Single-string scale exercises?

[Sabicas]

I play several different instruments that are in different tunings. I think it would be easier to transition between instruments by thinking up and down the fretboard as opposed to the standard "block" scale patterns that are so prevalent with guitar players. I see Turkish saz players doing it very rapidly. Django also played a lot of licks this way.

I'm surprised that I'm having such a difficult time finding some good exercises for scales on one or two strings only. The ones I've found are very simple and not really "exercises", like simply moving the index through every interval of the scale. I know my scales and am just looking for new ways to play them.

Any good sources out there?

[bako]

Play melodies on 1 or 2 strings.
If you are looking for more detailed scale patterns, try the 1st 40 or so examples in the Virtuoso Pianist by Hanon.
Transpose to all keys and adjust notes as needed to address the other 7 note scales.

[pierre richard]

mel bay has books on single string playing...check out Bob Kellers Jazz Page too..

Sal Salvador comes to mind as an author and guitarist who has some great books...

Ted Greene is another one...Joe Pass...

google it and see what comes up...

time on the instrument....

[docbop]

Metheny plays that way and has a book of etudes he used to warmup, you might want to take a look at that.

Just take things you do already and limit yourself to playing them using only two strings like 3rd and 4th, it really opens up fretboard knowledge when you limit yourself like this.

[kris]

John Abercrombie

[Torito]

There is a Guitar Hanon book by Peter Deneff, lots of exercises there.

[JakeAcci]

here is an idea/approach for improvisation

Try static vamps to start, one for each mode and melodic minor mode (and any others you'd want to include,) all in C, to start.

Then try a looping ii V I, major and minor

Then try a blues

Then simple tunes like Stella, There will Never be another you

If you find yourself stuck on certain keys/harmonies/regions of the neck, isolate that element (key, harmony, area, whatever.)

Just a thought. I've used this kind of idea, progression-oriented practice and thinking, to improve various skills.

[Sabicas]

Thanks everyone. There's a lot of info here and I'm looking into these suggestions.

[whatswisdom]

some good exercises for scales on one string

The Advancing Guitarist, by Mick Goodrick. Exersize #1. Equipment needed: 1 Unitar.

[michellepinto]

This place has some good lessons 1 String Scales. Besides that practice alone can help you improve

[MarkRhodes]

There is a Guitar Hanon book by Peter Deneff, lots of exercises there.

Has anyone here worked with this book? I know the original Hanon pieces were for piano, to develop technique. A few versions for guitar have popped up here and there but I don't know much about any one of them. Is one as good as another???

[NoReply]

Playing on one or two strings only is something many of the great have said was something they did at one point. Jim Hall, John Abercrombie, Joe Diorio, Pat Metheny and others. Jim Hall and Joe Diorio both talk about even taping some strings so they couldn't play them. It teaches a lot about guitar fretboard, while at the same time make you think more about music by eliminating guitaristic moves. Like a not knowing how to play piano and pecking out melodies on piano it's all about the notes then.

[pamosmusic]

I literally posted a video of some stuff I practice last night ... It's buried by now though. It's pretty basic stuff but I go through intervals and metronome things with it too.

[pamosmusic]

https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/every...ing-video.html

here it is ... It is fairly basic but I could give you some other ideas too ... Basically anything I do in boxes I try uses this sort of template too. Intervals, triads, other scales, melodies, guide tone lines ... the whole bit

[closeenough]

The Single String Studies book was just re-issued this summer!

Amazon.com: Sal Salvador's Single String Studies for Guitar: Bestselling Classic Book - Updated Edition with Tab (9781495057601): Sal Salvador: Books

[Vladan]

What you play in a box, across the strings, you can translate to 1 string, at least in one octave. There, you already have your exercises.

Take care, playing descending lines on 1 string sort of forces into use of 3 fingers left hand approach, which may become a habit.
Some people think it is good one. I don't.

[pubylakeg]

The Single String Studies book was just re-issued this summer!

Amazon.com: Sal Salvador's Single String Studies for Guitar: Bestselling Classic Book - Updated Edition with Tab (9781495057601): Sal Salvador: Books

Just thought I'd add (because this book has been mentioned in a couple of threads recently) that the title "Single String Studies" is actually a bit of a misnomer, as it's actually a book of scales and lead playing techniques, as in "single note" playing , as opposed to "chordal" playing. As such it doesn't include or emphasise playing up and down a single string, except in some exercises of scales harmonised in 3rds.