Up-the-Neck Octave Exercises

S LJuly 26, 2013

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Excerpted From: Weekly Workout: Move It On Up

This workout starts with octaves on the E and D strings and continues with octaves on the B and A and then G and E strings. You’ll notice that some of the octaves on the G and E strings (measure 3) require a bit of a stretch. But we can also play octaves on string sets with only one string between them, as in the second half of this workout (measures 4–6). Notice that we have to start with octaves four strings apart down by the nut to get all the notes in.

Musical examples for Week 3 of this Weekly Workout lesson, showing the octave scale exercise in standard notation as well as TAB (tablature)

For all four weeks of exercises and accompanying video instruction and demonstrations, download Weekly Workout: Move It On Up.

weekly workout - get your fingers moving with a series of interesting technical exercises

Explore more excerpts from Acoustic Guitar’s popular Weekly Workout series here.