Six Strings
In this section: Techniques
Techniques

Rake

Before a note, your pick sweeps across two or three muted strings in one motion: you hear a little percussive “krrr,” then the note lands harder. It’s an accent, all over electric blues.

Notation
“rake” and a dotted line above the tab, x on the muted strings
Hand
Picking hand
Difficulty
Intermediate
Style
Blues, rock, country

Listen

e|-----------------5~-|
B|-----8-----5---x----|
G|---x-----x---x------|
D|-x-----x------------|
A|--------------------|
E|--------------------|

What it’s for

A note played on its own just starts. With a rake, the pick first drags across two or three muted strings, in one motion, and hits the note with all that momentum. You hear a short dry scratch, “krrr,” then the note, louder and with more bite. It’s an accent, like a consonant before a vowel.

Rakes are all over electric blues: Stevie Ray Vaughan made them a signature, on the notes he wanted to pop. You also find them in rock, on the high notes of a solo, and in country, where they add a bit of spice to a lick.

Save them for the notes that matter. Used everywhere, they don’t make anything stand out.

How to do it

  1. Find the target note and fret it ahead of time, for example the G on the B string, 8th fret.
  2. Mute the strings you’ll drag across, here the D and G strings: the free fingers of your fretting hand lie lightly on them, without pressing. Your picking-hand palm can help, near the bridge.
  3. Set the pick on the first muted string, then cross the strings in one continuous motion to the target note, like a strum in slow motion. No separate strokes.
  4. Land on the target note without stopping: it rings normally, carried by the motion.
  5. Place the rake just before the beat: the target note lands on the beat, the muted strings go by just before it.
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The rake: your fretting hand

  1. Your ring finger frets the target note, the one that rings at the end of the rake.
  2. Your index and middle fingers rest on the raked strings without pressing: they go “krrr”, with no pitch.

Drawn like tab: high E at the top, low E at the bottom.

In tab, the word rake followed by a dotted line above the staff marks the sweep, and the strings you cross get an x. On this site, you’ll simply see x’s right before the note: those are the muted strings of the rake.

Examples

The example at the top of the page puts a two-string rake before three notes of the A minor pentatonic: the G on the B string (8th fret), the E (5th fret), then the A on the high E (5th fret), with vibrato. Listen for the little “krrr” right before each note.

At the intermediate level, two- and three-string rakes on the accented notes of a phrase, with the other notes picked normally in between. A rake is only for the notes you want to bring out.

e|-------8-5----------------------------|
B|-----x-----8-----5-----------8--------|
G|---x-----------x---7-5-----x----------|
D|-x-----------x-----------x---------7~-|
A|-----------------------x---------x----|
E|-------------------------------x------|

At the advanced level, a four-string rake, then an upward rake: the pick comes up across the muted high E and B strings before playing the G string. Then a five-string rake up to the high E, and one last upward rake ending on the D string.

e|---------------x-----------------5~-x--------|
B|---------8-5-----x-------------x------x------|
G|-------x-----7-----5---------x----------x----|
D|-----x---------------7-----x--------------7~-|
A|---x---------------------x-------------------|
E|-x---------------------x---------------------|

Licks

Blues. Rakes are everywhere in Texas electric blues: they give notes a snap. The A blues scale, swung eighths, E flat as the blue note, and one last rake before the A on the D string, with vibrato.

e|-------5-8-5--------------------------|
B|-----x-----------8-5------------------|
G|---x-----------x-----7-8-7-5----------|
D|-x-----------x---------------------7~-|
A|-----------------------------7---x----|
E|-------------------------------x------|

Rock. In 12th position over E minor, distorted tone: a rake on every accent, sixteenth notes in between, and two long notes with vibrato to finish.

e|-------12-15-12----------------------------------------------|
B|-----x----------15-12-----15-12------------------------------|
G|---x--------------------x-------14-12--------x-14~-----------|
D|-x--------------------x---------------14---x-----------x-14~-|
A|-----------------------------------------x-----------x-------|
E|---------------------------------------------------x---------|

Country. In country, rakes add bite to the high notes, and the open strings do the rest. G major in first position, then an upward rake across the muted D and A strings to land on the low G.

e|-------3-0---------------------------|
B|-----x-----3-----0-------------------|
G|---x-----------x---2-0---------------|
D|-x-----------x---------2-0-----x-----|
A|---------------------------2-0---x---|
E|-----------------------------------3-|

Practice routine

No metronome at first: a two-string rake into the G on the B string, slowly. You should hear two little pitchless clicks, then a clear note. Then move on to three strings.

  • Metronome at 70 bpm: one rake and its note on every click, the note right on the click;
  • then a rake on beat one only, and regular eighth notes on the other three beats;
  • then the intermediate example, going up 5 bpm after every clean minute.

Goal: clean rakes at 120 bpm, with the target note always on the beat.

Common mistakes

The raked strings ring like a chord? They aren’t muted enough. Lay the free fingers of your fretting hand a little more on them, without pressing, or rest your palm near the bridge.

The target note gets muted too? One of your muting fingers is touching its string. Mute only the strings you cross, and fret the target note firmly.

The rake comes in late? You start the sweep on the beat, so the note lands after it. Start just before the beat: the note is what has to be on time.

It sounds like several separate strokes? You’re picking each muted string one by one. A rake is one continuous motion, like a sweep over silent strings.

Variations

Upward rake. The same motion the other way: the pick comes up across muted higher strings before a lower note. Less common, and great for ending a phrase on a low string.

Rake into a bend. The rake lands on a note you bend right away: the momentum of the sweep and the rise of the bend add up. A blues classic.

Rake into a double-stop. The pick crosses the muted strings and ends on two notes played together: see double-stops.

More or fewer strings. Two strings for a subtle accent, four or five for a dramatic effect before a note on the high E.

Acoustic or electric

On an electric, with a little distortion, the “krrr” really comes through and the target note snaps. The more gain, the better you have to hold the muted strings, or they’ll ring.

On an acoustic, a rake makes a dry sound, like a brush on a snare drum. The heavier strings need slightly firmer muting. It works great in acoustic blues, before the high notes of a solo.

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