Quick licks: advanced #5

Advanced lick one: King Crimson lines

This Robert Fripp style etude uses the A whole tone scale (A, B, C#, D#, F, G, A) and is a great alternate picking exercise. The line moves up a tone in the 3rd and 4th bars ensuring that the whole tone scale is quoted in its entirety. Relax the picking hand and work gradually up to 144bpm over a period of time using a clean in-between pickup tone with a bit of 1980s Crimson approved chorus effect.

Advanced lick two: Dream Theater meltdown

Here's a John Petrucci style prog-metal scorchfest! These are groups of nine notes in the space of one beat using the E Aeolian mode (E, F#, G, A, B, C, D, E). Observe the consecutive upstrokes of the pick between the 6th and 7th notes of each pattern when crossing strings, as this will ensure that you start with a downstroke at the beginning of every phrase. Start slowly to get the patterns established in the fretting hand before venturing beyond 60bpm.