Rock Guitar Lesson 6. Part 2

Working over exact sync of left and right hands in Alternate Picking

Are you new to alternate picking? - Click here to learn the basics of alternate picking

Achieving Synchronization Between Both Hands

The important thing in guitar playing is exact synchronization between both hands.

It can take a long time to get it right. And this second part of alternate picking lesson

dedicated to help you achieve this.

The good example of synchronizing is:

in the moment the left hand finger tap the string the pick in the right hand strokes it immediately.

While the current note sounds the left hand prepares to the next tap (next finger gets closer to the fret)

so it'll take minimum time to switch the fingers. When the next finger tapped the string the previous finger

immediately withdraws.

watch video

Now begin to practice over following exercises below.

Note: I notice you again that if I meant to use left hand 3^rd finger somewhere in the tabs,

it's not a rule, I only avoid to use pinky finger because of its weakness, but if it's more comfortable to you,

you can use it as well.

Especially four finger layout is more natural for distant passages around fretboard and classical playing.

Exercise 4

classical fingering: 4  3  1  3   4  2  1  2   ||   4  2  1  2   4  3  1  3

exercise 4 video example

Exercise 5

classical fingering: 4  3  1  3   x2 ||   4  2  1  2  x2 ||    4  2  1  2    x2 ||    4  3  1  3    x2

This exercise is similar to the previous one, but here each 4 notes sequence is played twice.

exercise 5 video example

Exercise 6

classical fingering:  4  3  2  1   4  2  1  1   ||   4  2  1  1   4  2  1  1

4  3  2  1   4  2  1  1   ||   4  2  1  1   4  3  2  1   2

exercise 6 video example

Exercise 7

classical fingering:  4  1  3  4   4  1  2  4   ||   4  1  2  4   4  1  3  4

4  1  2  4   4  1  2  4   ||   4  1  2  4   4

exercise 7 video example

Chromatic exercise

Chromatic exercises are very powerful tools for working over hands synchronization.

Just go forwards and backwards over fingerboard playing notes in the following sequence on any string:

(you might change strings for instance every next 4 notes)

Forward example

frets:  1 2 3 4   2 3 4 5   3 4 5 6 and etc...

classical fingering: 1 2 3 4   1 2 3 4   1 2 3 4

without pinky finger: 1 2 3 3   1 2 3 3   1 2 3 3

Backward example

frets: 12 11 10 9   11 10 9 8   10 9 8 7 and etc...

classical fingering: 4   3   2 1    4   3  2 1    4  3 2 1

without pinky finger: 3   2   1 1    3   2  1 1    3  2 1 1