Forgive the arty title, but the sounds we’re making this issue are suited to soft-focus impressionist scenes. We’re playing arpeggios, but extending their range by craftily switching between open and fretted notes on the same strings. it’s a similar principle to the cascading licks used by country players, letting all notes ring as long as possible. Have a strum through our basic chord progression for starters…
So, to be super clear, on this chord we’re starting with the fretted sixth string, then playing fourth (open), fifth (fretted), third (open), fourth (now fretted), second (open), third (still open). Run through that a few times to get the hang of it....
To keep things simple, we’ll use the same picking pattern for all arpeggios. Most of them start from the fifth string and we’re picking the strings in this order: 5‑3‑4‑2‑3‑1‑2. Get used to that on the standard open C shape for starters. The exception...
The same again, with open and fretted notes on both the third and second strings. This is only one fairly simple ascending pattern; why not try your own, including descending patterns? The trick is to create a constant stream of ringing notes, all...