?? That’s right – Freedom of Movement! Damn this is fun.

Ok, here’s the audio for each position, all still in C major. Starting in open C and moving to the octave just like the tabs.

Open position:

3rd fret:

5th fret:

8th fret:

10th fret:

12th fret:

Note that there are a few notes here and there that aren’t directly from the C Major scale. I like to add a little spice like a dom 7 or min 3rd, etc… every now and again to spice things up. This is music, not math class…

The main thing to take from all this is how you can add some variety to your rhythms by sprinkling little fragments around in cool ways, breaking up the monotony where appropriate. Of course you should use with discretion – I’m sort of overdoing it for the sake of the article, and besides… it is MY website. Muuuhhaahahaahaaaaaa!!!

I will leave you with this final blurb, this time in the key of E major, similar stuff, moving randomly around the neck (maybe a bit too random, but hey) Just to give you another variation of these concepts.

Around the neck:

Go forth and Fragify!

BAD:

But, with a little effort, you can smooth things up:

GOOD:

On the first clip, the picking hand isn’t getting to the notes at the same time the fretting hand is, which makes it sound all squirrely and un-musical. That is what we want to work on.

Example 1

To start, lets take a pretty unassuming little sequence and focus on getting the pickstrokes nice and tightly synched with the fretted notes. Trickier than it seems when the tempo increases. Give it a try.

Note that the pattern changes slightly the second time through…

slow:

Just make SURE the notes sound even and your left and right hands ‘feel’ in time with each other.

Easy enough? Ok…let’s take it a step farther

Example 2

This time I’m using swing 8ths and alternating between half and double speed. Make sure you alternate pick everything, starting on a downstroke and alternating the rest. Concentrate on relaxing your hands and arms, don’t let ANY tension creep into them. Tension is the enemy to smooth picking. Your natural tendency is probably going to be to tense up on the double speed part, but resist the urge! Just keep it nice and relaxed.

slow:

And a bit faster…

fast:

Example 3

This example is all on one string, all alternate picked, and all silly sounding. No, really…it sounds like a bad irish fiddle tune, but it’s going to make you jump around a bit, (like a crazy Leprechaun) which is what I’m after.

Play this at each of the tempos I have here and work your way up to the quick one (250 bpm). Just make sure you don’t miss any notes or have weak articulation. Strict alternate picking on this too.

The basics:

slow (120bpm):

fast (175bpm):

really fast (250bpm):

Can you see the Leprechaun yet?

Example 4

This is one of my favorite little repeating licks. You can use it on any set of two strings, all over the neck. I’m in the key of C here, but once you get the pattern you can move it anywhere.

Alternate picking is very important here, and once you get your hands in synch this lick has a really cool perpetual motion feel to it. It’s good for moving up or down the neck and even across pairs of strings. Here’s a short snippet:

slow:

fast:

If you don’t have good sychronization between hands on this one it just feels all wrong, so really work on getting it dialed in and you’ll see what I mean about how this one feels.

Example 5

Didn’t think I was going to let you go without a little bluegrass picking, did you? This one is a generic snippet from any number of fiddle tunes. It uses open strings and strict alternate picking, with a swing 8th note feel. It really seems simple but getting it to swing and stay synched up at faster tempos is tough. Stay very focused on accurate picking here, and getting the swing feel.

slow:

medium:

fast:

A really good example of this feel is Mark O’Connor’s ‘Picking in the Wind’, off of the guitar record he did when he was 16. Smokin!

I hope these exercises help you get in synch – I wanted to give some examples that really focus on a certain picking challenge, instead of just playing scales. Be your own worst critic – listen very objectively to recordings of yourself (you do record yourself sometimes, right?) That’s the only real way to hear clearly what you are playing – sometimes while you are playing you can get lost in the fun and forget to LISTEN to what’s coming out.

Until next time!

I put this together over the rhythm of Haggard’s ‘Working Man’s Blues’. This is a very common tune if you end up on a gig with guys wearing cowboy hats and/or belt buckles larger than your fist. And, conveniently, it’s often a head-cutting tune of sorts, made to jam over and see who is really worthy of the buckle (or the hat.)

So, as with any tune in this style, the first thing you need to do is learn the rhythm part, know the chord changes backwards and forwards. To really sound good over tunes like this, you need to play to each chord, and even anticipate the changes with ‘lead-in’ notes that take you into the next chord.

I’m only playing through one solo section here, but in the ‘real world’ you will likely run through it a couple of times or more.

Solo Section – A | A | A | A | D | D | A | A | E | D | A | A ||

Ok, now…to ‘get into’ the solo, I start with a little lick over the A7, which builds some energy to lead me into the D7 (next lick). Sort of like revving up the engine before dumping the clutch.

Listen:
Slower:

The next section drops to the IV chord, D7. This is really where the solo ‘starts’. I’m sliding into the root, hitting some twangy bendy stuff, trying to mix up the ideas so I don’t play too much of anything that sounds the same. Always try to relate your licks to each other, either in a ‘call and response’ sense or in a tension-building sense where you build up the tension and then break it with a really nasty bit. Just remember that EVERY lick doesn’t have to be a killer. If you try to do that, you wear the listener out, never letting your stuff breathe. But, this is an uptempo tune, so if you let it drag too much you’ll lose them just as fast. Think balance.

Here’s lick 2, which leads us back to A.

Listen:
Slower:

Moving right along, the last lick left me in A, so I continue there, and throw a little breathing room in there with some double-stops. These are really just 2 separate chord shapes moved through 4 positions.

This section moves so quickly, I didn’t try to break the track up, and just played through. The single measure E and D go by pretty fast, so you need to plan ahead to hit the changes right. I’ll break it all down lick by lick. The last lick when I get back to A wasn’t really worth tabbing out, but as I mentioned before, you may get another ’round through the solo, so here you should be thinking about setting yourself up for the IV chord again.

Final Section:

A section Slower:

E section Slower:

This lick in E sounds harder than it really is…keeping some open strings going adds a lot to it. Another key is keeping your fretting hand loose and visualize where you are going next…anticipate the move down the neck – it goes quick!

D section slower:

Pretty straight-forward here, just sliding into some 6ths and adding that nice little low bit on F# and the A string to top it off, for the return back to A where you would probably be setting up to go through another 12 bars!

All Together Now!

Here’s the whole thing together:
Complete:

It takes a lot of practice to become ‘fluent’ with the language of twang, and it’s really just a matter of putting in the time, and playing in situations where you have to rise to the occasion. Oddly enough, pride can be your strongest motivator to get better at something like this. All it takes is one good embarrassment on stage and BAM! you’re locked in the woodshed practicing your butt off.

A good source of inspiration outside of straight country is Bluegrass, Western Swing, even some jazz, because those styles really rely on playing over the chords in a tune and making flowing, lyrical melodies on the fly. It’s not really pure improvising, where you’re out to break new ground with every measure, it’s putting phrases together that support the style of music you’re playing, and just flat-out sounding good. If you try to get too wacky it’s going to sound wrong, and the guys with the hats and buckles really don’t like wrong.

Listen:

To get some interesting finger exercise and train your hand to find the whole major scale in 6ths, try this example. This is the A major scale harmonized in 6ths. Pay attention to the fingerings on this one…to get the smooth transitions between notes, use the fingerings noted in the tab. Also keep your fingers really close to the strings – don’t lift them too high off the fretboard.

Listen:

Try this in all keys, all over the neck. Just knowing where the different 6th intervals are in each position will spark some cool ideas.

Ok, here’s another variation of the 6th, this time mixing the octave or unison in with it. The example is in G major, descending. This kind of thinking opens a ton of possibilities for mixing intervals in rhythm and solos, and also coming up with little counterpoint phrases where two notes are working in different directions, but in the same chord or scale family.

Listen:

Here’s an example of how I might work 6ths into a rhythm phrase – I am also using 3rds in this one.
The key is D major.

Listen:

And finally, a little lick using the 6ths in a bit of a finger twister. I really like sneaking this kind of stuff into solos to get a more harmonic sound…not just single notes all the time. Try this one in different keys and figure out how to do the same thing over a minor and dominant 7th chord sound.

Listen:

Develop that ’6ths sense’! In a future article I will go into using intervals in partial chords and getting away from the barre chord way of thinking.

I covered the modes in a previous article if you need a primer. This will be more focused on training your ear.

As I mentioned in the other article, each mode is basically one of three types:

MAJOR: (Ionian, Lydian, Mixolydian)
MINOR: (Dorian, Phrygian, Aeolian)
HALF-DIMINISHED: (Locrian)

My examples use the root note E. You should try this all different keys, on all strings.
I am doing each one in E so you can hear the sound and color of each mode distinctly. My choice of key has nothing to do with the name of the string I am using for my example, it’s just a coincidence. You could just as easily do the exercise on the B, G or any other string.

Okay, Here is a little recap of the modes as compared to their parent major, minor, or half-diminished scale. The bold notes are the ones that really define the characteristic sound of each mode.

Ionian: (Parent Major)
Dorian: Minor w/ SHARP 6
Phrygian: Minor w/ FLAT 2
Lydian: Major w/ SHARP 4
Mixolydian: Major w/ FLAT 7
Aeolian: (Natural Minor)
Locrian: Minor w/ FLAT 2 AND FLAT 5

Here are some sound examples to get you started. I don’t recommend just learning the licks I played here. The whole idea of this exercise is to help develop your ear and ability to use the modes musically, without relying on rote patterns and mechanical functions. To really improvise, you have to break away from the licks and patterns your hands are comfortable with and rely solely on your ears. (Scary huh!)

So, lay down a simple rhythm track with the appropriate chords for each mode, then play over it.
If you have a fancy recording setup, great. If not, a keyboard with loops is fine, a tape recorder or digital recorder, it doesn’t matter. If you’ve gotten this far and don’t have a way to lay down a backing for yourself, back up and get one!

The backing vamp for each of these sounds similar, but I modified the chords for each accordingly. The bassline does have a B natural note, which isn’t part of E locrian (should be a Bb), but we’ll let that slide for now!

Also, you will notice I skipped the parent Major and Relative Minor modes (Ionian, Aeolian.) You should do them as well, but I just wanted to touch on the other modes for these examples. Listen closely for the notes that really define the character of each mode.

Dorian

Phrygian

Lydian

Mixolydian

Locrian

Note: At the end of the Locrian example, I started using the half-whole diminished scale, which is a more common (and much better sounding scale) than the locrian mode. The pattern for that scale is simply H-W-H-W-H-W-H-W etc…

If you want to inject a little poly into your rhythm, here’s a really simple concept.

One problem with playing fast lines is that there’s a tendency to sound too structured. To help break up some monotony, try adding odd groups of notes into the fray.

In a previous post, I used the combination of 4′s and 5′s. This time, let’s use consecutive groups of 5′s. Phrase them so the first note of each group falls on the 1/8th note or 1/4 note.

Another name for this post could have been “How to Sound like Eric Johnson or Jean Luc Ponty” so try to add some personal flavor.

Even the simplest melodic idea can become an ear-twister with some odd rhythmic voodoo thrown into it.

The example below shows a basic E major pentatonic scale, played in groups of 4 then 5 notes, descending.
Think 1234 12345 1234 12345, etc… which causes the lines to break out of the predictable pattern and float over the barline. Players like Eric Johnson do this a lot.

The most important thing to do at first is to play as evenly as possible, and make the notes sound like they are all one line, not broken groups of 4 and 5. Accents can come later.

Once you start feeling comfortable with the pentatonic shape, you can apply the same idea to any scale or arpeggio sequence.

It’s also a good idea to play along with a metronome, drum machine, cuckoo clock or whatever keeps good time.

view transcription

Slow:

Med:

Fast:

This is the ‘Unproductive’ way to practice. 

I can try to justify it by telling myself ‘Any playing is good…’ or something like that, but hit the gong, that’s a tired old routine.

How to fix? Find something new to practice.  Usually it is just a matter of being brutally honest with yourself. And I mean BRUTALLY honest.  When you come across something that is hard to play, that you just can’t get through cleanly, take a moment to figure out WHY it’s hard.  Usually it boils down to something simple like the picking or the choice of fingering, etc…  Once you narrow it down, isolate the problem and spend some time tackling it.

How?

Well, here are some ideas to get you going, the rest is up to you.

1.  Keep a journal of things you can’t play. When you practice, use it to ‘remind’ yourself what you need to practice.

2.  Transcribe something from your cd collection. Anything you have to ‘think’ to figure out. Pick out little pieces and really explore the techniques involved, whether it’s picking, bending, sliding, slurring, whatever. If you find a bunch of tricky things, write them in your practice journal.

3. Try to play a common lick backwards.  Sounds silly, huh? Try it.

4. Transpose a major-sounding lick to a minor sound. And vice-versa. Often as easy as flatting or sharping the third.