Fretting Self-Exam

Here's a fun and short self-exam I came up with to help you figure out whether you're fretting too hard when you're playing. This is something most people do, and it's very detrimental to ones progress on the guitar.

Before the exam, here as some warning signs you might be fretting too hard:

- When playing something fast, the fingers of your fretting hand tense up and get stiffer, causing the motions of your left hand to be slow even though you FEEL like you're expending a lot of energy with them.
- A weird, unwanted twang to your playing, usually when playing a lead on the low E and A strings.
- Notes sound slightly out of tune even though your strings are tuned properly.
- You practice a lick over and over every day, but don't feel as though you're conquering it at all.
- Playing 'super fast' seems impossible for you, like it's not in your genes to be able to do that.
- Weird finger fatigue after playing. Doesn't feel like 'good fatigue' like after proper exercise, feels like bad fatigue like when you do push ups improperly.
- Peeling skin on the fingertips that never seems to smooth out or go away.
- On the tips of your fingers, indentations of the strings you were holding down that last a while after playing.

There are likely countless more symptoms, but if any of these in the list sound familiar to you, you're probably fretting too hard. Don't feel like an idiot. MANY guitar players do this, including friends you look up to, and some of your favorite musicians. But that doesn't make it right.

One reason why people fret too hard really comes down to people accidentally thinking treating the fretboard as though it were a percussive instrument. When playing a riff they want to sound loud and strong, both their hands lock up and start banging away, each with the same strength. But holding a guitar string down harder with your fretting hand does not make the note louder. Your picking strength and your volume knob (if you're on an electric) is in charge of that. If you EVER feel your fretting hand locked into that 'playing harder' mode you're using the hand incorrectly. It doesn't matter what your favorite band does. You will sound even better than them by not doing it.

And now, the short self exam:

1. Get into your guitar playing stance. Picking hand ready to pick, fretting hand ready to fret.
2. Without pressing down on it at all or moving the string closer to the fretboard, place the index finger of your fretting hand on the A string, 5th fret.
3. Still not pressing down at all on the string, start picking the string in 16th notes at a comfortable tempo. It should sound dead as all hell.
4. While playing the steady 16th notes, begin pressing down on the string with your index finger EVER. SO. SLIGHTLY. Slow. As. Molasses. Bringing. The. String. Ever. So. Closer. To. The. Fret. Wire.
5. It will sound dead for a while and then BAM! You will hear finally hear a note! When that happens don't press down any harder at all.
6. To make sure you didn't press down too hard accidentally, slowly lessen the pressure of your index finger ever so slightly. You want to make sure you are pressing as lightly as possible while still able to hear a note. That is your sweet spot.
7. I repeat: AS LIGHTLY AS POSSIBLE WHILE STILL BEING ABLE TO HEAR A NOTE. Make damn sure of it.

This may feel weird. Trust me, it's GOOD weird. Now that you've figured out exactly how hard to press down on a guitar string, practice alternating between your index on the 5th fret and your middle on the 7th fret, VERY SLOWLY, while still maintaining that sweet spot pressure-wise.

After you've gotten the hang of this, try the first 7 notes of a major scale. Take things VERY slowly. Make sure you're never pressing any harder than you should. Never look back. Never retreat to old habits. Be all that you can be.

When To Use Your CAGED Major Chord Shapes

After learning the CAGED major chord shapes all over the neck, a lot of students may use pieces of the C and G shapes in arpeggios from time to time, but for the most part they won't be played as chords unless in open position. However, each chord shape is useful and has its own unique strengths:

C shape
(x13513)
Because this ends on a M3, it's less resolved sounding than a G or E chord shape. We hear the R-M3-P5 followed by an R-M3 and expect a P5 to follow. This is part of why the C shape arpeggio ending on that P5 sounds so much more resolved than the chord.

A C shape chord is very strong as a I chord in a song because of it ending on that M3. You REALLY expect another chord after, and because of that a minor or diminished chord immediately after will sound pretty smooth. However, it's strongest as a IV and V in a I-IV-V progression, with I as a very resolved chord shape like G or E.

A shape
(x15135)
Because this ends on a R-M3-P5 it feels resolved, but slightly less resolve to it than a G or E chord. This makes it more of an all-purpose chord; resolved, but not too resolved. It's capable of starting a song as a I or being a IV or V if you want a more resolved feel to them than C shape.

G shape
(135131)
Contains a R-M3-P5 and ends on a R. Since the R-M3-P5 comes early on in the chord, its slightly less resolved sounding than an E shape chord. This makes it a good I chord to start a song with when you want that I chord to kick things off with a resolved sound. A resolved sound to a I kicking off a song makes a minor or diminished chord right after sound that much more unexpected and attention getting.

E shape
(151351)
The most resolved sounding major chord shape, because of the R-M3-P5 coming in later than in the G shape, and the R at the end. Great way to end a song to make it feel complete. Like the G shape, a minor or diminished chord right after is attention getting, but the E shape makes it EXTREMELY attention getting.

D shape
(xx1513) or (x51513)
The most unresolved sounding major chord shape. No R-M3-P5 and ends on a M3. Useful in the same applications as a C shape chord, but with the added flexibility of starting it with the P5 on the A string or not. Choosing to start it on the P5 gives it even more of an unresolved feel, whereas starting it with the R gives it a cuter feel since it's only 4 strings. Great little temporary-feeling chord. You don't expect it to last.

Note: The White Stripes use the D shape extremely well to start their song 'I'm Bound to Pack it Up'. The verse is only D shapes, giving the whole verse a consistently temporary and cute feel like fleeting happiness, which goes along with the subject matter of the song.

Come up with your own ideas of how the different chord shapes sound to you, and figure out your own applications you think they work great in. These are just suggestions to help you start thinking about their importance. Go try them out!

Spicing Up Your Pentatonic Licks

Here's a great way to really open your pentatonic scale playing and have it sound less 'pentatonic-y'.

A lot of exercises focus on two note per string patterns for pentatonic scales, and after you've practiced those over and over memorizing the 'boxes', when you start improvising and coming up with pentatonic lead licks, they tend to have a predictable two note per string sound to them. One way to get out of that is to arpeggiate spots of a given pentatonic box. For instance:

O O O O - O
- - - - O -
- - O O - -
O O - - O O

We all know that box. For this lesson, let's treat that as the minor pentatonic box for the Dm chord starting on the A string, 5th fret.

If we start too look at arpeggio possibilities within here, we can come up with some cool little licks that don't sound predictable:


e-----5-8-5---5-
B---6-------8---
G-7-------------


B-------6---------
G-----7---7---5-7-
D---7-------7-----
A-8---------------


Here's an mp3 of what the riffs sound like:
http://www.codyclarke.com/pentariff.mp3

Now we've got licks that start with an arpeggio and then end with a familiar 2 note per string pentatonic sound. You can sweep the arpeggios in these and then hammer-on the rest for a speedy lick, or just alternate pick them.

Find your own little arpeggios within each of the 5 pentatonic boxes. I suggest using minor pentatonics, as your riffs will have a more bluesy sound. After you've gotten used to this, try creating arpeggios that span two pentatonic boxes for more of a challenge!