Hi folks!
Today some passages of Angel (a song that I wrote for my hero Jason Becker) to work on the sweep technique. You can listen to the entire song on the address shown below at the bio section.

Example 1:
This is my part during the bass solos on the intro. These are current positions of the sweep technique so this is a good exercise if you're not familiar with'em. As usual start slow (be careful with the stretch), play each position separately and when you are quite regular you can play with the metronome. 80 bpm is a good tempo to start but if you feel it's too fast for you, play at a higher tempo 3 notes per beat for the sixteenth triplets and 4 notes per beat for the thirtysecond notes.
The tempo of the song is appoximately at 110 bpm. I removed the bass solos on the mp3 file so you can focus easily on the guitar, and the first part is played twice instead of four. The guitars are tuned one step lower than normal (DGCFAD) on this song but the score is written for a standard tuned guitar.

Example 2:
This is a part originally played by two guitars. It's based on the question/answer system used in most of the musics (classical, blues,etc...). This time each sweep part is followed by a fast picking phrase. It is also important to know how to continue playing after a sweep part; so you should learn the whole lick. This is also one of the main licks of the song.

Example 3:
This example is in the bridge section and it's inspired by some baroque harmonies. Actually only the first part of the lick that you hear is played with the sweep technique; you can learn the second part ( tapping ) on my next column “Angel pt2: Tapping all over the neck”.

Don't hesitate to email me for comments or questions at froggysblues@yahoo.fr
Thanks for reading!

Bio:

I was born on 1981 and I start playing guitar at 15. My main influences are Jason Becker, Shawn Lane, Stevie Ray Vaughan & Jimi Hendrix. I also play cello. In 2005 I recorded a weird CD called “The Mushrooms' Fantasy” which is a kind of heroic-fantasy parody (the songs are related to each others by a story involving Dark Mushrooms trying to invade the world...). There are many different music styles in this album (baroque music, flamenco, metal, symphonic & indian music, etc...) but the main style is progressive rock with shred & melodic guitar solos. I'm currently working on new music.

The music that I play is deeply influenced by blues, classical music & rock and my aim is to work with artists from every cultures.

For info, news & music visit http://www.myspace.com/matthieuchellpain.