Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
🎸 Everything I've made for guitar players, in one place: skool.com/thepracticeroom/about
The Practice Room. Every course, the tabs and Guitar Pro files for all of it, and the Practice Lab app. One payment, no subscription.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Alternate Picked Pentatonic Sixes, Day 1 (A minor)
This week's exercise is pentatonic sixes: the minor pentatonic scale played in groups of six notes, with strict alternate picking. We'll work through it starting with both a downstroke and an upstroke, since the string crossings will feel completely different depending on which pick stroke you start on. It sounds musical from the first rep, and it exposes every weak spot in your picking.
Today we're in A minor, moving through all five pentatonic shapes, up one shape and down the next, all over the fretboard. The tempo stays fixed the whole session. What changes is the subdivision and the starting pick stroke, across four rounds:
Round 1: 8th notes at 80 BPM, starting with a downstroke
Round 2: 8th notes at 80 BPM, starting with an upstroke
Round 3: Triplets at 60 BPM, starting with a downstroke
Round 4: Triplets at 60 BPM, starting with an upstroke
The triplet rounds are about timing. It feels completely different to play the same notes as triplets, which is why the tempo goes down instead of up. And don't let the slow tempo fool you: staying locked in and accurate for a full round is the actual challenge. A slip here and there is fine, just play along with me. If the tempo is still too fast, slow the video down, or grab the Guitar Pro files and practice at any tempo you want.
Do rounds 1 and 2 and you've completed day one. If you have the time and the inclination, I highly suggest doing the full workout every day.
Before you start: record a short clip of yourself trying the exercise. That's your starting point. At the end of the week you'll record another one and compare.
One rule: if you feel any tingling or pain, stop immediately. Your hands are your responsibility.
New here? Start with this short intro: youtu.be/pjXhY4Yfkto
Get the Guitar Pro tabs and the full program: jonbjorkmusic.com/tabs
New session every day at 18:00 CET. Tomorrow: D minor.
```
0:00 Intro
0:39 8ths Down · Shape 5
3:18 8ths Down · Shape 1
5:55 8ths Down · Shape 2
8:37 8ths Down · Shape 3
11:20 8ths Down · Shape 4
14:02 8ths Down · Shape 5
16:53 8ths Down · Shape 1
20:04 8ths Up · Shape 5
22:55 8ths Up · Shape 1
25:41 8ths Up · Shape 2
28:29 8ths Up · Shape 3
31:03 8ths Up · Shape 4
33:46 8ths Up · Shape 5
36:40 8ths Up · Shape 1
39:54 Triplets Down · Shape 5
42:48 Triplets Down · Shape 1
45:23 Triplets Down · Shape 2
48:19 Triplets Down · Shape 3
50:58 Triplets Down · Shape 4
53:59 Triplets Down · Shape 5
56:42 Triplets Down · Shape 1
59:46 Triplets Up · Shape 5
1:02:29 Triplets Up · Shape 1
1:05:12 Triplets Up · Shape 2
1:07:51 Triplets Up · Shape 3
1:11:08 Triplets Up · Shape 4
1:13:48 Triplets Up · Shape 5
1:16:24 Triplets Up · Shape 1
```
🎸 Everything I've made for guitar players, in one place: skool.com/thepracticeroom/about
The Practice Room. Every course, the tabs and Guitar Pro files for all of it, and the Practice Lab app. One payment, no subscription.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Alternate Picked Pentatonic Sixes, Day 1 (A minor)
This week's exercise is pentatonic sixes: the minor pentatonic scale played in groups of six notes, with strict alternate picking. We'll work through it starting with both a downstroke and an upstroke, since the string crossings will feel completely different depending on which pick stroke you start on. It sounds musical from the first rep, and it exposes every weak spot in your picking.
Today we're in A minor, moving through all five pentatonic shapes, up one shape and down the next, all over the fretboard. The tempo stays fixed the whole session. What changes is the subdivision and the starting pick stroke, across four rounds:
Round 1: 8th notes at 80 BPM, starting with a downstroke
Round 2: 8th notes at 80 BPM, starting with an upstroke
Round 3: Triplets at 60 BPM, starting with a downstroke
Round 4: Triplets at 60 BPM, starting with an upstroke
The triplet rounds are about timing. It feels completely different to play the same notes as triplets, which is why the tempo goes down instead of up. And don't let the slow tempo fool you: staying locked in and accurate for a full round is the actual challenge. A slip here and there is fine, just play along with me. If the tempo is still too fast, slow the video down, or grab the Guitar Pro files and practice at any tempo you want.
Do rounds 1 and 2 and you've completed day one. If you have the time and the inclination, I highly suggest doing the full workout every day.
Before you start: record a short clip of yourself trying the exercise. That's your starting point. At the end of the week you'll record another one and compare.
One rule: if you feel any tingling or pain, stop immediately. Your hands are your responsibility.
New here? Start with this short intro: youtu.be/pjXhY4Yfkto
Get the Guitar Pro tabs and the full program: jonbjorkmusic.com/tabs
New session every day at 18:00 CET. Tomorrow: D minor.
```
0:00 Intro
0:39 8ths Down · Shape 5
3:18 8ths Down · Shape 1
5:55 8ths Down · Shape 2
8:37 8ths Down · Shape 3
11:20 8ths Down · Shape 4
14:02 8ths Down · Shape 5
16:53 8ths Down · Shape 1
20:04 8ths Up · Shape 5
22:55 8ths Up · Shape 1
25:41 8ths Up · Shape 2
28:29 8ths Up · Shape 3
31:03 8ths Up · Shape 4
33:46 8ths Up · Shape 5
36:40 8ths Up · Shape 1
39:54 Triplets Down · Shape 5
42:48 Triplets Down · Shape 1
45:23 Triplets Down · Shape 2
48:19 Triplets Down · Shape 3
50:58 Triplets Down · Shape 4
53:59 Triplets Down · Shape 5
56:42 Triplets Down · Shape 1
59:46 Triplets Up · Shape 5
1:02:29 Triplets Up · Shape 1
1:05:12 Triplets Up · Shape 2
1:07:51 Triplets Up · Shape 3
1:11:08 Triplets Up · Shape 4
1:13:48 Triplets Up · Shape 5
1:16:24 Triplets Up · Shape 1
```
