Examples 39-50 are NEO-CLASSICAL ETUDES.Throughout this course we will be learning many neo-classical etudes mainly because they are a melodic way of playing technical exercises.And on top of that everybody wants to be able to play like Yngwie Malmsteen ;) An etude is a piece of music that was written to help practise a certain technique.
Wherever we have a full tone between each of the 3 notes it is important to use your 1st,2nd and 4th finger.Not your 3rd finger in place of your 2nd.Thats very important so pay careful attention to your fingering in these etudes.Most if not all of these etudes have the HARMONIC MINOR Scale in them.We will be studying that scale in more detail later in the course but learn the shape on the scale page before you continue.
The Double Lines with Double dots to their left indicate a repeat
(Play that section twice.If more it will be written on top of the line)

EXAMPLE 39 is an open string Etude in the Key of Am.Try and play this at 4 NPB starting at around 70 BPM and working up to a comfortable but testing speed in increments of 5.
And remember throughout this and the rest of these examples you have to maintain strict alternate picking.Pick aggresively and confidently and get all of these etudes memorized and start incorporating them in to your daily practise routine and you will haveresults in no time for your picking/coordination and speed.

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EXAMPLE 39

In EXAMPLE 40 we have another open string neo-classical etude in the key of Cm.The open strings make it harder on co-ordination between both hands as while playing the 1st 3 notes you are picking with your right hand as your left hand frets a note but for 1 in every 4 notes your left hand has to basically do nothing which just confuses your co-ordination.Again accent the first of every 4 notes and make sure your timing is even between notes.And by now yu should know to as always use your metronome!!

EXAMPLE 40

In EXAMPLE 41 we lose the open strings.I have outlined the chords that each group of notes are playing.I havent done this in all the examples as later in the course we will be studying arpeggios and the theory behind them which will help you understand how to outline different chords/arpeggios with these single string passages.But for now we are only trying to get our picking techniques up to scratch.If you have someone you can jam with get them to play the chords while you play the lead section,or if you have any way of recording yourself record the backing chords yourself and play over them.If you notice in the last bar of these examples we have basic open chords.But again you still try and aim to play 4 NPB alternate picking with these chords which will be tricky as we will come across our old friend 'inside Picking' again.

EXAMPLE 41

EXAMPLE 42 is in the Key of Am

EXAMPLE 42

EXAMPLES 43/44 are in the Key of Em

EXAMPLE 43

EXAMPLE 44

EXAMPLE 45 is a very YNGWIE MALMSTEEN sounding etude in Em.In fact he has played this in many songs but he has borrowed it from Johann Sebastian Bach among countless other things.In this etude we now have 2 strings in the equation and we have a repeating pivot/pedal between most of the bars.The 12/11/12 bit is the pivot/pedal point.
Basically when ever you have a passage where you have a note or notes that you work other notes around it is known as a pivot/pedal.Pedal is a good description.Just picture the pedal on your bike pivoting around the centre bar.

EXAMPLE 45

EXAMPLE 46 is in the Key of C Major

EXAMPLE 46

EXAMPLE 47 is in the Key of Am

EXAMPLE 47

EXAMPLE 48 is in the KEY of Am but i have outlined the chords in this piece as there is something interesting happening here.If you notice in the first bar the chords change from Am to Dm yet for each chord we use the same Root/Bass note of A.Its a pivot of sorts.The chord of Dm has an A note in it.The A in Dm is its perfect 5th interval.The shape we use here is the 2nd inversion of Dm.But yet again dont worry too much about that yet as we will be touching on the theory side of things later.But refer back to this example when we do and then see if you understand what im talking about.

EXAMPLE 48

EXAMPLE 49 is by far the trickiest of all the etudes and even combines our new friend EXAMPLE 45 into it,except its in the key of Bm this time round.Thats the secret with these type of etudes is to move them around and practise them in different keys/positions/octaves.

EXAMPLE 49

In EXAMPLE 50 i have added in the fingering at the expense ot the alternate picking strokes but im sure you know at this stage that you should be using strict alternate picking for all of these examples.This is MOZART's 5th caprice made famous from the Crossroads movie! Not the one with Britney ;) The one with Steve Vai and Ralph Macchio.If you havent seen that movie you should make it your business to hunt it down.Jason Becker played a bigger chunk of this in his recent HOT LICKS video.And of course it goes with out saying you should check that video out.To me Jason is the greatest guitarist this world has ever had.Anyhoo,here is a short excerpt which makes for a great picking exercise and can be looped infinitly.Play this over and over till your fingers fall off!

Thats it for the Neo-Classical Etudes but we will be coming across more of them later in the course which will include some really cool Jason Becker/Marty Friedman/Mozart/Bach/Yngwie Malmsteen/ChrisImpelliterri/Vinnie Moore/Greg Howe/Beethoven/RacerX songs.Plus loads more so just make sure you practise the hell out of all of the latter exercises because as we get further in to things you will need to have attained a fairly decent level of technique before attempting some of the upcoming pieces in the course.Anyway,practise,practise,practise and then go on to Alternate Picking Part 4.

EXAMPLE 50