ii-V7-I SWEEP ARPEGGIO

Oy, "ii--V7--I sweep arpeggio" sounds so-- so-- I don't know, like something you'd see on a guitar instruction site? Anyway, if I haven't lost you yet, here's a little gimmick you can use when you have a bunch of ii--V chord progressions in a row, as in the bridge of "Cherokee." It's loosely based on a riff Charlie Parker used on that tune, and apparently he showed it to a lot of young guys in the Jay McShann band, (note-- I have to check that reference-- at presstime I couldn't find the disc liner notes about it. ) because at that time (around 1940) a lot of young players didn't know what to play in a situation like that. This was an easy-to-remember lick that sounded hip, which makes it perfect for me.

I try to avoid sweep technique, for the most part, because I prefer the definition you get with a picked note. I like this idea, though, because it's utilitarian, and it shouldn't be too hard to segue from this into a more articulated line.

I've got it in C, in a couple different places, then I show how you can move it down a whole step pretty easily. The trickiest aspect is the stretches. If you use the tablature correctly, the places where you need to stretch should be obvious (i.e. a pulloff from 9th fret to 5th fret). I put the sweeps on the ascending arpeggios, and pick the descending ones.

A TIP FOR THE HIP-- I didn't put this in the notated example, but if you can start the lick on the "and" of 4, previous measure, and tie that eighth note to what I have written, it should sound more swinging.