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Dividing the quarter note in two parts, we get two 8th notes (also called octaves). The first of these coincides with the beat of the movement (it falls in strong time), while the second is raised. It's important to understand how to divide the quarter note from a theoretical as well as from a practical point of view. |
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In the previous exercises, the notes had a maximum value of a quarter, with down stroke picking, and therefore always coincided with the movement of the metronome. Looking at the hand movement for the down picking, you see that there are two parts to the movement: the first is the down picking, while the second is the return of the hand, which "jumps" the strings to go back to the initial phase.
Normally you would have used alternate picking to play the 8th note as the return movement tends to divide the quarter note into two 8th notes. You must therefore control the movement by regulating it in the rhythmic division. The voice can also help in this. For instance, pronounce this phrase with regularity:
down up down up down up down up
clapping the hands when you pronounce the word down.
If we compare the syllables to the 8th note, we would have divided the time giving the word down the movement in beat, also coinciding with the down picking, and the word up the time to raise, which is the upstroke. For some this is simple, for others not. For this reason the audio included in the exercises will help you understand these (and many other) subjects.
Ex #5 - In this exercise you can build your confidence with the octave by alternately playing one quarter note and two eighth notes. Notice how the following group of two 8th notes are combined with a horizontal line.
Ex #6 - A quarter note is followed by three octave movements.
Ex #7 - The opposite of exercise 5, with pairs of octaves in the first and third movements.
You can now repeat exercises 5, 6 and 7 changing chords at every measure, and using fairly simple fingerings at the beginning.
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Dividing an octave in half, we get two 16th notes. Usually the sixteenth notes are combined in groups of four, when they are in sequence, and are called fast notes. This may be true, but it all depends on the tempo
of the metronome. If the timing (speed of the metronome of a song) is slow, the sixteenths can also be slow. The ratio between the time values never changes: a sixteenth, at whatever speed it is played, is always half an octave, which is always half a quarter note, etc. A series of sixteenth notes requires alternate picking, just like the 8th note with respect to the quarter notes.
This means that the presence of the sixteenth note forces the octave to be picked using the down stroke, because a raised beat relationship exists between the eighth and sixteenth notes. |
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Ex #8 - Alternate the quarter note with a group of four sixteenths, listening to the midi. Be aware that the last sixteenth of the quatrain falls immediately on the following quarter note: you will get the impression that there are five consecutive notes. Initially play the exercise very slowly, calculating every picking and evaluating where the chord falls within the bar.
Ex #9 - In this exercise you only have to play the sixteenth note quatrains in succession. To avoid getting lost, you can accent the first note of every quatrain.
Ex #10 - Control of the picking is of fundamental importance. In this case, as above, the octave must be picked using the down stroke.
Ex #11 - A "summary" of the rhythmic divisions seen up to now, which precludes the study of the following exercises.
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