Guitar Theory - Using 3 Fingers To Fret 3 Notes Per String

In this exercise, we use 3 fingers to fret 3 adjacent notes on a single string.Show more

From a music theory view, this combination of notes would only work in the blues scale between the perfect 4th, blue note, perfect 5 interval...

Which to me, is all the reason we need to practice it...

But beyond music theory, this maneuver is very helpful from a “noodling” view,

in that you kind of dip your toe in the water, but you don’t have to commit to anything

You can use this maneuver as a passing-note or pick-up note.

It lets you keep on listening to yourself, while you try to find the note you actually wanted to hear

Music purists would say that a good musician should play the right note, right on time, without any extra noodling or fill.

Even Jimi Hendrix was unpopular with some other musicians he jammed with, because he was noodling around too much...

But then there are those of us who never heard the noodling as mistakes or imperfections, and just considered it part of the Jimi Hendrix Experience

This maneuver is also an introduction to “the 3-finger thing” as some musicians call it.

With 3 fingers on one string, you can get different kinds of control on bends and tone.