Warmup 1

Warmup 1: Alternate Picking Exercise
by Jon Finn

This is a Gmajor scale exercise played entirely on the top two strings (B and E). It's a sequence of 7 notes played in 16th notes. It's a great exercise for working on your alternate picking, changing positions and odd-note groupings. Play this slow, then work up to tempo. Keep the 16th notes even. Work on being able to hear (and accent) BOTH the rythmic groupings of 7 AND 4 (Play while accenting the beginning of each 7-note sequence. Next, play while accenting the first 16th note of each beat).

Always pick using the "alternate picking" technique.

Ascending: Play 3 notes on the B string, and 4 notes on the high E. Play the 4th note sliding your pinky finger to the next pitch. Keep picking though! Descending: Play 3 notes on the high E string then 4 notes on the B string. Slide your 1st finger to get that 4th pitch. Again, keep picking! Once you get this, try tapping your foot to quarter notes while accenting every 7 notes. Also, try playing this over a Gmajor chord, or Eminor, or Dmajor. Any of those will do.

To see Jon's video example for this lesson click here.

A guitarist since age six, Jon Finn has been a professional musician for most of his life. Joining the guitar faculty at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1988, he started the Jon Finn Group later that same year. To date, they have two internationally released CDs, Don't Look So Serious (Legato Records 1994), Wicked (SEP Records 1998), several independent releases, and countless performances worldwide under their belts. For over three years, Jon wrote a monthly instructional feature for a national magazine called Guitar . Jon has also authored several books for Mel Bay Publications , Advanced Modern Rock Guitar Improvisation , One Guitar, Many Styles , Blues/Rock Improvisation , Riffs: Volume One , and a few more currently in production. In his freelance pursuits, he's played guitar for the national touring companies of many contemporary musical theater productions such as Rent , Aida , Mamma Mia , Grease , Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , Copacabana , and many others. Today Jon frequently performs and records with the Boston Pops Orchestra , and has been involved in a plethora of concerts and recording sessions, including 6 CDs (two of which were Grammy nominated), 8 US concert tours, and one tour in Asia. Jon is currently writing music for a new album, tentatively called Bull in a China Shop.