Troy Stetina Digital Guitar Lesson Magazine

Transcription

Troy Stetina Digital Guitar Lesson Magazine
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Note from the Editor
Oct 2010
Welcome to our first issue!
sons and subjects inspired you the
most, and what questions you may
have for myself and the other authors.
Recently it occurred to me that between my guitarist friends, writers
and author colleagues, I could pull
together a truly extraordinary collection of world-class lessons.
It also seemed that no one else was making
such an effort. Sure the international guitar
magazines are around, but they are basically
“fan centered” and more interested in inundating their readership with an unending barrage
of commercial advertising rather than offering
any real lesson help.
In contrast, I envisioned a free magazine where
content drives the ship. Could it work? I floated
the idea and my colleagues jumped on it so enthusiastically it surprised me. Within a few short
weeks I had more than enough material to
launch.
Now it is up to you, the readers. Ultimately it
will be you who determine our success.
In the future issues I would also like
to go beyond technique into composition and even music career advice by
those who are on the front lines. The
only “rule” here is a free, lesson oriented magazine of the highest quality.
But how exactly is this “free” thing going to
work? Many of our contributors are teachers
working hard to make ends meet. So if you benefit from their articles, please check out the authors’ websites and buy any products that
interest you. Every $ you spend is the loudest
possible form of support. It’s simple—what you
buy you get more of. What you don’t buy, eventually goes away. We’re not selling ad space, so
it’s YOU that support our authors directly.
Now let’s get on with the lessons... I’m sure
they will bring you some new perspectives and
challenges!
We will grow with your feedback. Shortly, I will
be sending you a survey email to see which les-
-1©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
—Troy Stetina
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Contents
Oct 2010
Level
Author
Subject
Page
All levels
Jamie Andreas
How to Practice So You Don’t Suck
3
Beginning Lead/Int.
Jimmy Kane
Diminished/Blues Hybrid Licks
5
Beginning Lead/Int.
Anthony Arroyo
Chord Tones as Melody Anchors
11
Intermediate
Dave Celentano
Tune from Another Bach
13
Intermediate
Chris Buono
Blues in the Present Tense
18
Intermediate/Adv.
Dale Turner
Polyphonic Riff Writing
21
All levels
Don Parkhurst
Is Your Practice Routine Working?
24
Intermediate/Adv.
Jason Vearing
Stetina Deceiver Lick
27
Advanced
Francesco Artusato
Fusion Arpeggios in Metal
34
Advanced
German Schauss
Shred This Way...
39
Advanced
Mark Tremonti
Stretched Pentatonics
44
Advanced
Michael Angelo Batio
Cyclic Picking Patterns for Speed
48
Resources
51
-2©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Jamie Andreas
How to Practice So You Don’t Suck
Why Do You Suck At Guitar? Reason #2: You Always Practice TOO
FAST! (Editor’s Note: Even if you
don’t suck, you would be wise to
listen up. Don’t let the classical
guitar throw you either. This applies to all styles.)
“No tempo” practice allows us to
observe and feel the very subtle
levels of excess tension that most
players play with and accept as
“normal.”
This Creates Great Tension In Your Muscles And
Destroys Your Control.
Most teachers understand the necessity for slow
practice, but few students (or teachers) appreciate just how slow it must be. The fact is, ALL
tempos are too fast for the most powerful kind
of practice—the kind that can get us off our
playing plateau and break through to new levels
of ability.
I teach a method where we eliminate the
rhythm entirely from the movement process,
and focus just on the movements themselves.
We take as much time as we want with every
movement, and every part of each movement.
This is called “no tempo” practice. It is extremely powerful, and creates what I call
“transformational practice”, because it transforms our fundamental abilities as guitar players.
In a typical “no tempo” routine, I will take perhaps 10 seconds to push the string down, while
I focus my attention strongly on my whole body,
observing its reaction to the force of the string
coming against my finger. I then release all
body tension.
Anyone who practices like this, for some period
of time in every practice session, will begin to
experience profound changes in what it feels
like to play the guitar. They will begin to develop
a profound capacity for increased kinesthetic
awareness, which I call “microscopic awareness.”
All great players intuitively learn to practice this
way in the early stages of their development,
because without this kind of awareness, one
simply cannot become a great player. The good
news is that with the right practice methods,
such as “no tempo” practice, anyone can reach
the highest levels of professional playing ability.
-3©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Jamie Andreas
How to Practice So You Don’t Suck
_____________________
Jamie Andreas is the author of “The Principles Of Correct Practice For Guitar”, a system for learning
to play guitar that is based on the laws of body learning. It is scientific, and works for everyone.
Thousands of people around the world have used “The Principles” to begin guitar correctly, avoiding all bad habits, or to fix the playing problems they have.
Jamie’s in-depth writings on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of achieving
guitar mastery can be found at her website www.guitarprinciples.com.
-4©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Jimmy Kane
Diminished/Blues Hybrid Licks
One of the novel and exciting sounds
that Randy Rhoads brought to heavy
rock guitar in the 80s was his ability
to seamlessly interweave classically
inspired, diminished-sounding guitar
lines with more standard Jimmy Pagestyle Blues/Rock vocabulary—often
even within the same phrase!
KEY CONCEPTS you will learn today:
1. The shared scale tones common to
the blues scale, the diminished triad,
and the half-diminished arpeggio.
2. How to highlight a specific tone with
rhythmic accenting.
You can hear a perfect example of this
approach by referring to Troy’s Metal
Lead Guitar Vol. 1 book, measures 12
to 14 of Solo #3 “From The Heart.”
Even if you have long ago mastered
that solo in terms of playing, let’s go back and review
those particular phrases more deeply for a moment.
As you can see (and hear), the twisted-sounding one
beat licks bring a very dark and sinister tension to an
otherwise “normal” Blues/Rock guitar solo. You may
not have realized it at the time, but what you were actually doing here was isolating and highlighting the diminished tones within the familiar blues scale
framework. This is what creates that eerie quality.
But how can the same scale create such different qualities?
3. How to highlight a specific tone
using multiple repetitions.
First let’s cover the scale tones. The
blues scale contains the interval tones
1-b3-4-b5-5-b7. The diminished triad is made up of 1b3-b5 and the half-diminished formula is 1-b3-b5-b7.
So notice that both diminished forms are already lurking inside the familiar blues scale.
As all of Ozzy's Axemen have known, the blues scale/
diminished hybrid sound is hiding there, ready to strike
at any moment. And you can do it too, once you know
how to isolate and unleash the fury.
However, a word of warning: Simply learning the diminished shapes is not enough to bring the sound out
of your hand convincingly upon command during solo-
-5©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Jimmy Kane
Diminished/Blues Hybrid Licks
ing. You must first train your ear to accept and hear the diminished sound in conjunction with the blues/rock
sound before you can ever hope to combine
them and “sell it to your listeners.”
Failure
to blend these two
different sounds together effectively in your phrasing results in lines which end up sounding as though you mo
mentarily went insane and played a series a weird random notes in the middle of an otherwise great solo!
The first step is to understand
the concept of rhythmically
highlighting the b5 (aka the
tritone) in order to elevate it
above mere “passing tone”
status.
Fig. 1
This is important because
where a note occurs in the
phrase has everything to do
with giving it the fullest impact.
Here in Figure 1, the b5 tone
is given equal weight to the
other scale tones. This is a
typical presentation of the
blues scale sound. Play it first
so you have something to
compare the next two examples against.
-6-
©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Jimmy Kane
Diminished/Blues Hybrid Licks
Now we will lessen the impact of the b5 on the listeners
ear by reducing it to passing tone status by giving it
less rhythmic
weight
and
emphasis
than
the
other
tones.
Fig. 2
And finally we will increase the impact of the b5 on the listeners ear being given extra weight through rhythmic
accenting and thereby graduating the b5 to color tone status.
Fig. 3
play the heavy b5 presentation of the blues
Totally “Ozzyfied”, as more than one student
has
said
when
they
scale. The Blues Scale with a heavy b5 invokes a sinister diminished quality right away... like the Devil himself
tuned your guitar for you! Now go back and play measures 12 to 14 of “From The Heart.” Notice that what Troy
has done is create clusters of noted whose tonal
equal
those
of the diminished triad, or an upper partial
values
of the half-diminished arpeggio, or some combination thereof in series of 1-beat licks. Pure, twisted nastiness.
-7©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Jimmy Kane
Diminished/Blues Hybrid Licks
The example below pushes this concept further with a typical Rhoads-style contoured ascending Minor Pentatonic
run, capped with a half-diminished arpeggio
outline;
phrase.
as a two-bar
Pay attention to how the final b5 is
held for emphasis and then resolved with a slow ½ step
bend
up
to
tone
5.
Fig. 4
'
“Which ones do you need?”
Click this image to see all Stetina products
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T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Jimmy Kane
Diminished/Blues Hybrid Licks
Our final example for this month, we will ascend the blues scale as a contoured line, expressed in 16th note
quadruplets, and then we will descend with the half-diminished arpeggio. Next we slide into some diminished
dyads, descend through box 5 of the blues scale, and finish off the line with a half-diminished climbing sequence
to climax with a little melody which outlines a diminished triad.
Fig. 5
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-9©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
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T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Jimmy Kane
Diminished/Blues Hybrid Licks
Well, that's it for this month. Now go back to “From The Heart” and write your own original solo using these
concepts. Also check out our companion video examples on this lesson at our Hunt's Annex Studios youtube
channel. See you next month!
_______________________________________________
Jimmy Kane is a guitarist, teacher and director of Hunt’s Annex music school just outside of Philidephia, PA. If
you’re looking for a good deal on a new Jackson, check out www.HuntsMusic.com and send Jimmy an email.
-10©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Anthony Arroyo
Chord Tones as Melodic Anchors
Many guitar players are solid in the
“box 1” pentatonic area, but when
they move away from this they get lost
quickly. This is especially true for rock
and metal players. And even if they
know the other pentatonic boxes, they
still can be lost musically, by not knowing what the shapes actually sound
like. This lesson will provide a useful
method of getting more familiar with
these areas so you can actually use them musically.
I am willing to bet that 95% of the players out there hummed or sang a note
that is one of the notes of G Major
chord. This means that your inner-ear,
no matter how untrained it may be, already knows at an instinctual level that
the note that sounds good over any
given chord is a note that actually belongs to the chord.
Personally, when I see the guitar neck, I don't see a
bunch of notes, I see just a few notes at a time. Let
me explain. Play a G Major chord like this:
To some people, this is a no-brainer, but to many guitar
players always focused on playing fast licks, this is
something that has never occurred to them. And this
is key to making singable, melodic lines.
When you start using chord tones prominently in your
melodies, suddenly your ear begins to call the shows
instead of the patterns and finding the correct notes
on the fretboard is easier and faster.
Simple! Nothing fancy or unusual about this. Ok, now
do me a favor and sing or hum one note as you strum
this chord. Don't just hum or sing any note! Hum or
sing a note that actually sounds good and "in-key" over
this chord. Go ahead!
Alright, now do me another favor and find that note
you just sang over this chord.....did you find the note?
So, the key here is to find these notes in the other
places on the fretboard. They will be your “anchors.”
For starters, we will learn the triads in each key, and
memorize the inversions of these triads over the neck.
(Inversions are the same notes of a chord arranged in
a different order; in particular, when the lowe
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T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Anthony Arroyo
Chord Tones as Melodic Anchors
Sounds hard, but it is really very simple. First things
first, a triad is simply a chord in its simplest 3 note
form. There are four triad types: Major, minor, augmented and diminished. For today, we are going to
look only at the Major triad, specifically, G major. The
notes that make up G major are G, B, and D. Here are
some examples of the G Major triad, on the top three
strings. Notice the three different shapes up the neck.
Click the image below to see a short example usingthese triads as “anchors.” I’m only adding an occasional
embellishment. Very slow and simple, but notice how
melodic and “right” it all sounds.
Now you try playing along with me. Just experiment
hanging on these chord tones notes and let your ear
guide you. Don’t even worry about any scale patterns.
This is different kind of practice. No focus on technique. It’s all about listening!
Next month we will use scales in conjunction with
chord tones to bring it up a level. The final step will be
to use passing tones and even “outside” passing tones
to create more adventurous, original sounding melodic
ideas.
There are a lot of lessons that can show you how to
burn and of course there is a place for that. It’s fun! I
can do those tricks. But I think it’s important to also
build a solid melodic base, too, so when you slow
down, you can play music that fits. And then, when
you do rip, you will rip with purpose! ‘Till next time,
happy playing!!!
_________________________
Anthony Arroyo is a guitarist from San Antonio, TX
with over 20 years playing and teaching experience.
He won San Antonio’s prestigious Guitar Wars Contest
at the age of 19. Currently he enjoys playing guitar at
the Vietnamese Christian Church in his city. No, he is
not Vietnamese; he just likes the church! Check out
Anthony’s youtube channel to see his technique in a
variety of styles, including a Guitar Wars shredfest.
-12©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Dave Celentano
Tune from another Bach
Welcome to my debut column
for Troy’s inaugural issue.
Then memorize the piece one
measure at a time. (Editor’s note:
Remember to begin with Jamie’s
“no tempo” practice.)
Like many rock guitarists, I too
have a sweet tooth for the great
classical compositions that adapt
well to distorted electric guitar.
In this and future lessons I will
turn you on to some of my favorite discoveries and even
some inventions of my own.
And finally, string the pieces together and begin to practice with
a metronome.
Here is a quick analysis to make
sense of what you have learned:
Example 1 is a variation I wrote
of “Solfeggietto” by Karl Philipp
Emanuel Bach (a sibling of J. S. Bach). It is also a
workout in position shifts, alternate picking, and string
skipping arpeggios. (And it’s an excerpt from my instructional book “Secrets of Shred Guitar,” Centerstream Publications/Hal Leonard Corporation).
First download the audio file here and listen to it as
you follow along with the notation on the next page.
Example 1 audio
Alternate picking & string skipping arpeggio
variations on Solfeggietto by K. P. E. Bach
The first eight measures outline
the chords Am and E7 repeatedly,
ascending the fretboard via several position shifts.
These must be performed evenly and gracefully so as
not to inhibit the flow of the music.
The arpeggios in the second half use string skipping
and several wide stretches often associated with Paul
Gilbert’s shred style. Here the progression of chords
follows a cyclic pattern of ascending fourths where
each chord is an interval of a fourth (five half steps)
above the previous chord.
Note: although the concept is to ascend in fourths,
some of the chords were reassigned to an octave lower
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T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Dave Celentano
"Alternate Picking and String Skipping"
by Dave Celentano davecelentano.com
»¡º¢
q
Example 1
Guitar
2
&4
Guitar
T
A
B
Tune from another Bach
Am
œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ #œ œ
œœœ
œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
œ
œ
œ
E7
œœœ
! " !"!"!"
E7
simile
7 10 9 7
7
8 5 8
Am
11 7 11
9
9
12 10 9
15 12 15
4 1 4 1 1 4 2 1
fingers- 3 1 3 1 1 3 2 1
14
14 17 16 14
3 1 3 1 1 3 2 1
16 14 13
4
2
1
16 14 12
15 14
4 2 1 3 2
E7
Am
E7
œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #
œ œ œ œ œ #œ
œ
œ
#œ œ œ #œ
œ
œ
œ œ œ œ
œ
&œœœ
Am
5
Gtr.
Gtr.
15 12 15
14
14 17 16 14
18 14 18
16
17 15
17 14 17
17 16
17 20 19 17
17
19 17 16
19 17 15
P
18 16
œ œ Dœm
G
œ œ Cœ
œ œ
#œ œ
œ
œ œœ
œœ
9
œ
œ
œ
œ
œ
œ #œ
œœœœ
œ
œœœ
œ
&
4 1 4 2 3 1 3 2
3 1
3 1 1 4
4
3 1
2
1
4
2
1
3
1
A
Gtr.
!
P
14 10
Gtr.
!
P
14 11
4
1
4
1
! 17"
P
12
" 13! 10P !
14
P
14 10
12
2
4
1
3
2
1
4
1
! "
12
2
10 14
1
"
H 13
4
simile
P
P
P
12 8
15 10
P
12 9
12
12 8
10
4 1 4 1 2 4 1 2
3
E7
13
Gtr.
P
P
Gtr.
10
6
4
1
13
P
10
7
4
1
8
P
10
10
7
P
10
7
3
1
8
2
4
1
2
4
1
9
2
7
10
9
5
1
3
4
1
4
P
9
6
4
1
˙ ~~~~
12
7
4
1
9
10
2
3
7
2
9 12
Am
P
P
H 10
10
4 1 3 1 2 1 3 4
œ œ
œ œ
œ œ
œ œ œ œ
œ #œ œ
œ
œ
œ
œ
œ œ
œ
œ #œ œ
&
œ
B dim
F
H 12
P
12 9
~~~~
to fit within the pitchboundaries of the guitar.
(FYI, portions of Niccolo
Paganini’s well known
‘24th Caprice’ and J. S.
Bach’s famous Tocatta
and Fugue in D Minor
also use this same cycle
of fourths harmonic concept with beautiful results.)
To help you master Example 1 after the inital
memorization stage assign yourself the series
of micro-exercises in Examples 2 and 3 to
strengthen the position
shifts and string skips.
Example 2a begins the
first five notes using alternate picking with a
quick “burst-and-stop.”
Always keep your hands
relaxed, strive for evenly
picked notes, and use a
-14©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Dave Celentano
Tune from another Bach
metronome to find a tempo slow enough to play these
examples perfectly without mistakes.
My rule of thumb regarding metronome practice is “I
must perform the example/section flawlessly four consecutive times before I increase the tempo.
Also try accenting the last note in each of these microexercises. Example 2b is the second half of what will
ultimately be connected and played as example 2c. Use
the same process for example 2d and 2e.
Next, hopping over to the string skipping section we
Click here to listen to Exercise 2
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T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Dave Celentano
Tune from another Bach
have Example 3a which goes through the entire A
major arpeggio (measure 9) and stops on the first note
of the following Dm using the repeating “burst and
stop” technique. The picking pattern consists of three
down strokes followed by two up and concludes on a
down. Notice that two consecutive down strokes or up
strokes have a pull-off or hammer-on between them.
Repeat slowly with a metronome until it becomes second nature. Use the same picking pattern for example
Click here to listen to Exercise 3
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T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Dave Celentano
Tune from another Bach
3b and finally connect A and Dm arpeggios in example
3c. Continue using the system of rehearsing small sections at a time to make the entire piece a strong performance.
Check out these popular
titles by Dave Celentano:
Until next time, keep those fingers flying!
Secrets of Shred Guitar:
DVD
____________________
Secrets of Shred Guitar:
book/CD
Since graduating from Musician’s Institute in 1986
Dave Celentano has written over thirty-five guitar instruction books and DVDs, released two solo guitar
CDs, and helped thousands of aspiring guitarists realize
their dreams through his private guitar lessons. Visit
Dave online at www.davecelentano.com
Mastering the Modes
for the Rock Guitarist:
2 DVD set
See ALL Dave Celentano products
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T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Chris Buono
Blues in the Present Tense
It’s All About the Chords
Who Am I and What Is Blues in
the Present Tense?
Chris Buono here—guitar supergeek and multi-media madman.
First things first: Big thanks to my
former Guitar One compatriot Troy
Stetina for thinking of me and
inviting me to contribute. It’s great
to reunite with some of the G1
content team of yore (Dale Turner
in the house!). Those years produced some of the best
guitar education media ever, not to mention almost
caused my hands to fall off. As Troy alluded to in his
video overview I was the headless “stunt guitarist” who
had the world’s best job playing everyone’s examples
for the CD-ROM that came with the magazine (keep
an eye on my website for all the videos plus my articles
to be uploaded soon!).
Between Troy and Greg Koch I had my work cut out
for me, but it was an awesome challenge. Dale and
Tom Kolb’s columns always produced some the most
inventive licks and I look forward to checkin’ out what
Professor Turner has in store for us up here.
This is the first installment of Blues
in the Present Tense. I’ve been out
of the guitar lesson article scene
for a minute but I’m amped to get
back in. Here’s what Blues in the
Present Tense is all about: After
moving on from my professor gig
at Berklee College of Music I
signed on with TrueFire and have
been pumpin’ out DVD courses
ever since. In two years we’ve
managed to produce ten very happening courses, three (and maybe
four) of which are the subject of Blues in the Present
Tense. They are Juiced Blues, Guitar Lab: Blues Progressions and Guitar Lab: Blues Soloing.
While the latter is on deck for release, these three
DVDs contain some serious s%@t that will surely push
your blues into said tense and beyond. As for the possible fourth DVD we may dig on, I have a course called
Funk Fission that, among other things, drops some totally happening comping techniques that will sound
killer within what we’re going to geek on here in Blues
in the Present Tense. We’re gonna check out what’s inside each one and take that content and run with it. If
you already own or purchase one or all of the DVDs
-18©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Chris Buono
Blues in the Present Tense
you’ll be psyched to see I’m gonna expand on the ideas
helping you get the most out of the material.
Who Are You?
Now that you know who I am and what the column is
all about, let’s define who you are. As Captain Stetina
stated this is hostile ground for beginners, but don’t
let that sway you from jumping in if in fact that is your
level. Anyone who can really play will tell you one effective way to reach to your guitar playing goals is to
constantly challenge yourself (see above reference to
a gig playing licks conjured by a sick-o like Troy less
than 48 hours after you receive them in front of camera with no possibility of punching in or slowing down).
That said, if you get in over your head there’s a gaggle
of resources to bridge whatever gaps you might have.
If you’re an intermediate to advanced player you’ll be
able to hang for sure, but you will be challenged. Let
the games begin!
monically rich style, too. Harmonically meaning harmony meaning chords, yo! You know those blocks of
notes played at the same time? In the blues, you’re almost always soloing over chords, especially ones dispersed within 12 bars! In order to solo over chords and
chord changes you gotta know and understand what
it is you’re playing over.
Click here to find a sizable PDF
filled with essential blues-induced
chord voicings that you should have
in your bag
Many of these chords are contained within the 23 progressions found in Guitar Lab: Blues Progressions,
which features some super hip and fresh sounding
blues jams we’ll be delving into.
The Chords, Yo!
Depending on where you are, many of the voicings
may be new to you. But, don’t worry, next month we’re
going to go in deep and decipher the blood and guts
of it all. But first things first: Just get them under your
fingers for now.
While the blues is a great vehicle for improvisation both
in learning and blowing solos for real, it’s also a har-
You’ll notice they’re all rooted from G. This enables you
to better digest the chord tones within each chord,
-19©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Chris Buono
Blues in the Present Tense
which are displayed in each and every vertical chord
grid. Be sure to pay close attention to those chord tone
shout outs, as they will be the focus for next month/s
installment of Blues in the Present Tense: It’s Really All
About the Chord Tones. Until then…
Expand your repetoire with Chris
Buono’s Jazz Lead solo book/CD:
________________________
Multi-media guitar madman Chris Buono is everywhere
and doing it all. From session cat (Lava, Lion Music,
RKM) to bandleader (Chris Buono) to sideman (Karsh
Kale, Bumblefoot, Graham Haynes) to music journalist/columnist (Guitar Player, GuitarOne, Just Jazz Guitar) to educator (Berklee College of Music) to author
(Alfred, Course Technology) to video clinician (TrueFire,
Guitar One); even product clinician (M-Audio, First Act,
Source Audio)—this cat is badass and busy. Not to be
tied down to any one identity for too long, Chris Buono
is perpetually morphing his chameleon-like media profile making it nearly impossible to pigeonhole his artistic output into a singular category. And get this:
Instead of sleeping, he teaches privately and on-line,
too. To get on board email Chris here.
www.ChrisBuono.com
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Click the image to find out more
-20©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Dale Turner
Polyphonic Riff Writing
POLYPHONIC RIFF WRITING:
Part I
learned from studying Steve
Morse’s music, referred to as
POLYPHONIC RIFF WRITING. It’s
one of several riff-writing approaches I might experiment with
when I’m stuck in a writing rut.
Let’s cut to the chase: “Writer’s
Block” is BS! Obviously finishing a
song can pose a tremendous challenge, but there’s no reason
(when stuck in one of those ruts)
to not at least try to move other
songs forward or start fresh new
pieces to keep the creative momentum going. But how can you
still “write” when it seems the well
has gone dry? Keep reading!
To illustrate, I’ll use a riff from
one of my own songs: “Bad Seed”
(no, it’s not a Metallica cover!)
from my new CD Mannerisms
Magnified.
Songs, at least as it relates to guitar players, are generally first spawned from a chord progression (which
then requires “stylization”—how to play the chords, so
that they have personality—and also a melody, which
the progression itself will hopefully inspire over time),
a melody only (one of those magical “sing-able”
nuggets that randomly pops into your head, which
then requires you to find supporting chords), or a riff
(a signature guitar part that serves as the track’s instrumental hook, intro, etc., which then needs to find
a home).
In this Digital Guitar Magazine lesson, we’ll focus on
RIFF WRITING—specifically, a type of riff writing I
Polyphonic means “two or more independent lines,” or
“many melodies.” It is a term often used to describe
musical moments where more than one melodic line is
happening at simultaneously. As it relates to riff writing, it occurs when pick-style, single-note riffs are
structured in a way that you hear two distinct parts in
the riff (think “bass and melody”), because notes are
being played in contrasting high/low registers and
rhythms.
The first instructional book I ever had the privilege of
writing was Steve Morse: Just the Riffs. In putting that
book together, I noticed in songs from Morse’s Structural Damage like “Native Dance” [0:39], “Dreamland”
[1:43 & 2:07] and “Good to Go” [0:17], as well as
(from the Dixie Dregs’ Full Circle) “Sleeveless in Seat-
-21©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Dale Turner
Polyphonic Riff Writing
tle” [1:31] and “Good Intentions” [1:11], that Morse
was conjuring up the effect of two distinct parts, simply
by the way he juggled registers and rhythms in these
unique pick-style riffs. (This approach is also described
in some of his instructional videos).
One day, when I had some spare time to work on
music that would eventually find its way onto Mannerisms Magnified, I found I was hitting the inevitable
wall. In these moments, instead of getting frustrated,
hoping random ideas just magically come, I experiment—I make a conscious decision to focus on very
few elements, using one of several songwriting approaches that have bailed me out in the past, and see
what develops. With “Bad Seed,” experimenting with a
Morse-inspired polyphonic riff-writing approach won
out—and gave birth to one of my personal favorite
pick-style riffs!
My “Bad Seed” riff began from a random bass line in
7/4 that I’d had sitting around for quite a while; I just
thought it was cool, but never imagined it’d blossom
into something special. When I opted to try turning it
into a polyphonic riff, I started by actually writing this
bass line out, so I could see what types of rhythmic
space—what “air” there was for melody, between these
bass notes—I had to play with.
View FIG. 1 TAB & YOUTUBE video
The bass line, which was basically in E minor, only involved notes on the 5th and 6th strings. This made
strings 1-4 “fair game” for trying out different melodic
options.
Since I was using a pick (as opposed to playing fingerstyle), any melody notes needed to be played between
the cracks of the completed bass line. I tinkered
around with different possibilities (again, in E minor),
untill I found a nice opening line (the open 1st and 2nd
strings, played in alternation); then kept expanding the
upper-register melody till I had an interesting, twomeasure figure.
View FIG. 2 TAB & YOUTUBE video
Of course as I was creating this, I wrote the melody
notes down—directly over the bass line, right on the
same notation/TAB staff—so I could easily see the relationship between parts. By the time I was done, I
had a cool-sounding riff I thought would make a good
album opener. Of course, then I had to practice it so it
was playable since tricky picking abounds!
View FIG. 3 TAB & YOUTUBE video
Which brings up an interesting point/fact: Given this
riff’s degree of difficulty, I never would’ve come up with
it by just randomly picking around, without following
-22©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Dale Turner
Polyphonic Riff Writing
any strict guidelines; these are not the types riffs that just
fall into your hands naturally, or that you “luck” into.
rent review by Guitar Player magazine says, “Smart pop
tunes that are crammed with interesting guitar parts and
tones... Like what the Beach Boys might do if they were
on an acid trip that was on the verge of getting out of control. Yeah!”
In addition to working as a performing/recording
musician and producing engineer, the former West Coast
Editor (1996-2007) of the now defunct GuitarOne magazine is currently an instructor at Hollywood’s Musician’s Institute, where he teaches Jimi Hendrix-style rhythm guitar
improvisation, music theory/ear training, sight-reading,
and rhythmic independence for the singing guitarist. Dale
is also author of 50+ instructional books/transcription folios (his latest being Power Plucking - A Rocker’s Guide to
Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitar). He also writes a monthly
acoustic guitar column for Guitar World magazine.
In closing, the point I’m trying to make is this: An analysis
of any of your favorite riffs will always reveal a set of basic
ingredients that makes that particular passage tick. Once
armed with enough of these “ingredients” (from behindthe-scenes study, application, and just plain ol’ listening)
you will always have compositional concepts to fall back on.
That way when you’re stuck in one of those inevitable writing ruts, you can still move a project forward.
In the end, my experiments with polyphonic riff writing not
only rewarded me with a rawkin’ instrumental riff, I was
also able to use pieces of it as a reoccurring theme
throughout the verses of my song “Bad Seed”—a moody,
somewhat progressive, acoustic “art rock” track that serves
as a wild opening song on Mannerisms Magnified, and also
works as a great live set opener. Please enjoy! And see you
next month with Part II, where I’ll discuss a related riffwriting approach I used in the bridge to “Hiding Place”!
RAWK ON!
(Editor’s note: Subliminal implant, “I
want to buy a copy of
Mannersisms Magnified right now to support Dale who has
just so generously
shared his compositional strategies with
me for absolutely
free. Obeeeeeeey!!”)
___________________________
On his latest CD, Mannerisms Magnified, Dale Turner
composed, arranged, produced, and recorded all the music
himself, and played all the instruments (voices, guitar, bass,
real acoustic drums, piano, accordion, and mandolin). Cur-23©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Don Parkhurst
Is Your Practice Routine Working?
Lets talk about your practice routine.
Lets start out by taking a look at what a
typical intermediate level practice routine
might involve.
Do you even have one? Or maybe it goes
something like this... You pick up the guitar, play a piece of a song you want to
learn, noodle around a bit, play a song
you already know, fiddle around a little
more, etc. The next day you do the same
thing. If this sounds familiar, read on.
~
~
~
~
~
Perhaps you have a friend down the road that started
at roughly the same time but has he seemed to advance more quickly. So you ask him how long he practices and you find out it’s about the same amount of
time as you practice. What is going on? You start thinking maybe your friend is just gifted. You even start
doubting yourself, thinking maybe guitar is just not
your instrument.
STOP! Wipe those thoughts right out of your head.
There is a more realistic answer here! What your friend
has discovered is a more effective way to practice. He
has figured out what his goals are and organized a
practice session that focuses his attention directly help
him achieve these goals.
Warm up
Rhythm guitar
Lead guitar technique
Improvisation practice
Cover songs you want to learn
Now let’s imagine a very common real world scenario,
that many of you may relate to. We have this guy, let’s
call him Joe, who jams with friends in the basement
on Saturday nights for fun. He has been playing
rhythm guitar up till now and has been only working
on cover songs. The other guys have been experimenting a little and doing some improvised jams.
Well Joe is lost and doesn’t know what to play. The
other guitar player shows him the basic three chordsand he just keeps playing this over and over while
everyone else is having a bunch of fun. But Joe is getting bored!
Now it just so happens that the other guitar player also
teaches guitar down at a localmusic shop. And he of-
-24©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Don Parkhurst
Is Your Practice Routine Working?
fers Joe a bit of advice. What would you tell him?
They first establish the goals. What does Joe want to
accomplish specifically? In this case, he wants to work
on lead technique and learn how to improvise. So they
map out a practice routine that includes these subjects
plus continues to develop his current skills. He can devote one hour a day to this routine, five days a week.
Futher, he can break up the time allotted to each area.
Doing a little of each subject every day creates much
better momentum over time. By practicing a little of
each subject everyday Joe will cover each subject five
times during the week. The other benefit of practicing
this way is that he will be far less prone to getting fatigued or burned out on any one aspect or technique
or exercise.
Most people’s minds can only concentrate on a particular subject for a certain amount of time before fatigue
sets in. You see, it is focused practice that matters
most. Unfocused practice time is essentially useless.
Move on to another subject before you reach that
point.
In fact, sloppy unfocused practice may even be counter
productive. The mind records your mistakes just the
same as technically perfect performances. If you pour
in slop, you’ll have to correct all the bad habits you are
creating!
Another good approach to daily practice routine for a
lot of people is to work on the things you least enjoy
first. Get them out of the way. If you wait till the end
of your practice session to work on these things most
likely they won’t get done. These will be the subjects
you will always put off until tomorrow. Before you
know it another week has gone by with no focused improvement on your weak spots.
If you are getting fatigued and loosing focus it is a sure
sign that you need to restructure your practice routine!
Ask yourself what it is you really want to work on and
get better at? Then structure your time around that. It
isn’t rocket surgery. But if left unattended, it usually
won’t happen by itself.
I also recommend rewarding yourself plenty. If you really love that Metallica song and want to play it for 30
minutes, fine. Just slip in the other subjects for 10 minutes each. Keep an intelligent balance in your practice
routine. Enough music to keep it fun; enough skill development to really keep improving as a player.
And don’t hesitate to switch it up and try a completely
-25©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Don Parkhurst
Is Your Practice Routine Working?
different approach from time to time. The same routine
that worked great last year may now be slowly boring
you to death. You need to find news ways of approaching the same subjects you are working on.
So don’t leave it to chance. Think about your practice
routine. What do you want to accomplish? Then devise
a system to get there. Stay flexible and keep watching
and managing your own motivation level.
If you’ve been practicing arpeggios up and down the
neck for a few weeks, maybe build on that by switching
it up to sweep picking those arpeggios. The next week
take the same arpeggio patterns and now lay them on
single strings, and practice tapping techniques.
By implementing a good practice routine that works for
you, using the tips I gave you in this article, I guarantee you will see results!
________________
You see, you can keep building the same thread even
as you apply it to new techniques. (Editor’s note: This
is in fact the core principle woven into any good
method book. It works.)
Don Parkhurst is a guitarist and runs a successful
private lesson teaching studio in New England, where
he has been teaching with the Troy Stetina Series
books for many years as well as other materials. Visit
him online at www.rock-lessons.com.
Switching it up like this helps combat the boredom and
fatigue factor, yet allows you to continue to hammer
enough repetition to get really good.
Attack each subject from as many different angles as
you can.
Listen to some of the great guitar players.. Randy
Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, etc... They are
equally skilled in both rhythm and lead technique, as
well as composition and arrangement. They knew the
importance of working on many different areas of their
guitar playing
Lampifier mics
have pro audio
compression built
in... you have to
try this mic!
www.Lampifier.com
-26©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Jason Vearing
Stetina “Deceiver” Lick
Deceiver Meets Axelerator
So of course I want your feedback!
I have been working on a cool
software technology called Riff
Axelerator. And you are going
to be the first to test it out right
here!
To test it, of course we need a
great lick to practice and Troy was
kind enough to supply one off of
his new Second Soul record from
the song “Deceiver.”
The software, which plays in a
browser window, loops a lick so
you can play along repeatedly
for practice. But it also gradually increases your speed automatically with each repetition
so you can focus on the playing.
I’ve shown the two-bar lick below.
Click here to listen to it first
The first measure is drawn from
the D Aeolian mode and this is
played over a bass line in D Phrygian.
-27©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Jason Vearing
Stetina “Deceiver” Lick
Below is a diagram of one possible position of the D
Aeolian mode over 2 octaves:
FRETBOARD MASTERY
by Troy Stetina
For those that don’t know modes well, Troy is playing
the notes of an F major scale (F-G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F) but
since he is playing over a D chord, we picture all of the
same notes running from D to D (D-E-F-G-A-Bb-C-D).
Now the interval notes that affect the underlying chord
will now be D-1, E-2(9), F-3, G-4(11), A-5, Bb-b6(b13),
C-b7... as long as he plays over a D chord.
(For a full explanation of modes and tonality, see Troy’s
book/CD Fretboard Mastery.)
Getting back to the lick at hand, out of the possible
notes for the D Dorian mode, Troy has limited himself
to the notes D, E, F and G (1-2-b3-4).
Graduate level music theory for
rock and metal guitar. Click above
to get Troy’s most comprehensive
work to date!
-28©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Jason Vearing
Stetina “Deceiver” Lick
Here I have broken it down into small pieces for detailed practice, then we reassemble.
-29©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Jason Vearing
Stetina “Deceiver” Lick
And the whole first measure in its entirety:
The first beat of Exercise 5 descends the scale from the F note (10th fret) down an octave to the lower F
note (8th fret). Notice the timing of these notes. They are 32nd notes which is 8 per beat. This is like having
a set of four notes (16ths) on the downbeat and another set of four on the upbeat. Even at a relatively slow
tempo of 82 BPM this is quite a challenge. The descending run is played with palm-muting.
-30©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Jason Vearing
Stetina “Deceiver” Lick
The next example picks right up where the last one left off. Play the Eb note (6th fret – now leaving the D
Aeolian tonality in favor of D Phrygian) and then go back up the scale to the C note and descend down until
you get to the D note. There is a sense of slight displacement where the 2nd time you descend the scale it
is not directly on beat 1. Again these are played 8 notes per beat.
And join them together for one long run.
-31©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Jason Vearing
Stetina “Deceiver” Lick
The last 2 beats play diminished tones in triplets, take notice of the different timing here, the drums accentuate the timing so follow along to them.
Example 09 is all of measure two played in its entirety. TIP - Being able to change smoothly between different
timings (e.g., triplets to semi-quavers) is a great rut-buster and to execute this well is a worthwhile goal.
-32©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Jason Vearing
Stetina “Deceiver” Lick
Now that you have learnt the phrase, you can go to the Riff
Axelerator and practice getting it up to faster and faster
tempos. Remember though that playing fast is not the be
all, end all. Don’t sacrifice clarity and clean articulation!
Check out the RIFF AXELERATOR here
Closing thought - Playing phrases is like speaking sentences
and we all know how annoying it is to hear somebody say
something who is speaking for the sake of it. Take this approach with your own music, are you really saying something meaningful that suits the situation?
_______________________
Jason Vearing is a guitarist/teacher from Australia and
creator of the guitar teaching device Riff Axelerator. A late
starter to the guitar at 17 years of age, Jason played guitar in a four-piece outfit that combined metal guitar, funk
bass and dual rappers in an outfit called China Rhino at 19
(check them out on Youtube!). At the age of 25, and tired
of living off noodles, he left China Rhino, got a haircut and
a ‘real job,’ in his spare time playing with an acoustic outfit
called Mensana with his wife and brother-in-law Vern.
These days, his musical focus is on developing the Riff Axelerator and teaching part-time, while holding down his
day gig as a property valuer and spending quality time
with his wife and 3 young children.
The new album featuring guitarist Troy Stetina
Coming Oct 2010!
Join the Second Soul mailing list to
help bring a show and a Troy Stetina
guitar workshop to your town!
Click here
-33©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
ed
anc
Adv
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Francesco Artusato
Fusion Arpeggios in Metal
Lesson 1: Combining Lines
just mean putting them into a different
sequence one after another, but rather
mixing them in way that creates a new
perspective.
I think it is important for every player
to always keep expanding their repertoire of ideas and come up with a fresh
arsenal of licks and lines. So in this lesson I am going to share some of the
approaches that I like to use in creating
musical lines.
Below is the first lick—an A diminished
arpeggio (first 10 notes) followed by a
B7 b5 arpeggio (last 9 notes) played in
groups of 4 and 5 notes. This is one of
the sequences that I really like because
it creates an interesting rhythmic pattern.
We’ll start with some of my favorite
licks and patterns and then we’ll try to
combine them in a creative way. And by this, I don’t
Click here to listen to Licks 1-5
Lick 1
-34©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Francesco Artusato
Fusion Arpeggios in Metal
Lick 2 is an Eb(b5)9 arpeggio ending on the 9th.
Lick 2
For lick 3 I am playing an Ab(maj)b9 arpeggio, which
involves the legato and tapping.
Lick 3
-35©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Francesco Artusato
Fusion Arpeggios in Metal
Lick 4 features a series of arpeggios (using the 2–1–2 form)
that moves intervallically over the guitar neck. I am beginning
with an Ab(aug)#11 arpeggio followed by C7(13), Eb7(13)
and G7(13).
Lick 4
And for lick 5 I am playing an F 7(b9)#11(13) arpeggio,
where I mix sweep picking, legato and tapping.
Lick 5
-36©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Francesco Artusato
Fusion Arpeggios in Metal
And here is the final lick, which is a combination of the five previous ideas.
Click here to listen to it slow
Click here to listen to it fast
As you can see using this approach I was able to put together a lot of different arpeggios,
tonalities, techniques and colors to create one very distinctive-sounding line.
-37©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Francesco Artusato
Fusion Arpeggios in Metal
This line could be used over a large variety of chord
progressions where a moment of harmonic tension is
desired. You could use something like this whenever
there is a chord functioning as the dominant in a progression or, in the case where we don’t have one, this
lick will help to create that moment of tension by
strongly implying the dominant.
Even a straight A5 power chord could work perfectly
under this lick, allowing us to achieve a more fusion“outside playing” type of sound in a rock or metal context.
We should never limit ourselves to experiment further.
Ultimately we need to trust what sounds good to our
own ears. Thanks for checking out my lesson!
_________________________
Francesco Artusato was born in Italy and is a product of a very musical family. He started playing saxophone at the age of 14 and switched to guitar when
he was 19. After graduating Suma Cum Laude from
Berklee College of Music in 2006, he relocated to Los
Angeles where he has been busy with recording, touring and teaching.
Artusato currently plays guitar for the Nuclear
Blast Records recording artist All Shall Perish while also
continuing to work with a variety of composers and
songwriters on other projects.
He has also recently partnered with Guitar
World magazine to present an in-depth instructional
video lesson series breaking down how to play some
of the most intricate parts from his all-instrumental
solo endeavor entitled “Chaos And The Primordial.”
The disc is described as an “all-out technical
shred fest featuring 10 truly diverse tracks that take
the listener on an all-encompassing musical journey.”
In addition to all this, he contributes material to the
Guitar Messenger website with his “Technical Difficulties” column.
http://www.myspace.com/francescoartusatomusic
http://www.myspace.com/allshallperish
-38©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
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T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
German Schauss
Shred This Way...
Nailing Your Sweeps
My sweeping concept completely
avoids Hammer-Ons and Pull-offs to
make the sound and playing smother
and easier. Take a look at the picking
pattern illustrated in Figure 1 beginning with Gmaj7.
Hello and welcome to my first free online column installment of “Shred this
Way…” for Troy Stetina’s new Digital
Guitar Lesson Magazine!
It’s a great honor for me to be part of
this and sharing my knowledge with
you. Let’s jump right into the great
world of shredding.
This month we will be playing 7th
arpeggios with sweep picking technique. First let’s cover the origin of 7th arpeggios.
Major, minor, diminished and augmented chords or
arpeggios may be extended by changing or adding
notes. The 7th interval is an addition to the basic triad
(1-3-5) and adds more color to the basic sound.
Now let’s begin with a look at the different types of
arpeggios on the first 3 strings. I have notated the
arpeggios on the same root note so you can see which
notes change. Furthermore, I have arranged them so
that they change from one type to the next with the
least required change in position.
Start with an upstroke the first time
only, after that you get 3 down
strokes before you alternate pick the
notes on the top string, leading you
back to a short descending sweep.
Then you start the pattern over, this
time with a down-stroke, followed by a short alternate
picking sequence and back to an ascending sweep and
so forth.
This same basic sweep picking pattern can be used for
all arpeggios in general. That means, if you would play
a 4, 5, or 6 string Arpeggio, you can stil use this same
pattern; all you would need to change is the number
of strings in the down or up-stroke sweeps. You keep
the same picking on the two notes on the outside
strings of you pattern (the highest and lowest pitches)
in order to turn around the picking direction.
-39©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
German Schauss
Shred This Way...
Video demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VczBWrh-2ug
Fig. 1
-40©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
German Schauss
Shred This Way...
After you have studied this basic sweeping technique and you feel comfortable, it is time to expand your
skills and knowledge and play the arpeggios diatonically in all twelve keys. The example below shows the
diatonic 7th Arpeggios of C Major.
Video demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc3J3XTsMDo
Fig. 2
-41©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
German Schauss
Shred This Way...
The next 2 licks demonstrate the extended use of this technique. The following lick is based on the C
symmetrical diminished scale and it utilizes minor7th and diminished 7th chords before resolving to F
major.
Video Demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dakMfC8oIxc
And our last lick here is a fully diminished 7th arpeggio that skips upward in tritones and downward in
minor 3rd intervals. This is a very smooth and great sound and will definitely turn some heads.
Video Demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ3ZNn2HlQU
-42©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
German Schauss
Shred This Way...
Experiment sweeping with different chord progressions
and tonalities. Next month we will explore more
sweeping and combine all the 7th Arpeggios to longer
runs that will breathe new life into your playing!
Explore more shred with
German Schauss:
Please visit my website at www.germanschauss.com
for more info. I am always happy about comments and
suggestions!
____________________
German Schauss is a guitarist, composer, author, and
educator teaching at Berklee College of Music and the
Los Angeles Music Academy. He performs and tours as
the leader of his own band and with other internationally known artists. Schauss writes music for commercials, TV, and video games, and has been named one
of the 50 fastest guitarists of all time by Guitar World
magazine. He also writes a popular monthly column
“Instant Shredding” for Germany’s biggest guitar magazine Gitarre & Bass, and has a second book coming
out with Alfred Publishing, The Total Shred Guitarist,
due fall, 2010.
German uses and proudly endorses: Ernie
Ball/Music Man, Bogner, Rocktron, PreSonus, Native Instruments, Maxon, Guyatone, Morley, Dunlop, Voodoo
Labs, Pigtronix Pedals, DiMarzio, Zoom, Tremol-No, and
Pedaltrain products.
Click the image to find out more
-43©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
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T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Mark Tremonti
Stretched Pentatonics
Basically it’s the same technique
except with a wider stretch. Of
course that makes it harder.
Hi all... Welcome to my column
in Troy’s new lesson magazine! I
want to share what has become
one of my favorite solo techniques:
three-note-per-string
pentatonic legato with string
skipping.
So I’d recommend starting high
on the fretboard where the
stretches aren’t so bad, like D
(10th position) or higher. Then as
you get comfortable with it, try bringing the
patterns down lower and lower on the neck.
This was a natural evolution for me. First I developed my legato technique on three-note-perstring diatonic scales. I went into that a bit on
my Fret12 “Sound and Story” DVD. Then I
started applying it to pentatonics. I actually like
the pentatonics more because they don’t sound
as “standard” as the diatonics.
Fig. 1
I’ll show you what I mean. First, check out this
diatonic legato idea that moves across the
strings, below in example 1:
-44©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Mark Tremonti
Stretched Pentatonics
Next I’ve just applied that same mechanical sequence to a three-note-per-string pentatonic pattern below in Figure 2.
Fig. 2
Now check out this shifting lick. This is at the basis of the patterns I used in my opening solo on
“Burn” from Troy’s new Second Soul album.
Fig. 3
-45©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Mark Tremonti
Stretched Pentatonics
Here is the whole lick. Don’t get hung up on the rhythmic divisions. I’m just running through the
pattern and cramming all the notes in, ending the phrase on time by feel. No “counting” involved.
So the way to practice this is to grab a piece at a time based on the pattern, and repeat each part
“outside” of time until you build up some speed with it. Then start stringing it together.
Fig. 4
[To hear this example, click the “download”
link on the following page.]
-46-
©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Mark Tremonti
Stretched Pentatonics
I like to practice these legato patterns in improvised sequences so I don’t get stuck just playing
a lick one way. It frees me up to create new
variations at will, and float through the scale
patterns in different ways.
In fact, I also used the same technique on the
new AB III record in the songs “Slip to the Void”
and “Know It Hurts.” We’ll cover one of those
licks next time! Until then, keep shredding!!!
____________________
Listen to guitarist Mark Tremonti’s most recent
work on Creed Full Circle and Alter Bridge III.
You can friend Mark on Facebook here.
You can download the entire song
“Burn” by Second Soul here.
-47©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
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T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Michael Angelo Batio
Cyclic Picking Patterns for Speed
[Excerpted from Michael’s
Guest Lesson on Troy’s upcomng Fret12 “Sound & Story”
DVD, Courtesy of Fret12.]
“[So] I work on different parts
of the neck, and I love string
skipping patterns. And again, it
goes back to my philosophy of
making the notes sound farther
away [with greater intervallic
skips], rather than having
everything so close together.
MAB: “One of the problem
areas that I find guitar players
face when they are working on
the technical aspects of guitar
is that they might be able to
play good in some places, but
not well in others.
“And so what i like to do is for
example take a pattern in the
Dorian mode in E and play
starting on the third string...
then move down [to the fifth string].” (Demonstrates
Figure 1 pattern.)
“For example, you might find a player is very good at
playing in the upper [register], but they have a deficiency when playing in the lower strings.
Click to listen to Michael’s audio demonstration
Fig. 1
-48©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Michael Angelo Batio
Cyclic Picking Patterns for Speed
Editor’s note: Here are the cycling patterns that Michael is using in his improvised audio exercise demonstration.
Fig. 2
-49©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
Michael Angelo Batio
Cyclic Picking Patterns for Speed
This is an excellent picking exercise, and after 5 or 10
minutes of correct practice, you will notice significant
improvement in your right hand accuracy. By incorporating the string skip, Michael challenges your picking
skill significantly. But after a bit of this, going back to
standard scale runs feels easy!
_______________________
Michael Angelo Batio came to prominence as a
shredder in the 80s with Nitro. Known for his amazing picking speed and precision as well as his completely unique “double axe guitar” performance,
Michael is a sought after performer all over the
world. He is a Dean guitar endorser and has been
rated by Guitar World magazine as “World’s Fastest
Guitarist” multiple times.
Get all five MAB solo
CDs and more...
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Editor’s note: Practice these at whatever speed you can
keep a relaxed picking hand and very small motions.
Rather than play predetermined repetitions, try improvising within the limited range. There are basically only
four different pattern options here. But you can make
very unpredictable sequences by switching between
them randomly, “on the fly.”
-50©2010 Stetina Productions. All Rights Reserved. Lessons and Music used by permission from the author.
T R O Y S T E T I N A S E R I E S - D I G I T A L G U I T A R M A G A Z I N E
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