Professor Shred: Big Jumps

Using String Skipping to

Create Multi-Octave Tapped
Arpeggios
This month Id like to talk about the technique I use to perform the
fast arpeggiated phrases on the song A Wonderful Slippery
Thing, from myErotic Cakes album.
For these licks, I employ fretboard tapping in conjunction with
string skipping to achieve a very smooth and even sound
throughout.
I know many guitarists prefer to use sweep picking when playing
arpeggios, but to me, the sound of dragging the pick up and down
across the strings is a little too abrasive and percussive.
In this months column, Id like to demonstrate my basic approach
to performing these types of arpeggios, which involves a
combination of fretboard tapping and string skipping. My love for
the sound of the saxophone inspired me to pursue this approach.
When sax players play fast arpeggios, they sound very fluid, liquid
and bubbly. I devised a system that works for me, and the idea is
to apply the concept in a variety of different ways.
The first question I ask myself is, How many notes do I want to
play in this arpeggio? I then play each note once on one string
before moving this specific note series to a different string.
For example, starting with a basic minor triad, which consists of
three notes, Ill play three notes on a given string and then move
those same three notes to another string, as demonstrated
in FIGURE 1. Here Im playing the notes of a B minor triadB, D
and F#on the sixth string, sounding the highest note with a
fretboard tap. I then move these three notes over to the D string,
execute them in the exact same way, and then repeat the process
on the high E string.
Youll notice that the shape on each string is identical, and I think
this is not unlike the way pianists play arpeggios, in that they
repeat the same fingering shape as they move to higher octaves.
Just listen to the insane multioctave arpeggios that Art Tatum plays
I think there must be some logic like that going on.
If you are not used to playing in this way, the big challenge is
hammering with the index finger to start each phrase on each
string. Begin with just the first three notes on the sixth string,
making sure they sound clear, with no extraneous noises. Then
hop over two strings and up two frets, to the D string, and the
shape is exactly the same. Strive to make these transitions
seamless.
Now lets play each three-note arpeggio in a repeated sequence,
moving from low to high strings, back and forth, as shown
in FIGURE 2. If I want a more complex arpeggio, I can add one
note, the flat seventh, as I do in FIGURE 3.
If we transpose the idea to a major triad, we get FIGURE 4. To
build up your technique, I suggest practicing each phrase on each
string repeatedly, as shown in FIGURES 5a and 5b.