consider the following tab for a normally tuned 6 string guitar

the tab shown above shows a progression of the 7th chord (1,3,5,7) in E major through all 7 modes

these are probably familiar chords to you, and if you're like me, they're boring, although they have their uses

now observe the following tab

the tab shown above shows a progression of the 6th chord (1,3,5,6) in E major through all 7 modes

because of the 6th, these chords sound cooler

and then we have an eleventh chord (1,4,5,7) progression below

these are also pretty cool sounding chords

now observe the following mutated tab

in the tab above, we started with a chord, and then selected two strings to progress and two to stay

many interesting progressions can be created by varying this method

we can jump around instead of going up the neck linearly

and don't forget to get the tapping hand involved

this drill is similar to a drill that we have outlined previously on this site

the difference is that we are using the often unexplored middle strings instead of the top four

we can always opt to let the unused strings ring if they are appropriately in the right key