Sparkle
Composed by Trey Anastasio & Tom Marshall
As recorded by Phish on the album Rift (1992).
Transcribed by Paul Murin
Well, I know that a lot of the hard-core
phans don't really dig this song, but I personally think it's great.
Like "Bouncin' Around the Room," it is basically one single
extremely clever idea put into a short little song. And it has a super-cool
guitar part at the end that is well worth learning.
Performance Notes:
- It starts off with a bluegrassy rhythm
on a simple chord progression, shown on the first line. Just
use your standard, open position chords here.
- The first time the guitar part changes
is at the 3rd chorus, when the vocal parts break up into the
round. This part is very hard to decipher on all of my recordings.
The rhythm in this section is a little more straightforward
than the rhythm in the instrumental secition--the reason being
that you're also singing at the same time.
- For this part, and all of the subsequent
parts, you are essentially doing a series of hammer-ons involving
the open G string, and following the chord progression of the
song. Where the same pattern is repeated several times in one
measure, I just wrote "2x" or "5x" instead
of writing the whole thing out five times. While you're playing
it, try to visualize how each pattern corresponds to the chord.
It all makes a lot of sense as you work up the neck.
- When the instrumental section kicks off
(and the vocals stop), notice that the rhythm in the guitar
line changes. You are still playing 16th notes, but instead
of just doing four groups of four (as in the 2 choruses prior
to this), now you are doing five groups of three, with the last
note being an 8th note (conveniently giving you an extra split
second to change to the next position). It's tough to get the
feel for this, especially because by this time you're already
going pretty fast.
- By the time you get to the 5th and 6th
instrumental choruses, you're going so damned fast that it's
a miracle if you can keep up. If you have to, fit the pattern
into the measure only 4 times instead of 5. You're going so
fast here that it won't be noticeable as long as you hold it
more or less together.
- When the vocals come back in, you go back
to a simpler part. Again, it's impossible to decipher Trey's
exact part in the recordings that I have, especially because
by this time you're going so fast it's ridiculous. But I indicated
what I think it is, and what works for me. Notice that instead
of 16th notes, you're just playing 8th notes at this point.
But it's going so fast that it's hard to keep up with anyway.
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