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Lesson 6 of 7

Forty-five-minute session

For days when you have real time. Six blocks, each with a clear job; take a 1-minute break between them.

Minutes Block What to play
0-5 Warm-up The 10-minute warm-up drills, shortened
5-13 Technique Your current focus on the tempo ladder: picking, changes or barre chords
13-20 Fretboard Find every C
20-32 Repertoire The étude Lantern Steps, or a piece you're learning
32-42 Improvisation Play with the seed phrase over an A minor backing track
42-45 Cool-down Slow, quiet chords; then shake out your hands

The exercises

Find every C. Six Cs: low E fret 8 and A fret 3 (the same pitch), D fret 10, G fret 5 and B fret 1 (the same higher pitch), and high e fret 8. Say "C" out loud as you play each one. Then try it with another note.

Lantern Steps. An étude in E minor: Em, C, Am and B7, picked as broken chords. Hold each full chord shape for the whole bar and let the notes ring. In the B7 bar, the second note is D# on the D string, the chord's third. The bass note on beat 1 should be slightly stronger than the rest.

Seed phrase. A two-bar A minor pentatonic phrase, all in the 5th-fret box. Learn it, then change one thing per loop: its rhythm, one note, the ending. Ten minutes of small variations is how improvising starts.

The most common mistake is letting the repertoire block eat the whole session. Use a timer, and when it rings, move on.

Exercises

Find every C

50 → 80 bpm
  1. Bar 1
    1. low E string, fret 8
    2. rest
    3. A string, fret 3
    4. rest
  2. Bar 2
    1. D string, fret 10
    2. rest
    3. G string, fret 5
    4. rest
  3. Bar 3
    1. B string, fret 1
    2. rest
    3. high E string, fret 8
    4. rest

Clean 3 times in a row? Raise the tempo by 5 bpm.

Étude: Lantern Steps

60 → 100 bpm
  1. Bar 1
    1. low E string, open
    2. G string, open
    3. B string, open
    4. G string, open
    5. high E string, open
    6. G string, open
    7. B string, open
    8. G string, open
  2. Bar 2
    1. A string, fret 3
    2. G string, open
    3. B string, fret 1
    4. G string, open
    5. high E string, open
    6. G string, open
    7. B string, fret 1
    8. G string, open
  3. Bar 3
    1. A string, open
    2. G string, fret 2
    3. B string, fret 1
    4. G string, fret 2
    5. high E string, open
    6. G string, fret 2
    7. B string, fret 1
    8. G string, fret 2
  4. Bar 4
    1. A string, fret 2
    2. D string, fret 1
    3. B string, open
    4. G string, fret 2
    5. high E string, fret 2
    6. G string, fret 2
    7. B string, open
    8. G string, fret 2

Clean 3 times in a row? Raise the tempo by 5 bpm.

Seed phrase for improvising

60 → 100 bpm
  1. Bar 1
    1. D string, fret 7
    2. G string, fret 5
    3. G string, fret 7
    4. G string, fret 5
    5. D string, fret 7
    6. rest
    7. D string, fret 5
    8. rest
  2. Bar 2
    1. A string, fret 7
    2. A string, fret 5
    3. low E string, fret 8
    4. low E string, fret 5, vibrato, vibrato
    5. rest
    6. rest

Clean 3 times in a row? Raise the tempo by 5 bpm.

Checkpoint

Move on when you can do all of these.

  • Name and play all six Cs without looking at the tab
  • Lantern Steps from memory at 100 bpm, no buzzes
  • Two minutes of improvising on the seed phrase without stopping
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