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