Intervallic Picking Exercises--Part 1

By Scott Hesse

I like to work on exercises that accomplish several things at a time. The tip for this time involves a warm-up exercise I like to do. It's good for keeping the mechanics of the right and left hands like a well-oiled machine. But it's also a great ear training exercise.

The idea is to take three consecutive notes of each interval type (m2nds-P8s) and play them as a continuous, ever-expanding exercise.

As you see below in the example, I start the exercise on the note C and play C-C#-D-C# for the minor 2nds portion. Then it goes on to the Major 2nds (C-D-E-D) and continues through the rest of the bigger and bigger intervals.

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The fingerings I use are based on the way I break the guitar down with regard to my right hand articulation. So depending on how you pick, whether you pick every note, or just a portion of them, the fingering can be different. The most important thing is that you know how you want to put exercises like this together technically. That's yet another good reason to practice something like this: it will help you define how to execute certain technical maneuvers.

The string skipping and position jumping is difficult to do, so do this slowly and evenly with a metronome. Then keep inching the time up as you become more comfortable at higher tempos.

Happy practicing!!