Wednesday, July 21, 2010

"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?  :)

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