Licks & Exercises
Technique exercises and the kind of licks every style is built on. Pick one, loop it with the metronome, and let the speed trainer push the tempo up a little at a time.
- TechniqueBeginner
Chromatic spider exercise
The classic 1-2-3-4 finger warm-up across all six strings and back. Builds finger independence and clean alternate picking.
- TechniqueBeginner
Minor pentatonic box 1 in A
The most-used shape in rock and blues, up and down in eighth notes. Learn it until you don't have to think about it.
- TechniqueIntermediate
Pentatonic sequence in threes
A minor pentatonic in groups of three notes as triplets. Sequences like this turn a scale shape into music and train you to see the box in small pieces.
- TechniqueIntermediate
G major, three notes per string
G major over two octaves with exactly three notes on each string — the layout fast players use. One string per beat makes the triplet rhythm easy to feel.
- TechniqueIntermediate
Legato trills (hammer-ons & pull-offs)
Pick once, then let the fretting hand do the rest. Builds strength and evenness for hammer-ons and pull-offs.
- TechniqueIntermediate
Alternate picking on one string
Sixteenth notes up the high E string in the A minor scale. Keeps the picking hand honest — no string changes to hide behind.
- BluesBeginner
Box 1 bend lick in A
Bend, answer, and walk down the box to the root — the most common phrase shape in blues guitar.
- BluesIntermediate
Blues turnaround in A
A descending line under a ringing high A that leads back to the top of a 12-bar blues — ending on the E7 chord.
- RockBeginner
Rock 'n' roll double stops in A
Driving triplet double stops on the top two strings, then a run down the box. A staple of 50s rock 'n' roll and classic rock solos.
- RockIntermediate
Repeating pentatonic triplets in E
A three-note pattern repeated fast is one of the most effective sounds in rock soloing — simple to play, impressive at speed.
- CountryIntermediate
Country run in G
A major pentatonic run with the bluesy minor-to-major third hammer-on that gives country its sound, ending on a G chord.
- JazzAdvanced
ii–V–I line in C
A Dm7 arpeggio, a chromatic enclosure into the 3rd of G7, and a resolution to the 3rd of Cmaj7 — the core language of jazz improvisation.
- MetalIntermediate
Palm-muted gallop in E
The galloping eighth-and-two-sixteenths rhythm on the low E string, broken up by power chords. Builds a tight, fast picking hand.
- FunkIntermediate
Funky sixteenth-note riff in E
Syncopated single notes where the rests matter as much as the notes. Trains your sense of the sixteenth-note grid.