Music Lesson: Technical Exercises

Alright then, guys!

So, what do we mean by technical exercises?

Definition

We're talking about scales, arpeggios, and chords, things like that. These are incredibly useful tools that you use all the time, whether you realize it or not, in your day-to-day playing.

Importance

Now, these things may not be quite as fun as the pieces you pick up initially, but once you've cracked them, there's absolutely no end to what they allow you to do.

• They are really, really useful creative tools that you're going to have great fun using.
• You've got to get them down first in this kind of rudimentary format.

Future Applications

We will look at some more creative applications of these things later on concerning using them within songs to play solos and to improvise with.

Demonstration

For now, I'm just going to demonstrate them as required for your grade.

Before I do that, there are a couple of things worthy of note:

• The demonstrations I'll play are what's written in your book. However, if you read the preamble before the technical exercises, you'll see that you are required to play specific scales in very specific keys, depending on what grade you are doing.

For example, it might say:

• Play exercises A and B in keys A, B, and C or something like that.

But we'll have just given you one option. So, please do read the information; that's really important if you're planning on taking the exam and need to prepare the exercises in the right keys.

Moving Exercises to Different Keys

I'm going to show you the ones demonstrated in your book so you can see the fingerings that I use. All you need to do to be able to move the exercises into a different key is to take the same shape and move them to the starting note you want to begin on.

• Here's a hint: This is going to allow you to play some pretty awesome solos.

Riff Exercises

One further thing: I'm not going to demonstrate the riff exercise. If you're comfortable with the scales and arpeggios, the riffs are based around these shapes and exercises.

So, it should be just one step further for yourselves to work out what these riffs will be should you need to move them.

• It's a really useful skill for you to develop on your own.

Stylistic Studies

We're also going to look at the stylistic studies in a part called Stylistic Techniques. This will involve:

• Looking at the techniques involved within those studies
• How to use them effectively

Alright then, here we go with the demos of the technical exercises for your grade. They're all played at the correct tempo for your gradebook.