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Playing Sixteenth Note Rhythms (Part 1)

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This course takes the picking techniques that were covered in the Beginner course and applies them to sixteenth notes. Being able to comfortably play sixteenth note rhythms with the pick will open up a lot of possibilities in your playing and enable you to play most lines that you might otherwise play with your fingers.

In this opening part of the Intermediate course the focus will be on playing lines based on continuous sixteenth notes and examining the string crossing and string skipping difficulties that they present.

As you work through this material, you might find the following courses useful (all included in the monthly subscription cost):

Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above to get the PDF worksheet and audio files for this piece (available to subscribers only).

This course is 1 HOUR & 33 MINUTES long and contains the following videos, each of which can be selected from the video player above:

1. An Introduction to Sixteenth Notes

This lesson covers the basic principle behind playing sixteenth notes with the pick. It also puts the technique to use via a simple scale-based exercise.

2. String Crossing

This lesson contains a series of exercises which will help you to practice crossing strings whilst playing continuous sixteenth notes.

3. Exercise #6

In this exercise (and the three that follow), the chord tones from a G major chord are used as the basis for a string crossing and string skipping exercise.

4. Exercise #7

This exercise is similar to the previous one, but the different chord tone notes are now played on the second sixteenth note subdivision of each beat.

5. Exercise #8

This exercise continues the concept from the previous two. Now, the chord tones from the G major chord are played on the third sixteenth note of each beat.

6. Exercise #9

This exercise continues the concept from the previous three. Now, the chord tones from the G major chord are played on the final sixteenth note subdivision of each beat.

7. Exercise #10

This exercise builds on the previous four, but now each chord tone is played twice. The chord tones are played in the first and second sixteenth note subdivisions here.

8. Exercise #11

In this exercise the chord tones are played in the second and third subdivisions. The string crossing/skipping required here makes this a particularly tough exercise.

9. Exercise #12

The chord tones are now moved to the third and fourth sixteenth note subdivisions of the beat. You should find this exercise significantly easier than the previous one.

10. Exercise #13

In this exercise the two chord tone notes are separated and played on the first and fourth sixteenth note subdivisions of the beat.

11. Exercise #14

In this exercise, the chord tones are played three times, with the root note occurring just once. In this example the low root note is played at the beginning of each beat.

12. Exercise #15

Following on from the previous exercise, this time the root note is played in the second sixteenth note subdivision of each beat.

13. Exercise #16

Continuing the logic of the previous two exercises, in this one the root note is played in the third sixteenth note subdivision of the beat.

14. Exercise #17

Again continuing the approach of the previous few exercises, this time the root note is played in the fourth sixteenth note subdivision of the beat.

15. Exercise #18

This is a sixteenth note line in the key of C. The bass largely remains on one note in each bar, with the final beat containing a fill that eases the transition to the next note.

16. Exercise #19

This exercise is in G minor and features a bassline that descends through the minor pentatonic scale. In playing this part of the line you’ll be picking on all four strings.

17. Exercise #20

This exercise is in F minor and begins with an anacrusis ¬– in this case two sixteenth notes that fall on the ‘and’ of the fourth beat of the count-in.

18. Exercise #21

This exercise features a lot of string skipping. There are also a few ghost notes ¬– remember that these are played in exactly the same way as any other note.

19. Exercise #22

This is a rock bassline that features a lot of awkward string crossing. Many of the string crossing permutations from the previous video course are put to use here.

20. Exercise #23

This exercise is a rock bassline that has a descending upper line on the D-string played as quarter notes. Make sure you add plenty of vibrato to these notes, as indicated.

21. Exercise #24

This exercise is a continuous sixteenth note line. The fifth is played on every third subdivision meaning that each time it occurs on a different part of the beat.

22. Exercise #25

This exercise features a challenging phrase in the first two bars, one that requires good control of the plectrum in order to accurately execute the string crossing.

23. Exercise #26

This exercise uses a two-bar sequence that features a busy sixteenth note pattern in E minor followed by a simpler eighth note rhythm.

24. Exercise #27

This exercise some simpler rhythms (such as quarter notes and eighth notes) but has some tricky sixteenth note patterns for you to negotiate as well.

25. Exercise #28

This exercise is a busy sixteenth note bassline that features ghost notes as well as a repeating figure that is played in every bar.