SYSTEM THREE

Introduction To System Three

Welcome to System 3 of the Guitar Daily Workout! If you have gone through the first two Systems, you should have a great deal of confidence in playing the CAGED system, and knowing all of it’s associated arpeggios, pentatonic scales and major scales in every key and every position across the neck. This is a huge step forward in understanding the geometry of the guitar neck and something that will deeply impact your musical life.

Though these exercises consecutively build upon one another, they also can stand alone if there are specific exercises you need to work on.

For this system’s 12-week program, we’ll go through a set of exercises similar to the previous 2 systems but push into new territory as well. We’ll cover finger gymnastics–a non-musical exercise that will help develop finger independence; interval training–which will help you hear intervals and see the geometry of every interval; and arpeggios, pentatonics, and in this system all of your modes of the major scale. These first 4 systems are the building blocks of understanding the guitar neck. Proficiency of the exercises in these systems is essential for guitar playing and vital to understanding the guitar neck.

Finger Gymnastics

The System 3 Finger Gymnastics are a variation of the Finger Gymnastics in the first 2 Systems. As you do this exercise, be sure that you do not tense your right or left hand. Also, be careful to relax the shoulder of your picking hand. Do not push it forward. And breathe evenly. Being relaxed helps with speed and dexterity. Your muscles won’t fight against each other, which allows for the smoothest functioning fingers. In this exercise, you will begin on each of your 4 fingers; this is different from the first 2 systems’ finger gymnastics, which all start with the first finger.

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Interval Training

In order to play melodically, one must be able to hear and play intervals. What makes improvisation good is not just simply running up and down scales, but playing the correct notes over the chords (though learning basic scales is the first step to learning to improvise) making melodies. Phrasing and note choice is what really makes improvisation interesting.

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Arpeggios

Arpeggios are basically chords broken into single notes. For instance, the first 6 notes of the National Anthem are simply the notes of the tonic, or I chord, broken into individual tones.

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Pentatonics: 4-Note Groupings

This system will go through all positions of the CAGED system in every key in 4-note groupings. This will develop speed in the right hand. Players like Eric Johnson, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, and B.B. King have made careers of being masters of this scale.

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Modes: 3-on-a-string

Many people talk about modes, and there is a good bit of confusion about them. This may be because of the way they are taught. People often teach each respective mode based on the major scale. For instance, they will say that Ionian mode is M2, M3, P4, P5, M6, M7, and P8. They will go on to teach that the Dorian mode is R, M2, m3, P4, P5, M6, m7, and P8, and Phrygian mode is R, m2, m3, P4, P5, m6, m7, and P8, and so on through Lydian mode, Mixolydian mode, Aeolian mode and Locrian mode.

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