Non tuning specific flatpicking exercises?

[jseth]

Whatever method you choose to employ, I would suggest continuing to play songs as you work to master the techniques you want...

Seems to me that you have a two-fold issue to deal with; one would be the various scales in the tuning that you have chosen. Nothing to do with that but buckle down and figure them out, figure out pentatonic, major and blues scales within that structure. You will want to (eventually) know them inside and out, backwards and forwards.

This could be problematic if you don't have a decent grasp on theory and harmony, but, I'm guessing that your cello/classical training gave you waht you need. The fact that you're in a different tuning means that information may not be readily available.

The second issue is the actual technique involved. I can tell you that one of the best things I ever did for my playing, both single-note and chording, was to spend quality time with a metronome,,, back in the day, it was one of those wind-up Witenauer units, and if the spring had been "sprung" in the slightest, there was always a question of "Is it me, or is it the metronome?"! Nowadays, the quartz-lock metronomes are incredibly accurate and there will be NO question as to what the "problem" is...

No rhythm machine or drum beat stuff, just the brutally insistent "click-click-click"... I worked each scale (major/pentatonic/extended versions of both - 3 octaves or more - as well as some :other" scales for jazz stuff - whole tone, dimnished, 1/2 tone/whole tone - but those may not serve the music you want to play right now).

Go AS SLOWLY as you can, like 40 bpm or so, and work each scale, 1/4 notes, 1/8th notes, 1/4 note triplets, 16th notes. Pay particular attention to ALWAYS using a alternating pick stroke, making each note the same volume and tone while playing that scale as PERFECTLY as you can...

I spent at least an hour a day on this for months on end. Somedays it was really tough to "lock-in", other days everything just flowed. I treated it like a meditation, and it was amazing how doing this would induce an almost trance-like state of mind...

Working really slow does several wonderful things for you... for one, you can really lock in to the time/tempo, and you will notice what your "tendencies" are - I realized that I would "rush" my triplets, but lag slightly on my 16ths... also, the human "machine" gets calibrated to playing in time; when you go ahead and just play the music you want, your brain will automatically reproduce the tempo even though it's far faster than what you had that metronome set to produce. Along with these, you will develop flawless "back and forth" picking strokes...

I recall that about 4 months into this, I increased the metronome setting to somewhere around 80-90 bpm, BUT still slow enough that I could comfortably play 16th notes without undue effort... remember, you want to play EVERYTHING really clean, don't let yourself sacrifice accuracy for speed (which you will want to do).

Once that picking technique and the scales are ingrained, you will want to start skipping strings, breaking up those scales in various ways - I mean, who wants to listen to someone just playing scales over a piece of music?

But the above exercise will give you the tools to progress.

Hope this helps a bit! I don't know if you have the "gumption" to hang with a program like this, but it WILL help you to get where you want to go if you can do it thoroughly.

Good luck!