Squeeze it out

by Eric Vandenberg

Introduction

OK, this article is kind of a combination between two different things. One is some kind of a rant, the other is
actual instructional material, with some cool exercises. Before we get to those exercises, lemme tell you why I
chose them, what they can do for you and what to do with them...

One thing that I notice a lot when I teach, when I conduct a workshop, when I check out some forums on the net,
or read the email I get is that a lot of people have the wish to become better players, to overcome their problems
and limits, to use their practicing time efficiently. Now, there are a few points that always seem to get in the
way...

- WHAT to practice in WHAT order

- HOW to practice it
- What IS important and what IS NOT
- What do I NEED?

Seriously, a lot of people spend sooo much time on finding out what to practice and how, they waste a big amount
of the limited time they have on choosing what to do.

It of course is important to have a plan in advance, most people work that way. Although one of my basic
principles is "5 Minutes of practicing makes me a guitarist improved by 5 minutes" (I know you are reading this,
M., stop grinning!), I do set aside some time to check out what I need to work on, what I WANT to work on, what
I haven't been working on enough (usually, the latter always seems to become obvious in the worst possible
moment... in the studio or on stage).

But at the same time... gee, people, stop printing out bunches of exercises, stop discussing every little detail of
every lick, technique and solo, and GET TO WORK! Because... THE BEST MOMENT TO START PRACTICING IS
NOW! (that's another one of my guidelines...)

Seriously, take a bunch of exercises that you wanna work on, sit down and actually work on them. Try to really
"explore them", play them accurately, try to speed them up or apply them to other scales, keys, time signatures.

I guess what I am trying to say is: SQUEEZE EVERYTHING OUT OF EVERY EXERCISE YOU WORK ON.
Because that way, you get a bunch of different exercises out of only one of them. Not only will that approach keep
ya busy for a while, it also improves you as a player: if you can play i.e. runs in different ways, with different ways
of picking or fingerings, you have a larger "vocabulary".

I have done this "squeeze it" thing ever since I first read about Steve Vai's "10 Hour Guitar Workout". (which
mainly consisted of many permutations of a few exercises).

These days, I still get into situations where I want to play something, and I can't, because it i.e. requires a weird
picking pattern, or some unusual fingerings. So when that happens, I sit down and work on it until I can nail it.
Which is another thing that works well, and I am used to it because of the "Squeeze everything.." approach.

One thing that can happen if you don't try different variations of basic exercises is that you become a player who
maybe knows a lot of techniques, licks, runs, exercises and scales... but you can only play them in a limited
amount of ways. Fair enough. So ya need more licks, or you need to play less leads. But I think it's extremely
important to be able to play stuff in several different ways. If you work on that, you won't run out of material for
your practiCing sessions anytime soon, either.

Let's say you wanna work on alternate picking. Get used to the basic mechanics (upstroke, downstroke). Pick ONE
scale, or rather, ONE scale PATTERN. Start with a simple exercise, i.e. playing on only one string. Whenever you
are ready (feeling comfortable with that exercise), add another string. (like i.e. with the PG Lick)

If you wanna work on longer runs, make one up. And try different variations of that one... starting on an upstroke
instead of a downstroke, or starting on a different note of the pattern etc.

Try using different fingers. Once you feel comfortable with that run in the pattern you chose, move the pattern to
a different area of the neck (different key) or move the run to a different pattern altogether.

Try different tempos (that one's obvious, actually... if you wanna increase speed, you work with a metronome and
steadily increase the tempo anyway).

Try stuff like playing the run with a shuffled rhythm. Or start on the "and" of 1, try syncopating.

If you started practicing the run at about 90 bpm and already brought it up to, like, 120 bpm, set your metronome
to 60 and play it slowly, but evenly at that tempo.

Examples

Want some examples? Alrighty. Let's take a basic run in 8th notes, key of G major.
Check it out:

OK, this one starts on a downstroke. Once you can play it (memorize the pattern and the sequence, make sure
you're playing even 8th notes, and pay attention to your accuracy. Make sure it sounds good!), the first variation /
permutation would be to start with an upstroke.

So here we go, permutation 1: the same run, starting with an upstroke:

Now, we talked a lot about picking, but a lot of people still wonder about some aspects of it. Let's for example try
to play the run with all downstrokes:
And, since a lot of people seem to have problems with the upstrokes, here's a good way to work on that: Playing
with all upstrokes for a while!

Now, as I said, we can also move the same run to another key / area of the neck, or, as in the next permutation,
simply up one octave:

A few words in between:

You are not supposed to play all these exercises straight after the each other. Don't print out the TAB and play
through all the exercises as if it was some kind of an etude. Take each one, add more variations to it, work on
each one by itself.

OK, what else can we do with our basic run? Move it back to its original position, and play it with a different
rhythm... the first note being a dotted eighth, every other one being a sixteenth... shuffle-style.
Now, let's pick each note twice... double-picking! Start with a downstroke...

And also try starting on an upstroke:

Now, let's try yet another rhythm... eighth note triplets. Simply play each note three times...
Still interested in more variations? Well, let's accent certain notes... pick them harder. This may add more variety
than adding extra notes or something... can make a run sound all different, even though you won't even really
hear it in the Powertab-file.

First, let's accent the downbeats:

And, to twist yer brain a bit (well, ok, it's not THAT hard, but I've got another accent-exercise for ya shortly),
accent all upbeats, which will alter the sound and effect of the run quite a bit:
Gee, who would've thought? =)
At first, we had one simple run (exercise), and now we have eleven different ones, each one focusing on a
different problem or aspect of playing, ranging from picking to rhythm to dynamics. And those are not all of the
possibilities we have, we can squeeze even more out of it. But that's up to you. I know that those exercises are
not really "Terror Death Licks You Can Put Into Your Solospot To Get All The Girls In The Front Row". But they're
definitely something that will keep ya busy for a while (depending on your level) and will help you to improve
more things than just picking.

Twist your fingers, twist your brain

Let's move on, shall we?

One thing about that Steve Vai-workout was that he i.e. took a simple 1-2-3-4 chromatic exercise and changed it
around every time. That way, you really get your fingers and brain to work. Of course, it's highly questionable
whether you'll ever play something like the following exercises on stage, but hey, practicing this stuff will improve
you as a player, believe me!

Here is our basic exercise:

Simple enough. I guess you've seen that one a bunch of times, not only in previous articles of mine. Oh, and
before we get to variations on that one, remember that you should also try to apply variations to similar exercises
which i.e. have only 3 notes per string, or 5, or are diatonic instead of chromatic etc. And of course, try them
ascending AND descending, move them around on the fretboard, etc.

Check out these variations:

1-3-2-4, ascending and descending...

Here, we'll change the pattern on each string...

Here are a few exercises with two notes per string. Pay attention to your fingering: 1-4 i.e. should be played with
your index finger and pinkie, 2-3 should be played with your middle and ring finger!
And, to try yet another aspect, here is my beloved zig-zag-exercise, and a variation which will require you to skip
strings. Try them descending, too!

The possibilities are ENDLESS. Try different stuff. Each exercise will help ya to focus on a different aspect...
improving the strength or coordination of the left hand, improving your ability to use your fingers in a weird
sequence, improving picking on adjacent and non-adjacent strings.

You can extract bunches of exercises from these simple ones if you add variations like "start on an upstroke" or
"shuffling the notes" or "Accenting the 3rd note of each group of sixteenths". Depending on what you need, what
you wanna work on or towards, you can make up your very own exercises and constantly keep challenging
yourself.

And this, most of the time, is way more valuable and effective than printing our or xeroxing billions of different
exercises from different sources... focus on ONE thing first, then slowly add some slight variations to get the hang
of that one thing.

When I talked about exercise schedules, and mentioned that it keeps it interesting to go from one topic to the
next, I meant that you should separate your time into blocks, and i.e. say "OK, first, half an hour of picking
exercises. Then, to keep it interesting, I'll do half an hour of theory, then half an hour of legato..." Well, those
blocks will get a variety into your exercise time, and will keep it more interesting than it would be if you'd do only
one exercise for 3 hours.

BUT: Those blocks themselves should consist of what I just explained. Start with one basic exercise, nail it, add
variations, nail those. Then, maybe, work on a different exercise belonging to the topic of that block.

To make it even clearer... let's say your first exercise block is picking... Start with a simple picking exercise, like a
3NPS-run played with all alternate picking. If you have an hour designated for that block, take half an hour of that
and work on that basic exercise and the variations. Then, after half an hour (the amount of time is just an
example!), move on to a different picking exercise, like i.e. a repeating pattern on two adjacent strings and so on.

Get the idea?

Good. Let's move on!!!

Sequencing a pattern

I wanna resurrect an exercise I talked about before, in one of my older articles. Let's say we take a 16 notes-
figure, a run through a pattern which first ascends, then descends again, played with all alternate picking. Look:

Play this a few times in sync with your metronome. Now, let's variate this:

Do you see what the difference is? We started on the next note of the pattern (E). To keep the actual sequence
intact, we have to add another note on the G-String, F#. So, basically, within that pattern, the sequence has been
moved up one note. This changes our picking pattern slightly, since we now have only note left on the low E-
string, and have 2 instead of 1 on the G-string.

Can ya guess the next variation?

Yup, let's start on the F#, 9th fret-A String. This time our pattern goes up to G, and back...

OK, let's add two variations next, since moving up the sequence one note within our pattern should not be a big
problem anymore (after all, we did it twice already). Let's stop for a sec, move up to the next note (G, which
means our top note in the sequence will be A), and start with an upstroke. The picking pattern actually would be
the same as in our basic exercise, with two notes on the lowest string and one on the highest one, but now, that
we start with an upstroke, it's different after all.

And, if we stick with starting with an upstroke, this is how we'd move on. Feel free to continue this and use it in
different patterns, too...

The monster sequence

OK, here is one of my favorite exercises to learn a pattern and at the same time, work on my picking. As I
mentioned a few times before, learning a pattern should be done not only by playing it up and down a bunch of
times or memorizing it from paper, but by playing stuff on it, i.e. some sequences.

This next one is a monster-sequence. If you look at the TAB, or try to play it, it's (hopefully... probably) very easy
to understand. Lemme try to explain anyway...

This is a pattern of the G Major scale, three notes per string. We start on the G, and ascend to the C. Then we go
back. Start again on the G, move up to D and go back. Go back up, to E this time, and back. This way, the run
keeps growing, because the top note is moved up by one step every time.

You don't have to memorize the TAB or something, simply try to understand the sequence, the idea behind this
exercise... it'll be way easier then. Use a metronome, start out slowly. This is not really something to use in an
actual song, but it incorporates several different picking-situations, and you'll really have to memorize the
pattern...
OK, all the stuff I showed you in this article (and there's one more exercise to go) should be considered examples
to show you what's possible. By no means are those exercises and variations a list of what is possible... there are
way more permutations, basic exercises and variations thereof. It also depends on what you wanna work on. You
should (just like you had to with the monster run I just showed you) try to understand the basic idea / concept,
and apply it to whatever you're working on.... Legato, tapping, chords, rhythm, theory...

Dynamics and conclusion

OK, our last example is about dynamics. You can add a lot of variety to a rather dull lick by accenting certain
notes... you can even turn around the whole run, or rather its effect that way.

The most basic example would be: We take one note, play it in sixteenth notes, and accent different notes.
Here's the note:

Now, let's accent the first note of each group of sixteenths... you could count it ONE-ee-and-ee TWO-ee-and-ee
THREE-ee-and-ee or whatever... and yes, we're accenting the downbeats here, 1-2-3-4

Once you can do this in sync with the metronome (make sure the accented note really stands out, volume-wise!),
let's accent every second note of our group of fourths.

Count: 1-EE-and-EE 2-EE-and-EE, or, if you count each sixteenth note, go one-TWO-three-four, one-TWO-three
four
The tough part is that you have to accent on an upstroke, which might even help you to improve your pick control
and work on your upstroke-technique

Guess what... yup, let's accent the third note... 1-ee-AND-ee (or one-two-THREE-four). The accent again is on a
downstroke
And finally, we'll accent the fourth note of each group... 1-ee-and-EE (or one-two-three-FOUR)

You can and should apply this to other exercises, because a controlled use of dynamics can really make your
playing a bit more interesting, and it's a simple but effective way to make easy stuff sound more interesting

OK, if you think that those were to easy, test yourself with this final exercise. This I learned at the GIT, and at
first, it was quite a brain-twister... Here it is:

Play 16 notes, or actually, play that one note sixteen times. Those sixteen notes are divided into four groups of
four notes each (D'uh!). In the first group, accent the first note. In the second one, accent the second. In the third
group, accent the third note and... you guessed it, in the fourth group you accent the fourth note.

If you count the groups by themselves, each note as a number, this would be like ONE-two-three-four one-TWO-
three-four one-two-THREE-four one-two-three-FOUR

Start out slowly, take your time with it. And keep in mind what dynamics can do for ya.

Conclusion

I ain't got much to say this time... I think I summed it up in the article. Keep in mind that you can take pretty
much every basic exercise and variate it to really explore it... get the hang of it and make it more difficult than it
was before.

This will really help to work on many different aspects of playing, it will make you a better player because you
work on several different ones at a time, and it makes a challenge out of easy exercises.

And I think it is important to challenge yourself. Don't practice what's easy already, try to work on something new,
or something you can't do yet every time you pick up the guitar to practice.
Cheers!

The Powertab-files for this article:

As usual, you can download the Powertab-files featuring the musical examples from this article.
Actually, I separated them into 5 different ptb-files. Here we go:

The first file features the exercises from the "Examples"-page

File No.2 has the "Twist Your Fingers, Twist Your Brain" exercises

File No.3 features the "Sequencing a pattern"-exercises

File No.4 gives you the "Monster Run"

and file no.5 features the examples from the final page about this article... dynamics