I learned something about my playing a long time ago. I’m not a super-fast picker like Paul Gilbert or Yngwie. Oh sure, I’ve worked at it. I’ve put in the time. But it ain’t happening. I’m just not wired up that way.

To compensate, I developed my legato technique, which means hammer-ons, pull-offs, and tapping. In this lesson, I’ll outline the beginnings of a method I used to really get things moving.

One of the first things I realized was that my sometimes-3-sometimes-2-notes-per-string scales had to go. I simply couldn’t work them up to speed. What I needed was consistency. Also, it was difficult to connect these kinds of scales to open up the fingerboard in a way that made sense to me.

So, I borrowed a technique from Paul Gilbert: 3-note-per-string scales. There are 7 patterns based on the modes of the major scale. Here they are, all with G roots (these screenshots are from UGPC). Don’t worry too much about the names of the modes, you’ll come to understand these later if you don’t already.

1. Ionian Pattern

2. Dorian Pattern

3. Phrygian Pattern

4. Lydian Pattern

5. Mixolydian Pattern

6. Aeolian Pattern

7. Locrian Pattern

Normally, I’m against learning patterns for the sake of learning patterns, but for this kind of playing, it’s a must. Learn these stone cold!

Here’s how the patterns work. Each of the seven patterns represents a note in the major scale. So, if you wanted to play all the patterns in a particular key, say G (or A minor or E minor), you would:

Starting always on the low E string, play pattern 1 starting on G, 2 on A, 3 on B, 4 on C, 5 on D, 6 on E, and 7 on F#. See how it works?

Things get interesting when you start recognizing the patterns that make up a particular key. Then, you can move effortlessly all over the fretboard simply by shifting patterns. It takes some getting used to, but it really works.

As an example, here’s what I see in my mind when I’m playing in F major (or D minor, G minor):

Now for the fun part. Practicing these forms. Here’s an exercise I’ve found particularly helpful. Play it over all 7 forms.

Ascending:

E|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
B|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-------------5---|
G|-----------------|-----------------|-----------4-----|-------4-5-7---7-|
D|-----------------|---------4-------|-----4-5-7---7-5-|-4-5-7-----------|
A|-------3---------|---3-5-7---7-5-3-|-5-7-------------|-----------------|
E|-3-5-7---7-5-3-5-|-7---------------|-----------------|-----------------|

E|---------------5-|-----------5-7-8-|-----------------|
B|---------5-7-8---|-8-7-5-7-8-------|-----------------|
G|-5-4-5-7---------|-----------------|-----------------|
D|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
A|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
E|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|

Descending:

E|-8-7-5---5-7-8-7-|-5---------------|-----------------|-----------------|
B|-------8---------|---8-7-5---5-7-8-|-7-5-------------|-----------------|
G|-----------------|---------7-------|-----7-5-4---4-5-|-7-5-4-----------|
D|-----------------|-----------------|-----------7-----|-------7-5-4---4-|
A|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-------------7---|
E|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|

E|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
B|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
G|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
D|-5-7-5-4---------|-----------------|-----------------|
A|---------7-5-3---|-3-5-7-5-3-------|-----------------|
E|---------------7-|-----------7-5-3-|-----------------|

As for picking… Ideally you don’t want to pick anything but the first note. In practice, this doesn’t sound good, at least when I do it. I pick as sparsely as possible to make it sound reasonably musical.

Here’s how I do it:

To show you what these forms can sound like in practice, here are a couple of videos of me noodling a solo using these forms. I’ve thrown in a couple other tricks, but not many. In these two samples, I’m concentrating mostly on form 1 rooted on B (this is C# Dorian) and form 6 rooted on G# (still C# Dorian).

Read Pt. 2