Playing Techniques - Setting the Scene

There are a range of playing techniques that can be used in your jamming to add more variation and dynamics. The ones here can be introduced one at a time, spending 20 minutes per technique, doing call and response with your jamming partner.

The Backing Riff

First you need to choose some backing music over which to try out new ideas. Run To You by Bryan Adams makes a good backing riff because it is a repeated pattern and, as with Paranoid in Jamming Ammo, this will help to focus the lead playing into definite, easy to digest sections.

Play the riff slowly at first so you can get used to improvising over the progression.

The Scale

The scale used here is the same E minor pentatonic and it's used over all of the positions looked at in Jamming Ammo.

More articles on Playing Techniques

• Setting the scene
• Hammer-ons and pull-offs
• Staccato
• Sliding Notes
• String bending
• Double String bends