Scale pattern 1

Scale pattern 2

Pulgar

Scale pattern 1

Picado + pulgar

Scale pattern 1

Now it is time you had some fun with OSIRE!

In this section I intend to present the features of OSIRE, which will involve several instruments and picking techniques, as follows:

1. picking soloing technique - on acoustic and electric guitars

2. finger picking soloing technique - picado and pulgar, two flamenco-style finger picking techniques, and the combination of them, on acoustic guitar

3. picking technique  - on electric bass guitar

4. finger picking technique - on electric bass guitar

5. slap-pop technique - on electric bass guitar.

Picking soloing technique

Electric guitar

The instrument used for recording the scale patterns is a medium quality Fender Squier electric guitar, in a clean channel. Below you will find information on all the parameters / settings, so that they may be reproduced at a later time:

General OSIRE settings

• Tuning: standard

• MIDI effect: Acoustic (nylon) + 1 octave higher

• Metronome: Woodblock A4

• Number of initial tacts: 4

Guitar effects

• P98 - AG Lead (Yamaha MagicStomp)

Scale pattern 1

• Level: Medium

• Scale: G major

• Scale pattern in digits: 012

• Scale structure: trichord

• Mode: one scale degree

• Speed: 90

• Soloing technique: Picking soloing technique

This is a 012 cale pattern in G major:

Scale pattern 2

• Level: Medium

• Scale: F major

• Scale pattern in digits: 010

• Scale structure: trichord

• Mode: full

• Speed: 90

• Soloing technique: Picking soloing technique

This is a full-scale practice in 010 digits. The below scales are the basic scales that I play from the first to the last and back:

↕

↕

↕

↕

↕

↕

↕

Scale pattern 3

• Level: Advanced

• Scale: A harmonic minor, first degree

• Scale pattern in digits: 0100

• Scale structure: trichord

• Mode: one scale degree + third

• Speed: 90

• Soloing technique: Picking soloing technique

Using your imagination, you can create superb patterns with OSIRE. For example, here's this little structure where the respective thirds are played, as another part, over the notes of a scale, in this particular case the A harmonic minor scale. These kind of scales can be heard typically in metal solos and even classical musical pieces. In this example the original scale is the first degree of the A harmonic minor (in the video played back by OSIRE)...

...and I played the thirds, which is the third degree of the A harmonic minor scale, over the original scale:

The scale pattern is 0100 digits.

 Scale pattern 4

• Level: Advanced

• Scale: F major

• Scale pattern in digits: 0123

• Scale structure: trichord

• Mode: one scale degree + section selection + loop

• Speed: 60

• Soloing technique: Picking soloing technique

Apart from one scale degree and full scale modes, OSIRE can playback any desired part of a certain scale. This is called section selection, and becomes particularly helpful in cases when facing problems with not the whole scale but only certain part(s) of it. Section selection allows us to focus only on these problematic parts, without having to run through the whole scale again. For example, the trickiest part...

... of the major scale, and generally all basic scales, is the switch between the G and the B strings, attributed to the interval between them being a high third. When you face problems like that, all you have to do is select the problematic section, as shown in the figure below...

...and then switch to loop function, which will infinitely play these notes. Section selection mode is crucial for practicing the fingering of advanced scale patterns, such as the present one. You can find more on the fingering of the advanced scale patterns in section Soloing techniques basics III.

Finger picking soloing technique

In my understanding, finger picking soloing technique allows you to play, in particular, solo parts on the guitar using you fingers. My methodology employs the flamenco finger picking techniques, such as picado and pulgar.  The preferable instrument to employ this technique is the acoustic guitar, although electric guitar could also be an option. (Mark Knopfler, former lead guitarist of Dire Straits, is famous for his finger picking soloing skills on the electric guitar. However, the technique he employs is more of a classical guitar fingerstyle.)

Source: http://hotguitarist.com

I use an Ibanez acoustic guitar with a piezoelectric pickup when recording the scale patterns. In addition, a Yamaha Magicstomp digital effect is intended to make up for the mediocre quality of the pickup.

General OSIRE settings

• Tuning: standard

• MIDI effect: Acoustic (nylon) + 1 octave higher

• Metronome: Woodblock A4

• Number of initial tacts: 4

Guitar effects