This lesson I will be showing you a composition by J.S. Bach called "Partita No. 3" that I've arranged for the electric guitar. It is usually played on the violin or on the classical guitar using the fingerstyle approach instead of a pick. This is a great piece to help develop and improve your picking technique and it will improve your coordination between both hands. I'm going to start by giving you a short excerpt to begin working on.
The nice thing about arranging a violin piece for the guitar is that you can work out your own positioning and fingerings and do it your own way. This piece is in the key of E major and it is in 3/4 time. The first section I gave you lays right inside the E major scale (E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#). There is some clever use of pedal point, and a little bit of string skipping. This can be found in in bar 3 between the D and B string, which can be challenging for your right hand at high speeds because you are skipping strings. Also, beginning at bar 9, there is some great pedal point and some string skipping. Be sure to play this whole piece using alternate picking and follow the fingerings supplied.
That is it for this month! Be sure to practice this slowly to start, and then build up speed. Stop by mikecampese.com and say hi!