The Rake

Lesson 2/53 | Study Time: 5 Min
Course: Blues Lead Guitar Technique
The Rake

The Rake

The rake is a common technique in Blues lead guitar. It is used quite often in the C form, particularly by B.B. King. The rake is achieved by first fretting a note and then laying a finger (or fingers) across two or three adjacent strings. The pick is then raked across the strings, causing a muted sound leading up to the original note which is then left ringing. A rake is indicated by an arrow in the tablature pointing up to the note to be raked.

Rake pick across strings.

Notice how the rake adds expression to the first note here.

In this example the E is played with the first finger and the damping is done with the second and third fingers.

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Peter Gelling

Peter Gelling

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Class Sessions

1- Developing a Theme 2- Moving Licks 3- Grace Notes 4- Set Rhythms 5- More Set Rhythms 6- Two Bar Rhythms 7- Ties 8- Across the Bar 9- Triplets 10- Triplet Set Rhythms 11- Sliding Scales 12- Major Pentatonic - Other Forms 13- Chords and Arpeggios 14- Major Pentatonic Scales 15- LESSON TWENTY TWO 16- 12 Bar Arpeggio Riff 17- Arpeggio Solo 18- Sixteenth Notes 19- Set Rhythms With Sixteenths 20- The C Form 21- INTRODUCTION 22- Slow Blues Solo 23- Tremolo 24- The Blues Scale 25- Blues Licks 26- Blues Solo 27- Higher Up 28- The Trill 29- The D Form 30- LESSON THIRTY ONE 31- The Rake 32- Twelve-Eight Time 33- The A Form 34- LESSON THIRTY THREE 35- The G Form 36- Combining Major and Minor 37- Rhythm Notation 38- Common Picking Directions 39- Adding the Minor Third 40- Summary of Scales 41- Chords 42- A New Solo 43- Note Values 44- G Form Solo 45- A Form Solo 46- C Form Solo 47- Diagrams 48- Arpeggios 49- Dotted Notes 50- Combining Forms 51- Tablature 52- The Shuffle 53- Tablature Symbols

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