Fingerstyle exercises

[Solodini]

^ I know I would.

Edit: Iznaola's Kitharology is fab, might wanna take a look at it if you haven;t already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0zv8Z4qn04
This stuff? Musically boring but certainly mechanically varied. I wanna make sure all of my exercises have some musical interest, not just focus on mechanical challenges. It won't further your music as directly without musical interest, I feel.

How's this for a kinda Knopflerian exercise. I'm going to do some more using more alternating thumb and finger stuff, too.

 

[megadave2002]

Any particular songs, riffs, solos or sections of him you particularly like? Ideally something which doesn't really use legato, bends, slides too much, for comparison.

Probably just breaking down some of the licks from "Sultans of Swing" and the intro to "Money for nothing" would be a good base in his picking style. I know that learning those parts helped me in all other aspects of playing such as being more conscious of actively muting open strings.

 

[ElRay]

I'll add another vote to the syncopated/polymeter/polyrhythm right-hand exercises column and nominate "playing multiple voices as multiple voices" columns.

I have, but haven't started two books on Bartok piano pieces arranged for solo guitar and a book on Bach's two part inventions arranged for solo guitar to work these two areas.

Ray

 

[Solodini]

Probably just breaking down some of the licks from "Sultans of Swing" and the intro to "Money for nothing" would be a good base in his picking style. I know that learning those parts helped me in all other aspects of playing such as being more conscious of actively muting open strings.

I want to avoid doing breakdowns of songs. Exercises in the style of x are fine but I don't want it to just be a compendium of other people's music which people feel like they need to learn as per the original. I feel that when it's an existing song, people struggle to deviate from that, but I want creativity to prevail.

I was thinking I'd look at the stacatto/muting style more in the chapter on muting.

I'll add another vote to the syncopated/polymeter/polyrhythm right-hand exercises column and nominate "playing multiple voices as multiple voices" columns.

I have, but haven't started two books on Bartok piano pieces arranged for solo guitar and a book on Bach's two part inventions arranged for solo guitar to work these two areas.

Ray

How are you liking the syncopation so far? I'll look into doing more polyrhythmic/metric stuff.

Can you elaborate on what you're meaning by "playing multiple voices as multiple voices"? Do you mean learning each voice independently then combining them?

 

[octatoan]

I think what he means is something piano-like, where you can play contrapuntal (?) stuff with each voice being heard clearly. Like it is in the Two- and Three-Part Inventions, for example.

 

[ElRay]

I think what he means is something piano-like, where you can play contrapuntal (?) stuff with each voice being heard clearly. Like it is in the Two- and Three-Part Inventions, for example.

Pretty much this. Having Bach's Two Part Inventions arranged for guitar is nice, but the big value in the book I have is that there are performance notes for keeping the two parts sounding independent without relying on the timbral difference of separate instruments.

 

[ElRay]

are you liking the syncopation so far? I'll look into doing more polyrhythmic/metric stuff.

I love the Bartok. I'm just starting and did not have the time to spend on it that I expected over the summer. If I could play Hungarian Folk Song on guitar as well as my daughter does on piano, I'd be stoked.

 

[Solodini]

Pretty much this. Having Bach's Two Part Inventions arranged for guitar is nice, but the big value in the book I have is that there are performance notes for keeping the two parts sounding independent without relying on the timbral difference of separate instruments.

Cool, I'll do a bit more of that ilk, maybe some more Tommy Emmanuel type stuff, as well as other styles.

I love the Bartok. I'm just starting and did not have the time to spend on it that I expected over the summer. If I could play Hungarian Folk Song on guitar as well as my daughter does on piano, I'd be stoked.

I meant the syncopations in the exercises I've posted so far.

 

[wespaul]

I'd love to see the end result of all this. I've studied the Royal Conservatory series, the Giuliani books, the Andre Segovia scale book, and both of Noad's solo guitar playing books. While some of the studies can be interesting, most of them are really dry. A creative approach to the style is really needed, and you're correct with not letting it become like the stuff that's out there and already widely studied.

I think something like this would be nice to tie-in with voice-leading and arrangement-building. That may be a lot of ground to cover, and possibly out of the scope of you solely wanting to provide fingerstyle exercises, but there's a lot of fun and creativity to be had there.

Regardless, I can't wait to see how all this turns out. Good luck!

 

[octatoan]

Adam, have you made any hybrid picking exercises yet?

 

[Solodini]

I'd love to see the end result of all this. I've studied the Royal Conservatory series, the Giuliani books, the Andre Segovia scale book, and both of Noad's solo guitar playing books. While some of the studies can be interesting, most of them are really dry. A creative approach to the style is really needed, and you're correct with not letting it become like the stuff that's out there and already widely studied.

I think something like this would be nice to tie-in with voice-leading and arrangement-building. That may be a lot of ground to cover, and possibly out of the scope of you solely wanting to provide fingerstyle exercises, but there's a lot of fun and creativity to be had there.

Regardless, I can't wait to see how all this turns out. Good luck!

Thanks for the enthusiasm! I appreciate knowing that people think I'm on the right track. What do you think of the exercises so far?
I probably won't go to the degree of depth of looking at specific arrangement styles and voice leading as I think that can be found elsewhere but I'll at least show some application of those sorts of things and how they can be used outside of classical repertoire.

Adam, have you made any hybrid picking exercises yet?

I have some but they'll be in a later volume of the book. The first volume will just cover what I consider core techniques: fingerpicking, basic flatpicking mechanics, hammer ons, pull offs, slides and bends.

 

[Solodini]

I realised I hadn't done any exercises covering dynamics yet. That simply won't do!

Here's the first. I'll work on some more!

The markings are intentionally a bit counterintuitive, so make sure you're crescendoing, diminuendoing and suddenly dropping or jumping in intensity in the right places.

Adam

 

[Solodini]

A little bit of tremolo!

By exercise 20 would you want the picking pattern made explicit still or would you like some freedom to decide for yourselves?

 

[Solodini]