5ths and 3rds in the 3rd Rail

Here's an exercise which will give you some useful raw material for riffing. The pattern is a sequence of 5ths and 3rds played sequentially on the 3rds and 2nd strings, otherwise known as the "3rd rail."

The diagram below shows the Perfect-5ths in blue, Diminished-5th in purple, Minor-3rds in orange, and, Major-3rds in green ...

Below you see the notation for the pattern with corresponding fingering ...

And here is how it sounds ...

(5ths and 3rds in the 3rd rail)
... and played note by note, each of the 5ths are played high note first, each 3rd is played low to high ...


(Arpeggiated 5ths and 3rds in the 3rd rail)

Here's a phrase based on the pattern in the key of D minor ...


(Key of D minor: 5ths and 3rds in the 3rd rail)