lessons from Leo

The Cuban composer Leo Brouwer has written a set of 30 incredible etudes for classical guitar that I've spent much of this year learning and studying. Number 18, which is a study for ornaments, has a wonderful little arpeggio figure that I wanted to translate to electric guitar. In the spirit of my last post, I've applied this to a 7sus4 chord:

The main characteristic is that the first note is approached chromatically and the rest of the arpeggio is spread out as a chord. Playing pick-style, this requires using sweep-picking. This idea can be applied to any chord voicing that doesn't skip strings. I've been having a lot of fun working this through different drop-2 voicings in all inversions and playing it as a descending figure as well.

Remember, play it SLOWLY and ACCURATELY until the movements become fluid and natural. With sweep picking, it's important to focus on keeping even pressure on the pick. This is challenging at first since the tendency is to "force" the pick through each string, which will result in choppy rhythm and missed notes at a faster speed. Keep the pressure consistent as you sweep downwards.

Try this with other chords. Vary the ending note and experiment with ways of using this to lead into a phrase.

Happy New Year!

Brant Grieshaber - guitarist
Guitar Teacher

Noodling with the sus4 triad

One of my favorite ideas to play around with on guitar and in writing is the idea of chord substitution - playing one thing in place of what would usually be expected. This is a technique that works just as nicely with arpeggios as it does with chords.

One of my favorite structures to play with is the sus4. The ambiguous quality, lacking a 3rd, is something I find appealing. Here are a few new ways to think about using the sus4 triad. Click to enlarge the image.

In the first example, we see the notes of a Csus4 in the context that we're accustomed to. It's just a Csus4. Simple!

The second example is a great way to get a lydian sound without playing tons of notes. Economy of means is a good thing to keep in mind when improvising. Here, the Csus4 triad is played over a Db to create the sound of a maj7 (#11) chord. Lydian.

The others are just two more possibilities. Technically, there are 12 different ways to use this as a chord or arpeggio. Some of them sound really dissonant, others will work over almost any chord you can imagine.

Play around with this idea, keep your ears open, and hear what you like!

Be well,
Brant

Brant Grieshaber - guitarist
Guitar Lessons

Welcome!

Welcome to Brant's Guitar Blog. This blog will be all about my experiences and my path with the guitar. You'll find information about what I'm practicing, how to improve your own technique, what I'm teaching my students, gigs and recordings that are coming up, and anything else I can think of that's guitar related.

For now, Happy Holidays!
Brant

Brant Grieshaber - guitarist
Guitar Lessons