Bill Keiths melodic style of banjo influenced some of these open string licks for guitar. Combining fretted notes with sustaining open strings underneath gives the illusion that the guitar has more strings than just six sometimes. It can also give a harp like effect, not quite as convincing as the harp harmonic technique but that topic would require its own article. Example 1 is in the key of D and employs the reverse banjo roll that was discussed in part 2 of this series. Try to let all the open string notes sustain as long as possible. Example 2 is way up the fretboard and in the key of E. This resembles a reverse banjo roll as well but starting on the M (middle finger of the right hand). I use this one quite a bit since it sounds a little out of the ordinary, a little less predictable. Example 3 is in the same area of the fretboard as the previous example, but with some wider right hand leaps and a bluesier sound combing the flat third and major third. Example 4 is a nice looooong rockabilly lick in the key of E. It employs some forward banjo roll action and some reverse on the way down. Try to play this one as fast as you can over a "Mystery Train" kind of groove. Examples 5 thru 9 use the same type of descending open string lick that is altered to fit into 5 different keys. It's a good idea to have a bunch of these worked out for multiple keys just in case. Pay close attention to the right hand fingering on these. Pop the hybrid picked notes hard for a nice chicken pickin' effect.
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Banjo rolls are great for your right hand, requiring a hybrid picking style (combining fingerstyle with pick). A little bit of practice can have you ripping these things over fast tempos in no time at all since they are a repetitive arpeggiated pattern. Once the muscle memory is established you're good to go. Example A is a classic forward roll pattern. The trick here is to have every string sounding out at the same volume. This will require balance between the fingered notes and the pick. Keep your picking hand against the bridge in a quasi-palm muting technique. Once you get control over the the velocity of the notes you can try snapping that high G to give a sense of syncopation. Example B is a reverse roll. The reversing of the fingerstyle part of the hybrid picking technique can present problems for some players (like me). I always found this one required more work than the forward roll. A good trick here is to use the classical guitar technique of "planting" the right hand fingers. Place both a and m on their respective strings, perform the arpeggio. On the repeat place both the a and m on their respective strings again before playing the high g sounded by the a finger. This helps keep the rhythm intact and can improve speed. Finger planting for hybrid picking is a subjective I will get into in a future post. C is an arpeggio figure in the style of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" by Flatt&Scruggs. What kind of roll is this? Forward or Backward? Get this one up to speed and throw it in any tune in G you need to spice up a bit. Below is a PDF of the lesson you can download.
To maximize your technique and creativity it's a good idea to take some time to learn how other musicians practice their specific instrument. A good place to start would be stringed instruments (obviously). Fretted or unfretted they require two hands to produce sound and have varying disciplines and literature. These would be the easiest to adapt to the guitar. Years ago I decided I wanted to be a violinist instead of a guitarist, I took lessons and practiced for hours every day. It was almost easier to learn than guitar because of the history of the instrument. So many great players, composers, teachers etc. have picked it up and produced some great works to be studied. Also, the discipline required to even approach the music has been sculpted by the great people of the past and it raises your level of concentration just to attempt it. It took me a year just to produce a somewhat acceptable tone from my bowing arm. It would have taken much longer if I didn't have a great teacher and great books written by great players. Iron sharpens iron. The bowing technique you practice early on in the study of the instrument can be applied to the guitar instantly. We guitarists usually think of picking as being broken down into groups like strumming chords up, down or up and down or playing single notes with downstrokes, upstrokes, alternate picking or economy picking, the last two being more advanced techniques that are focused on a little later than the rest for beginners. Violinists are doing all those movements within the first month of practice. And in nearly every possible mutation. Try this. Play an E minor chord. What did you do? Did you strum the chord? Did you arpeggiate it with a single downstroke or an upstroke? Did you alternate pick it in its entirety? Take that E minor chord and play it one string at a time from the low E (thickest string) down to the high E (thinnest string) all with upstrokes (picking up towards the ceiling or sky, depending on where you are). Do it as fast as you can. Pretty weird feeling isn't it. Try it in reverse now. From the high E down to the low E with all downstrokes. Probably not as uncomfortable seeing as how strumming downward is the most natural feeling think on a guitar. A violin teacher would consider that a problem and prescribe you with exercises to remedy the situation. Maybe you like sweep picking on guitar but are having a hard time making it melodic? Check out J.S Bachs Chaconne in D minor. Played here by Itzhak Perlman and starting at 5:11 you'll hear the Bariolage technique, much like sweep picking on guitar performed to perfection. Of course what makes this great is the fact it's amazing music. At 3:28 of this lesson with the insane Mattias Eklundh we see the guitar equivalent of the Bariolage technique. As guitarists we have experience with playing staccato lines from time to time but have we ever tried playing spiccato? Is this sound similar to palm muting at all? Do you think this piece played by the great Jascha Heifetz would sound cool on a guitar? Shawn Lane thought so. I'll blog a little more in the future about "crosstraining" for guitar by stealing ideas from other instruments.
Now PRACTICE! |