When I dig into a burning solo, I like
to combine different techniques that
can give my lines an interesting feel. In this
lesson, weāre going to combine an intervallic
approach to playing arpeggios with some
wicked hybrid picking.
Displacing certain notes in the arpeggio
and combining them in odd groupings creates
a flowing, angular feel that will make
people say, āHey! What is that?ā These
examples will involve a lot of string skipping,
so in order to play them at breakneck
speeds, weāll need to use some hybrid picking.
Essentially, hybrid picking is when
you use the other fingers on your picking
handāusually the middle and ring fingersā
in addition to the flatpick. Hot-rod
country players have been doing this forever,
and weāre going to steal it and combine
it with some pure rock fury.
In the first example shown in Fig. 1,
Iām playing a G#m arpeggio starting on the
b7th. This works really well over the F#m.
Since F# is the second note of an E major
scale, this chord functions as a iim7. This
arpeggio will be our starting point for adding
some intervallic displacement, since
right now it sounds a little plain. Download Example 1 audio...
In Fig. 2 we take the same arpeggio and create a seven-note pattern that will repeat twice. In the example I have notated which finger to use for each string with a representing the ring finger and m indicating the middle finger. The missing last note gives the lick a displaced feeling, but continuing with the 16th-note rhythm adds excitement. The arpeggio is pulled apart by bouncing intervals between the b7 and the lickās root note, and with the 5th, b3rd, and the b7 occurring an octave higher. In the audio example, I cycle the lick twice so you can hear the connection between the two seven-note patterns.
Download Example 2 audio...
Now that we have one pattern under our fingers, we want to move this idea to different places on the fretboard. In Fig. 3, we are visualizing a C# minor tonality over string set 6ā5ā4. I am again starting on the b7 of C#m and bouncing the same intervallic pattern inside the arpeggio. We treat the Emaj9 chord in Fig. 4 the same way, but move it to string set 5ā4ā3.
Download Example 3 audio...
Download Example 4 audio...
We will combine a few of these examples to create Fig. 5. We start in the 7th position and cycle through the seven-note pattern four times before ending with huge bend at the 14th fret. The chords we are implying over this example are C#m7, Emaj9, C#m7, and G#m7. Notice the wicked sound and contour of the lick. Using hybrid picking really allows me to pop those notes out. My suggestion would be to get the feeling of each example and make sure you can repeat it in tempo to feel the syncopation.
Download Example 5 audio:Slow - Fast
Finally, weāll take the concept up the neck, instead of across the neck. This can be done on all string sets, but the example shown in Fig. 6 will deal with strings 1ā3. Weāll start on the keyās relative minor chord, which will be C#m7, and again use the same hybrid-picking approach with these arpeggios. I find that the minor shape feels the best right out of the gate, but our fingers will adapt to the other shapes lurking around the corner.
Next up we have D#m7b5. Try playing the C# on the 3rd string with your 1st finger, and then quickly move the 1st finger to hit A on the 1st string. Next, move to the root chord (Emaj7) on beat 4 using the same 1st-finger jump as before. Use your 2nd finger to hammer-on the E on the 3rd string and then use a finger roll to cover both the E at the end of the first measure and the G# on beat 1 of the second.
The next fingering that we want to look at is for the B7 chord at the end of the third measure. Start with your 1st finger on the A at the 14th fret and hammer-on to the B with your 4th finger. Use another finger roll to hit both the B and the D# going into beat 4. Compared to planting other fingers down, this roll technique saves time and makes playing fast lines much easier.
I suggest playing each shape twice before moving up to the next chord in the scale. This way you will feel the bounce in the sound and feel more confident before moving up. Also, make sure you play them down the neck as well. Once you feel comfortable with this, try and double the speed of the lick as you can hear in the audio example. I hope these examples open new doors for you and help you sound a little cooler than before! Download Example 6 audio: Slow - Fast
Dave MartoneCombining blistering chops with an explosion of sound, Dave Martone is a leading voice in the instrumental rock scene. His latest Magna Carta release, Clean, features guests such as Joe Satriani, Greg Howe, and Billy Sheehan. As an educator, he has taught for the National Guitar Workshop, Berklee College of Music, and Workshop Live. For more information, visit davemartone.com.
Onstage, Tommy Emmanuel executes a move that is not from the playbook of his hero, Chet Atkins.
āMy biggest decision every day on tour is, āWhat do I want to start with? How do I want to come out of the gate?āā Emmanuel explains to me over a video call. āA good opener has to have everything. It has to be full of surprise, it has to have lots of good ideas, lots of light and shade, and then, hit it again,ā he says, illustrating each phrase with his hands and ending with a punch.āYou lift off straightaway with the first song, you get airborne, you start reaching, and then itās time to level out and take people on a journey.ā
In May 2023, Emmanuel played two shows at the Sydney Opera House, the best performances from which have been combined on his new release, Live at the Sydney Opera House. The venueās Concert Hall, which has a capacity of 2,679, is a familiar room for Emmanuel, but I think at this point in his career he wouldnāt bring a setlist if he was playing Wembley Stadium. On the recording, Emmanuelās mind-blowingly dexterous chops, distinctive attack and flair, and knack for culturally resonant compositions are on full display. His opening song for the shows? An original, āCountrywide,ā with a segue into Chet Atkinsā āEl Vaquero.ā
āWhen I was going to high school in the ā60s, I heard āEl Vaqueroā on Chet Atkinsā record, [1964ās My Favorite Guitars],ā Emmanuel shares. āAnd when I wrote āCountrywideā in around ā76 or ā77, I suddenly realized, āAh! Itās a bit like āEl Vaquero!āā So I then worked out āEl Vaqueroā as a solo piece, because it wasnāt recorded like that [by Atkins originally].
āThe co-writer of āEl Vaqueroā is Wayne Moss, whoās a famous Nashville session guy who played āda da daā [sings the guitar riff from Roy Orbisonās āPretty Womanā]. And he played on a lot of Chetās records as a rhythm guy. So once when I played āEl Vaqueroā live, Wayne Moss came up to me and said, āYou know, you did my part and Chetās at the same time. Thatās not fair!āā Emmanuel says, laughing.
Atkins is the reason Emmanuel got into performing. His mother had been teaching him rhythm guitar for a couple years when he heard Atkins on the radio and, at 6, was able to immediately mimic his fingerpicking technique. His father recognized Emmanuelās prodigious talent and got him on the road that year, which kicked off his professional career. He says, āBy the time I was 6, I was already sleep-deprived, working too hard, and being forced to be educated. Because all I was interested in was playing music.ā
Emmanuel talks about Atkins as if the way he viewed him as a boy hasnāt changed. The title Atkins bestowed upon him, C.G.P. (Certified Guitar Player), appears on Emmanuelās album covers, in his record label (C.G.P. Sounds), and is inlaid at the 12th fret on his Maton Custom Shop TE Personal signature acoustic. (Atkins named only five guitarists C.G.P.s. The others are John Knowles, Steve Wariner, Jerry Reed, and Atkins himself.) For Emmanuel, even today most roads lead to Atkins.
When I ask Emmanuel about his approach to arranging for solo acoustic guitar, he says, āIt was really hit home for me by my hero, Chet Atkins, when I read an interview with him a long time ago and he said, āMake your arrangement interesting.ā And I thought, āWow!ā Because I was so keen to be true to the composer and play the song as everyone knows it. But then again, Iām recreating it like everyone else has, and I might as well get in line with the rest of them and jump off the cliff into nowhere. So it struck me: āHow can I make my arrangements interesting?ā Well, make them full of surprises.ā
When Emmanuel was invited to contribute to 2015ās Burt Bacharach: This Guitarās in Love with You, featuring acoustic-guitar tributes to Bacharachās classic compositions by various artists, Emmanuel expresses that nobody wanted to take ā(They Long to Be) Close to You,ā due to its āsyrupyā nature. But for Emmanuel, this presented an entertaining challenge.
He explains, āI thought, āOkay, how can I reboot āClose to You?ā So even the most jaded listener will say, āHoly fuckāI didnāt expect that! Wow, I really like that; that is a good melody!ā So I found a good key to play the song in, which allowed me to get some open notes that sustain while I move the chords. Then what I did is, in every phrase, I made the chord unresolve, then resolve.
Tommy Emmanuel's Gear
āIām writing music for the film thatās in my head,ā Emmanuel says. āSo, I donāt think, āIām just the guitar,ā ever.ā
Photo by Simone Cecchetti
Guitars
- Three Maton Custom Shop TE Personals, each with an AP5 PRO pickup system
Amps
- Udo Roesner Da Capo 75
Effects
- AER Pocket Tools preamp
Strings & Picks
- Martin TE Signature Phosphor Bronze (.012ā.054)
- Martin SP strings
- Ernie Ball Paradigm strings
- DāAndrea Pro Plec 1.5 mm
- Dunlop medium thumbpicks
āAnd then to really put the nail in the coffin, at the end, āClose to youā [sings melody]. I finished on a major 9 chord which had that note in it, but it wasnāt the key the song was in, which is a typical Stevie Wonder trick. All the tricks I know, the wonderful ideas that Iāve stolen, are from Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, James Taylor, Carole King, Neil Diamond. All of the people who wrote really incredibly great pop songs and R&B musicāI stole every idea I could, and I tried to make my little two-and-a -half minutes as interesting and entertaining as possible. Because entertainment equals: Surprise me.ā
I share with Emmanuel that the performances on Live at the Sydney Opera House, which include his popular āBeatles Medley,ā reminded me of another possible arrangement trick. In Harpo Marxās autobiography, Harpo Speaks, I preface, Marx writes of a lesson he learned as a performerāto āanswer the audienceās questions.ā (Emmanuel says heās a big fan of the book and read it in the early ā70s.) That happened for me while listening to the medley, when, after sampling melodies from āSheās a Womanā and āPlease Please Me,ā Emmanuel suddenly lands on āWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps.ā
I say, āIām waiting for something that hits more recognizably to me, and when āWhile My Guitarā comes in, thatās like answering my question.ā
āItās also Paul and John, Paul and John, George,ā Emmanuel replies. āYou think, āThatās great, thatās great pop music,ā then, āWow! Look at the depth of this.āā
Often Emmanuelās flights on his acoustic guitar are seemingly superhumanāas well as supremely entertaining.
Photo by Ekaterina Gorbacheva
A trick I like to employ as a writer, I say to Emmanuel, is that when Iām describing something, Iāll provide the reader with just enough context so that they can complete the thought on their own.
āYou can do that musically as well,ā says Emmanuel. He explains how, in his arrangement of āWhat a Wonderful World,ā heāll play only the vocal melody. āWhen people are asking me at a workshop, āHow come you donāt put chords behind that part?ā I say, āIām drawing the melody and youāre putting in all the background in your head. I donāt need to tell you what the chords are. You already know what the chords are.āā
āWayne Moss came up to me and said, āYou know, you did my part and Chetās at the same time. Thatās not fair!āā
Another track featured on Live at the Sydney Opera House is a cover of Paul Simonās āAmerican Tuneā (which Emmanuel then jumps into an adaptation of the Australian bush ballad, āWaltzing Matildaā). Itās been a while since I really spent time with There GoesRhyminā Simon (on which āAmerican Tuneā was first released), and yet it sounded so familiar to me. A little digging revealed that its melody is based on the 17th-century Christian hymn, āO Sacred Head, Now Wounded,ā which was arranged and repurposed by Bach in a few of the composerās works. The cross-chronological and genre-lackadaisical intersections that come up in popular music sometimes is fascinating.
āI think the principle right there,ā Emmanuel muses, āis people like Bach and Beethoven and Mozart found the right language to touch the heart of a human being through their ears and through their senses ... that really did something to them deep in their soul. They found a way with the right chords and the right notes, somehow. It could be as primitive as that.
Tommy Emmanuel has been on the road as a performing guitarist for 64 years. Eat your heart out, Bob Dylan.
Photo by Jan Anderson
āItās like when youāre a young composer and someone tells you, āHave a listen to Elton Johnās āCandle in the Wind,āā he continues. āāListen to how those notes work with those chords.ā And every time you hear it, you go, āWhy does it touch me like that? Why do I feel this way when I hear those chordsāthose notes against those chords?ā I say, itās just human nature. Then you wanna go, āHow can I do that!āā he concludes with a grin.
āYou draw from such a variety of genres in your arrangements,ā I posit. āDo you try to lean into the side of converting those songs to solo acoustic guitar, or the side of bridging the genreās culture to that of your audience?ā
āI stole every idea I could, and I tried to make my little two-and-a-half minutes as interesting and entertaining as possible. Because entertainment equals: Surprise me.ā
āIf I was a method actor,ā Emmanuel explains, āwhat Iām doing isāIām writing music for the film thatās in my head. So, I donāt think, āIām just the guitar,ā ever. I always think it has to have that kind of orchestral, not grandeur, but ā¦ palette to it. Because of the influence of Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, and Elton John, especiallyāthe piano guysāI try to use piano ideas, like putting the third in the low bass a lot, because guitar players donāt necessarily do that. And I try to always do something that makes what I do different.
āI want to be different and recognizable,ā he continues. āI remember when people talked about how some playersāyou just hear one note and you go, āOh, thatās Chet Atkins.ā And it hit me like a train, the reason why a guy like Hank Marvin, the lead guitar player from the Shadows.... I can tell you: He had a tone that I hear in other players now. Everyone copied himāthey just donāt know itāincluding Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, all those people. I got him up to play with me a few times when he moved to Australia, and even playing acoustic, he still had that sound. I donāt know how he did it, but it was him. He invented himself.ā
YouTube It
Emmanuel performs his arrangement of āWhat a Wonderful World,ā illustrating how omitting a harmonic backdrop can have a more powerful effect, especially when playing such a well-known melody.
