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registerBrett Garsed Style File
Australian born Brett Garsed has something we all want as guitarists!
He has a style and technique all of his own and has played with some of the finest fusion noodlers of our time including Frank Gambale, Allan Holdsworth and the late, very great, Shawn lane.
He has also had major chart success with John Farnham and Nelson. After a move to LA he hooked up with 8 finger tapper and producer TJ Helmreich with whom he has recorded several awesome instrumental epics including one of my favorites, 'Uncle Moes Space Ranch'.
As well as releasing his first solo album 'Big Sky' and a new instructional DVD, Brett has also, amongst other projects, performed backing vocals on Tribal Techs only vocal song, 'Boat Gig'.
What a talented chap indeed!
In the following examples I have indicated where Brett uses his middle (m), ring (a) and pinky (e) fingers. I have also added the significant hammer and pull off notes. Most of the rest are played legato.
There are some tricky rhythms to get used to in these examples so you can try doubling the value of a phrase to make it more digestible, e.g. convert a bar of demi semiquavers to 2 bars of semi quavers.
WARNING- You can play most of the licks using sweep picking and alternate picking, but I won't be held responsible for the two hemispheres of your brain parting in the latter examples!
A huge thanks to Mark Robinson for the transcriptions.
If you want to get into more of this fantastic style then Brett has instructional DVD available. It is also well worth having a look for his original instructional video, Rock Fusion (REH860).
Jolly good luck!
Example 1
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To get an idea of how Brett creates his unique style lets look at how Brett uses 4 notes per sting scales to get a smooth scalar sound in his music. Pick the first note on each string.
Try to make each note equal in volume and don't pick too hard.
Example 2
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Example 3
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Example 4
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The 1st half of the solo is based on the arpeggios of the chord progression F#m and A then the legato lick uses the Cmajor scale over the C chord then lands on the target note of F# which is the root of the next chord.
It might sound a bit silly, but when you know you've got a difficult passage to play, like the long legato lick in the 4th bar, you should take a deep breath and breath out with the lick. Belive it or not this helps!
Example 5
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This is a 3/4 style groove with some offbeat jazz Brett style phrasing. The opening lick uses the b5 of D dorian and blends into a Dm pentatonic scale with chromatic passing notes. The next phrase starts with a straight Dm arpeggio, but Brett skips the B string going straight to that C then D slide on the top string using his finger. He employs some more chromatics and consecutive notes then uses a couple of extended arpeggio shapes. The final arpeggio is a D sus2 which Brett used a lot in his earier playing.
Example 6
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After the pick up lick, Brett plays an ostinato figure that implies the chords of A5, G5, Gmaj7, Am, G major, before moving into a cool A dorian legato lick then a slightly raised eyebrow bend!! It involves some awkward legato style stretches and employs the hybrid pick/fingers technique. However after trying it for 2 hours I couldn't get it up to the speed I wanted so I cheated and did it using Sweep picking, string skipping and lots of coffee!!
