Chords for Guitar Exercises That Don't Suck

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[D] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
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Exercises [C] don't have to be that boring.
[A] Hello, good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, wherever you may be.
I hope you're having a good day so far [G] and I want to talk to you today about
[Gbm] _ _
_ exercises because as guitar players we have [Am] to do these technical exercises in
order to get better.
That's just the way it is.
Now of course there's many
different exercises [F] you can do and a lot of them are very tedious.
But do we
really have to do them?
Well the answer might be yes or no.
It depends on how you
look at it.
It depends on what your goals are.
If you're learning [Cm] scales or
arpeggios or some [A] type of theoretical guitar [G] element you're most likely gonna
want [Am] to focus on that kind of rote method that I opened the video with.
But
for general maintenance of your skills and increasing your speed or technical
expertise [B] on the guitar you don't have to rely on these [B] boring sounding
[Eb] exercises.
But chances are if you're like me [A] you're not a big fan [N] of this. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] It
sounds like crap let's be honest.
[C] So why wouldn't you play [A] something that sounds
awesome [G] while improving your [A] skills on the guitar?
Here's my suggestion.
[G] Find
some very [Gb] awesome licks or riffs from [G] your favorite guitar players or your
[Eb] favorite songs and practice those as [Am] you would any technical exercise.
Just build
them into your practice routine.
Now you want to make sure that they're a little
technically demanding on you so don't pick really easy stuff.
But pick stuff
that sounds good and also [A] trains your muscle memory and trains your [C] alternate
picking, trains your sweep picking, trains [Am] your legato, whatever your [G] goals are like
I mentioned.
[D] Pick something that [Am] sounds good and you'll not only play it better
because you know what it's supposed to sound like you'll have fun doing it and
you'll be more compelled to practice more often.
So let's say I want to
practice my alternate picking.
Instead of practicing something like [G] this _
_ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _
practice
something that's musical.
How about a Paul Gilbert lick?
[B] _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Db] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] That is much more fun
to do [C] than a chromatic exercise _ [A] and I'm definitely working my alternate [D] picking
there.
Now you're gonna want to [A] structure it a little bit more disciplined [G] than
that.
I was kind of just [Gb] improvising a little bit between those two [G] exercises
but you get the point.
You can [Am] choose any lick or riff from one of your favorite
musicians and just use that as a practice tool.
Let's say I want to
practice hybrid picking.
There's a lot of different hybrid picking exercises out
there to get me started but if I want to have fun while I'm practicing it why not
[A] choose an Eric Johnson lick.
_ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ _ [Am] And I [C] don't have to play it as fast as these guys
[A] play it.
As long as I am keeping it [G] consistent.
Side note you [A] need to use a
metronome when you do these exercises [E] but as you continue [Gm] to use it in your
practice routine [Am] you'll be like wow I can actually play that up to speed with
Eric [D] Johnson.
_ _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ And of course when you practice it's [C] not always about
distortion and [A] delay.
By the way get this shirt.
Description link [G] below.
Yeah!
One
[A] that I love to work on is this Joe [G] Satriani lick that totally exercises [Gb] my
dexterity, my finger strength, my [E] stretching, my time.
Really the whole
[C] package.
_ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ [Cm] _
_ [F] _ [A] And you don't just have to find [C] your exercises from these crazy [Am] guitar
heroes like Satriani or Paul [G] Gilbert or Eric Johnson.
The [A] riff from Snow by the
Red Hot Chili [Gm] Peppers is actually one of my go [Gb]-to warm-up [Abm] exercises.
_ [E] _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [Abm] _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _
_ _ _ [N] _ _ [Am] So for that
one if you wanted to learn that [C] one I highly recommend it.
It is [A] super brutal
on your [G] hammer-on and just getting these different [A] chord positions down really
quickly it'll [G] really build your endurance.
So I would [Gbm] recommend just
learning the chords first.
So just [Ab] practice and [E] _ _
_ [B] _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ [Abm] _ _
_ [E] _ _ [B] _ _ [Gb] _ _ _
then [Abm] it's _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _ [Abm] _ _
[E] _ _ [B] _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _
[Abm] _ _ [A] probably an
easier way to play it than [C] how I'm doing it.
I'm alternate picking every [A] string
but you know it works [Gm] for me and it's really hard [A] so I know I'm working when
I'm trying to play it.
[G] So there you have it my friends.
_ [Gb] Don't be confined to the
[Gm] boring exercises [E] that make you not really want to [G] practice.
You can find
licks and riffs out [Am] there that sound great to you [Gm] that are played by your
[E] favorite guitar players and just turn them into exercises.
You can even vary
them if you want to and make them your own.
But really [A] I just encourage you to
listen [Cm] to a lot of music and [A] find a riff or a lick that stands out [G] to you that is
pretty [D] you know technically demanding for [Am] whatever your level of guitar
[Gm] playing is currently and [E] after that just work it into your practice routine.
I'm
not saying to abandon all the boring stuff.
Some of it is actually necessary
just [A] as a foundation but [Am] really I would say 90% of my practice is exercises that
I've either made up or there are [C] other licks from my favorite [A] guitar players.
Very minimal [E] actual just technical boring [A] non-musical sounding exercises
[Gm] exist in [Gb] my guitar practice routine.
So I hope you guys [G] enjoyed this video and let
me know in the [A] comments which licks that you like to practice from your favorite
guitar players.
Maybe I'll try them out and add them to [C] my [D] routine.
Alright have
a great day and I will talk [Am] to you tomorrow.
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