Whether you're one of those guitar players who hates to practice scales or who loves to practice scales, you can do these same exercises on little scalar sections of your music just as well as on any scale. Take a difficult section from a piece of music that you are learning, writing, or improvising. Pay attention to every part - the tone, speed, and evenness, using the techniques below until it sounds effortless. Then take similar scales and work them into other parts of your music as well.
Tone And
Relaxing The Right Hand
The very first step is to listen to the tone of each individual
note. Practicing speed is useless if the basic sound coming out of
your instrument is like rubber bands or nails dropping into a bucket.
Listen carefully to hear that each note is clear, and to minimize
Scales can be used to improve your right hand technique in general. Here are some suggestions to work on, whether you are playing with your fingers or a pick.
Fingerstyle
Position your hand so that your fingers are hanging over a given string,
at a relaxed angle (fingers almost straight, perpendicular to the
string). Play each note very slowly, alternating the index and
middle fingers, watching the hand to be sure that each finger to falls
back to position after each stroke. Your fingers will only fall back
to position if your hand is relaxed. If your hand is tense, it will
take an extra motion to pull the finger back to position. Each
stroke moves mostly from the big knuckle, stroking across the string
instead of plucking up into the palm of the hand. Allowing only a very
slight bend (at most) in the first two joints. Each stroke needs to
strike across the string quickly, without allowing the finger to rest on
the string. This will allow the notes to ring longer and reduce
separation between notes. Very slow and concentrated practice on
hand relaxation between notes can work to eventually greatly improve the
speed and fluidity of your music. Try this also with other sets of
fingers: middle and ring, index and ring, thumb and index.
Playing
with a pick
Relax the hand so that there is just enough tension to hold the
pick. Don't worry if it drops out of your hand a couple of times
while you are finding that balancing point. An angle slightly to the left
will make the notes come out fatter, straight up and down gives a brighter
sound. Alternate with down-up strokes. Then play the scale
reversed, with up-down strokes. This makes for very rhythmic
playing. At high speeds with a more legato sound, use hammer-ons
when going up and pull-offs when coming down the scale.. You can then do
the entire scale using one down-stroke when ascending and one up-stroke
when descending. Vary it by picking certain notes (changing the pick
direction) to accent different notes of the scale.
Dotted
patterns
This is the single best exercise to develop speed. By breaking up
the scales to "long-short" and then "short-long" you
are playing every other note as quickly and cleanly as possible, yet
giving yourself time to think and listen to the sound of each note.
It is important to work both patterns to practice quick finger motion
between each pair of fingers. In the first exercise, try to make the
time between the second and third notes as short as possible while you can
take as long as you like between the first and second notes.
Then reverse, try to make the time between the first and second notes as short as possible.
Accents
It is important to have control of the volume of all the notes of the
scale. Practice accenting every third note. Use a metronome to be
sure that all the notes are at the same tempo. To really take
control of your scales, practice accenting every 4th note, then every 5th
note, every 6th note, and finally, every 7th note. You will find
your speed improving when you concentrate your efforts on groups of notes
in this way.
Practice
scales in patterns
Here are some common patterns that can be used instead of just going up
and down the scales.
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Composer and award winning guitarist Muriel Anderson has released six CD's in the US, three in Japan, several books and videos, and is host and originator of the renowned "Muriel Anderson's All Star Guitar Night." Her Heartstrings album traveled as far as outer space, accompanying the astronauts on a space shuttle mission. According to the Chicago Tribune: "Acoustic guitarist Muriel Anderson... has justifiably gained a reputation as one of the world's best, and most versatile, guitar instrumentalists."
Muriel Anderson was raised in a musical family in Downers Grove, Illinois. Her mother taught piano and her grandfather had played saxophone in John Philip Sousa's band. Muriel fell in love with the guitar at an early age and learned every style available to her, culminating in classical guitar study at DePaul University. She went on to study with classical virtuoso Christopher Parkening and with Nashville legend Chet Atkins. She has composed music since about age 6, and has written music for guitar and orchestra as well as songs, solo compositions, and her new work for guitar and cello / viola.