Building Your Soloing Technique

	Artist Song Name Composer Composition Instrument

Building Your Soloing Technique! - Dominik Zieba

Alternate picking is the key to a true technical grip on your axe! Other exercises should be legato, sweeping arpeggios, picking arpeggios, economy picking.

 Practice all of these as exercises AND ALWAYS WITH A METRONOME.

Here Is An Example Of A Good Day Of Practice On Your Solo Technique:

15 Min. Alternate Picking On Two Strings(3 Notes Per String)

B Locrian Example:

G----------9-10-12-10-9---------------

D--9-10-12--------------12-10---------

   ^  V ^  V  ^  V  ^ V  ^  V

      ^=  DOWN PICK     V=  UP PICK

15 Min. Sweeping A Simple Chord Or Arpeggio

C Major Example:

E----------------12-15-12--------------------------------------

B-------------13----------13-----------------------------------

G----------12----------------12--------------------------------

D-------14----------------------14-----------------------------

A-10-15----------------------------15--------------------------

E--------------------------------------------------------------

15 Min. Alternate Picking of an Arpeggio

C Major Example:

E----------------12-13-15-13-12--------------------------------

B-------------13----------------13-----------------------------

G----------12--------------------------------------------------

            ^   V ^  V  ^  V  ^  V

      ^=  DOWN PICK     V=  UP PICK

15 Min. Of Economy Picking

I believe this technique to be useful. But NEVER ignore Alternate picking exercises because you claim to use Economy Picking. To me Economy Picking is just an outgrowth of alternate picking. Without strong alternate picking abilities, economy picking can not work.  Basically Economy Picking Is using the least amount of movement in the picking hand.

G Flat Locrian Example(Alternate Pick This Ex. Using Your Whole Arm And As Little Hand Movement As Possible):

E-------------------12-14-15-14--------------------------------

B----------12-13-15-------------15-13-12-----------------------

G-11-12-14-------------------------------14-12-----------------

      ^=  DOWN PICK     V=  UP PICK

15 Min. Of Legato Soloing

E Aeolian Example:  (In this excercise you will only pick the first note of each string then hammer-on and pull-off accordingly)

E--------------------3-5-7-5-3---------------------------------

B--------------3-5-7-----------7-5-3---------------------------

G--------2-4-5-----------------------5-4-2---------------------

D--2-4-5-----------------------------------5-4-2---------------

***THESE EX.'s WILL ONLY HELP YOUR SOLOING... You should not limit yourself to just these excercises on a daily basis.

Look through magazines, take parts of guitar solos, instructional magz, sites, and videos and make a collection of exercises which adhere to each kind of technique. Turn on your metronome and GO OFF!!!  And always keep your daily exercise routine different.  Do not use the same exercises everyday or practicing will become stale. 

Dominik Zieba
www.dominikzieba.com

www.myspace.com/dominikzieba

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Updated: 2/27/07