Hey there, this lesson is all about the alternate picking guitar technique found all over the guitar world and today we will focus on the Quintuplet rhythmic sub- division whilst using this technique. Quintuplets are five notes to a beat and when played well they can bring a very ordinary set of notes to life. I find quintuplets to have an unresolved sound and lend themselves to continues runs of notes in the note grouping before resolving to a more predictable note grouping such as 4 notes to a beat.
Exercise 1- Alternate Picking Quintuplets Exercise 1 (2-4-2-1-4, 2-1-2-4-1)
Alternate Picking Quintuplets Exercise 1
Work on the examples without a metronome until you have learnt the pattern of notes, then turn on the metronome starting at around 50bpm. When counting the Quintuplets I would recommend counting them as 1 Pi Ta Pa Ta, 2 Pi Ta Pa Ta, 3 Pi Ta Pa Ta, 4 Pi Ta Pa Ta. Doing this will help you stay in time and allow you to accent the 1, 2, 3 and 4 as you play through the exercise. You may wish to hide the beat note by not accenting the 1, 2, 3 or 4 or you may even want to experiment with accenting every ‘Pa’ instead. Each different part of the beat will bring a different sound to the table when accented so experiment. The numbers at the end of the title for the exercise shown in brackets refer to the finger pattern used throughout exercise 1.
Exercise 2- Alternate Picking Quintuplets Exercise 2 (3-4-3-1-4, 3-1-3-4-1)
Alternate Picking Quintuplets Exercise 2
Notice that the difference between exercise 1 and 2 is that we develop the finger strength of different groups between the two exercises and that exercise 1 uses the Em shaped A Dorian mode and exercise 2 uses the Gm shaped A Dorian mode. Learn more about these modes here.
Exercise 3- Alternate Picking Quintuplets Exercise 3 (2-4-2-1-4, 2-1-2-4-1)
Alternate Picking Quintuplets Exercise 3
The exercise shown above takes the general idea of exercise 1 and throws in a string skipping theme into the mix. This means that you jump over a string in order to play another part of the lick. We use this technique to develop the large interval sound that is less predictable and sure to grab some listener attention. If you have never done string skipping before you may do some mis- fretted notes along the way!
Exercise 4- Alternate Picking Quintuplets Exercise 4 (3-4-3-1-4, 2-1-2-4-1)
Alternate Picking Quintuplets Exercise 4
Exercise 4 takes the general shape of exercise 2 and adds string skipping for affect. Pay attention to the fingering pattern shown in the exercise title.
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Have Fun!
Tom Clark