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7. The Raking Technique

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This course covers an important fingerstyle technique – raking. This is a technique that most players begin to use very naturally, but which can make playing from string to string much easier. This course breaks down the mechanics behind raking and has ten exercises that will help you to perfect the technique.

Don't forget to hit the Download Resources button above to receive the PDF worksheet and backing tracks that accompany these lessons! This course contains the following videos, each of which can be selected from the video player above:

1. The Raking Technique

In this video I’ll be explaining how the raking technique works and demonstrating it with a simple exercise.

2. Exercise 48

This exercise ascends through all four strings (playing for a bar on each one), then descends. This is a great exercise for working on the raking technique.

3. Exercise 49

This exercise follows the same sequence of notes/strings as the previous one, but uses eighth notes in place of quarter notes.

4. Exercise 50

This exercise illustrates how the raking technique can be used to easily descend through more than one string.

5. Exercise 51

This exercise follows the same sequence as the previous one, but is played using an eighth note rhythm.

6. Exercise 52

In this exercise you will be raking back from the D-string, to the A-string, then the E-string.

7. Exercise 53

This exercise is built around a descending A minor arpeggio, which opens the first and third bars. This figure provides an excellent opportunity for raking.

8. Exercise 54

This exercise is based around a three-string rake, but also has a two-string rake later in the line.

9. Exercise 55

In this exercise you’ll be raking with the same finger back across all four strings. It’s quite rare that you’ll need to do this, but as you’ll see, it works perfectly well.

10. Exercise 56

This exercise has opportunities for raking within the first three bars, but also includes a few notes that we haven’t looked at yet. These will be covered in the next few courses.