ok guys im a newby guitarist/ songwriter
and I was wondering is there any specail
finger "drills" I can do to make my
playing faster right now Im running a
minor penatonic scale and just getting
faster as I go but I only know 1 if someone
could give me a link to find some more
that would stuependus and also how do
you make licks out of penatonic scales?
I mean I'm sure you just hammer on,
pull off, and bend in some random order
but....how lol I know hardly anything
and I am trying to get much better!!!
Thanks in advance you guys
!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

pay for some lessons. seriously. if you want to shred, get some lessons.

with that said, i can give you one exercise I know of for building both strength and independence in your fingers.

Play a chromatic scale up and down the guitar. As you place each finger down, leave it down while you move the next finger to the next note. Even when you move to the next string, leave all your fingers down except the one that is moving. Go extremely slowly at first, like turtle speed. Always leave all fingers pressed down that aren't playing. Only one finger should be moving/playing at a time. After setting your previous finger down, move your appropriate next finger to the next note first before plucking.

This will feel very awkward and strange at first but if you practice this for a solid hour every day for a week, playing in general will become much easier. This exercise particularly helps in building independence amongst your fingers, in other words being able to move any finger in any direction regardless of where your other fingers are. If you just simply wiggle your middle and ring fingers you'll probably notice that it's near impossible to move one without moving the other. This is just part of the physics of the body, however, you can still get around this limitation to a certain extent and the goal is to be able to move any finger independently of any other finger at any time to any place.

This is one of those mind bending exercises that will seem like it is not worth doing. Keep doing it for weeks or months at turtle speed if you need to. The key is not to go fast, the key is to be accurate and develop strength and independence. It won't sound cool, it won't be fun, it won't be something impressive to show your friends when you get good at it because during normal playing you usually will not leave all your fingers pressed down like this.

Just keep at it and it will improve your overall finger movement ability and thus your overall playing ability.

Music theory. Scales, scales, scales. Music theory. Pay for lessons.

First, I agree with Entheon... get lessons!

However there is a great site for scales:
http://www.chordbook.com/guitarscales.php

Although, self-teaching yourself guitar and the all the things can be useful too. That way you can also develop your own style of shredding!

I've been playing for 6 years now and I've pretty much taught myself everything I've learned and it has given me my own style of shredding as Kunadiun stated, but lessons are also very useful. I'd say take lessons, it may take a while to get the feel for the guitar, but hell, we've all been there.

There are a bunch of cool drills you can do man.I do alot of chromatic scales.I start on the first fret low E and play 1-2-3-4 across the first 4 frets do that all the way down to the high E then move to the 2-3-4-5 and come back up from the high E to the low E.Picking every single note,do that all the way up the neck.Then you can mix it up by going 1-2-3-4 on the low e, to 2-3-4-1 on the A, to 3-4-1-2 on the D, and 4-1-2-3 on the G.Just keep mixing it up so your getting a good workout with all 4 fingers. then you can do stuff like on the high E hit 1-2-3-4, then 2-3-4-5, then 3-4-5-6, etc....all the way up without stopping,pciking everynote.

Building licks with the pentatonic scale is always a mystery to beginners.What I always did when I was starting was write out a diagram of the whole neck and write in every fret what the name of that note is.Then, in say the key of A make little dots to show you where the 5 notes you can hit are, which would be ACDEG.Do this all over the neck.Visualize patterns you can make with the dots.As long as you hit A notes often it will sound right anywhere.

What i would do also is learn the licks to stuff like SRV,Hendrix,Clapton,Page,etc....all the basic Pentatonic stuff man.I know you may be more into modern stuff but these guys pretty much stuck to the box all the time.Learning the classic licks of these guys is easier casue chances are you already know them in your head.After learning the basics from these guys work your way up to more complex stuff...pretty soon you can add 2 more notes to your scale and you can play with the diatonic scale....which means 7 notes.I know you hear about modes alot,and I recommend learning basic theory, but I wouldn;t be too worried about learning every single mode.Some of them are so similar its not worth it.I use the aeolian and the dorian the most.There easy to learn its just adding 2 notes to the scale you already know. There is also stuff called "passing notes" their basically stuff you hit that may not sound right if you stop on it but it sounds cool to pass by it, but leanr the basics first

If you saw the new randy Rhoads tribute mag by Guitar World you shoudl pick it up...stuff liek that always helps.Also find a copy of Steve vai's 10 hour guitar workout online or in a back issue or Zakk Wylde's Guitar boot camp.The latter 2 have helped me more than just about anything.Even if you think Vai is alittle nuts he is one of the greatest teachers ever and his workout will have your fingers pumped up fast even if you do it for an hour or so a day.If you have a file sharing program like limewire or soemthing, try downloading Pentatonic hardcore by Zakk Wylde ,Guitar discipline by John Petrucci,or Total electric guitar by Eric Johnson.All this stuff helped me greatly


I hope this stuff helped.I've gotten to the point where I'm at by just learning the licks that I wanted.Learn about stuff you think sounds cool.If your never gonna use it why learn it you know.I have a few songs posted on here, I basically use diatonic scales branched off the standard old pentatonic scale,nothing really complex...check them out man!!


randy

I disagree with alot of the other posts man....I've been playing almost 14 years....I am perfectly comfortable with my playing...I don;t know everything but I've played in Ozzy Tribute bands,Many original bands....and I've never took a lesson in my life...why pay someone, their are hundereds of free sources to learn from....or the 15 bucks you can pay at walmart to buy SRV live at the el macumbo.........

Learn arpeggios. Thats my favorite thing to do. But first learn some theory then you wont be fishing all day for a good note. You'll just be a smart player who will just know where the good notes will be next.

Great site!!! beside it has Guitar Chord Chart with Sound and Strum I usually use it with https://chords.tv/ chords lyrics site.

search hooktheory on google. they have the simplest and most modern way of explaining popular music theory. i bought their book for about 10 or 20 bucks and no regrets!

Nice site so thanks was share, i have recommed site too. try visit this http://bandamp.com/