I’ve come across many top guitarists promoting 4nps chromatic exercises in every possible permutation, as a way to build finger independence, dexterity, and for making it easier for the brain to play complex passages.
Vai, Petrucci, and Govan all preach the virtues of these exercises. … I know Troy has little use for them and I tend to agree. …
What are your thoughts?
These days I am doing quite a lot of the ascending 1234 exercise (across 6 strings), because it brings up a particular combination of string changes and string tracking that I find difficult. So essentially I’m only using it because it’s an easy way to work on a particular problem that I have.
In general I’m not sure how useful it is to go through every permutation, it can take ages!
I used to do these a lot because I love the chromatic parts in the Megadeth songs “In My Darkest Hour” and “Sweating Bullets”
I like chromatic lines, but I don’t really use them for improving picking… I think they are great for developing legato skills… specifically pull-offs.
When it comes to playing chromatics, I think they sound better using 5nps, either sliding the index finger or the pinky for that fifth note. I saw Rick Graham do it… and I thought it sounded a lot more fluid. But I know most guitarists don’t do that.
Funnily enough, I just posted on another thread why I practice it. I find it beneficial mainly for improving my 2WPS by practicing UWPS. UWPS is my “weaker” pickslant (especially when ascending to a new string), so the more I bed in that motion the easier it is to incorporate into my 2WPS.
It seems to me the benefit is solely mechanical, which is fine, but aren’t there enough diatonic exercises that can help you achieve musicality along with technical ability?
For picking 4 (or especially 2) NPS ascending starting on the upstroke… I actually found that any sort of fretting actually hurt my progress. As soon I starting fretting the notes, my muscle memory kicked in… and wanted to revert to trying to switch starting on a downstroke. So I actually had to pick the patterns with no fretting at all. I still do this when warming up… 2 NPS up and down with just a bar chord. It’s a bit boring, but it kinda cleans things up for me a bit.
Its funny how changing the slightest thing becomes a roadblock sometimes!
Out of interest, how did it hurt your progress? Just because it is difficult, does it mean that it was bad? I have to admit, it was infuriating to get the UWPS 2/4 NPS thing going and it is still lagging behind my DWPS version, but the more I practice it, the easier/smoother my 2WPS has become.
True, but most lines that you are likely to play 3nps for example, will only use UWPS some of the time (especially when you have a definite primary pickslant), the mechanical approach in this instance forces you to use the UWPS all the time - until it is more comfortable. It is generally better (and more fun) to learn and practice ‘real world’ licks, but if you have a specific problem that is a mechanical problem, then a mechanical solution that places laser beam focus on the problem is in my opinion, very useful.
I think its because I can really only learn one thing at a time. So no matter how many times I tried it with the fretting… it fell apart… it was just too deep in my muscle memory. So I had to separate the two. Currently what I’ll do is start 2 note per string picking… and then I’ll add in the fretting after a minute or so.
Ok, I get ya! Makes sense…