LESSON: ACOUSTIC

ON THE CD . Tracks 53-54

Alex De Grass!
This month Stuart Ryan uncovers the lush, dreamy, ambient
style of one of America's greatest exponents of fingerpicked
acoustic guitar, the great Alex De Grassi...
ABILITY RATING
Moderate
Will improve your:
19 Percussive playing
BUse of alternative tunings
BAmbient feel
AMERICAN INSTRUMENTALIST
Alex De Grassi is one of the finest
purveyors of acoustic guitar music
you are likely to hear. Rightfully
acknowledged as one of the
acoustic guitar world's top-flight
players, De Grassi first came to
prominence in the 1980s as part
of the Windham Hill record label,
which gave rise to several other
great acoustic artists including
Michael Hedges.
De Grassi is my favourite
type of musician, the guitarist
as a composer; his writing is
simply stunning and he has his
own voice on the guitar. The
beauty of De Grassi's writing is
in its subtlety; perhaps his most
played piece, The Water Garden
can seem quite simple on first
listen but sit down to play it and
you will find awkward stretches,
tricky syncopations and various
percussive devices that can be
hard to execute.
Combine great writing with
GET THE TONE
Alex is a Lowden man, an F35
to be precise. You are dealing
with a lot of low, altered tunings
here so the thickest possible
strings are best, both for the
guitar itself and for the tone. I
used a Nick Benjamin 00 - this is
a tiny guitar but still sounds great
tuned all the way down! I used
1 2 -53 gauge strings.
that other essential tool, tone,
and you have an artist who is
well worth studying. De Grassi's
writing eschews theatrics and
instead comes across as music
that could have been written
for any instrument, which is one
of the greatest achievements a
composer can aim for.
In this month's piece I
have aimed for some typical De
Grassi trademarks - a low altered
tuning to give the guitar added
resonance, deep sustained chords
and a percussive string slap to
give the music a sense of forward
motion. Like De Grassi, I have
aimed for subtlety and melody.
There are some passages here
that may be a little trickier than
they at first appear. Studying
a slow piece like this can really
improve you as a player.
PRO TIP
Altered tunings can be a great
way of coming up with new ideas
- make sure you have a good
working knowledge of chord
voicings so you can figure out
what you want to play anywhere
on the fretboard.
At workshops I always
encounter great players who
can tear through complex, fast
material but then struggle with
slower pieces where every single
note is exposed!
Alex makes music that
appeals beyond the guitar
playing audience alone, one of
the greatest achievements of any
instrumentalist. Check him out
and be dazzled!
Percussive muted strings can
really add to a piece but they are
quite hard to sound correctly.
In order to do this you need to
slap the string so your thumb
stops dead on it - if your thumb
bounces off the string you will
simply sound the note, so you
are trying to effectively 'kill' the
note by stopping it with your
thumb. It's a great technique that
with practice will give an extra
dimension to your playing and
writing. GT
TRACK RECORD
8 The Water
Garden is
a beautiful
album full of
Alex's signature
compositions and chord voicings,
but it's also worth checking out
everything else recorded by the
great man!
I encounter great players who can tear through complex, fast
material but then struggle with slower pieces
82 GuitarTechniques December 2007
LESSON: ACOUSTIC
O N THE CD ft Track 54
Bar 1] Hallmar ks of De Grassi's style include deep, low tuning and
esonant chor d voicings as found here. In addition, the percussive muted
pings (indicated by an X) often appear. This is quite a hard technique - you
lave to 'slap' the str ing with the picking hand thumb so it gives a dead,
j ercussive sound without actually ringing out. This is a feature throughout
he piece so spend some time on it before progressing.
Bar 3] Here's a potentially tr i c k y fingering - fret the sixth string with the
irst finger at the 5th fret then the second string with the fourth finger at
C add9 C sus4
5th fret - keep the first finger in place whilst sliding the fourth finger up to
the 7th fret, second string. Good luck!
[Bar 6] The natural harmonic at the 5th fr et can be hard to get sounding
clear. If that is the case, you can achieve the same harmonic (an octave
lower) at the 12th fret, and much easier to sound.
[Bar 11] Long, sustained chords are another feature of Alex's style, so your
playing technique must be very clean in order to keep movement on the
bass notes whilst the chord rings out.
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December 2007 GuitarTechniques 83
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EXAMPLE ...CONTINUED
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ON THE CD ft^ack54 !
19 - Previous page] Watch outforthe fretted strings and the muted, [Bar 27] There's a brief use of harp harmonics here - use an artificial
ed bass notes here - itcan be d fficultmoving between the two. harmonic technique to sound the harmonics up atthe 14th fretwhilst
22] There's anotherslightly awkward slide on the fourth f ngerhere so plucking the strings atthe same time. I suggestusing the firstfingeron the
up to this slowly. picking hand to fretthe artificialharmonic atthe 14th fretwhilstpicking with
the thumb, and use the third fingerto pluckthe open strings.
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