In Deep: How to Expand Your Approach to Improvising by Playing on No More Than Three Strings

The following content is related to the April 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.

In last issue’s column, we learned techniques that can help us break free from learned licks and “muscle memory” phrases and discover new sounds and soloing ideas all over the fretboard. As we saw, traversing a single string offers unique musical challenges as well as a variety of articulation options, and even more phrasing and melodic choices can be found when applying a similar approach to two-string pairs.

This month, I’d like to expand this creative exercise to include three strings, which I’ll demonstrate using the E Mixolydian mode (E Fs Gs A B Cs D).

PART ONE

PART TWO