A target tone, as its name implies, is a melodic destination point that harmonically coincides with a particular chord. These are the notes you’ll cadence your phrases on. Players that are new to soloing, regardless of the style, have a tendency to play more notes than needed. I believe this is due to the fact that new players often don’t know the notes they are playing, or how they relate to the chords they’re playing over. In this exercise we will practice how to land phrases on the root note using C minor pentatonic scales in each position of the scale.

There is a series of notes that are being worked around each C note in each position here. Learn each set of licks with the videos and tablature, and then use the backing tracks to practice your own soloing ideas. One thing that we guitar players tend to do is play too many notes in just the root pattern on the pentatonic scale. This is an awesome way to help you break out of just playing in that one pattern, as well as to help you get a better understanding of where the root notes fall in all the other patterns as well. CLICK HERE FOR THE PAGE TO THIS LESSON.

Three note per string major scale patterns are one of the important keys to unlocking the guitar fretboard. This interval exercise is an awesome way to help you learn the notes in each scale, and on your fretboard, as well as a more interesting way to practice scales overall. This is the first pattern of the major scale, three notes per string, played in intervals of thirds. We will be covering five keys with this, and we will be using pattern 1 of the major scale. This version of the scale pattern is all three notes per string. The best way to keep track of how this pattern works is to think of it as thirds from every note in the scale. Keep in mind here that you are playing the major scale in two octaves. You want to think an interval of a third above each note, so for example starting from B, it is B to D#, then move to the second note in the scale and play C# to E, then D# jumps to F# and so on. This gives you a cascading type of sound through the scale that can be used in any solo, or melody line. CLICK HERE FOR THE PAGE TO THIS LESSON. Join https://www.practicetheguitar.com/ and become a member to practice with tons of video lessons at multiple tempos, with full tablature and notation, and backing tracks to practice with.

In this 12 Major Key Scales Circle Of 5ths Legato exercise we are going to play through 12 keys on the guitar in one general area on the neck. This is an an awesome way to spice up your soloing, but also to learn all the major scales on the guitar. This will also help you to memorize the circle of 5ths, as well as all the major scale patterns needed to play in all 12 keys. This will also show you how you can improve your legato playing, and increase left-hand strength. This exercise covers the seven patterns of the major scale all starting from the note C. You will be changing key 12 times here. There are many technique aspects of this exercise that will help you to improve your soloing and single note playing, This will help you significantly when your playing over chord changes. CLICK HERE FOR THE PAGE TO THIS LESSON. Join https://www.practicetheguitar.com/ and become a member to practice with tons of video lessons at multiple tempos, with full tablature and notation, and backing tracks to practice with.

As with all great guitarists, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s rhythm playing was as strong as his leads. Stevie Ray Vaughan excelled at a style of shuffle playing that has its roots in earlier players, yet he was able to turn it into a personal trademark. This riff is based off of a twelve bar blues in G. The chords being outlined are G7, C7, and D7, with a hard shuffle feel. Some of the other techniques being used are hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, bends, and position shifts. When you listen to a rhythm section playing a medium shuffle, it’s quite common to hear the bass playing a walking line (moving quarter notes) while the guitar strums chords on the upbeats. CLICK HERE FOR THE PAGE FOR THIS EXERCISE

These three note per string Slippery Legato Patterns is designed to help you build, strength, dexterity, and coordination between your hands. This is a common technique with guitar players such as Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Alan Holdsworth, and many others. This sixteenth note triplet lick outlines the G major scale across the neck, with hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides and position shifts. The key to this exercise is the position shifts that move in a ascending pattern up the neck. This legato exercise is broken up into three sections that gradually add more variations is it progresses, and in turn getting a little more difficult as it goes as well. Join https://www.practicetheguitar.com/ and become a member to practice with tons of video lessons at multiple tempos, with full tablature and notation, and backing tracks to practice with. CLICK HERE FOR THE PAGE FOR THIS EXERCISE.

Arpeggios are everywhere. They’re requisite for nailing the changes in jazz standards, shredding your way through your favorite instrumental rock track or busting out some burning modern blues, as well as a myriad of other musical scenarios. In this lesson, we’re going to explore an assortment of arpeggio patterns that will help you escape the rut of standard pentatonic and scalar patterns that will help you be able to apply smaller super useful ways to outline many different types of chord changes in any style. If you have a scale like the C major scale: C D E F G A B C, you can build the diatonic 7th chords by stacking 3 thirds on top of each other. A diatonic third is essentially the 2nd note from the note you are on so for C the third above it is E, for D it is F. If I stack 3 thirds from C I’ll have these 4 notes: C E G B which is a Cmajor7 chord or arpeggio. From D I get D F A C which is Dm7. The Diatonic chords in C major are CMaj7, Dm7, Em7, FMaj7, G7,Am7, Bm7b5 For this lesson are are playing all the diatonic chords on the middle three strings, and then the top three strings on the guitar. there are a total of eight arpeggio shapes all starting on the seventh degree of each chord. CLICK HERE FOR THE PAGE TO THIS LESSON.

String bending is one of the most effective techniques you can use to get expression and emotion to your solos. Bent notes can emulate the lyrical, singing quality of the human voice and make a melody really “speak” with authority and a deep sense of feeling. This is especially true of bent vibratos, where a string is first bent up to a specific pitch and vibrato is then added to the note. In this lesson, lets work on ways improve one’s string bending technique. The most important aspect of bending is achieving good intonation, and making sure your bends are properly in tune. Few things sound worse than a bend that is out of tune and indecisive. We are going to cover whole step bends, bend release, pre-bend release, and half step bends. Where also working in the E minor pentatonic scale. Grab your guitar and lets get working on your bending technique. CLICK HERE FOR THE PAGE TO THIS LESSON.

In this lesson we will take a look at some string skipping arpeggios that are used by players like Paul Gilbert, Nuno Bettencourt, and Guthrie Govan. The idea is to achieve three octaves of major seventh arpeggios in movable patterns so you can learn, and use in your own solos. We are using wide stretches, hammer-ons, pull-offs to make this legato arpeggio sequence happen. Join https://www.practicetheguitar.com/ and become a member to practice with tons of video lessons at multiple tempos, with full tablature and notation, and backing tracks to practice with. CLICK HERE FOR THE PAGE TO THIS LESSON.

This Licks For Rock Soloing example is a four measure lick to help guitarists to work up the neck in the key of A minor. This exercise is great for learning how to add color to the minor pentatonic scale but adding specific intervals. Here we are using the b5th, 9th, and the 13th. Using hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, slides, and shifts, its a very useful exercise for building vocabulary for soloing across the guitar neck. CLICK HERE FOR THE PAGE TO THIS LESSON.

This Percussive Fret Hand Muted Power Chord exercise is designed to help you connect power chords with strummed muted strings. This technique gives you a very rhythmic and percussive sound. The challenge with muted strings is getting strings to ring correctly when you want them, and muted when you don’t. 90% of popular rock guitar playing utilizes these chords. CLICK HERE FRO THE PAGE TO THIS EXERCISE.