Use the A harmonic minor scale and try to compose an etude with alternate picking & string skipping.

This part is fairly easy from a technical view, but from an expression point of view it is not so easy. It is difficult to play this piece with taste, since only the bass notes are playing the notes in exact tempo, while the solo line varies in tempo a lot. This technique in classical music is called rubato.

Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840) was a legendary violin virtuoso from Italy. He had such an impossible technique that people rumored that he had sold his soul to the devil.

Alternate picking, Vibrato, Slides and Palm muting.

A classic masterpiece of speed picking and sweeping

I wrote this short tune many years ago, actually it was in 1995. The main inspiration was Baroque music, while in the same time I was practicing Ragtime and Delta Blues finger picking, and somehow this tune was born.

There are two major influences on my style which are contrary to each other, Romanticism with the emotional expression (Beethoven, Chopin, Paganini, etc) and the period of Impressionism (Debussy, Ravel). In this piece I combined these two opposites and here's the result.

Explanation of Volume Swells, combined with slides. Used by Yngwie Malmsteen and other neoclassical guitarists.

Classical fingerpicking example.