Lesson 6

A slightly more challenging variation of Exercise 3. Play the exercise along with the track and gradually pick up the tempo a little each day. Take it easy with this; if you're not getting a nice sound out of every single note, you're practising too fast.

Treat this tune as an exercise in alternate picking. You are not just learning this composition, you are learning essential motor skills that will help you to learn any composition. Be meticulous and take it as slowly as you need to at first.

Rhythm is the orchestration of sound and silence. So far we have looked at reading different durations of sound; now we will look at reading different durations of silence.

Quarter-Note Rest

Π= 1 Beat Silence

Try playing these rhythms on an open string while counting aloud with the audio track. Remember that a rest is a silence, so you'll need to actively stop the guitar string ringing during one. You can do this by placing your pick back down on the string.

Just one chord this time but it requires a little more stretching than usual. If you find it hard to reach across three frets, just keep trying a little each day: eventually the muscles in your fingers will stretch and you'll be able to play it with ease. Think of it like learning to do the splits - only much easier!

C Chord

Track 24.

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