Theory & Exercises
Theory files to study and additional exercises for the students of the HPCrazy Guitar Academy.
26 files
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FreeHere are 3 of my personal classical arpeggio exercises which I do on a regular routine. It is running through the diatonic chords in Cm, Gm and Dm and is a challenge for your fingering and your picking technique. If you want to add these exercises to your routine make sure that you start very slowly and pay close attention to your fingering in combination with your picking technique. The optimal repeats per exercise is 2 times which helps your system to memorize all, but it really takes some time till you can play these exercises fluently.
Here you find the tutorial associated to these exercises :
By admin29 2 -
FreeHere you find the entire course " Rhythm Studies " were students can learn to fix their rhythm and timing issues. The key to fix this issue is to know what rhythm is and to practice every aspect of rhythm with a click and directly on the fretboard. If you know how rhythm is written then you know what kind of rhythm pattern you are playing and how it sounds. This is an entire course " Rhythm Studies " were you start from the very beginning. Take every lesson very seriously. At the end of the studies it gets really difficult and if you don't know each module of this course very well you don't have a change in the last 2-3 lessons anymore to fulfill the task. Also take the written pauses very seriously. Every note has a beginning and an end. So also be precise on the endings of the notes.
If you don't know rhythm notation at all please first go through the theory first :
There are several ways you can practice the rhythm studies on the fretboard. The easiest one would be just by playing the rhythm you are reading with one note on the fretboard. I recommend that for players who are still in the intermediate range of their technical abilities. If you are an advanced player you can do the rhythm studies with a 4 bar chord progression ( Ex. 1 : G / C / Am / D or Ex. 2 Em / Am / C / D ) or whatever comes to your mind. Or you can also do the rhythm studies with picking patterns only on one chord. You are free to transport the rhythm you are reading on your fretboard.
Here are the conditions :
1. You should not make any mistakes - max. 3 mistakes per lesson
2 . Play with a click of your choice. I would recommend 80 bpm but also try other speeds to get a feeling for the rhythm.
3. The first exercises are very easy. Take every lesson very serios and practice is as if you would record a CD. Try also to give musical expression to everything you play.
4. If you are also interested in blues or jazz you also need to do the studies in the ternary( shuffle ) groove.
5. Take your time - the point is not to play everything that it's played. The point is that you feel every note you are playing and to build automatisms in precisions and musical precision. Thats the main goal of these studies.
6. Don't expect results very fast. It can take months till you feel a substancial difference in your free playing.
7. Once you went through one modul try to transport what you learned in to your regular playing.
If you need any help or advice please open up a blog and tell what your problems or concerns are. Describe your situation as precise as possible. Or if you need personal coaching on this and you want that your studies are getting monitored you can also book some private lessons.
Doing the final test :
If you went through all modules of the rhythm studies and you wish to make the final test you can book a private skype lesson. There we make an appointment and then I will send you a file of 3 - 4 pages on the difficulty level of the last module of the rhythm studies. Then you have 5 minutes time to view the pages and then you have to play them with sight reading with a click and I control how precise you were and how many mistakes you made. If you reached a presicion level of 75 % and did not make more than 5 mistakes you pass the test and you get the " rhythm study award " - or the confirmation that you fulfilled the task. The earliest time I recommend this test is 6 months after you started the studies.
By admin56 0 -
FreeHere you find the diatonic chord progressions of melodic minor in the key of Cm and Gm. These 2 keys represent all patterns which start either on the E or A string. Melodic minor has a strange sound which one might get used to but is often used in classical music or in Jazz in " modal interchange " situations.
There is a backing track added where you can practice to use the harmonic minor modes. You can use the C melodic minor patterns which you see in the exercises or you can also transpose the patterns with root note on the E-string as well.
The backing track is just playing the harmonic minor modes one by the next :
Cm6 / Cm6 / Dm7 / Dm7 / Ebmaj7#5 / Ebmaj7#5 / F7#11 / F7#11 / G7b13 / G7b13 / Am7b5 nat.9 / Am7b5 nat.9 / B7alt / B7alt
Here you find the tutorial associated to these files :
By admin4 0 -
FreeNearly 100% of the guitar players who are interested to start working with modes come from the pentatonic. Here you find an easy way to convert your pentatonic patterns into the mode of your selection. You need to know the minor and the major pentatonic and then you are ready to go.
Here you can learn about intervals in specific :
Once you know the intervals the trick is that you know your pentatonic patterns by heart and also the intervals which are played in the patterns. To move from the pentatonic patterns to modes you just need to add 2 more notes.
Which are those notes ?
Major scales :
All major scales contain the intervals of the major pentatonic which are : 1 2 3 5 6
Now you just need to add 2 more notes which define which mode you are playing. On the tabs those notes are displayed in green. The red notes are the root notes ( 1 )
Ionian Mode additional notes : 4 7
Lydian Mode additional notes : #4 7
Mixolydian Mode additional notes : 4 b7
Minor scales :
All minor scales contain the intervals of the minor pentatonic which are : 1 b3 4 5 b7
Now you just need to add 2 more notes which define which mode you are playing. On the tabs those notes are displayed in green. The red notes are the root notes ( 1 )
Aeolian Mode additional notes : 2 b6
Lydian Mode additional notes : 2 6
Mixolydian Mode additional notes : b2 b6
This file is associated to this tutorial :
If you want to move on to move mode patterns you find the 2 main and basic patterns here :
By admin4 0 -
FreeHere you find the diatonic chord progressions of harmonic minor in the key of Cm and Gm. These 2 keys represent all patterns which start either on the E or A string. Even harmonic minor is mostly used in way of having the focus on the minor pattern of the key it really also makes sense to learn those patterns related to the diatonic chord progressions.
To understand harmonic minor it's really important to understand it's historical importance. The origin of all chord progressions is the classical cadence :
In any major key you have the classic cadence leading from tonica ( I ) to subdominant ( IV ) to dominant ( V ). The dominant is either a major or a major 7 chord which creates a strong tension which leads back to the tonica ( I ). In minor keys I IV V are all minor chords which can work as a nice progression but to get a stronger resolution to the I somebody came up with the idea to have a " classic " dominant on the V in a minor progression. Now the minor key does not cover this alteration of the progression and when a V7 ( dominant ) chord is played in a minor progression the scale which normally would be phrygian on the V has to be altered by one note. This leads us to harmonic minor with the typical 1 1/2 tone step. Harmonic Minor is mostly played on the V7 chord but can also be used in other ways or even in a diatonic chord progressions setting. But the traditional way is to use Harmonic Minor when I V7 chord.
Here you find the tutorial associated to this file :
By admin4 0 -
FreeHere you find the available secondary dominants in major and minor. What is a secondary dominant ? This is a dominant which you find on any levels of the diatonic chord progression either in major or minor which resolves on a level of the major or minor diatonic chord progression. That's the basic rule - if you have any other dominant chord somewhere which does not fullfil this rule it is treated differently.
The available modes of any secondary dominant relays to the original mode of the level you find the secondary placed on. As an example :
V7 / IV in major : The original mode is ionian. The nearest available dominant mode is mixolydian
V7 / VI in major : The original mode is phyrgian. The nearest available dominant mode is phyrgian nat. 3
Here you find the tutorial associated to this file :
By admin14 0 -
FreeA lot of students have difficulties in understanding why intervals are so important to understand modes. Here are a few exercises where the modes are all played starting from the C on the 3rd fret on the A string. Here you can see the difference of the modes very well and you can understand how they are built. Once you can alter from one mode to another in just one position then you can start to do this everywhere on the fretboard. All you need to know are the intervals of each mode and where to find each interval in relation to the root note of the mode. This exercise seems to be small and easy but this is the main thing you need to learn if you want to be able to play freely on the entire fretboard. Every mode is defined through the intervals in relation to the root note.
By admin5 0 -
FreeHere you find a summary of exercises for the double handed guitar tapping ( touch technique ) where you can work out basic chord rhythms. These exercises are basic exercises taken from basic left - right hand independence exercises from piano playing. There are basically 2 types of exercises. You have those where you do ostinato figures with the left and right hand and make combinations and figures where you do independant figures of the left and the right hand. The selected chord progression is Am / Am / G / G . A very simple progression which includes both types of chords. There is an audio file added that you can hear how the tabs should sound alike.
Here you find the tutorial which is associated with these files :
By admin5 0 -
FreeHere you find the basic exercises for chords if you want to enter the amazing world of the " Touch Technique ". This technique is basically adapted from piano playing and expands the possibilities of expression of the guitar dramatically. These basic tapping guitar exercises are quite easy and here you learn how to create either major or minor chords with the tapping technique and how to groove with this technique like a piano or percussion player.
You find the tutorial here :
By admin3 0 -
FreeHere you find some basic exercises which you need to work out properly if you want to master rock guitar timing. These exercises seem to be easy but if you never done them before properly then you need to work them out. Also work them out in different tempo's. I added 3 backing tracks with 70, 90 and 110 bpm.
These files are associated to this tutorial :
By admin87 0 -
FreeHere you find a whole series of arpeggio exercises which represent all you can do if you want to enter the world of arpeggio's used as a tool in your soloing. These exercises are extremely demanding so I strongly recommend that you plan a few months of practice work for them. Even they seem to be very hard I recommend these exercises also for intermediate players because with these exercises you also learn where the chord notes of a specific chord all are which helps you a lot in your slow hand solo where you want to figure out the target notes which in fact are the notes from the arpeggio's.
These files are associated to this tutorial :
The exercises are showing you the diatonic triads of A, E and C type chords.
Also crosscheck these exercises with your exercises of modes. The modes exercises are in the shape of the A and E type chords
At the end you find the same arpeggio's with sweep picking technique which I only recommend for advanced players if you want to go for speed. They take a lot of practice work and are only recommended when you play guitar on a daily basis.
By admin19 0 -
FreeHere you find the diatonic chord progression in the key of C and G. This is a real working sheet for you to learn :
The diatonic chord progressions ( major scales ) The chords with root on the A and E string The attached modes The intervals of the modes Please take your time to learn all parts in this working sheet by heart. Learn the chords and the attached modes. The modes are 3 note per string patterns to make the whole thing easier to understand. It's not needed that you learn to play the scales fast, but learn then with the intervals which are displayed at each of the patterns.
Here you find a tutorial related to these exercises :
Here you find another tutorial about modes :
By admin144 0 -
FreeHere you find exercises on the A major pentatonic and major scale which shall help you to completely master all situations where you need to work with the major pentatonic and scale over the whole fretboard. It is very important that you also learn the intervals 1 2 3 5 6 or 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 by heart and where you find them on the fretboard. This in fact is the big work which makes these exercises a task which I strongly recommend that you master.
These files are associated to this tutorial here :
By admin11 0 -
FreeI know music notation is a topic which most students want to avoid and in many cases you can " survive " by only knowing how to read tabs and chord charts. But if you are serious about your studies on guitar and you really want to know music you can not avoid learning how to read and / or write music in normal music notation. If you are interested in jazz there is in fact no way to avoid this part of music theory because you will never understand the complexity of jazz if you don't know how to read or write music notation. These pages here are from my own studies back in the late 90's and they give you the first ideas to understand music notation.
By admin8 0 -
FreeHere you find a selection of exercises to build your automatisms with all minor pentatonic patterns 1 - 5 in the A minor pentatonic.
These exercises come along with this tutorial here :
By admin67 0 -
FreePlaying different scales, modes and the orientation on the fretboard is a major topic for all guitar players and from my point of view there are 2 ways to approach this problem.
1. You can learn hunderts of patterns which you find in many pattern books you find on the market. Here you find a good collection of different patterns : https://www.guitar.ch/en/guitars/scales/scales.html
2. You understand what is the essence of a scale, how it's built and how you derive from the basic pentatonic patterns to the major and minor scales and modes.
The file which you can download here helps you to go the 2nd way. The key is that most guitar players come the minor pentatonic pattern 1 + 4 and there you can start the journey.
Derive Minor & Major Scales from basic pentatonic positions
1. Learn the positions 1 + 4 of the minor pentatonic and learn the intervals by heart - these are 1 b3 4 5 b7. The root note is marked red on the graphics.
2. Learn the posistions 1 + 4 of the major pentatonics. The trick is - they are exactly the same patterns on the fretboard - you just need to move the pattern down 3 frets, redefine the root note ( marked red ) and learn the new intervals 1 2 3 5 6 by heart.
3. Minor Scale - check the intervals. The new notes are marked red here : 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7. The grid of the pattern of the minor pentatonic remains - just add the 2 new notes.
4. Major Scale - check the intervals. The new notes are marked red here : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The grid of the pattern of the minor pentatonic remains - just add the 2 new notes.
Additional 2 minor scales ( Harmonic & Melodic Minor )
1. Harmonic Minor Scale - check the intervals and compare it with the minor scale. The new note compared with the minor scale is marked red. 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7
2. Melodic Minor Scale - this one is not used often but good to know. It's a mix between minor and major scales. You can derive it either from the minor scale where you have to change 2 notes ( marked red ) 1 2 b3 4 5 6 7
or from the major scale where you have to change 1 note ( marked red ) 1 2 b3 4 5 6 7
By admin9 0 -
FreeHere you find the diatonic chord progression in the key of C minor and G minor. This is a real working sheet for you to learn :
The diatonic chord progressions ( minor scales ) The chords with root on the A and E string The attached modes The intervals of the modes Please take your time to learn all parts in this working sheet by heart. Learn the chords and the attached modes. The modes are 3 note per string patterns to make the whole thing easier to understand. It's not needed that you learn to play the scales fast, but learn then with the intervals which are displayed at each of the patterns.
Here you find a tutorial related to those exercises here :
By admin105 0 -
FreeSweep Picking Exercises
Here you find 2 different sweep picking exercises following the normal diatonic major chords. The first exercise is easier than the 2nd one. If you are new to sweep picking, start with the first one and do it really slowly and pay close attention to the details of your picking hand because that's the hard part of these exercises. I have added an audio file with 70 bpm. I would take this as a first goal before you try to more to higher tempo's. In general sweep picking is a technique which in fact needs a lot of patience till you can start to use it in your regular playing. The best method to approach it is to keep it slow and really focus on the picking hand once you have the patterns of your grabbing hand done.
By admin30 0 -
FreeTo fully understand the derivation of modes, related chords and options it is a must that you start to see scales and modes as a summary of intervals which have to be learnt by heart. You can skip this part of music theory if you are only into blues and basic rock guitar but if you want to learn how to create chord progressions from the diatonic modes, how chords are built and how to add options ( ex. Cmaj9, Dm11, G7#9 ) then you need to understand this part of music theory. On this working sheet I have added the essential parts of the theory. Take your time on it to learn and understand it. You need to manage the 7 basic modes - ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian and locrian completely in order to really start working with it in your creative playing.
If you have any questions about these working sheets please ask them here :
By admin26 0 -
FreeLydian Mode Tabs & Exercise Backing Track
Here you find some exercises to understand and practice the lydian mode on guitar. The lydian mode in fact is the IV step in the diatonic chord progression and is a major mode. The difference between the normal major scale and the lydian mode is only one note. It's the #4 interval. So the lydian mode contains the following intervals : 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7 . The files are showing the connection out of the chordprogession and also the upper structure triad relations. You can practice this with the attached backing track. This works for any genre but when it comes to jazz you also need to adapt the genre specific figures.
These files are associated to this tutorial :
By admin28 0 -
FreeBasic Guitar Chords Types
There are 5 types of chord shapes which you can play on the guitar when it comes to basic guitar chords. They are derived from the open string chords which are called E-type, A-type, C-type, G-type and D-type chords. Some called this the C-A-G-E-D System because it is easier to remember this word. But I prefer to call the system E-A-C-D-D chord types taken from the sequence of most common and most used chord types. The system is really simple: you take the basic open string chords from E, A, C, G and D and then you just move those chord shapes to the root note of your choice. It works on major and on minor chords. Only the G-typ chord does not work so well on the minor chord. You can see the examples in the tabs you can download here.
By admin21 0 -
FreeHere you find 8 exercises which help you to learn rhythm, rhythm notation and to work it out into practical use. You can use these exercises along with your personal playing level. If you want to take an exam once you finished and practiced all attached exercises please book a private skype lesson. You master an exercise if you can play each through without any interruptions and with mistakes.
If you are new to the topic please first study basic rhythm notation :
These exercises are part of this tutorial :
For an exam please book a private skype lesson :
By admin152 0 -
FreeHere you can learn all you need to know about basic rhythm notation. The guitar is a rhythm instrument, so I strongly recommend that you learn the basics of rhythm notation since rhythm is 50% of the music.
If you are finished with with basic notations please start with the rhythm exercises :
If you need any help please book a private skype lesson :
By admin91 0 -
FreeHere you can read and learn all you need to know about intervals. This goes along with the this tutorial here :
By admin26 0 -
FreeHere you find all patterns in minor and major pentatonics. The positions are marked with numbers which represent the intervals which are played. As a beginner only focus on learning the position of the 1 which represents the root note. In this case it's the A since the patterns are either in A minor or A major. It is also strongly recommended to learn the pentatonic only on one string. There please also use the 1 as an orientation point.
When you compare the minor with the major pentatonic patterns you might notice that they are the same only the root note has changed. The good news is that once you can play the minor pentatonic patterns you can switch to the major pentatonic patterns just by replacing the root note.
By admin137 0
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