Do you ever find yourself in a conversation
about trying strange and exotic
food? Everyone seems to have sampled
something strange at one point or another.
For example, it could be chocolate covered
creepy-crawlies, crunchy deep-fried hopping
or chirping things, large African bird eggs,
fish eyes, chicken hearts, pig brains, or even
cow tongues. There are so many culinary
adventures available to us to try. What a
wonderful world.
I like this kind of adventure. But
I’m more interested in a subcategory of
strange food, and that is: Strange Food I’d
Purposefully Seek Out Again and Again
Because It’s Genuinely Delicious. One of
my favorites in this category is squid. While
it’s still alive that is—it doesn’t get any fresher
than that! The squid tastes fantastic, and
it’s fun to think I’m experiencing the same
thing that a blue shark eats every day.
I get excited about fresh, good things,
whether they are edible or musical. The following
phrases are so fresh to me, if they had legs
they would still be wiggling around in the air.
Let’s start with an easy one.
Fig. 1 is a
G# diminished 7th arpeggio (G#–B–D–F).
Since a diminished arpeggio consists of four
notes that are all equidistantly spaced, we can
consider any note the root. I like it for its
geometrically appealing shape, and its serious,
furrowed-brow sound. It’s important to visualize
the shape before we dive into the notes.
Now that we have a general idea of
where our fingers will go, let’s apply the
phrase in
Fig. 2. I am hearing this phrase
as 16th notes, but you will notice groups of
five within a phrase. I like how this creates
slightly unpredictable accents. I also made it
a point to end on a strong beat with enough
time to sustain and do some vibrato.
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At this point, I want to insert some
advice on technique.
I recommend you
not pick every note.
It’s important to dispel the myth that good
technique requires every note to be picked.
There are so many phrases that I love—
including the ones in this column—where
picking every note would cripple the phrase.
It would be like trying to juggle three balls
while keeping a hand on each ball at all
times—we just can’t do it (but perhaps a
squid could be trained for this trick).
By imitating a juggler, you allow some
of the notes to “float,” and this gives your
picking hand more free time to relax and
choose the most comfortable picking
strokes. But like juggling, this technique
requires practice and coordination. The
good news: It’s “easy once you get it.” By
this, I mean it doesn’t require brute force
or arm-stiffening “motorboat” picking. If
coordinated properly, it will flow easily and
smoothly with very little physical effort.
So what is the first step of this “juggling”
technique?
Let’s start with the idea that your first note
is always picked, and every note that follows
will fall into one of these two categories:
-
The next note is on a different string.
-
The next note is on the same string.
I love it when things are this simple! To
test out this idea, try playing any scale that
you know right now. As you travel from
note to note, really focus on what is happening
string-wise. Is the next note on the
same string or is the next note on a different
string? That’s all there is to it.
Now here is the big payoff. Looking at
these two categories will tell you what your
pick should do. Here’s how it works:
-
When the next note is on a different
string, PICK IT.
-
When the next note is on the same
string, DON’T PICK IT. Use a hammer-
on or a pull-off instead.
That’s it—the whole secret to “juggling.”
Yes, it does take practice to master this and
make it feel intuitive. But it’s worth it. I’d
go so far as to say it’s the most valuable
technique I know of for playing scales and
arpeggios on the guitar. The result is good
sound and playing ease. And now it’s yours.
All right, let’s get back to the music.
After you’ve spent some time digesting the
diminished phrase at the beginning of this
column (I recommend playing it for at
least a week or so), you can start altering
the shapes to get some different arpeggios
and scales. Please plunge your fingers into
the included examples and see what you
can pull out.
At first, all these new arpeggios and
scales might seem like a lot to chew on,
but once you master any one of them,
you’ll be surprised how easily the others
will fall into place. They are all built
from the same underlying phrase, so your
fingers will adapt to the new shapes with
minimal work.
I thank you. I thank the chef. And I
thank the squid.
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Paul Gilbert purposefully began playing guitar
at age 9, formed the guitar-driven bands
Racer X and Mr. Big, and then accidentally
had a No. 1 hit with an acoustic song called
“To Be with You.” Paul began teaching at
GIT at the age of 18, has released countless
albums and guitar instructional DVDs, and
will remembered as “the guy who got the drill
stuck in his hair.” For more information, visit
paulgilbert.com.