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Advanced Guitar Lesson – Eric Johnson Style Fast Ascending Arpeggios

In Advanced Guitar Lessons | on December, 22, 2009 | by | 12 Comments

This lesson is another in our style series focusing on the great Eric Johnson.

Eric Johnson is known for his seamless and fast guitar runs that encompass large portions of the neck. This lesson is going to focus on how he usually ascends during fast passages.

A large part of Eric Johnson’s soloing style uses fast descending pentatonic phrases along with fast ascending arpeggio phrases that are picked using economy picking.

By no means am I saying that is everything that Eric does, on the contrary he mixes his playing up like almost no other guitarist on the planet. I am just bringing to your attention certain musical and technical devices that he favors over others.

Pay close attention to the picking hand in the lesson so you can fully understand the economy picking that is going on.

Here is the PDF download for this lesson.

Eric Johnson Style Fast Ascending Arpeggios PDF

Don’t forget to let me know of any players that you would like to see a style series on!!

PLEASE CONSIDER TAKING A LOOK AT THE DONATE PAGE TO FIND WAYS YOU CAN HELP TO KEEP THIS SITE ALIVE!! THANKS!!

:)

Eric Johnson Style Fast Ascending Arpeggios

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Eric Johnson Style Pentatonics Lesson

Eric Johnson Style Open Voiced Arpeggios Lesson

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12 Responses

Grischa
12.22.09

Hi there,
very informative and great way of showing EJ ` style.
Thanks,
grischa

Carl Brown
12.22.09

Thanks I really appreciate it. There will be more EJ in the near future and I am also curious to know what other players you or anyone else would like to see profiled. :D

Flo
12.22.09

Thank you so much for this great work. I think every guitarist will be a better musician by watching your videos.
Is it possible to make a Steve Morse Workshop in the future? I like the country type kinda thing where he mixes the major and minor pentatonics or pentatonic/ mixolydian mode, but its hard to get it on guitat…
Again, great work!!
greetings from germany,
Flo

Carl Brown
12.22.09

Hey Flo, thanks for the kind comment. Yes I plan on doing some stuff on Steve Morse eventually. I am actually not too terribly familiar with his work so I gotta do my research first. :P But I will get it up soon!! Thanks!!

Carl :D

Craig
12.22.09

Hey man, i love your lessons! they have really helped me out a lot. i was looking for an arpeggio lesson and this was the only one on here that I could find. it would be great if you could do a lesson on some generic major and minor arpeggio forms and technique. i really struggle with synchronization and a lot of noise when i try the ones i know. i would like to figure out how to get a nice clean crisp sound out of the licks.
thanks Carl
Craig

jake
12.22.09

i noticed that your thumb was above the neck when you did some of these licks, im taking a guitar class and the teacher told me to never do that, but i dont think it matters all that much, and having the thumb above makes legato riffs much easier, does it matter if the thumb can be seen over the neck sometimes?

Carl Brown
12.22.09

Hey Jake, can you let me know what type of guitar class it is? There are certain styles of guitar (ie. classical guitar) that use a wider neck nylon string guitar and for the most part you wouldn’t have your thumb over the neck if you were learning classical technique.

But, for virtually any other style of guitar, if you watch ALL of your favorite players play they will constantly be positioning their thumbs over the top of the neck for certain techniques. It all really depends on the style and specific technique that you are playing. Not having the thumb over the neck will make many techniques found in rock, blues and metal very awkward.

Carl.. :)

jake
12.22.09

it is a classical guitar class, so that makes sence now why he would tell me that, because he told me i should always have it in the middle, which is making three note per string legato very awkward, and trying to trill is becoming impossibly hard

Jimmy D
12.22.09

I would like to see any acoustic stuff by Rory Gallagher Especially his version of Blind Boy Fullers “Pistol Slapper Blues”

Sam Rivera
12.22.09

Hi Sir,

this is so helpful. thank you so much for teaching everything you know.
how do I get to download your vids?

David Carriere
12.22.09

Man, he starts that (lick #1) with an UPSTROKE and SWEEPS it! That bit always gave me trouble in Cliffs the two times it appears because I would alternate pick it. It never occurred to me to start that with an upstroke.

You made my day man. That part FLIES now.

(I actually feel slightly stupid for not trying it that way before)…

Carl Brown
12.22.09

Thanks for the kind comment David! Don’t feel stupid, it took me years and a lot of slow motion video to figure out what he was doing. :D

Enjoy the lessons and I hope to hear from you again really soon!!

Carl..

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