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John McLaughlin-Prime Numbers-Alternate Pick Guitar Examples/Thoughts

Posted on April 5, 2025September 7, 2025 by Modern Music Theory and Application

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Here are the Number groupings from the Youtube video I posted today as promised.

First of all we have the 4+1 or 1 e and a 2. [Hence nailing the next beat].

Sheet music showing rhythmic grouping of John McLaughlin's 4 + 1 with notes and time signatures for guitar technique.

This could also be transformed into a quintuplet. Or, Ta ka di mi thom from Johns use of Konokol.

EXAMPLE 1:

Here, we double this amazing “Prime number”.

NOTICE: We start on a downstroke for the first grouping and then start on an upstroke for the next grouping.

Musical notation with notes and tablature for guitar, showcasing various rhythms and groupings of John McLaughlin guitar techniques. — Musical notation and tab demonstrating alternate picking techniques and rhythmic groupings .

In terms of “Alternate Picking” guitar technique this creates some magic dust in our favour as not only are we two beats ahead of typical 4 note picking groupings, we are also connecting with both the up and downstrokes resulting in very quick and fluid picking.

From this, we can then start to break it up into musical motifs or phrases or riff/unison material.

The next great number for interesting phrasing and alternate picking groupings is the prime number 7

Music notation showing a sequence of notes with a 7 for John McLaughlin alternate picking and time signature.

Now, let’s connect these two prime number patterns together!

Sheet music notation showing guitar tabs and rhythmic markings for musical phrasing, prime numbers and John McLaughlin's alternate picking techniques. — Musical notation illustrating the connection of two prime number patterns in guitar technique.

This next example is also useful, although, it’s not a prime number but a group of 6 notes “Sextuplets”

Musical notation illustrating a sequence of six notes. McLaughlin's a rhythmic pattern.

From this, let’s add two more notes to form a common grouping of 8 notes:

We will now add one more note for a group of 9

9- Example 2

Now, let’s go up one more again for ten notes.

10-Example 2

A musical notation sheet showing rhythmic patterns and guitar tabs for John McLaughlin prime number guitar technique.

This time we will go back to prime numbers with a group of 13 notes

Musical notation showing a series of notes and tablature for guitar, with specific symbols indicating John McLaughlin's rhythm and phrasing. — Musical notation illustrating a grouping of 13 notes [Prime number] for alternate picking techniques.

Finally, let’s exploit a whole bar of 4/4 time

Sheet music displaying a John McLaughlin guitar exercise with notes, including various groupings and techniques for alternate picking. — Guitar tablature and notation illustrating alternate picking techniques and rhythmic groupings of John McLaughlin.

IN CONCLUSION:

In conclusion, this was just a concept related to alternate picking guitar technique specifically.

This is because sometimes the rhythmic motifs are not logical and need to be re-framed in order to make sense of the demands of the picking hand.

Also, sometimes starting on an upstroke works better than the down stroke or visa versa. These prime numbers generally put us a beat ahead which for alternate picking is extremely important because otherwise there is the age old tendency to just tremolo and hammer on willy nilly trying to catch up and this music is the antithesis of that.

So, in summation: These groupings help make sense of illogical phrasing for the picking hand whilst making sure that we are ahead in the music.

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Right Hand: Alternate Picking Guitar Technique

Posted on December 20, 2024December 21, 2024 by Modern Music Theory and Application

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Today, a quick look at the “Right Hand” aspect of alternate picking guitar technique:

This is not cast in stone, but, to serve as a useful reference/guide to anyone that might be having problems.

THE WRIST/FOREARM:

alternate-picking-right[hand-guitar-technique-diagram

Picking works best for the jazz/fusion [McLaughlin] style when picking from the wrist. Having said this, there is relative movement from the elbow to the wrist as the forearm follows through.

This becomes one motion that connects the music/phrase [we are playing] together as we alternate strictly down/up or up/down aligned with the strings we wish to pluck.

The differences of the 3 great alternate pickers.

The Fripp style is more for “Pre-learnt” playing 100-152 Bpm [Yes, there will be some improvisation] But, the McLaughlin style is really geared towards “In the moment” improvisation around the 130-200 bpm. With Al di Meola being a combination of both [Think “Hotel Splendido” to “Cielo et Terra”.

This in turn means that each are approached in a slightly different manner, but this would be a whole blog in itself. So, for the sake of time I am addressing the all round basic concepts for the Right Hand in this post.

Crossing the 6 Guitar Strings: PART#1

When crossing strings I like to follow a straight line as is taught in Ivor Mairants brilliant book “Perfect Pick Technique”.

Below, is the diagram that demonstrates this.

This is extremely useful as it means that we are aligned with the string we wish to pluck at the moment we wish to pluck it and the forearm wrist and pick are in line and ready to pluck.

Feeling, and knowing this gives us confidence for ascending and descending naturally without any interrupting from unnecessary nervous or tense movements.

1st string aligned: “Down” stroke:

2nd string aligned/Plucked through on the “Up” stroke:

3rd string aligned:“Down” stroke

4th string aligned: About to be plucked through [on the “Up” stroke]

5th string aligned: “Down” stroke

6th string aligned: Plucked through on the “Up” stroke

As you can see from the 6 diagram alignments above, the wrist and forearm follow naturally as they cross the six guitar strings.

FLOATING OR PIVOTING?

Floating, is literally as it sounds and means floating with the right hand above and not resting whilst plucking the strings.

Pivoting, on the other hand means resting on [generally] the bridge of the guitar and plucking.

I like to be in a floating position and then pivot on either the first note and then float or……float and pivot on the “Down” strokes:

[Please not that the floating is overly emphasised in the photo’s as it is the only way I found to show it].

From Above:

CROSSING STRINGS: PART #2

Always, remember with Alternate Picking we are either picking:

“Up” skip over pluck down.

Or:

“Down” skip over pluck up.

Simple as this is it’s essential to take into account so that you don’t get confused or do two of the same stroke.

IN CONCLUSION:

In conclusion, this was just a brief examination of good solid alternate picking right hand technique. Much of it depends on what you wish to play. Many just wish to play guitar fast, which, ironically defeats the task.

To play at fast tempos one needs to be able to articulate phrases slowly, and, for the prog or jazz fusion improviser this means 8th note to 16th note to 32nd note. Forms of double timing. Because, from that the musical phrasing emerges and so does the speed.

In summation I would say that alternate picking technique is really a simple technique to play complex music and not a complex technique to play simple music.

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John McLaughlin Alternate Picking Guitar Secrets part 1

Posted on October 31, 2024October 31, 2024 by Modern Music Theory and Application

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Today, a quick delve into what makes John McLaughlin’s alternate picking guitar style work so easily and fluidly.

Many, focus on the right hand technique, but, much of it comes from the way the fretting hand works.

So, let’s look at a couple of simple secrets to John’s approach and why it is so fluid and effective

#1 OPEN STRING APPLICATION:

In this example, we will create an effective line that is not tremolo picking on cliche shred scales but a continuous colourful and creative improvised line in a world music style.

Here is the full line. Starting on a “Down stroke”

john-mclaughlin-guitar-secrets-alternate-picking-fast

If we take this apart we will find a couple of reasons why this is fluid and very natural for the alternate picking guitar technique.

First of all notice: The arpeggio that starts the phrase. The last note of this 4 note tetrachord grouping is an open D string!

This open string gives the fretting hand a hundredth of a second to do absolutely nothing as it prepares for the next 4 note grouping to fret.

This gives us time to get into position and so we are NOT rushing about, and, we are in control

CROSSING THE STRING:

We will now employ the use of an open string once again, but, this time for “Crossing” the string:

This makes it easy to cross the string smoothly and connect to the next tetrachord.

From here we will extract a partial John McLaughlin scale/fingering by sliding it into position.

To end this line, we will descend with some simple scale starting on an “Up stroke”. Also, notice the simple 2 finger fingering for the fretting hand.

EXERCISE 2: SEXTUPLETS: 6 NOTE GROUPINGS:

In this exercise we will employ groupings of 6 notes. This is based upon an improvised acoustic jazz fusion line, like that of “Belo Herozonte:

This is played over a ii V7 I of Dm9 G7 CMaj9:

If we take this apart we will notice that we exploit a Bm arpeggio going to a B dim arpeggio that then goes to the 4th and 6th notes of D Dorian: This creates a nice colourful sound.

For the next 6 note hexatonic grouping we employ an E harmonic/melodic minor sound over the Dm9 chord: Notice the Major 3rd interval:

From here, we will “Slide” the fretting hand up to the next position: Notice the use of the Major 3rd interval once again, as this breaks up the monotonous scale sound and creates distance and melodicism.

Finally, we have simple 2 finger pentatonic descending scale application that finally rest on the note C for the CMaj9 chord.