"The Big Sweep"

Remember that classic Ren & Stimpy episode where Ren keeps going on about "the big sleep!?"  I believe the two get caught by a dogcatcher and are taken to the pound.  One of the dogs there (Phil?) gets taken away.  Ren thinks Phil was taken away to "nap," but eventually it hits him that it's "the big sleep!"  When I was younger my Dad would joke that our cats would take "the big sleep."  I know, it's a little demented.

Anyway, over the summer I've started working on my sweeping.  It's one of those guitar techniques that certain players crave to master right away, but for some reason it never grabbed me when I was younger.  Right now I have a student in early high school who is all about learning how to sweep.  It's cool when you see a kid with a clear goal in mind.  Like he said to me, "I don't care how long it takes, I want to be able to do this."  That's very reassuring to hear these days.  Not everything happens at 12 megabytes per second!  So the past couple weeks we've been working on sweeping.  He found some examples in Avenged Sevenfold's music, so I used that to make sure he understood there are two main "shapes": a major and a minor.

For those starting out, notice that we commonly do a hammer-on/pull-off combo on the 1st string.  That gives the right hand time to "turn back around" for the series of upstrokes to follow.  To really get these down you want to start out SLOW.  That gives you time to really listen in and make sure the pick to striking each string in time and at a consistent volume.  One of the goals starting out is developing accuracy in both hands.  The left hand fingers need to press down right at the moment the pick is striking the string.  You want to get used to the "feel" of the pick rolling across the strings.  It is like strumming, but sloooowed waaaay down.  Once the accuracy is happening consistently, that's when you can speed it up.  If you try to play these too fast too soon you'll most likely end up missing most of the notes in the middle strings.  (That is a "rake," not a real sweep)  Just be patient and persistent.

Ok ok, so what is this "big sweep?"  Besides being a stupid name that I've given it, it's a series of arpeggio shapes that are meant to smoothly connect across the fingerboard.  I came up with this one about a month or so ago.  The idea being one long progression that stays mostly in one key center.

You'll probably notice this does not involve the same arpeggios as above.  Instead of opening the door to "music theory 102" and putting on my nerdy tweed jacket, I'll just say these all are 7th chord shapes.  Despite having more notes, they are actually easier because they involve more hammer-ons (or pull-offs), thus giving your picking hand a little more time to get through the strings.  All these shapes follow the pattern: 2 notes on the 5th string, then a single note, 2 notes, single note, and finally 2 notes on the 1st string.  From what I've heard, guitarists out of Berklee use arpeggio shapes that follow that order.  It's meant to give a predictable and consistent "pace" for your picking hand, which helps it become more automatic.  One less thing to think about, right?

I have this one written in Bb Major.  But I think it would sound cool over a funky Cm groove.

 
If you want, you can just slide into each shape, rather then starting each one with a downstroke or upstroke (as I have notated).  If you do a slide, you'll end up finishing one shape with a hammer-on, slide up, and do the pull-off all before striking with the pick again.  That can give this a smoother sound, which may be more appropriate for jazz or fusion.  However, I think it might be easier to start with no slides and try how it's written above.

Watch and listen to "The Big Sweep" on YouTube. 

Hope you have fun with this.  How fast can you get through it?  :)

Just came back from outer space...

First a couple weeks went by and then it quickly became several months since my last post.  Summer "vacation" is already more than half over and I still feel like there is a lot left to do until the school year starts back up in August.  Anyone else feel time is speeding up?

So what has been going on??

Wife spent 3 weeks on the outer banks for the National Park Service.  While I was out there with her we enjoyed some good seafood and time on the beach.  It's pretty cool to drive down a road and see water surrounding you on both sides.  My current facebook profile pic best describes the overall vibe on the outer banks I think....

So once back from N.C., we did some home improvements (...fun fun fun...).  Painted my office a cool blue/grey color and remodeled the master bathroom.  Really - why would someone want carpet in the bathroom in the first place?  Spent more money at Ikea for square-shaped things that hold other things.

But after finishing house work we finally got a new TV!  This was about month or so ago.  Went with a 42" LG LED.  So far, so good...but we only had local stations, so not too many channels.  Today we had an HD cable box installed, so we're back to "regular" cable and have a decent amount of HD channels now.  Finally I have my 24-hr news, sports, music and other crap again!  For the last 5 years we've had this old Sharp that I'm pretty sure my youngest brother found on the curb of a street.  He went through a phase of finding "street TVs" as we called them.

Oh, let me see, what else.  I got a T-Dap shot after stepping on an old rusty nail.  A horrible sinus infection caused me to go to the doctor's for the first time in almost a decade.  Recently just got over that.  Saw Clapton with Daltrey as the opener earlier this month.  I could tell Clapton really, really liked the strat he was playing.  He was just on that night.  Probably the best I've heard him.  Man, if I can even come close to play like that when I'm 60-something I'd consider myself very lucky.  He's still playing better than most.

So let's just jump to right now.  Right now I'm practicing songs for a wedding gig this weekend.  Everything from Otis Redding to Paul Simon to Grateful Dead to Kool & the Gang.  I was just listening to this live recording of the Dead doing "They Love Each Other."  Man I hate to say it, but sometimes Jerry was just on and other times he kinda stumbled around.  This is one of those stumbling moments unfortunately...but he hangs on and picks it up toward the end.  So 'A' for effort I'd say.  Anyway, the couple asked for this song specifically, but not just that...they also wish for their friend to sing the song with our band and also play lead guitar.  Hey, that's fine with me.  Should be fun, I might try playing some keys on it.  :)

Well, time to head out and teach some youngsters gee-tar.  Yee-haw!