workouts booklet

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Introduction to Insane WorkoutsAndy James Guitar Academy

I get a ton of questions from my fans asking about various aspects of my playing and writing. As such, I've written four short pieces that highlight four different parts of my playing style; Alternate Picking,

Arpeggios, Pentatonics and Tapping. These pieces aim to demonstrate how I approach each of these techniques in a technically demanding way while remaining musical.

I've broken down each piece in the accompanying paragraphs and hope they answer any questions you may have about my work. Practice hard, play hard and rock on! - Andy James

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“ Make sure when practising you pay attention to keeping everything clean and precise even at slower tempos”Andy James

In this piece, I wanted to address how I come up with long alternate picked passages. For the most part, it is a collation of lots of smaller phrases linked together.

Starting off is a series of sequences on one string that isolates focus on right and left hand co- ordination. In an effort to remain musical with this workout, the section ends with a simple 4-note descending melody over four bars to aid in transitioning to the next section.

The bulk of the workout is a one-bar phrase played on the E & A strings that moves diatonically through E minor., before moving through all three octaves. Stringing all 3 octaves together seamlessly will improve co-ordination, stamina and timing. It is important to ensure each exercise is executed cleanly and accurately.

I. The Alternate Picking Workout

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The next section involves string skipping. When string skipping at high speeds I always pull-off the last note on each string when descending, as can be seen in the TAB. I rarely pick every note; sometimes you need to include hammer-ons and pull-offs to keep the pattern consistent without and give your right hand time to regain stamina. These string skipped passages should also benefit your arpeggio knowledge, as they fit tightly with the backing track's chords.

Make sure when practising you pay attention to keeping everything clean and precise even at slower tempos. Discipline is vital, as attempting to perform the entire piece in one go without the necessary attention to detail will lead to the development of bad habits. By repeating these exercises over and over you will develop your stamina, co-ordination and muscle memory, and this kind of playing will start to slip into your subconscious where it belongs.



“Take your time with each lick and focus on precision and accuracy with each note”Andy James

II. The Arpeggio Workout

This piece showcases some of my signature economy picked sweep arpeggios. It is arguably the most technically demanding of the four workouts, so be sure to take your time with each lick and focus on precision and accuracy with each note.

Economy picking is a technique focusing on efficiency while picking. The player simply picks in the direction they are travelling across strings. If more than three strings are crossed with no more than a single note on each, it is called sweep picking. The first lick uses the minor arpeggio shape and moves positions quite quickly. Try to pick the higher strings with

force to really bring out the 'snap' and accent the peak of each arpeggio. It is important to also note the hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides within the TAB, as these will allow you to play the lick far more fluidly. There are also a couple of tapped notes on some arpeggios as well.

The second section builds on the arpeggios in the first by including more than one note on some strings. As can be seen in the TAB, the structure of each arpeggio stays economy picked, so at no point do you have to pick inefficiently. The ending of the piece has a short alternate picked section before descending through three chromatically descending arpeggios.

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“This workout is pretty exaggerated in comparison to most of my solosAndy James

III. The Pentatonic Workout:

I'm asked regularly how I use pentatonics in a solo. This piece is an extreme look at the kind of ideas I like to use within soloing or improvising. This workout is pretty over the top and exaggerated in comparison to most of my solos, but still gives you an idea of how link pentatonic ideas together, interspersed with slow melodic phrases.

The first half of the piece is played with

accented 8th notes. I play the entire section up to Bar 15 exclusively with down-

strokes, allowing me to really dig in and get the aggression I'm looking for. This is something that I tend to do a lot in heavier music, along with very wide vibrato to really make the guitar scream.

The second half is a blindingly fast pentatonic lick. Ensure that you break each section down and practice it at slower tempos before speeding up. As with each of these pieces, repetitious practice and discipline is the only sure-fire way of seeing improvement.

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IV. The Tapping Workout:

Tapping is one of those techniques that I think sounds good at any level, and in it's basic form is very easy to do. This workout gradually builds in difficulty to really try and push your playing to the next level. On each repeat of the backing track, I introduce a new technique for you to master.

One part of the backing track alters to fit certain arpeggios that have that kinda Nuno Bettencourt feel to them. I highly recommend listening to him

as well for great arpeggio tapping ideas, he is definitely one of the best out there at this and arguably under rated at how creative he is with this technique and indeed the guitar in general.

The main concern with tapping is preventing any unwanted string noise or ringing that results from incorrect muting technique from both hands. The left hand's index finger should be used as a mute by gently touching the strings hard enough to deaden any noise without forming a note. The natural curve of the index

finger should be sufficient for the most part. By hammering with the left hand very hard, you will also create a very clean and defined note, so be sure to practice strengthening your hammer-ons with the left hand only. You must also make sure that when changing strings, you lift the previous note's finger at the same time as the next note sounds. Practising the motions extremely slowly will allow you to really notice any errors in your playing.

The right palm should

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gently press against the strings while tapping, in a rolling motion that follows the lick. If you are tapping on the higher strings, your right palm will be responsible for most of the lower string muting, while if you are playing on lower strings, the underside of your left hand can

be used to mute the higher strings. Each section can be practised in smaller chunks, perhaps practising the left and right hands separately before combining.

Work Well - Practice Hard

AJ

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workouts booklet

Documents

economy picking

alternate picking workouti

long alternate

entire piece

arpeggio workoutthis

right hand time

kind of playing

necessary attention