WEBVTT 00:00:05.912 --> 00:00:07.745 Hi, how ya doin' Justin here, 00:00:07.745 --> 00:00:12.263 what we're gonna be checking out in this lesson is a Minor Pentatonic picking exercise, 00:00:12.263 --> 00:00:16.582 and I'm gonna be introducing you to the idea of alternate picking. 00:00:16.582 --> 00:00:20.158 Now hopefully you've been practicing up your Minor Pentatonic Scale. 00:00:20.158 --> 00:00:21.327 The one that sounds like this... 00:00:21.327 --> 00:00:28.146 . . . 00:00:28.146 --> 00:00:30.944 Hopefully you've been doing loads and loads of practice on it, 00:00:30.944 --> 00:00:33.234 so you can start to now think about the picking 00:00:33.234 --> 00:00:35.492 instead of having to think about your fretting hand. 00:00:35.492 --> 00:00:37.585 So, what are we gonna do with this? 00:00:37.585 --> 00:00:42.707 Well, you probably, hopefully have just been using downpicks to play the scale so far. 00:00:42.707 --> 00:00:44.827 If you've been using some sort of other picking, 00:00:44.827 --> 00:00:47.355 that might be good or it might be bad, depending on how you're doing it. 00:00:47.355 --> 00:00:49.497 So what I'm going to do is give you an exercise, 00:00:49.497 --> 00:00:53.155 to help you work on your picking and develop this alternate style. 00:00:53.155 --> 00:00:54.953 So what we're gonna do first of all, 00:00:54.953 --> 00:00:58.451 we're gonna pick the Minor Pentatonic Scale using all downpicks. 00:00:58.451 --> 00:01:01.295 So it's, start there, the usual place starting at the 5th fret, 00:01:01.341 --> 00:01:16.155 . . . 00:01:16.155 --> 00:01:21.048 And once you've done all downpicks, you would then do all up-picks. 00:01:21.048 --> 00:01:22.562 So up-picking every time. 00:01:22.562 --> 00:01:35.116 . . . 00:01:35.116 --> 00:01:39.282 Now I should mention at this point as well for some of you speed freaks, 00:01:39.282 --> 00:01:43.080 it's not about doing it quickly, it's about doing it accurately. 00:01:43.080 --> 00:01:45.520 So make sure you're not practicing a mistake. 00:01:45.520 --> 00:01:50.153 If it's, you should be practicing at whatever speed you can perform this at perfectly. 00:01:50.153 --> 00:01:57.847 So if that means doing it this speed then so be it. 00:01:57.847 --> 00:02:03.686 Don't go, no point, no use to anyone whatsoever, 00:02:03.686 --> 00:02:07.242 especially you, do it slowly, get it right. 00:02:07.242 --> 00:02:09.082 Very important. OK. 00:02:09.082 --> 00:02:11.968 So you've done all downs, you've done all ups. 00:02:11.968 --> 00:02:15.426 Now you're gonna do down and an up pick on each note. 00:02:15.426 --> 00:02:18.824 So you're gonna go, starting with the 1st note of the scale, 00:02:18.824 --> 00:02:25.848 on the thickest string, you go, down up, down up, etc. 00:02:25.848 --> 00:02:49.606 . . . 00:02:49.606 --> 00:02:54.231 For this one again, don't be in a hurry, but if you want to practice it, 00:02:54.231 --> 00:02:55.854 if you can do it accurately, 00:02:55.854 --> 00:02:57.771 then by all means stick it to a metronome, 00:02:57.771 --> 00:02:58.925 and start going, 00:02:58.925 --> 00:03:07.716 . . . 00:03:07.716 --> 00:03:09.608 Start building up the speed of it. 00:03:09.608 --> 00:03:12.291 But really make sure that you're doing it accurately first, 00:03:12.291 --> 00:03:15.011 before you even think about starting to make it faster. 00:03:15.011 --> 00:03:19.127 So, incidentally, a good starting speed for all of these exercises, 00:03:19.127 --> 00:03:22.285 is doing stuff at 60, which is going to seem incredibly slow, 00:03:22.285 --> 00:03:25.617 but sometimes doing things slowly is quite difficult. 00:03:25.617 --> 00:03:31.827 So just here at 60 that's the kind of tempo you want to be starting off with. 00:03:31.827 --> 00:03:36.525 Really simple. That's all down strokes and then again your upstrokes. 00:03:36.525 --> 00:03:40.978 . . . 00:03:40.978 --> 00:03:43.400 Then your down and ups you might double it, so you'd have, 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:49.657 . . . 00:03:49.657 --> 00:03:53.852 etc, it's important that you start slowly when you do it with a metronome. 00:03:53.852 --> 00:03:55.852 Remember the metronome induces a bit of panic, 00:03:55.852 --> 00:03:57.822 'cause it means you've gotta keep going, you can't pause. 00:03:57.822 --> 00:04:00.102 Which is really good, I mean, we don't wanna stop. 00:04:00.102 --> 00:04:03.690 We want to practice, continuing and making things work properly. 00:04:03.690 --> 00:04:07.287 So, your first part of the exercise is what we just talked about. 00:04:07.287 --> 00:04:10.051 All down, all up, then down and up on each note. 00:04:10.051 --> 00:04:13.943 But then I want you to have a go at doing, if you like, proper picking. 00:04:13.943 --> 00:04:16.736 Right, and proper picking is alternate picking. 00:04:16.736 --> 00:04:20.056 Which means you go down followed by an up on the next note. 00:04:20.056 --> 00:04:22.789 Followed by a down, up on the next, down, up on the next. 00:04:22.789 --> 00:04:25.821 There are other types of picking, principally one called economy picking 00:04:25.821 --> 00:04:29.035 which is used by kinda heavy metal and rock guys. 00:04:29.035 --> 00:04:31.865 All of the metal and rock guys I know that use economy picking, 00:04:31.865 --> 00:04:34.093 learnt how to alternate pick first. 00:04:34.093 --> 00:04:37.545 And they have all emphasized to me, oh, if you're trying to learn 00:04:37.545 --> 00:04:39.498 that technique make sure that your students 00:04:39.498 --> 00:04:41.417 always get their alternate picking happening first 00:04:41.417 --> 00:04:43.434 before they're trying to do economy picking. 00:04:43.434 --> 00:04:46.580 So, if you've got a friend that does economy picking, 00:04:46.580 --> 00:04:49.101 or you've read about it or whatever try and avoid it for now. 00:04:49.101 --> 00:04:51.055 Get your alternate picking right first, 00:04:51.055 --> 00:04:52.993 and then maybe have a look at economy picking later. 00:04:52.993 --> 00:04:56.183 So, alternate picking with the Minor Pentatonic Scale, 00:04:56.183 --> 00:05:00.426 we're always gonna be picking a down pick with the note with our 1st finger. 00:05:00.426 --> 00:05:07.821 So we're gonna be going, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, etc. 00:05:07.821 --> 00:05:16.230 . . . 00:05:18.659 --> 00:05:23.366 ...down, up, down, up, down. 00:05:23.366 --> 00:05:27.071 As you get better at this, this is what you want to stick to your metronome. 00:05:27.071 --> 00:05:31.169 So, just if we do it nicely at 60bpm, nice and slow, 00:05:31.169 --> 00:05:36.477 we'll be doing down,up etc 00:05:36.477 --> 00:05:54.945 . . . 00:05:54.945 --> 00:05:59.330 And it's this alternate picking that's a really, really, really 00:05:59.330 --> 00:06:01.104 cool thing to get down. 00:06:01.104 --> 00:06:02.746 'Cause most of the time when we're playing scales, 00:06:02.746 --> 00:06:04.590 especially as we get more advanced and we get faster, 00:06:04.590 --> 00:06:07.070 you need to be alternate picking all the time. 00:06:07.070 --> 00:06:09.636 So this is a great little exercise, all down picks, 00:06:09.636 --> 00:06:13.197 all up picks, down and up on each note, and then alternate picking, 00:06:13.197 --> 00:06:17.405 for your Minor Pentatonic Scale, that will definitely help sort out your picking hand. 00:06:17.405 --> 00:06:19.708 Don't forget to anchor, with your little finger as well. 00:06:19.708 --> 00:06:20.906 You'll probably find that helps a lot. 00:06:20.906 --> 00:06:24.303 You don't have to, but I think it's definitely worth starting with that. 00:06:24.303 --> 00:06:27.469 So you can kind of decide if that technique works for you or not. 00:06:27.469 --> 00:06:31.958 OK. Hope you've enjoyed that, and I'll see you for some more chord work in a minute.