What's up YouTube community Bernth here, welcome back to another video lesson! In
this one I'd like to show you one of my
favorite practice concepts ever
combining technique and theory - with
today's exercise we'll work on one of
the most top voted topics that you guys
picked on patreon - combining scales with
arpeggios - but as always we also want to
challenge and further develop our
technique so after watching today's
lesson you will have an amazing workout
for your alternate picking, sweep picking
and you will understand how to combine
arpeggios with scales correctly - so
without further ado let's get started!
Scales and arpeggios are often thought about those two completely separated topics
especially with red guitar playing you
either play a fast scale run Orion
playing arpeggios shapes with sweet
picking but with today's lesson I'd like
to further motivate you to build the
connection between those two topics - as
we discussed on this channel already all
the harmonic information I need in order
to build the chords or arpeggios within the key is already featured in the scale so
as a quick example when I take the first
third and fifth note in the A minor
scale that would be A on the fifth fret
of the low E string C on the eighth fret
of the low E string
and E on the seventh fret of the A string and that
would be the most basic A minor arpeggio
i could possibly play - so as you can see
on the graphic below I could visualize
the A minor scale in the basic position
starting from the 5th fret of the low E
string our root note A up to the next
A, to the octave
so while I'm actually thinking in this
scale box
I could actually
visualize this arpeggio, the A minor
arpeggio just playing A, C and E
or I could see
this basic D minor arpeggio playing D, F and A
I could also visualize the B diminished
arpeggio for example by just playing B
D and F
and so on so there are a lot of
possibilities, seven actually with those
seven notes and by seeing and playing
those arpeggios I get a
much more interesting result than just
playing...
the scale up and down all the time - that
especially comes very handy when I'm
playing in exotic scales - for today's
example I'm picking the C Lydian scale
as you might know by now this is my
favorite major mode because we have that
additional dissonance right here with
the raised fourth scale degree so if you
would be my student I would ask you to
play a C Lydian arpeggio right now and if
you can find or memorize one on the
fretboard I would ask you to play the C
Lydian scale - the result with most of my
students in this situation is that they
can play a small fragment of the C
Lydian scale on the fretboard but they
can't play a C Lydian arpeggio for me but
if you know how to play the scale and
you can visualize it on the neck it's
actually quite easy to come up with a
custom arpeggio shape for the mode and
that is exactly what we're doing with
the practical example for today - let's
check it out in detail right now!
As always you can find the detailed tabs, guitar pro files and practice backing
tracks in different tempos for this
exercise on my Patreon page
patreon.com/bernth
I'd like to thank the sponsor for this
video BAG&music real quick - when I'm
on tour I mostly use hard cases to
protect my instruments since they are
stored in the trailer that is attached
to the nightliner but I honestly don't
really enjoy carrying those around when
I'm going to studio appointments or to
band rehearsals - so I was searching for
soft cases for quite a long time that
offer a similar protection for my
instruments without any bad surprises
when I open them up - the pro series model
they sent me is the most strong
protected and functional of them the
exterior fabric is the most dense of
those available on the market and this
is the case that I'm mostly using right now
whenever I'm traveling to studio
appointments or to band rehearsals - the
slim model is a slightly simplified
version of the pro model the fabric is
less dense here but quite adequate for
regular use without severe handling - the
lite model is also a simplified
version of the pro but there are no side
walls and pillows for the neck - so thanks
again to BAG&music music for sending over
those cases I really like the quality of
them and I will use them pretty much
every day from now on - if you're also
searching for new cases for your
favorite guitars make sure to check them
out at bagandmusic.com - so for the
practical example I was working with
this scale position for the C Lydian
scale, I was starting with C on the
eighth fret of the low E string...
Instead of just playing regular
alternate picking patterns within the
scale
I am visualizing and constructing a C
Lydian arpeggio - so when you look at the
graphic the gray notes with low opacity
actually symbolize the scale I'm
thinking in and the other highlighted
notes symbolize the arpeggio shape I
came up with
so I'm actually seeing this scale
position when I'm looking at the
fretboard but I'm not just playing every
single note that I can see, I'm playing
an arpeggio by starting with the root
note and then I'm not going to the
second note in the scale I'm going to
the third to the major third in this
case so from C to E
and after that I'm not I'm not yet
including the characteristic
scale degree, I'm moving to
to the perfect fifth so I get that
classic arpeggio sound because I'm
playing the first note in the scale
third note and the fifth note so root,
major third, perfect fifth - the most basic C
major arpeggio - after that I decided to
include even more notes
I'm moving to B on the ninth fret of
the D string,
the major seventh interval which gives us
some nice tension in our arpeggio
hammering on to D which is the
9th which also sounds really nice so -
very important notes right here and then I finally move to play
the 11th fret of the G string where we
get the dissonant characteristic
interval, the raised fourth scale degree so up
to this point...
That's a really nice arpeggio!
and as you can hear it clearly has the
sound and the characteristics of the C
Lydian scale...
but it sounds even more interesting
because we're skipping a couple of notes
so it gets that arpeggio sounds - so at
the top of the arpeggio I'm concluding
with A on the tenth fret of the B string
and with the root C on the 13th fret of
the B string and the interesting thing
that's happening here is that I'm
playing A right here with my middle
finger and C with my pinky finger so I
can stay in the same position with my
hands and I don't have to shift between
different positions so I'm playing...
and as we said we also want to work on
our technique right here so I don't just
play the arpeggio up and down I'm
playing an interesting sequence so
instead of just playing...
I'm playing...
that sounds much more interesting but
it's also more challenging because I
have to reposition my hand for the sweep
picking
watch my right hand closely as I'm
playing it again...
So as you can see I'm still just playing
downstrokes I'm staying with the sweep
picking motion
but my right hand has to travel back to
the A string
so when I'm on the D string and I have
to go back
and that can be quite challenging in the
beginning but it's definitely worth it
because it sounds so much nicer than
just going down and up and down and up
the arpeggio all the time and when we move
back down it gets even harder and it's a
great exercise for your left hand
because the finger pairing is a bit
unusual, instead of just descending
normally I'm playing...
so I'm just playing upstrokes, the regular
upward motion when I'm sweeping but
here I'm playing a downstroke when I'm
going back up to A
and aside from not using your index
finger right here the jump of the right
hand is really really difficult so this
is a great exercise for your routine
right now I'm playing this fragment of
the exercise pretty much every day to
work on my left and on my right hand
skills at the same time...
it's really difficult to get that one
right without any overlapping notes so
once again the full pattern for the
arpeggio...
and then I'm just ending the phrase with
a basic scale run
and end with a dissonant
interval
Let's hear the entire section in two
different temples once again!
So this one is a great workout for your
music theory skills so you can see
arpeggios shapes within scale positions
better and you're also working on your
sweep picking and your alternate picking
I can really recommend adding it to your
daily practice routine because you
benefit in all those different areas at
once - make sure to download the tabs and
guitar pro files on Patreon right now to
study it and get started with practicing
it to the backing tracks that I uploaded
In the end make sure to subscribe and
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and to never miss another free guitar lesson again, leave a like if you enjoyed
this one or if you learned something new
or a comment in case I can answer any
questions for you - I hope you have a lot
of fun with this exercise I will see you
in the next video lesson all the best
until then and have fun practicing!
