Summer Pimms

What it is about

A light and fruity little number.

How it was written

A tune originally written for solo guitar spiced up with a tasty accompaniment of acoustic bass and congas.

Push and pull

The main theme features the guitar played fingerstyle. All four fretting fingers are in action plus the thumb and three fingers of the playing hand. Hammer-ons, pull-offs and syncopation add gusto to the familiar C, F and G chords.

Rhythm changes

The acoustic bass plays a complementary melody to the Am7 and D chords on the guitar whilst the percussion plays a composite (3+3+3+3+4)/8 on the open and mute hi conga.

Writing for a small combo always brings the individual instruments into sharp relief. In Summer Pimms, the percussion has the hardest job because it has to deliver an interesting beat using only two drums. The solution is to vary things as much as possible and avoid repetition like the plague. So the congas sometimes play a straightforward 4/4, sometimes just onbeats, sometimes just offbeats, sometimes its a mix of everything in a composite rhythm, and, occasionally, they go completely overboard and switch from 4/4 to 6/8.

Tech spec

Title: Summer Pimms

Key: C

Tempo: 125bpm

Length: 3' 01"

Track 1: nylon guitar

Track 2: acoustic bass

Track 3: congas

Genre: Pop, Rock