Of the myriad contributions Jimi Hendrix has made to the lexicon of modern guitar, one of the most enduring is the legendary “Hendrix chord." The chord, an E7#9, was definitely nothing new when Hendrix famously used it in “Purple Haze” (Jazz and R&B guitarists used it extensively, and the Beatles featured it years earlier on “Taxman”), but its use by Jimi inspired its use by generations of guitarists in a wide range of styles.

The notion of sweeping (or raking) the pick across the strings to produce a quick succession of notes has been around since the invention of the pick itself. Jazz players from the Fifties would use the approach in their improvisations, and Chet Atkins was known to eschew his signature fingerstyle hybrid-picking technique from time to time and rip out sweep-picked arpeggios.

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents an exclusive lesson video with New York City's Resolution15. The song in the video is "Mr. Dark," which is from the band's new album, Svaha. You might notice that the video lacks guitars. That's because Resolution15 is a metal band that uses violins instead of guitars in their thrash, punk and hardcore-influenced music.

The focus of this lesson will be on ornamentation in Celtic music. Most ornamentations are notated as grace notes. A grace note is performed by playing the note(s) as fast as you can, ending on the target melody note. Grace notes are notated as smaller notes preceding the target note.