Add Note Exercise
One of the most efficient methods to quickly learn difficult licks/lines, solos or even accompaniments is the Add Note Exercise.
What is the Add Note Exercise?
Let’s say we have an exercise that fails everywhere it can fail. The fingers don’t cooperate, the head doesn’t know what’s coming next, and the right hand is doing something completely different than it should.
Now, how do we break this down?
First, the first four notes should work before we move on to the difficult part; the next string.
So we first play the first four notes until you almost feel a little silly. I personally sometimes play short parts in isolation (i.e. without going any further) until I can’t stand it myself anymore. 🙂
Different Rhythms
Another approach, or a supplement to the isolation of exercises, is to change the rhythm.
In the above example, there are no special rhythms or anything complicated, except for the speed. So you can change the rhythm and practice difficult passages (changing from middle finger to ring finger) well without really thinking about what the fingers have to do exactly.
The Next String
The most difficult part of this exercise is definitely the jump to the next string.
To practice this difficult passage well, we therefore only add one more note to our four notes. It makes no sense to continue if something is not working well yet.
This exercise can now be continued until entire solos are learned and can be played.
Quality Control Check
Set yourself a goal and try to achieve it before moving on. My goal was to be able to play the exercise for one minute at a certain speed without making a mistake. If I made a mistake after 55 seconds, I had to start over. This way, one minute quickly turns into 15 minutes. 🙂
Once I reached my goal, I increased the speed a little (about 5 bpm).
The advantage is that once you have really well practiced the first five notes, the next 10 notes will not be more difficult. You have already practiced all the prerequisites of the exercise in the first few notes and do not have to start from scratch again.
