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Exercise of Doom Part 1The exercise of Doom as I christened this 15 years ago. Is a way of practicing major scale fingerings.

The basic premise of this exercise is that as a guitarist you need to understand that any key can be played ANYWHERE on the neck. Far too many guitarists see the guitar neck as 5th fret = A 3rd fret =G etc. This is quite a restrictive way of viewing the neck and as a result usually means that in the event of key or mode changes guitarist change position and thus lose the flow of ideas. With this exercise the emphasis is on being able to all 12 major keys with in a 6 fret area at any given time.

In the example I start at the 8th fret, an area often neglected by guitarist as they treat it as the twilight zone as the there is change around the fret board markers.

I start with the C major scale and play it ascending and descending incorporating lost and highest available notes in that scale. In the real life application of these scales it wouldn’t be necessary to start on a root note everytime, so it is good to break this habit in practicing. Once this scale is complete I then change to the G major scale and then without changing position play that scale ascending and descending. This continues on through the Circle of 5th’s. I chose the circle of 5th’s because essentially we are only changing one note per scale every time we change key.

This continues on through all 12 keys until I arrive back at C major around the area of the 5th fret.

Once this particular exercise is complete I would try it again in different positions.

This particular section is the easiest of all the sections of the exercise and it is essential you master this idea before attempting the subsequent sections.

Have fun…

Part 2 and Part 3 make this one look like a total holiday!

more articles by Richie Jovie

• Exercise of Doom Part Deux
• Efficient Practicing
• Introducing the Major Scale.