Transcription and lesson by Denis Chang

Here is the full transcription to Lollo Meier’s solo guitar piece Pepe’s Dream.

For many of you who are just discovering this style and the techniques inherent to it, this piece may seem overwhelming at first. The good news is that there is quite a bit of repetition going on (with many interesting variations).

You should obviously take your time with it; especially with some of the flashy runs. Our main focus, however, will be the concepts that we can get out of the piece itself.

In my opinion, there are essentially three things that are well worth assimilating:

• The tune is full of interesting chordal progressions and voicings that can be used as arrangements for your own solo pieces; or as rubato intros or outros. Transpose them to different keys to better assimilate the concepts.

• There is a very common m6 or m7b5 arpeggio shape (Fig.1) that just about every player in the style use. It is notated here as an Am type chord, but equally works well over F#m7b5.

• A very standard diminished arpeggio shape that is often used over 7th chords (Fig.2). It is notated over an E7 chord in this example.

Look at the transcription to see how Lollo uses these shapes; there are a few variations. Study them slowly and carefully before trying to invent your own.

To help you get started, I have written out a short Etude on the Minor Swing changes using these two shapes, and the main theme from the first few measures of Pepe’s Dream.

Notice that I have transposed everything to the key of Am (from the original key of Em).

PEPE'S DREAM LESSON MP3

Good luck and have fun!