I'd forgotten just how tricky this was to notate the first time around and, looking at it again, I found myself altering much of the notation I'd employed as a youngster.
Due to Jeff's chordal playing style there's a lot of places where arpeggiated notes bleed into each other. Accurately expressing these kinds of passages is a common problem in the world of guitar-based notation: the challenge is to find the optimum means of transmitting the necessary level of detail without covering the page with unnecessary clutter. As such, the use of multiple staves, individual standalone voices and the copious use of ties are all possible options. But perhaps the easiest way round the problem is to notate the articulated notes and simply stick a "let ring" indication below the stave.
However, while "let ring" is fine for sections where there is little movement, when it comes to areas in which certain voices are held over as others move around, a more accurate notational approach is required. As such I've adopted different methods depending on the situation, such as dropping superfluous ties and notes and linking together only those notes which continue to sound inside an arpeggiated passage. Having said that, any professional music copyist would have a heart attack if they saw the following...
...an eighth note followed by a quarter note within a sextuplet! And those ties! Holy hemiola!! There's probably already a price on my head within certain musical quarters ;-)
To achieve his guitar-like chord-melody style, Jeff primarily employs the thumb, index and middle fingers of his right hand. In the tricky free-solo section, he uses numerous hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides - often without any right-hand articulation at all - to achieve those smooth Allan Holdsworth-like legato phrases.
To make it easier to find out exactly where Jeff is playing in certain places, I've added in string numbers (circled numerals) and from that, it's easy to work out where he's fretting certain notes and phrases. And, although not strictly necessary (as the articulation is implicit in the notation itself), hammer-ons, pull-offs and bends etc have been indicated with capital letters. However, if you're a purist, drop me a line and I'll send you a "just the dots" version. ;-)
Although this was produced over 10 years ago, Jeff is still delivering knockout music today. You can catch up with his latest news at jeffberlinmusic.com.
Transcription © Stevie Glasgow 2008 |
