In this video, Joe Satriani sits down to teach 10 tips that can help you build your chops—everything from bending to building fret-hand strength to breaking out of boxes and improving your
In this video, Joe Satriani sits down to teach 10 tips that can help you build your chops—everything from bending to building fret-hand strength to breaking out of boxes and improving your dexterity.
Joe takes you through each step of the process, with advice to help you with every technique shown.
In addition, each tip has accompanying TAB, which you can find below.
FIGURE 1 (:20)
Joe’s first tip is all about bending in tune. It’s really simple: you hit a note, drop down two frets and bend that note up to the first one. Do it first without vibrato. Then try it on other strings, in different areas of the neck and in various degrees of pitch change (half step, one and a half steps, and so on).
FIGURE 2 (1:20)
Building fret-hand strength, flexibility and endurance is key. One exercise you can use to work on these facets is to anchor your first finger at the 1st fret and then trill (rapid hammer-ons and pull-offs) notes from the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th frets.
FIGURE 3 (2:00)
This tip takes the stretching exercise from FIGURE 2 one step further, adding ascending and descending legato elements to it. Here, again using the 1st-fret F note as an anchor, ascend and descend in legato fashion, using every possible fingering combination. Try it on other strings and at other fretboard locations. too.
FIGURE 4 (2:30)
This tip combines hammer-ons and stretches in an exercise to build endurance and facility for three-notes-per-string licks and patterns. Work your way up and down the fretboard one half step at a time, and strive for an evenness of attack and volume.
FIGURE 5 (2:52)
This is a short example of how to combine all