What about it?

Cross Section is ugly. You shouldn’t listen to it. You should use it to drive away vermin or relatives. At any rate it’s still beneficial for your hands. There are two key points of focus when working out this fragment. First, the fingers of your fretting hand should move smoothly through the formations as opposed to being locked down on some grotesque four-string shapes; each finger frets a note as it is picked and then moves on to its next assignment. This will ensure that single notes are being played, not sustained, ringing tones. It will also ingrain independence, strength and dexterity in finger gestures. Second, your picking motion should be even and fluid, the pick gliding across the plain of the strings in one movement. Attempting to pick each note with an individual motion will yield a choppy mess that goes entirely against the point. Watch those picking instructions closely, particularly on the descending section in measure four.

Why bother?

Independent fingers save lives. Independent fingers repair the economy. Yeah, ok—independent fingers are simply a big plus for your playing. The ability to move easily across the strings with both hands will boost speed and precision in any type of playing. This exercise is essentially one of sweep picking, but that doesn’t mean you have to aspire to being a “shredder.” Good technique is just good technique. Melodically, the thing is an atonal pile of junk, unusable in any diatonic context. And that’s alright—the idea is to dig into the method itself, practically divorcing yourself from the thought that this particular set of notes has any musical application.

Black Ops Guitar is a nasty little series of exercises. Use them to your advantage, then deny they ever existed.

By Troy Van Horn