The Workout, Part 3
(06 Jan 04)
The 6 minute trill exercise
Legato-stuff
OK, let me show you a few legato-things you can try. Maybe you haven't thought of this kinda stuff yet, maybe you have, we'll see. Again.. this is not a complete list of important legato-exercises, I am just trying to show you a few ones that a lot of my students seem to never think of when they practise.
The first one is a classic one, focusing on endurance. This one works for both beginners and intermediate players, and even for pros it can be a good warm-up exercise.
It's the legendary "6 Minute trill exercise" (I first heard about it at a Gary Hoey-workshop, BTW).
This one should be done once a day, and it will help you to work on endurance, left hand strength and accuracy, and… relaxing the hand, simply because it's a longer trill exercise.
It's actually pretty easy. Put your hand in first position (index finger at 1st fret) onto the high e-string. Then, take an alarm clock or stopwatch which will help you to know when 1 minute is over.
Now, for one minute, hammer on at the 4th fret with your pinkie, and pull off back to the first finger which stays at the first fret the whole time. Decide for yourself what tempo you start at, but here's the catch: You have to maintain an even tempo throughout that minute. Don't speed up, don't slow down. Most likely, you'll start too fast, and after about half a minute, it will become some kind of a torture... you'll most likely find out that you won't be able to maintain the trill for a whole minute. So… start out slowly. This is no contest, it's a workout!
After one minute, do trills at the 3rd fret with your ring finger (pull off to the first finger at 1st fret). IMPORTANT: If this still is too much of a stretch for your left hand, start higher up on the neck, like in 5th position, or an octave higher than the TAB… at the 13th fret.
So, you're trilling with your ring finger for one minute. Then, you triller with your middle finger at the second fret for one minute. Again, try to maintain an even tempo and try to keep the notes at an even volume... and relax your left hand, otherwise it will be pure torture.
So, 3 minutes are over. Let's move on. Leave your index finger at the first fret, put your middle finger down onto the 2nd fret and leave it there for the rest of the exercise. Then, with your ring finger, do ho's and po's at the 3rd fret for one minute. RELAX. Do this for one minute. Next, hammer on / pull off at the 4th fret with your index- and middle finger positioned at the 1st and 2nd fret, respectively. Again, one minute.
Here comes the final minute.. and the toughest triller of em all. With your index and middle finger still positioned at 1st and 2nd fret, put your ring finger down at the 3rd fret and leave it there… and do hammer ons and pull offs (trills) at the 4th fret with your pinkie. This is the hardest one, and will feel mighty awkward at first. Start slowly. And relax.
If any of this hurts a lot, stop!!! Move to a higher position on the neck, or take a break. Don't hurt yourself! Maybe start with a half minute of each one for a few days, then move up to one minute. If you do this once a day, you should notice an increase of speed, accuracy and strength within a few weeks.
Regarding other legato-exercises (runs etc.), you can basically do the ones in my legato-article, or even the ones above legato-style. One thing that seems to be forgotten about quite often seems to be playing along one string. A lot of people tend to think "Gee, playing on one string is beginner-stuff. I can nail all those 3NPS-patterns on six strings, so I'm beyond that". But you can create some cool licks on one string only, and it might give ya some interesting ideas. After all, it's pretty logical to think along one string… if you imagine a scale by thinking of its formula (W-W-H-W-W-W-H eg.), you can easily translate that to the one string... a jump of 2 frets is a whole tone, one fret is a half tone.
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