SYSTEM FOUR

Introduction To System Four

Welcome to System 4, and congratulations on getting through the first 3 systems. Upon the successful completion of System 4, you as a player can be secure knowing that you have mastered the most important core scales and arpeggios that you will need to be a competent and confident guitarist. I’m sure that you have had a growing sense of confidence in your abilities since you’ve started these systems! Keep up the hard work. It will continue to pay off!

In System 4, we will continue to build upon the skills you gained in the first 3 systems.

Finger Gymnastics

All of the Finger Gymnastics exercises we’ve had up to this point were based on 4-note patterns. These are excellent exercises to develop both finger dexterity and syncopation between the left and the right hands. In System 4’s Finger Gymnastics, we’ll do an exercise that is based on a 5-note pattern. Your right hand will need to play the first note of the pattern on an upstroke every other sequence, rather than always having it start with a down pick. When improvising, phrases will often begin on the upbeat, so this will help with your improvisation skills.

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Intervals

The ability to associate an interval with a geometric shape on the guitar neck allows you to play what you hear in your head. On the piano, the association of a note to a shape is fairly easy to visualize. As I mentioned in the introduction to System 3, this is more complicated on a guitar than on a piano. The keyboard is a simple linear grid of 12 notes broken into a major scale (white keys) with a pentatonic scale (black keys).

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Arpeggios

Knowing all of your arpeggio shapes across the neck is one of the most important skills a guitarist can have for playing melodically. Often guitarists move around the neck to get to arpeggio positions they are more comfortable with. This exercise will help train you to find the notes of any arpeggio in a single position. You won’t have to move out of position to find the notes of the arpeggio, no matter where you are on the neck. With this exercise, you will go through all arpeggios in each of the CAGED forms each week. The exercise covers 12 keys in 12 weeks, so after you master it, you should be able to find the arpeggio notes of any chord anywhere you are on the neck.

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Modes

In System 4, we will be playing the modes in 3rds, skipping every other note. Obviously, any interesting improvisation is not just linear. In order to be interesting, the improvisor must change directions and note order. This very simple exercise will help you to be able to ‘jump’ to notes in your 3-on-a-note modes. Though this is a very easy exercise, try to push tempos. No matter how easy these exercises are, you can always challenge yourself by increasing speed and focusing on accuracy.

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Pentatonic Scale

For this pentatonic scale exercise, we will simply skip every other note of the pentatonic. It is like playing in 3rds for the modes. But for the pentatonic scale, when we skip a note, the scale mostly moves in 4ths. Players like Eddie Daniels, McCoy Tyner, and Bill Evans (and countless others) used staggered pentatonics to get some very interesting sounds. All but one of the intervals are 4ths in this exercise, which gives a very open and modern sound. This exercise will also help to develop the ability to ‘roll’ your finger to a note on the same fret of the adjacent string.

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