# 10 Exercises of Doom



## freepower (Dec 8, 2011)

Been a while since I posted here consistently, I now own 1 more 7 and one less 8 so I figured it was time to come back! 

Basically I feel that most "exercises" available online are just stock shred licks. These are pretty poor for developing technique (nowhere near focused enough!) and terribly dull to listen to until you start hitting 150bpm. 

The following exercises ARE exercises. Some are totally amusical, some sound pretty nice, but they are all focused on working particular aspects of your technique or fretboard knowledge. There is nothing here that needs to be played at high tempos, correct form and attention to detail are most important factors. 

Hopefully even a few of the more advanced players out there will find something tricky. Number 3 is a personal favourite, I've never met someone who found that easy!

If you need tabs, they're either annotated (in which case you may have to click through to youtube to see em), or attached to the youtube description.

Any suggestions on areas of your playing you want me to come up with something for, or feedback on my teaching style or the content would be much appreciated, whether left here or on youtube. Thanks for your time! 

Exercise 1 - The Rack (left hand flexibility and reach)
 

Exercise 2 - Pulloff Nightmare (finger strength and independence)


Exercise 3 - Betcha Can't Pick This! (string crossing and skipping)


Exercise 4 - Impossible Em11 Sweep (muting, sweeping)


Exercise 5 - Eh? (fretboard awareness, position shifts)


Exercise 6 - Legato Madness (dexterity, co-ordination)


Exercise 7 - All legato permutations (co-ordination, strength)


Exercise 8 - Chordal Efficiency (rhythm guitar, sweep picking, fretboard knowledge)


Exercise 9 - Chord Scales (developing voicings and fretboard knowledge)


Exercise 10 - Whole Tone Hammers (or hybrid/economy picking nonsense!)


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## Berserker (Dec 9, 2011)

Thanks man, I'll give these a go. Some of them might be a bit advanced for me but they seem a lot less boring than the exercises I've been doing.


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## Solodini (Dec 9, 2011)

You clearly have very similar taste in writing exercises to me. That very last but was mental. I love it! Also, is your house perpetually freezing? You always seem really wrapped up!


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## freepower (Dec 9, 2011)

Berserker said:


> Thanks man, I'll give these a go. Some of them might be a bit advanced for me but they seem a lot less boring than the exercises I've been doing.



I certainly hope so! Number 9 and 3 are ones that never get dull for me. 



> You clearly have very similar taste in writing exercises to me. That very last but was mental. I love it! Also, is your house perpetually freezing? You always seem really wrapped up!



It's pretty cold man, temperatures are just above freezing and our heating only comes on in the evenings. Single glazing and 2 huge windows doesn't help. 

The interesting thing about our similar tastes in exercises is that lots of people have independently written exercises like #1 and #3 at least. In fact I tried googling "The Rack Guitar" to find my vid quickly and someone else had already uploaded the same exercise, same name!

I think that because you're trying to write an optimal way of improving technique, better exercises in the same field will converge towards each other.

Anyway, some rambling there but glad you enjoyed em!


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## Solodini (Dec 9, 2011)

Very true. Anyway, keep it up. Good exercises.


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## ShadyDavey (Dec 9, 2011)

Noticed these on your YT channel - number 3 is indeed a bitch......but thanks for coming back and sharing with us 

(I sympathise with the hat and sweater.....my hands actually ache it's so damn cold sometimes!)


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## freepower (Dec 9, 2011)

Yeah, I have to wear gloves everywhere or I can't play properly for an hour after getting indoors. Not great if you're a guitar teacher! 

I just though it'd be nice to put them all together in one place, especially with the embed features here. Also nice to get feedback from a demographic I kinda trust as well.


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## SirMyghin (Dec 9, 2011)

Some good exercises here, excellent dissection of the 'spider' in exercise 3, I hadn't thought of it from the exact picking mechanics, all I know is I used to do it as it was great. 

I'll scope the rest of these later.


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## The Reverend (Dec 9, 2011)

These are really interesting, thanks for posting.


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## Fiction (Dec 10, 2011)

#3 is awesome, and as you said.. its strangely fun to play haha. Still going through them all, I'll definitely add some of these to my exercise list.


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## SammerX (Dec 10, 2011)

Thanks! Your video on muting technique really helped me out when I was struggling with string noise.


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## freepower (Dec 10, 2011)

Glad to have helped! Just pay it forward when you get the chance. <3


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## SirMyghin (Dec 10, 2011)

Last exercise = holy tritones batman!

For your chordal efficiency exercise, not bad, but overall the chords are pretty boring, very blocky. My only complaint in the lot. Then again I overuse the hell out of chord inversions. A fun game for that is pick a position, play a song in that position only. Play every chord without leaving those 4 frets. It should be doable, might not always have ideal voicings though. If you really like to torment yourself (and it looks like you do), dig in . This will also teach you more than the notes on the first 3 strings parsay, as you aren't just looking for a root in the base.


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## freepower (Dec 10, 2011)

If it ain't difficult, it ain't worth practising, no? 

And yeah those chords're blocky, not my cup of tea either, but I didn't want to muddy the waters with inversions. I would assume you're a little more harmonically advanced than a lot of the intermediate players who watch my channel. 

And speaking about convergence to optimal exercises, John Wheatcroft (head of Guitar-X london) strongly recommends the "4 fret guitar" exercise. In a way it's kind of the opposite mental exercise to 8 and 9 - instead of expanding ideas across the fretboard, can I access all my ideas HERE?

Did you get that idea from anywhere in particular or did you come up with it independently?


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## SirMyghin (Dec 10, 2011)

I think I picked it up from Trespass right here on the forum. It is a damned good one. Those players, while possibly less advanced harmonically will school me technically so no worries there  It is cool you have guys like yourself out there trying to help folks, your lessons in particular seem to have a bit more thought than most. Youtube didn't exist when I learned to play, shame that.


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## freepower (Dec 10, 2011)

Well, I'm good at breaking things down and I owe everything to guys taking the time to help me out. The amount of effort it takes me to do this is pretty minimal and I know for a fact that I've really helped some people.

And imho good harmony > single note speed. I think you've got your priorities straight.


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## Solodini (Dec 10, 2011)

Agreed.


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## SirMyghin (Dec 10, 2011)

freepower said:


> Well, I'm good at breaking things down and I owe everything to guys taking the time to help me out. The amount of effort it takes me to do this is pretty minimal and I know for a fact that I've really helped some people.
> 
> And imho good harmony > single note speed. I think you've got your priorities straight.



I tell myself that too, helps me sleep at night  

I rely on legato playing for the fast stuff. My pick hand degenerates way too fast without consistent practice, and it feels too much like work. So it can fuck off  Wonder if this is in part symptom of being a lefty, who knows.


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## freepower (Dec 10, 2011)

I don't think so, but Steve Morse and Mattias IA both have said they think they found picking a little harder than most.

Tbh I just think people vastly underestimate how hard really good picking is.


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## SirMyghin (Dec 10, 2011)

What I mean is I have been a very very fast picker in the past. But the second I stop practicing it evaporates.  It was effectively more work than I wanted to put into my play time to maintain, you know? I needed to practice picking, specifically, for at least 30 minutes a day. I would rather compose, have fun, etc. Where other skills, such as legato, stick with me as I improve them.


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## freepower (Dec 10, 2011)

^ yeah, I found that some kinds of picking require that. Generally if I want to pick EVERY note of a phrase I have to be in tip top shape. If I only want 3 out of every 5 notes I seem to have no problems maintaining that kind of thing without any practice.

Also, who wants to hear a phrase where EVERY note is picked anyway?


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## SirMyghin (Dec 10, 2011)

Well when Morse does it is fantastic, but him aside, I'll pass


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## freepower (Dec 12, 2011)

Is there some kind of time limit on editing posts? It only seems to show up on my more recent ones in this thread and I'd rather keep adding them to the first post for easy reference... :S

Regardless, here's 2 more seeing as I'm off today! 

Exercise 11 - 3 notes, 18 pickstrokes! (picking clarity + flexibility)


Exercise 12 - Paganini Arpeggios (hybrid picking, chord inversions)


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## Camer138 (Dec 12, 2011)

very cool stuff! thank you for sharing!


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## Osorio (Dec 12, 2011)

This is so excellent  (I'm just sad that I can't do pretty much any of that). Thank you so much!
It will be quite the workout in the morning


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## freepower (Dec 13, 2011)

^ I would just pick one or two and work at them for about a month. I'd suggest you warm up, do one or two of these, then do whatever you normally do for practice. 

New one up now - 

Ex 13 - Picking Permutations (picking, string crossing)


ED: Holy shit epic thumbnail!   

Not very professional looking but very amusing! XD


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## 28mistertee (Dec 13, 2011)

These are great, had a look through them last night. Since I have a 27 inch scale 7 string I definitely need to do #1 more often.
Thanks


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## Maniacal (Dec 13, 2011)

Just played through all of these. Makes a pretty good warm up. Not really a fan of the rack though as that kind of stretching doesn't really stretch the hand. It just puts tension on the forearm.


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## freepower (Dec 13, 2011)

Didn't have any bother with #3? 

I clicked through on your username on youtube because the name rang a bell, was surprised it was you, I only know your other youtube channel. Great job on the kids on your channel, I know how hard it can be to get a solid group together when they're at that age. I can't believe you have them playing Holiday, that bridge riff slays some of my intermediate students and you have them playing it and keeping time! Are they your kids or just students?

What kind of stretching exercises would you recommend? I'm ok if the answer is "Go buy my book" btw. ^_^


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## stevemcqueen (Dec 13, 2011)

Thanks man! I am definitely going to incorporate some of these into my daily practicing.


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## ShadyDavey (Dec 13, 2011)

freepower said:


> Didn't have any bother with #3?
> 
> I clicked through on your username on youtube because the name rang a bell, was surprised it was you, I only know your other youtube channel. Great job on the kids on your channel, I know how hard it can be to get a solid group together when they're at that age. I can't believe you have them playing Holiday, that bridge riff slays some of my intermediate students and you have them playing it and keeping time! Are they your kids or just students?
> 
> What kind of stretching exercises would you recommend? I'm ok if the answer is "Go buy my book" btw. ^_^



I've got both - they're great books but I may be reasonably accused of some degree of bias


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## loktide (Dec 13, 2011)

thanks for posting  

i'm definitely checking these out


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## StratoJazz (Dec 13, 2011)

Cool!!!!!!


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## Jslammin (Dec 13, 2011)

Im diggin this dude thanks 

PS, has anyone ever told you that you sound and look like the kid from kickass???

just a thought.


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## Maniacal (Dec 14, 2011)

freepower said:


> Didn't have any bother with #3?
> 
> I clicked through on your username on youtube because the name rang a bell, was surprised it was you, I only know your other youtube channel. Great job on the kids on your channel, I know how hard it can be to get a solid group together when they're at that age. I can't believe you have them playing Holiday, that bridge riff slays some of my intermediate students and you have them playing it and keeping time! Are they your kids or just students?
> 
> What kind of stretching exercises would you recommend? I'm ok if the answer is "Go buy my book" btw. ^_^



They are all private students of mine. At the moment I have 2 young bands between the ages of 9 and 13. It is a lot of work getting everyone to learn the parts properly, the hardest thing is the structure of the songs. 

I would do that kind of stretch, but with wider intervals. This way it stretches the fingers rather than just uncomfortable shapes. 

For example: 12 14 16 18 then 11 13 15 17 etc

I would also use 4 note per string scales for stretching. Ideally harmonic and melodic minor as they have harder shapes than the major modes. At the same time this works on unlocking the neck too. 

House Of Mirrors by Holdsworth is another good, fairly musical way to stretch/warm up the hand.


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## freepower (Dec 16, 2011)

This'll be the last one for a while, for reasons explained within.



Jslammin said:


> Im diggin this dude thanks
> 
> PS, has anyone ever told you that you sound and look like the kid from kickass???
> 
> just a thought.





That's the first time I've heard that, people seem to think I look like Paul Gilbert as well. I guess I just have one of those faces. 



> I would do that kind of stretch, but with wider intervals. This way it stretches the fingers rather than just uncomfortable shapes.
> 
> For example: 12 14 16 18 then 11 13 15 17 etc
> 
> ...



All sound like excellent ways of getting your stretches together! I always mean to do a Holdsy tune or two but I just keep hitting chords that are near impossible for me and give up. Personally I'm not able to follow his note choice all the time either, I don't think there's any point learning a vocabulary of voicings I'm not comfortable employing in my own playing.


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## Maniacal (Dec 16, 2011)

Yeah I agree. A few years back I spent ages trying to copy Holdsworth chord style. I eventually realised when playing jazz etc that his chord style had basically no practical use. 

I think it is best to just find voicings you like, and spend time getting comfortable applying them to every day musical situations. 

House Of Mirrors is a great song to learn purely as a left hand workout. Put a click on and try to play a chord every beat with no pauses.... good fun.


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## OrsusMetal (Dec 16, 2011)

Great exercises, Freepower. The Rack exercise is one that I recognize from Guthrie Govan's book Creative Guitar 1. A great book. Manical's books are great, too. Although I don't own the 2nd book yet unfortunately. 

I'm already comfortable and familiar with all these concepts so far. It is very cool to hear someone else's approach to exercises and fretboard knowledge, though. You have a great way of speaking and explaining the concepts. I look forward to seeing more videos from you!


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## HOKENSTYFE (Dec 19, 2011)

Yeah, exactly what I needed at this time of my development. This series is a godsend! Picking the guitar back up, with a more serious intent, doesn't seem so mountainous! It's got me giggling & shit, hey "I can do this & that & yeah maybe later for that, and I'll be king when I can do that!" Freepower, thanks for this series!


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## freepower (Dec 19, 2011)

Really glad you're getting a lot out of it, hopefully I'll have a few more interesting ones in the next couple of months.


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## Maniacal (Dec 19, 2011)

Yeah, keep them coming. I really like doing annoying exercises. Make some harder ones though ;-)


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## freepower (Dec 19, 2011)

I want to be able to demonstrate them, dammit.


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## McCap (Dec 21, 2011)

Cool Lessons!!
Well explained, and I like that you have some more advanced and unorthodox ideas.
Really fun, keep it up.


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## kerman (Dec 21, 2011)

wow thanks for all of these videos!!!


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## bey0ndreaz0n (Dec 30, 2011)

These are really good lessons, and you explain things really well, thanks for posting Freepower!

It's nice to know that I'm not the only one doing stupid exercises 

I've just checked out your huge guide on ultimate guitar, this is really really great info that a lot of people overlook, I encourage others to check this out too!


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## Thrashman (Jan 4, 2012)

Great thread, some of the warmup excercises are going to get quite the mileage, I'm sick of my usual burnt-out ones


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## DGKarehere (Jan 7, 2012)

bookmarked !


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## freepower (Mar 15, 2013)

Another exercise for you cool dudes at SS.org, it doesn't sound very impressive but it's very helpful!



"Random Chord Backings" random chord backings.zip

Sorry for midi backing tracks, not very exciting. If you dug this exercise and the previous ones, check my youtube channel, I've uploaded a ton of stuff in the last week or two.


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## Maniacal (Mar 19, 2013)

Good to see you back freepower. I am just watching through your new lessons, good stuff!


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## freepower (Mar 19, 2013)

Cheers, I just drop in occasionally but people seem to have enjoyed the previous ones so I'm just adding. Anything I've posted given you any difficulty yet?

Oh, and here's exercise 16 for those interested -


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## Maniacal (Mar 20, 2013)

The Frere Jacques exercise looks tough, I will add that to my practice routine.


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## satchmo72 (Mar 20, 2013)

Cant wait to get home tonight and try these!! Good stuff!!!


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## freepower (Mar 21, 2013)

Thanks, just did a new one yesterday.


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## GlxyDs (Mar 21, 2013)

Thanks for these! I need to get more serious with my practice.


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## freepower (Apr 4, 2013)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfxY4Z_oGyo

This might sound familiar!


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## rowanr (Apr 4, 2013)

These fucking exercises make me want to quit, I can't do any of them!
Thanks for sharing though, it's good stuff.


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## freepower (Apr 4, 2013)

If it's easy why bother practising it? 

Glad you're enjoying em!


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## rowanr (Apr 4, 2013)

I'm much better, for example, at going from high E to low E in a 5-4-3-2 finger pattern compared to the reverse. Do you have any suggestions to help me build speed and power the other way? If you know what I mean.


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## freepower (Apr 4, 2013)

Well, you'll have to figure out why exactly -

Are you talking hammers and pulls?
Are you picking every note?
Is it easier for you to pick or is it the left hand where the difference is more pronounced?
Can you show me a video of you doing it both ways? That'd be the biggest help.

The suggestion is basically going to be work on your left hand economy of motion and finger independence, that's almost definitely the issue.


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## rowanr (Apr 4, 2013)

Picking is definitely harder than hammer ons. I think I just have a retarded pinkie finger. I've been playing for over 10 years and have never really tried any exercies to the point of helping, but I'm really thinking of practicing seriously for a while and just doing exercises. I'll have a look at some of your finger independence stuff.


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## freepower (Apr 4, 2013)

Yeah, if the pinky is a problem it's usually posture and independence. Take a look at this -


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## rowanr (Apr 4, 2013)

Thanks freepower, I'll watch it a few times and look into it more.


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## Maku (Apr 6, 2013)

I love them, especially the 'Bet you can't pick this' one, it's great fun!


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