Guitar Tutorial - Steve Morse style alternate picking arpeggios.
(Disclaimer: This is a revision of one of my old articles already posted on the Steem blockchain with the intention of building my Engrave blog)
Hello Steemit friends!
Today I'm signing in for another ''Creative lick'' lesson , this time inspired by the great Steve Morse , one of the most versatile guitar players around and also one of my favorite players , his right hand technique is world-class , combined with an inventive mind and a great sense of melody and you get this great guitar virtuoso.
One of Steve's signature moves is the one-note per string arpeggio but played with alternate picking , though the concept of alternate picking is very basic ( just play upstroke and downstroke with your pick for every note ) it takes a lot of stamina and concentration to keep it accurate.
So , today we are learning this 4-note lick arpeggio that we can later change and adapt over different musical situations . The lick is based over ''Drop 2 chord shapes'' played from the root at the 5th string each time.
Here's the lick first:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IqSkrm7dzT2V8QmKXRgta5RtLfT9P34N
It seems a bit long but actually the lick only consists of 4 notes , adapted over the chord families I've been mentioning since my first lesson , basically there are 5 shapes ... and we are only using 4 in this example :
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1c_Z2mAVy32qUR0b0XXi83KwRbAWuR3dt
Where do we start?? I would recommend you playing over these shapes first , starting on the same root and adapting the fingering , right hand does the same thing every time , keep playing up and down with the pick and keep a consistent sound , slowly speed it up ( practice with a metronome! )
This way:
Up to tempo ( 175 bpm ):
Here's the lick over some electric piano to hear it in context:
And finally , this is the little backing track if you want to try playing this lick over this :
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_wz2fnAr-7sKLzlu2gNpjf6lelmE0Caj
I hope you like the lick and it inspires you to try some new ideas.
The first one reminded me of Ave Maria.
But then once you increased it to 175bpm it was so different!
What's you "breakpoint" in bpm?
I know that when I double at 170 bpm (so 340bpm), I start struggling! But I gained 10bpm this year by practicing almost daily.
I sincerely don't know how a guy like Joey Alexander or Jacob Collier, or Jaco Pastorious self taught themselves how to play and become virtuoso in literally a year.
This is insane to me, I dedicate a lot of time and I will never reach a quarter of their talents.
That's maybe the very meaning of "A Gift From God"?
Some people are just more talented than others, and things come to them naturally.
I always practice my scales on the guitar and voice at the same time, lately im staying away from the 7 modes and work on altered scales, minor melodic, etc... I sounded so boring lately, and I really wanna breakthrough the plateau...
Hey what do you think of that guy?
And have you watched the movie?
Thank you for the visit @edprivat , much appreciated !
Oh. maybe the "Ave Maria'' was hinted since I believe that also starts with a Cmaj7 Arpeggio and then moves to the rest of the music piece , this was just an exercise that coincidentally started on the same Key and arpeggio hehe.
About my breakout point? mmm.. I don't know.. it really depends on the pattern or exercise I am playing , though this exercise at 175 is already close to my limit , I guess I could take it to 180-185 before it starts to get a little sloppy. This of course thinking on 16th note subdivisions. I used to take records on where my ''highest bpm'' sat at certain patterns but I don't do that anymore . I think when I was ''at my peak'' I was around 200 bpm on 16th note patterns and around 130 on 16th triplets , I'm sure I can't play relaxed at those speeds anymore.
About Jacob and Joey , well.. those are child prodigies but at the same time to me talent is overrated , as you have a Jacob you have a Bill Evans who in many interviews had said to have had no initial talent to become a very deep and interesting player who is a major influence to jazz pianists in the world .. so.. no rules are written in the end :)
Oh , I'm not a fan of scale practicing , in fact I never practice scales.. of course It's good to understand them and learn how to access them but I never practice going up and down the scales in the fretboard , I think that what you practice is what you take to the gig , and if you are practicing patterns , that is what you are going to take with you.. there are many ways to break from this but let me give you a particular masterclass I found quite useful about line development , hope this helps:
Oh , and Adam Neely has a great youtube channel , his videos are very interesting ! I don't listen to his music but he might be one of my favorite educators on youtube.
About Whiplash.. as a musician standpoint it's terrible but.. otherwise great movie!
Thanks for the comment brother and Merry Christmas!
I've watched the entire video...He was Supertramp's guitar player?
Sometimes he is so fast he sounds almost jazz...
I think it's just a matter of time , I am coming to realize after 15 years of playing, that I haven't challenged myself enough, too many gigs where I was just messing around, and probably haven't reached the level I thought I would with my guitar.
Maybe singing the notes while playing them limit myself, at least on the number of octave, as I use only 2.
The best musicians are the one opened to critic, so maybe I need to understand what's wrong.
I hope that I 've learnt something watching his video, it makes sense to just practice phrases instead of practicing scales, cause you never gonna use scales during a solo.
I really wanna hack my brain and break through those plateau so I am gonna try his technique...
I've heard so many times conflicting info, some people prefer to rely only on scales for solo and tell not to learn licks, other only really on licks.
I still haven't figured out what's my style...
Jeez that was pure random thought forever on the blockchain
Merry CHristmas
Edit: I just had a great exercise session with tons of licks that I can use. I realized that playing the scales for a maniac this year helped with seeing the patterns more quickly in within those licks...
Hello @pechichemena, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!
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