Josip Pesut

20 Tips For Better Phrasing

Learning the Notes On Guitar
Emphasis In Solo Phrases
Half-whole scale ideas
Including Arpeggios In Melodies
Tapping on the Same Notes of Legato (part 1)
How To Have Productive Rehearsals

20 Tips For Better Phrasing

This article is only a tap into topic of phrasing. I will mention some of the options you
have, and go deeper into them with other articles.
Take 2 notes the note from which you begin, and the note on which you end a phrase.
Those notes will be your reference points, while you focus on everything that happens
between them, in order to enhance your phrasing diversity and vocabulary. In this article,
I'm going to point out 20 things you can work on to make your phrasing more interesting
and colorful:
1. Scalar progressions
This is most obvious way to phrase. Play all notes between starting and ending
note in scalar form, in descending or ascending order, or even not. It may be
whatever lenght of notes or their order your imagination wants wholes, halves,
eights, sixteenths, tuplets. You can also mix all of those in phrases. You can
experiment with legato and with picking.
2. Using rests

Sometimes rests can make a strong statement in a phrase.

3. Thrills
Using short and long thrills can be very colorfull. You can do it with notes of any
interval you desire, and be sure to try all of them!
4. Bends
Bending notes is always effective. It can be done in slow and in fast solos. You
can bend any note in the phrase you like, and you can bend it up to 2 whole tones,
or even more, but be sure to keep the accuracy of pitch.
5. Pedal notes
These ones are found most oftenly in neo-classical phrasing, but it can be used in
any genre of music. Work with pedal notes below, above and in the middle of
your referance notes.
6. Slides
Sliding from note to note is sometimes way more expressive than just hitting the
next note. You can combine sliding with tapping technique, as well, when you do
it with your tapping finger. Having spontaneous slides to the note, or from the
note can sometimes enforce your that note.
7. Changing the 'return note'
I don't know any other term for this note, but it often occured to me that, when I
get into certain phrases, I have one or more notes on which I often return. My
phrases got lot more interesting when I began to change those 'return notes' into
higher or lower, when I actually returned to them.
8. Reaching higher and lower notes
You can make some runs that go into higher notes than your beginning or ending
notes, and then get back to your ending note. And of course, you can make runs
that go into lower notes than your beginning or ending notes, and then get back to
your ending notes. The idea of this tip is not to get stuck only in between the first
and last note.
9. Vibrato
One of the strongest tools you have as a guitar player is firm and creative vibrato.
Try slow vibrato's, fast ones... Mix vibrato and bends. There is a sea of options in

this one. Take one note and play with it for hours, you might get really surprised
with what may come out!
10.

Repeat
Repeat certain parts of phrases in right rhythm and you might get really effective,
dazzling solo.

11. Dual melody

By dual melody, I don't refer to polyphonic melody, meaning, you get only 1 note
playing at the time, but you make 2 melody lines.
12. Tapping
Tapping may sound really exotic. You can tap on the same notes you already
played, you can tap on the notes next in the scale, you can tap on notes one octave
higher, or any other.. There are many options on this.
13. Chords
It is really powerfull to put a few chords on higher notes when you're in the
middle of the solo, but this has to be really carefully worked out.
14. Open string notes
If the notes of one or more open strings fit your key, be sure to try using them.
15. Same notes
Try playing same notes on different strings, or same notes on same string. Try
playing them in various speeds. Tremolo pick them, slide to them, bend to them,
play them with your teeth! ;)
16. Octaves
You can play up to 2 octaves in the same time (if you have enough wide fingering
range). Adding octaves to your melodies is really powerfull.
17. Harmonics
You can play artificial, natural or tapped harmonics instead of regular notes. Even
try playing several natural harmonics on different strings at the same time. You
will get really interesting sound. See where do you have natural harmonics
available on your guitar, and how they can fit in your phrase.

18. Prolonging the notes

Try prolonging the note into next measure of your phrase, and then resolve it.
19. Intervals and multiple melody lines
Having more than one guitar playing certain melody line, in different intervals, is
really effective. Be sure to try how each interval sounds, and think of where you'd
like to hear it.
20. Whammy bar
Whammy bar can be your source of really intense, emotive and innovative
phrases. See what you can do with it when transitioning only from one note to
other, as well as when 'whammying' whole phrase. There are countless things to
do with whammy bar dive bombs, screams, weird vibratos, artificial chorus..
really anything!
Mix all of those tips. Don't get held on only one of them. Of course, when you learn, you
should have all of your focus on only one, but when you actualize the phrase or solo,
have all of those options in mind!

Emphasis In Solo Phrases

by Josip Pesut (www.josippesut.com)

This article is about giving emphasis to certain points of phrases, in this

case, by starting from certain notes. This is great exercise for your guitar playing focus,
since you have to be able to audio image the phrase you are going to play before you
actually play it, and hold that audio image in your mind while you play. That is the only
way to make those accents you made by starting from different note hearable to a listener.
So, choose your favourite licks and emphasize the starting note while you play that licks
in loop. After you hear that it sounds fine, start from second note of the lick, then from
third, and so on...

2 note loops

First we will start from simple 2 note loops. For example take G and B and first play a
loop starting from G. I'm sure you won't have much problems with this. Then reverse the
loop. What you now play MUSN'T sound like you started from G. B note must be
emphasized. This rule is work for every other phrase you want to practice this way.

3 note loops
Play loops of 3 notes B, C and D. And start those loops from different notes. At this
point, you might have a problem of keeping the accentuation, or even picking right so it
could be emphasized well. Practice those examples (fig. 1-3), and even make yours,
perhaps in some arpeggio ideas.
Fig1

Fig2

Fig3

I also advise you to make this with loops of more than 3 notes. Maybe choose 6 notes; a 2
string pattern. This is pretty good exercise (Fig. 4). For example, take notes of G major
scale, and start on second string. The notes are G, A, B, C, D and E. Don't change your
fingering when you play loops from different note.
Fig4

You will realize how your picking hands drives to pick differently, but that is the point,
don't change anything! Take a phrase of this example which is easiest for you to play, and
then analyze how do you end up picking on the note you have problem with. Then use the
downstrok/upstroke to start on that note, according to what you analyzed. Use a
metronome to achieve the speed you want.
Once you practice out each of the loop pattern, start mixing them, and see what comes
out! You might get lots of good ideas this way. One more thing you can always use is
when you play a phrase starting from some other note than you lowest one in that phrase,
after playing it couple of times, it might occur to you that you actually play from lowest
note. This dazzling trick can be useful in soloing.

Another thing you can do is incorporate bends on certain note, and repeat the whole
phrase from one note couple of times, then start from other note (but make the bend on
the same note), and so on. Same is possible with slides, and even vibrato.
This is fairly simple thing to work out, but it will improve your phrasing abilites a lot!
Download the Emphasis In Solo Phrases Guitar Pro Tab.

Half-whole scale ideas

by Josip Pesut (www.josippesut.com)

About half-whole scale

Half-whole diminished scale is an octatonic scale, meaning, it has 8 tones, or more
accurate, notes. The name explains which notes they are if you choose A half-whole
scale, you go this way:
First note is A, next one is the half step higher, which is B flat, next one is two half-steps
(whole step) higher, which is C, next one is again half step away, which is D flat, and so
on.
The formula is 1, b2, #2, 3, #4, 5, 6, b7.
Here are a few of common fingerings for this scale (in key of E):

And in the key of A:

Characteristic chords for this scale are: Half Diminished, Diminished, Minor 7,
Diminished 7. You can play a progression of those chords following each note of the
scale.
I see this scale as a tool to describe an atmosphere of danger and fear. Try to play around
with a pedal tone (for example A), and improvise with notes of this scale, and you'll see
what I'm talking about.

Soloing Ideas
I will present some of my ideas for soloing in this scale, in the key of Am. First I'm gonna
start with some one string runs. Example 1 (Fig 1) involves having E note as a pedal tone.
Fig 1:

Example 2 (Fig 2) sounds pretty interesting if you play it right. You start from A note on
5th fret, first string, with index finger, and then hammer on with your ring or middle
finger on higher note in the scale (Bb note), and then you slide with index finger from A
to Bb note. Then continue the process all the way to higher A note on 17th fret.
Fig 2:

Next example (Fig 3) is a slide/legato phrase on one string.

Fig 3:

The following riff (Fig 4) requires usage of all four fingers of your left hand. Try to
experiment with this kind of phrases, you might get to really groovy licks!
Fig 4:

Next phrase (Fig 5) is a good way to experiment with using same notes in a row. Try
playing this example in reverse, too!
Fig 5:

You can also arpeggiate with notes of this scale.

Fig 6:

Fig 7:

Fig 8:

The good thing about this scale is that you can use it almost any minor key, but you have
to be carefull about that. If you play in A phrygian dominant, you can put this scale with
no doubt, you can also hit it after natural minor, but you have to make sure you want this

atmosphere in your solo. Try to combine all minor options with this, I ensure you it's
worth it!
Download the Half-whole Scale Ideas Examples Guitar Pro Tab.

Including Arpeggios In Melodies

by Josip Pesut (www.josippesut.com)

1. Intro
In these lessons I will show you how to make your melodies more interesting by adding
arpeggios. I bet that all of you can play simple ascending and descending 5-string (fig.1),
or even 6-string (fig.2) major and minor arpeggios, and if not there are really many
sources on internet that will help you learn them. But the idea of these lessons is to make
arpeggios more interesting when they aren't played ultra-fast. This way they can be easily
included in melodies with same fluidity as scales while avoiding monotony. I will show
examples through notes and modes of C-major scale (C D E F G A B), mostly in A
Aeolian.

2. Overcoming the technique

In this section, I will give you some exercises and approaches to sweep picking that
helped me a lot with building the syncronization of my left and right hand and the
strenght and clarity of notes in arpeggios. I also wrote you downstrokes and upstrokes of
picking, I leave fingerings up to you.
This first exercise (fig.3) has helped me a lot with building the strenght of picking slow
arpeggios. You don't have to play this fast, but you have to feel that every note is picked
with appropriate strenght and hear that every note is clean.You can repeat that as much as
you can.

Second exercise (fig.4) helped me use alternative picking in ascending arpeggios. Same
as for the first one, speed isn't important here. What is important is the strenght and
clarity. Speed will come all by itself through practice.

Third exercise (fig.5) made me begin using sweep picking on 2 string licks. It also
enhances the stability of sweep picking a lot.

Fourth exercise (fig.6) is lick from my song Timeless Memories. This is very interesting
to play and you will really see how many options you will have once you overcome this
technique.

Fifth exercise (fig.7) is slight expansion of arpeggio into lower octave. These kind of
exercises help you overcome whole neck. It is also a good idea to transpose all the
exercises in octaves lower or higher.

Sixth exercies (fig.8) shows one version of extension of third exercise. It is often good
idea to always try to make simple things a bit more complicated and complicated things a
bit more simple. That will often give you some ideas you'd never think of. This is
exercise is really great for enstrenghtening your left hand fingers.

Seventh exercise (fig.9) is one way to use arpeggios while repeating notes. Steve Vai and
Joe Satriani often use these forms.

Eight exercise (fig.10) is something that will probably make you wanna explore some
other options of those notes. You should try to play those note relations in all the modes,
they all sound really great, and are great for balancing your left and right hand.

I also encourage you to experiment and make some exercises on your own. Also try to
change dynamics of those exercises, as well as keys. The best way to develope technique
is to do it through exercises that doesn't bore you or don't make you get stuck in a rut. Try
to make your exercises as melodic as possible. Just experiment and play what sounds
good to you. Take all the melodies you know and arpeggiate them, add arpeggios in
different segments of melodies and in different dynamics! Remember, improvisation
brings creation!
Download the Including arpeggios in melodies Guitar Pro Tab.

Tapping on the Same Notes of Legato

(part 1)
by Josip Pesut (www.josippesut.com)

1. Intro
In this article I am going to explain the technique that I often use in improvisations
playing legato on one or more strings and adding tapped notes same as notes played with
legato technique. You can achieve some great and speedy effects this way, but you can
use it in slow solos it both sounds great, and it isn't so demanding technique!

2. Building the strenght of your left hand

Legato technique is a way of playing scales without actually picking strings or picking
very few notes (for accentual purposes). This way the phrases played get more fluidity.
To be able to play legato technique, you must have strong left hand fingers. I most often
used following licks and shapes (fig. 1 fig. 5) and their improvised variations to build
up the strenght.
Fig:1
Play example 1 to 5

Fig:2

Fig:3

Fig:4

Fig:5

Also play those licks on as much octaves as possible, focusing mostly on the clarity of
notes and the flow of scales. Lowest notes are hardest to play on this technique because it
takes wide strenching to make them sound clear. Also make sure your legato playing is
well heard when you play without distortion.
When I was learning legato technique, I often felt pain in my left fist. Every guitarist who
I've heard talking about legato playing told that you shouldn't do what hurts, which is
worth for all other techniques, too. Therefore, I played legato without stopping for a few
seconds or minutes (depends how strong or warmed up my hand already was) until it
started to hurt, and then I stopped for a few seconds. After my hand got 'refreshed' I
repeated the process again and again. Practicing for just few hours a day will let you
overcome this technique within few weeks, and the pain will probably not appear again if
you practice regularly.

3. Building the strenght of your right hand

In this section I'll show a few ways to make tapped notes sound clear and their tone full.
First examples (fig. 6 and fig. 7) is tapping the notes on the same string, but an octave
higher than the notes you play with your left hand. If you do this properly, you will hear a
tapping harmonic slightly appearing if you tap with your middle finger. You probably
won't be able to fully induce tap harmonic this way. You can do it if you hit a higher note
with your index finger of your right hand.
Fig:6
Play example 6 to 7

Fig:7

In second example (fig. 8) you play a tone (in this case it is A) with your left hand, and
then you play it with your tapping finger. It should have same sustain. If you want to add
vibrato to your tapping version of this exercise, do the vibrato with your left hand finger
added somewhere lower than the note you play with your tapping finger on the same
string.
Fig:8

In third example (fig. 9) you hold your left hand finger on B note and tap and slide with
your tapping finger. This kind of exercises will enstrenghten your tapping finger hammeroff a lot!
Fig:9

4. Tapping with legato

Finally, here I'll show you combinations of legato and tapping.
In first exercises (fig. 10) you have A minor scale and you tap same notes you play
legato. Listen to examples to hear the differences. This is a great thing to incorporate in
improvisations.
Fig:10
Play example 10 to 12

Fig:11

Fig:12

In second exercise (fig. 13) we've got linear one-string A minor descending lick and in
third exercise (fig. 14) we've got a F# minor lick from my song 'Shine', which is good
example of mixing slides, legato and tapping into one-string runs.
Fig:13
Play example 13 to 15

Fig:14

In fourth exercise (fig. 15) we've got a 2 string A minor lick.

Fig:15

In fifth and sixth exercises (fig. 16 - 17) I play A minor legato along with sliding with
tapping finger.
Fig:16
Play example 16 to 17

Fig:17

5. Conclusion
Before I actually started to work on that technique, I always somehow avoided playing
same notes in a row. But as you can now see, there are many options that lie within
repeating certain notes in certain place, to get some different rythmic pattern in tapping
technique. Try to see those examples not only as a way to improve your technique, but a
'base' where you could build your own soloing ideas on. Improvise with those techniques
and try to play them in all keys and modes. If you will take those exercises only as they
are, you won't be able to get the most out of them. So turn on your sense for
experimentation and your imagination!
Download the Tapping on the same notes of legato Guitar Pro Tab.

How To Have Productive Rehearsals

by Josip Pesut (www.josippesut.com)

I am sure that anyone who started a band and feels unsatisfied with result
of rehearsals will find something useful in this article, since I wrote it from experience of
having 2, and even 3 bands at the same time, and many rehearsals. For some time there
were always some ups and downs with rehearsing, but with the time I managed to ensure
that the rehearsals I had were always as productive as they possibly could be.

Before the rehearsal

You should learn to play yourself alone all the parts or songs you have planned for
rehearsals, and along with metronome. Be self-critic, to avoid making mistakes that you
won't be able to fix on the spot later on.
Prepare all your ideas and write them out or record them, and even send them to your
band peers, so they could be prepared to what you're about to work on. If you have some
solo spots, make sure that you don't look for notes or options of how to play them on
rehearsal. That really should be done at home. Make a loop of chord progressions you
have to solo on and hit it. The only exception to this should be a complexly constructed
solo that involves all band, though, that can be worked on alone, too. If you have in plan
to make new songs on rehearsal, get enough sleep and try to warm up before, if you have
time. Don't be late for rehearsals, especially if you pay for rehearse time, have respect for
time of everyone else in the band, and they will respect yours. Also try to make sure you
take care of all important phone calls and potential distractions before the rehearsals, as
well as other basic stuff such as changing strings and similar things. And of course, don't
go to rehearsals drunk or under some other influence.

During the rehearsal

The worst thing that could happen on a rehearsal is when someone comes in really bad
mood. It reflects on everyone else, and the music itself. If everything irritates you, find
real reasons for that, and calm down. Don't snap on your band peers, because they might
not be the source of your bad mood. Negative energy issue can be a real band-breaker.
Set up your sound. I suggest you to study the physical nature of sound of your instrument,
and learn how to make a healthy sound for rehearsals. Don't allow yourselves to play in
the noise. And make sure you don't play too loud. If you don't hear yourself well, and you
hear that you're in balance with drums, lower other instruments, or fix your frequency
conigurations. Sometimes more noise occurs at bad equilizer settings than on loud
playing. Be informed about making a good sound setting or have someone set it up for
you. Have this problem fixed in the beginning because it will drive you to deafness and
uncreativity.

When you're working on your new stuff, be open to everyone's opinion, even if your're
about to play the song you wrote yourself. Have everyone put a part of themselves in the
song and listen to everyone's idea, because they just might provide a bit to the song that
you might have missed or hadn't thought of before yourself. When some band members
have to work on the part they play together and that doesn't involve you, don't make noise
with your instrument, you'll distract them a lot, and it can get on a nerve easily. Rather
think about other ideas you can provide for the song.
Always. ALWAYS stop whatever you're doing if you get some really great idea,
and write it out or record it immediately, because no matter how good it might be, there is
an enormously big chance that you will forget it. Don't allow yourself that. I lost few of
ideas that way, and I totally regret it. It is also advisable to record your whole rehearsal in
some way, especially if you're making new songs on the spot. You might find lots of
potential material on those recordings.
When you fully practiced out a song with your band, and it is technically ready, don't stay
on playing it while stand and not move at all, or even worse, not move and only look at
your guitar. Jump, move, dance, give your peers a deadly eyelook, play with your guitar
behind your back, play with your guitar on the floor, play with your teeth, with your
tounge, whatever. Just don't stay on playing it with your mind. You should get to the point
where you actually don't even think about what you play. When you get to playing live,
there is a certain problem that comes out if you don't listen to what I just wrote, even
more often if you play energetic music. The problem is that when you play, you turn the
crowd on, and when you turn the crowd on, they turn you on even more, and you wanna
do all the things you should've done and practiced on rehearsals, but you won't be able to
do them, or you will do them, but make tons of mistakes. Turn of your lights and get a
small light show for your rehearsals. Feel and go into it like you're on stage, in front of
thousands of people! You'll find this very interesting and amusing, and it will spare you
of all the bad things on the stage. Even make a small choreography of your live shows if
necessary, and go into details. See what might happen on stage, and try to work it out on
rehearsals, before unwanted consequences can occur.
I also advise you to squeeze all the best from the rehearsal time. Don't go in senseless
jams (unless you know for sure they'll benefit your bandwork), don't have a cigar every 5
minutes, don't get stuck in some non-music related chats for too long, don't have too long
breaks (though, they are useful sometimes, when you go way over the top and it really
doesn't make sense to push yourself too much, because nothing creative will happen) and
most importantly, don't wander off with your thoughts. Be there 120%, or at least 100%,
and you'll notice the difference.

After the rehearsal

If you have the time, go for a drink with your peers and talk about everything you've
done on rehearsals. Review all your ideas, and talk about what you could do next. Give
yourselves some directions for next rehearsals. Fix all the other problems you have in
between yourselves right here, and not during rehearsals. And have a good time, establish

a great personal relationships. If you enjoy being with your band outside the band, you
will enjoy it even more when you're in the band. And everyone who'll hear or see the
band will notice that, and it plays a big factor of success.