15 Minute Lessons --Volume One-By Paul Kleff

www.paulkleffmusic.com paul@paulkleffmusic.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

How to Use These 15 Minute Lessons 15 Minute Lessons: Single String Workouts Double Picking to Build Accuracy Improvisation and Phrasing: Make the Fretboard Smaller Building Speed: Getting it Smooth Connecting Arpeggio Shapes Creating Practice Time Efficiency With Micro Practice

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15 Minute Lessons title and all content 2008 by Paul Kleff May not be reproduced, copied or redistributed without permission. All rights reserved.

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How to use these 15 Minute Lessons

These short, focused lessons are each concentrated on a single area of guitar technique, musicianship and musical development. Each one requires only about 15 minutes to read and understand. Even though the lessons are short, they will take more than 15 minutes to master. The idea behind these lessons is to focus on a specific technical area that you can incorporate into your practice time to become a better guitarist and musician. The topics for these lessons were developed directly from years of teaching private lessons and helping my students develop solutions to the specific problems and challenges they faced. This book is the first in an ongoing series of 15 Minute Lesson books. Please contact me if you have questions or have a specific musical problem or technique you would like to see in the future. Work hard and have fun! --Paul paul@paulkleffmusic.com

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Lesson One: Single String Workouts Single string exercises are an effective way to develop coordination and synchronization between the hands as well as alternate picking technique. When focusing on one string only, you can exclusively work on developing your technique without having to be concerned with moving from string to string (which is a separate skill that also needs to be developed.) Below are four separate exercises designed to develop your right and left hand skills. The first one focuses on a single left hand fretboard position and the next three all involve left hand shifts. Pay close attention to the left hand fingerings used in these drills, especially the last threethey are designed to build position shifting accuracy along with the two hand synchronization. The left hand fingering legend is: i=index, m=middle, r=ring and p=pinky. All the exercises use straight alternate picking with the right hand. You can start with either a downstroke or an upstrokeit is a good idea to practice them both ways. Once memorized, all the drills should be practiced on all strings and in other areas of the fretboard. The first exercise is a six note repeating figure in one position: Exercise 1

The second drill incorporates a one fret shift with the index finger when descending and a one fret shift with the pinky finger when ascending. Take it slow until you are comfortable with the left hand shifts and can maintain perfect synchronization between the pick hand and the fret hand when executing the shifts. Exercise 2

Similar to the second exercise, the third drill incorporates a two fret shift with the pinky finger when ascending and a two fret shift with the index finger when 4

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descending.

The final exercise consists of two three note sequences ascending and two three note sequences descending.

As mentioned, take them slow to start, make sure everything is smooth and in sync between the right and left hand. Then work them in other areas of the neck. You can also develop your own single string exercisesthe possibilities are limitless. Find fingering sequences that give you trouble and come up with your own exercises to conquer them. You will notice an improvement in your playing technique in a short time after working these exercises into your daily practice routine.

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Lesson Two: Double Picking on Purpose to Build Accuracy As a player starts to work on building speed, right and left hand synchronization is important to keep everything sounding clean. When the pick hand and fret hand get out of sync, sometimes notes dont get picked at all and others sometimes get picked twice (known as double picking). An effective exercise for building coordination between the hands is to double pick on purpose. You can do this with just about any scale, pattern, arpeggio or exercise you already use. Like any other speed or coordination building exercise, the key is to start slow and cleanif you arent able to play it cleanly, you need to slow it down. One of the most helpful things about this exercise is that is will sound really bad if you try to play it faster than you are able to cleanlyso hopefully it will motivate you to take it slow and keep it clean. Lets start out working the technique on just one string. Playing on one string helps build the synchronization between the two hands without having to worry about moving across the fretboard with both hands. Start with either an upstroke or a downstroke (its good to work through it both ways) and alternate pick from there.

Double picking each note forces you to concentrate on making the left hand finger transition from note to note quick and efficient while at the same time keeping each note in place long enough to pick it twice. Anything less than perfect transition between notes and holding each note for the duration of two picks with the right hand and youll hear it right away. Here is the same type of pattern using two strings:

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And a three note per string scale pattern using the A natural minor (Aeolian) scale:

You can take almost any pattern, scale, arpeggio, lick or exercise and turn it in a double pick workout. The keys to remember are: 1. Keep an even tempo with the pick hand. 2. Quick and smooth transitions from note to note with the left hand. 3. Dont allow the notes to get cut off short with the left handmake sure the change from note to note is in perfect synchronization with the pick hand tempo. 4. Double pick exercises sound really bad if you try to play at a faster tempo than you are able to cleanly. Start slow and pay attention to the details. After a few practice sessions using double picking, you should notice that most everything you play is cleaner and more in sync. This is one exercise that has a positive effect that will spill over into all areas of your guitar-playing technique.

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Lesson Three: Improvisation and Phrasing Techniques: Make the Fretboard Smaller Here is a question from one of my private students: I know the pentatonic blues scale in lots of positions over the neck. How do I learn to phrase better with it? I mean, I just kind of randomly run up and down the scale patternsI know the notes, how do I make them sound better? This is common as a student moves into learning scales and patterns in multiple positions. While it is important to know scales in multiple keys and on multiple parts of the fretboard, it can sometimes create too many options for note selection for a student who has been working with the patterns for only a short while. An effective way to develop and work on phrasing is to go back and make the fretboard smaller, by concentrating improvisation and phrasing on one part of the neck at a time. Reducing the number of notes used for improvising and phrasing and concentrating on the nuances of the phrasing, like rhythm, vibrato, bends, hammer ons and pull offs and other techniques that give style and life to the notes. Heres how we approached it using the A minor pentatonic scale. Here are the notes on the fretboard over a large portion of the neck:

There are lots of position options available when the whole neck is used. In the next diagram, we narrow it down to the original basic minor pentatonic box:

Now, we drill it down even furtherto only the top two strings within that box:

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Once narrowed down to this two-string, four-note position, we work on getting as much variety as possible out of these four notes. This forces the guitarist to get creative, as opposed to just running the fingers up and down memorized scale patterns. Put on a simple backing track in A minor and try the following approaches using this one four note area: Listen to how each one of these notes sounds over each chord of the progression. Which ones sound better to your ear? Create varied repeating note type phrases. Vary the rhythms used with these notes. Hold some longer than others, give it a swing feel, etc. Work on vibrato and bends. Which notes sound the best using these techniques?

The idea is to purposely restrict the area of the neck used for improvisation to force the player to get as musical as possible with just a few notes. Try it again using a different part of the neck like this area (also in A pentatonic minor):

You can use this type of idea with any scale, on any area of the neck in any key. The value and benefit of this type of improvisation and phrasing practice lies in taking the fingers off of autopilot and making the guitarist think musically within a restricted neck area. You can still use the entire neck and all scale positions of whichever scale you are using, just restrict yourself to one area at a time when practicingthen connect the positions together. The possibilities are great work on this with different scales in different keys in whatever style you prefer. It works for everything from metal to blues to country.
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Lesson Four: Building Speed: Getting it Smooth As guitar players start developing some speed in their playing, they sometimes forget (or are not aware) that their notes are getting choppy. By this, I mean that the notes they are playing are not being held for their full duration 8th or 16th and so on. The notes get cut short on the back end, often unevenly. Their playing may still be in time with the notes beginning on the correct beat or beat division, but the notes tend to get cut off short and have an uneven, staccato type of sound. At higher speeds, it becomes even more apparent when a recording of them is slowed down. This is primarily a left hand issue for the player and is caused usually by a combination of tension and underdeveloped coordination in transitioning from note to note in the left hand. A good example of the type of sound we are trying to achieve here can be heard in the playing of someone like Vinnie Moore. If you listen to some of his older material, he tends to pick every note in scale sequence type licks, but there is a distinctive overall smoothness and evenness in the sound. There are techniques that can be practiced and developed to achieve this smoothness in your own guitar playing. First, the player needs to become accustomed to holding notes for their full duration at slower speeds. Start with a fairly slow speed like quarter notes at 70 bpm (one note per click), for example. Play a C major scale using a three note per string pattern starting at the 8th fret on the low E string. Play the scale at one note per beat. As you move from note to note with the left hand, you want the timing of the notes to have no break in betweenthe C at the 8th fret is held exactly up until the D at the 10th fret is played. This requires relaxed, precise timing between the left hand fingers involved in playing the notes. As the index finger is coming off the C, the middle finger is moving to the play the D--all in one smooth motion. If your playing has been choppy sounding, it may take some time to get used to the motion. Play scales and simple patterns at a slow rate initially until your fingers become accustomed to the motions involved. Remember, when beginning a new technique, you are trying to build muscle memory, not speed. The speed comes as a result of the hands acquiring the correct muscle memory and motions. Record yourself playing along with the metronome. Listen for the notes meeting each other at that quarter note speed. There should not be any gaps or false rests in between them. When one note ends, the next one startsits all one motion between the two fingers involved. Slow, relaxed and precise motions are the key. As your technique improves at the slower speed, try playing eighth notes at the 70 bpm rate, then 8th note triplets and so on. If you have trouble keeping your
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playing clean and precise, back the speed down. Remember, this is all about building muscle memorynot speed. As far as building speed goes, we are actually creating finger speed with these techniques, even when playing at a slow tempo. Since we are simultaneously ending one note when playing the next note, the fingers must move quickly, even though we are only playing one note per beat at 70 bpm. The real key to clean playing at higher speeds comes from making a smooth, clean, quick transition from finger to finger. It is that clean transition speed that we are trying to build here. As you become comfortable playing scale and linear type patterns, you can use this practice technique with string skipping and arpeggio type patterns, too. No matter what type of left hand pattern you are working with, the concentration remains on making smooth, simultaneous left hand finger transitions from note to note with no gaps in betweenas one note ends, the next one begins. Be aware of the feeling in the left hand of the motion of one finger releasing while the next one is coming down to play the next note. Over time, your playing will become cleaner and smoother as this type of left hand motion becomes ingrained. I have used this technique myself and with my private students with much success. It can work for you, too!

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Lesson Five: Connecting Arpeggio Shapes This lesson will help you get some ideas on how to create interesting phrases using basic arpeggio shapes. The phrasing ideas here are based around two main arpeggio patterns. The first pattern is based on the open A minor chord form with the root on the fifth string. Here it is in A minor starting at the 12th fret: Minor Arpeggio Shape 1

The second arpeggio pattern we will use is based on the open D minor chord form. We will also play it in A minor with the root note of the arpeggio on the fifth string at the 12th fret: Minor Arpeggio Shape 2

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These two basic arpeggio shapes are commonly used in rock and neoclassical style guitar soloing phrases. While they both sound cool on their own, they can sound somewhat stale and repetitive if we just play them going up and then back down the arpeggio shape. Lets look at a couple different ways we can make them sound more interesting by combining the two shapes into a single phrase and then look at a way to vary the note pattern within them. The first phrase starts with the first shape. When we get to the E note on the high E string, instead of just topping out the arpeggio with the A note at the 17th fret on the high E string, we will try something a bit different to give it a more interesting sound. Hammer on and pull off between the 17th fret and the 12th fret and then slide you index finger down to the 8th fret on the high E string. From there we will play through the descending arpeggio pattern using minor arpeggio shape two. Here is the tab for the pattern:

The hammer on/pull off combined with the index finger slide gives the phrase some variety and makes it sound kind of slippery. We have played the ascending part of the phrase with the first shape and the descending part with the second shape. We can take this same basic idea and change up the descending run to add even more variety to the phrase. In this second example, instead of just descending through the arpeggio pattern after the finger slide, we will a three note descending sequence through the second arpeggio shape. Here it is:

We also added the F note at the fifth string 8th fret and end on the E at the 7th fret on the fifth string. It sounds cool and gives the two connected arpeggio shapes some variety in their sound. This run sounds very good over an A minor chord. It also sounds good over an F major chordtry it and see what you think. These are just a couple of examples of ways to take basic arpeggio shapes and turn them into something that sounds more musical and expressive than just
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sweeping up and down the arpeggio shape. As always, take it slow and make sure you are playing everything clean before you speed it up. Using these types of ideas, look for ways to incorporate new patterns into other arpeggio shapes you use. You dont always have to learn lots of different arpeggio and scale shapes, just look for ways to get more variety out of the ones you already know. The possibilities are almost limitless.

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Lesson Six: Creating Practice Time Efficiency with Micro Practice The key to musical and guitar-playing improvement isnt necessarily spending more time practicing. The real key is to make the things you practice bring you the most overall improvement in the least amount of time invested. The invested time will be productive and pay dividends in the form of musical improvement. The techniques I want to show you are designed for practice-time efficiency and to help you get the most out of your practice time. It is important to distinguish between playing and practice. Practicing can involve playing your instrument, but not all playing is practicing. Sitting on your couch watching TV and mindlessly running through scales is playing guitar (well, sort of). But it most definitely is not efficient practice that will lead to serious improvement. So for the type of practice I am talking about, you will need to be focused on what you are working on musically with no TV, distractions, etc. Practice involves being fully involved with what you are doing on your instrument and the music you are making. If we assume that practice involves you, your instrument and the music without distractions, then Micro Practice will drill it down even further regarding practice efficiency and effectiveness. With this type of practice, we are going to specifically narrow down the trouble areas of our technique, exercises or the music we are working on and work out a plan for improving them efficiently and effectively. Once we know what those areas are, we can design a practice plan for maximum improvement efficiency with the least amount of time investment. For example, say you are working on a scale sequence like this one in A minor:

If we break down this phrase, we see that it is a series of three repeating six note patterns followed by a slide up to the last note to end the phrase. So the phrase can be broken down into three main components: 1. The six note phrases starting on the A notes at the sixth string fifth fret, fourth string seventh fret and the second string tenth fret. 2. The transition points where the phrase moves from the end of each six note set to the beginning of the next six note set. 3. The slide from the 13th fret to the 17th fret on the high E string.
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Looking at these three components, the most difficult parts of the phrase are the transition points between the phrases and the slide at the end. In order to effectively practice this phrase and get the maximum efficiency from your practice time on it, you will want to spend time just working on the transition points that string the six note phrases together and the slide to the finalmicro practice these transitions and shifts to make the phrase flow. So we work on the two note spots that make the transitions happen and practice them slowly, cleanly and repeatedly until they flow smoothly. Here are just the transitions with the fingerings notated:

Of course, the main six note phrases must be practiced, too. But, the transitions and the slide are the most difficult parts of the entire run. So if we break them down, isolate them and make it so we can play them cleanly, it makes the entire run work. Micro practice the difficult parts and give them the extra attention in your practice and playingit will give you the maximum result in the minimum amount of practice time. While it is fun to just play the things we know and can play well, working on the trouble areas improves the rest of your playing, tooit has a cumulative effect on your technique. As you improve in one area, everything else improves along with it. Use this type of practice on any area of your guitar techniqueanalyze the difficult parts, break them down into the smallest (micro) pieces that you can, and practice those pieces until you can play them as well as you want to. Then incorporate them into the bigger picture of what you are working on. Work hard and have fun!

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