Exercise suggestions by Paul Asbell

Well... these right-hand picking exercises, and a convenient, well-conceived, portable gadget to do them on, can make a HUGE difference in your playing! It's like a NordicTrac for a skier, or an exercise bike for an athlete: it allows you to build muscles specific to right-hand plectrum-style playing, and warm them up prior to a performance. It's also like target practice for a sharpshooter: the tiniest fractions of an inch make the difference between a bullseye and a "miss as good as a mile"!

Best of all, you can do these exercises anywhere: at the beach, in line at the supermarket checkout counter, in your car while stuck in traffic... anywhere! Try doing THAT with your Les Paul!

Let's look at some exercises that are guaranteed to improve your picking ability, no matter WHAT your level of skill is presently.

First off, tighten the screws holding each of the 6 strings, until the tension of each string FEELS like that of your favorite axe. Don't worry about the actual PITCH: we're exercisin' here, not really playin'! Now, hold the Prax-Ax in your left hand (assuming you're a righty!) so that the end w/ the tuning bolts and 3/8" round plastic "nut" is cradled between base of thumb and base of middle finger. Feel free to drape left-hand fingers and thumb over strings to mute them.... unless, of course, you really WANT to hear the plink-plink-plink! Finally, hold your left wrist over your belly-button, gently pressing the end of the Prax-Ax w/ the 1/8" round plastic "bridge" into your abdomen, for support.

Now, grab your favorite flatpick in your right hand, between thumb and forefinger, 'cuz we're ready to rock!

Section #1- Alternating Picking

This is probably the most important, and most difficult, picking exercise to master. However, it's simple to describe. If you do only one exercise regularly, make it this one!

Pick the 6th string (the thickest one, which should be CLOSEST to your head) using a DOWNSTROKE.

Now, hit the 5th string, only using an UPSTROKE.

Next, the 4th string using a DOWNSTROKE, 3rd string using an UPSTROKE, 2nd using a DOWNSTROKE, and finally the 1st string, using an UPSTROKE.

Now, reverse direction, hitting the 2nd with a DOWNSTROKE, 3rd with an UPSTROKE, 4th with a DOWNSTROKE, and finally 5th with an UPSTROKE . In other words, alternate pick each string!

Practice this until you can do all 10 strokes perfectly evenly without pauses or picking variations- you want your right hand to feel like a little alternating-pickin' machine! Of course, we want to make an endless 10-stroke "loop" out of this..... start out real slow, but see if you can work your way up to 16th notes at 100BPM or better!

Also, try these variations...

a) Eliminate the 6th string (or the 1st string). Now we've got a loop which is 8 strokes instead of 10.... this will be a bit easier to "get a groove going" with. Have you ever seen a drummer practice using a pad? Well, the Prax-Axe is the guitarist's equivalent!Try doing this 8-stroke loop while your favorite music is playing in the background. After a while, you won't have to be THINKING about your picking to make sure it's correct: you'll just be "DOING IT".... Isn't that what technique should be all about?

Section #2- Tremolo Picking

Ever heard a mandolin, or a Greek bouzouki? These are "short sustain" stringed instruments, so in order to "hold" a long melody note, the player has to to strike the string extremely quickly, to simulate a long note. Of course, alternate down-up picking is the way to do this best. By the way, every guitarist, even those with famously long sustain like Eddie Van Halen, has used this technique at one time or another to kick their solos "up a notch" (Remember "Beat It"?)

On your PraxAx, pick a SLOW alternate down-up tremolo using just the 3rd string (or any other string that's initially comfortable). After doing this a while, you may notice your muscles getting a bit cramped and tense. Where exactly are you feeling the tension? There are actually a VARIETY of acceptable ways of executing this tremolo, and depending on which one you've stumbled onto first, you may feel the tension in your elbow area, or your lower forearm, or your wrist, or in the base of your thumb.

So which way is the "RIGHT" way? Well, actually, that depends on who you ask!

Let's put it this way.... a bluegrass picker, an electric jazz player, a Steve Vai-style shredder, and a middle-eastern bouzouki virtuoso, all use alternating-picking to execute their speedy licks. But the bluegrass picker is likely to hold his wrist fairly tight, and pick from his elbow. (Try pretending you're Nikita Kruschev (sp?), pounding your shoe on a podium.... it's a bit like that!) This uses the strong muscles of the biceps and forearm to create a powerful acoustic style with a lot of drive.

The electric lead player, on the other hand, will hold his wrist much looser (Imagine holding a pencil eraser and erasing a postage-stamp-sized smudge, for an idea). This picking method can work on acoustic as well: much better, certainly, than the "elbow" method does on electric.

Super-chops electric players, such as John McLaughlin, have mastered a style often called "circle picking". To get some idea of this method, imagine holding a fine-point pen and making a continuous line of tiny, interlocking circles on a piece of paper. (You know, the kind that some people obsessively do while chatting on the phone!) Notice how you're wrist is somewhat tighter, and the muscles in the first joint of your thumb and index are doing most of the work. This is the subtlest, most economical, and potentially speediest method of all, but is most useful for electric players.

Lastly, the bouzouki player bends his wrist much more sharply than the other three: the pick is held like an extension of the outstretched thumb, and the forearm rotates at the wrist. (Imagine scratching an itch 6 inches to the right of your belly-button, using your right thumbnail... that'll give you some idea!)

No matter what style(s) you favor at present, you'll benefit ENORMOUSLY from repetitive tremolo practice using ALL of the 4 variations described above. Each method exercises a distinctly different set of musculature, and each has its own distinct sound; if you can develop some facility with each, you can arrive at a "hybrid" that will be most appropriate for YOUR sound!

Section #3- Polyrhythmic Tremolo Practice

Use a metronome or drum machine to generate a 72BPM count.

First, using any (or all!) of the methods above, play 2 bars of quarter-note DOWNSTROKES on a string (8 in all).

Next, play 2 bars of eighth-note DOWNSTROKES (16 in all).

Next, play 2 bars of triplets... that is, 3 strokes/quarter note (24 in all). These should be played DOWN-UP-DOWN, DOWN-UP-DOWN, etc.

Next, play 2 bars of sixteenth-notes, using ALTERNATE PICKING (32 in all).

Next, play 2 bars of eighth-note triplets, using ALTERNATE PICKING (48 in all).

Finally, play 2 bars of 32nd-notes, using ALTERNATE PICKING (64 in all).

Repeat this cycle, and try to goose the tempo gradually as the sequence becomes more comfortable!

Section #4- Sweeps and Rakes

Alternate picking is great, and it s just the ticket for a number of driving, rhythmically charged styles. But "pick-dragging" is a vital technique as well.... SRV and Jimi used it constantly to great effect, and Frank Gambale would have to close up shop without it!

Here are some routines to tighten up your "rakes"...

Use the same 72BPM count as above, but tap RIGHT foot on quarters, and LEFT foot on eighths.... you know, RIGHT-left, RIGHT-left, etc.

First, hold the pick lightly and DRAG down across strings, from 6th to 2nd, hitting each string at sixteenth-note intervals. Notice that the 6th string is struck on the RIGHT foot tap, the 4th string is struck on the LEFT foot tap, etc.

Then, rake back UP the strings, from 2nd to 6th, again hitting each string at sixteenth-note intervals. Notice that the 2nd string is struck on the RIGHT foot tap, the 4th string is struck on the LEFT foot tap, etc.

Repeat this cycle, placing a rake on each quarter-note (thus the duration of each rake= a RIGHT and a LEFT foot tap). Thus, a bar of 72BPM will be DOWN-UP-DOWN-UP.

First, hold the pick lightly and DRAG down across strings, from 6th to 1st, hitting the 6th string exactly with your RIGHT foot tap, and the 1st string exactly with the LEFT foot tap. In other words, the entire 6-string rake is timed to be exactly an 8th note in duration.

Next, rake back UP the strings, from 1st to 6th, hitting the 1st string exactly with your RIGHT foot tap, and the 6th string exactly with the LEFT foot tap.

Repeat this cycle, placing a rake on each quarter-note. Thus, a bar of 72BPM will be DOWN-UP-DOWN-UP.

Practice this until you really feel "in the groove" with it!

First, hold the pick lightly and DRAG down across strings, from 6th to 1st, hitting the 6th string exactly with your RIGHT foot tap, as in Exercise #2.

This time, however, we re going to start our rake UP on the LEFT foot tap. In other words, the entire 6-string rake is timed to be somewhat less than an 8th note in duration, with a new rake occuring each eighth note.

Repeat this cycle, placing a rake on each eighth-note. Thus, a bar of 72BPM will be DOWN-UP-DOWN-UP-DOWN-UP-DOWN-UP.

Practice this until you can feel the rake as one continuous, uninterrupted glide over the strings, but totally synched with the beat! This is NOT as easy as it might appear!

First, do 1 bar of Exercise #1 (4 rakes in all).

Next, do 1 bar of Exercise #2 (4 rakes in all).

Next, do 1 bar of Exercise #3 (8 rakes in all).

Finally, do 1 more bar of Exercise #2 (4 rakes in all).

Repeat as a loop!

The descriptions of these routines might give the impression that they're confusing. For the most part, they're not... ESPECIALLY once you've gotten them "under your belt" a bit. But do yourself a favor and DON'T STOP USING THEM AT THAT POINT! That's when the rewards actually begin- AFTER you've put the time necessary to play correctly in the first place!

Within a short time of doing these exercises, you'll be feeling a noticeable increase in rhythmic sureness, groove, and plain ole speed... in both your lead AND rhythm playing! Have fun making some exciting, expressive music with your new chops!