Open String Exercise
by Rhoy Pamparo on May.29, 2009, under Melodic Insights
I’ve been having a new found fascination for licks that incorporate open strings these past days. And I am not taking about the licks on an open-chord formation. To demonstrate what I mean, here’s a tab of a simple, yet challenging, lick that I was playing with last night. Just a note that there are a couple of slides/pull-offs that I didn’t get the chance to include in this tab and also the phrasing is a little different.
It was so much fun that I decided to record it so that I won’t forget the phrasing myself.
So, without further ado, here’s the 30-second clip: Open String Exercise
Disclaimer: This is a rough take so please try not to judge the fluidity and/or tone! 
If you have a lick that uses open strings, please let me know. I would definitely want to improve this technique!
Have fun!
6 Comments for this entry
1 Trackback or Pingback for this entry
-
Pamparo in Toronto
June 8th, 2009 on 9:56 amYet another exercise…
In conjunction with the Open String Exercise post, here’s another exercise incorporating open-strings. It was actually faster and different phrasing than this when I first started but I couldn’t find a drum track that would fit. So I just a…
May 29th, 2009 on 7:13 pm
Thanks! I’m going to try it this weekend. I think the solo in Lincoln Brewster’s Let the Praises Ring is a pretty good open string work out on the high E string including some triplet action at the end. I can’t help but think of Riverdance when I see it played live though
What did you use to generate that tab format?
I have a lick/exercise that involves some open strings but it’s more to keep up hammer ons/pull offs/string skipping precision going from high E to low E and back to high E string.
May 30th, 2009 on 7:25 pm
no problem Dan! yeah, Lincoln’s solo on that song has a lot of open string stuff. i’ll try that as well but you’re right, it does sound like riverdance
i use an open-source program called etktab (http://etktab.sourceforge.net/). it’s a nifty little program.
i would like to try your lick/exercise. please share it when you can
June 6th, 2009 on 6:53 am
Very nice….
But i’m curious, how did you create that tab picture?
oh, wait, you answered that. Great!
Keep ‘em coming!
June 6th, 2009 on 8:42 am
thanks Larry!
actually, there are two parts to the tab image. i created the tab using the software, then i did a screen shot on the Mac using Command-Shift-4
June 13th, 2009 on 7:25 am
I took another look at this post now that I have some time….
I like it. Just curious, what guitar (Tele?) and whats the distortion on it (Zen)?
June 13th, 2009 on 8:09 am
hey larry, thanks for checking it out again. and good that you have more time now, hope your finals went well.
to answer your questions, i think I used my Les Paul
and you will be surprised to know that all the guitars only used software-based emulations from Logic Express. You might be hearing a Zendrive type of sound because I bumped up the mid-range quite a bit on the EQ.
Here’s the settings I used: