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:
In this video I’ll be explaining how the raking technique works and demonstrating it with a simple exercise.
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.
This exercise follows the same sequence of notes/strings as the previous one, but uses eighth notes in place of quarter notes.
This exercise illustrates how the raking technique can be used to easily descend through more than one string.
This exercise follows the same sequence as the previous one, but is played using an eighth note rhythm.
In this exercise you will be raking back from the D-string, to the A-string, then the E-string.
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.
This exercise is based around a three-string rake, but also has a two-string rake later in the line.
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.
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.