Keith Whalen - Etude Op. 1 No. 1

I've decided to upload my first ever completed etude, which is almost 2 years old now. I guess you can say that it's influenced somewhat by the Chopin Op. 10 No. 1 and the soaring effect of that etude; it also resembles the up and down arpeggiated format as well. The purpose of the piece is to abandon the sweeping technique and to accommodate a new method for playing arpeggios throughout several octaves. Here is the description I gave when I first posted it on YouTube in 2008:

"This arpeggio etude is based on triads being played in 3 octaves without using the traditional sweeping right hand technique. The fingerings are very important and cause for leaps to each octave, helping position switching and horizontal movement. To give you an idea of the shape of the arpeggios, the second triad at 0:03 seconds into the piece outlines a Dmaj7. It's fingerings are D and F# on the low E and then the seventh (C#) is played on A string. The shape then moves to the D an octave higher on the 12 fret of the D string, the shape repeats and finally you will use the same notes of the arpeggio starting from the D on the 15th fret on the B string. All the arpeggios are designed in this fashion, two notes then one note a string higher and then repeated throughout the 3 octaves."

Hopefully the tab provided will grant some insight into the technique and helps when following the music. The intent was a mixture of beauty and duty and hopefully the piece has enough musical merit to stand alone outside of the technical nitpicking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v7SFM0RMLY