Why I Suck... Series 3, Episode 7 - Yngwie Malmsteen!

 Hooooooo boy... this was the big 'un, the insane Viking Shred God himself! The man who has an entire level of Guitar Hero devoted to him.. (allegedly) – got to admit, I was equal measures excited and nervous for this one.

So, first off, cards on the table – I've never been a huge fan of metal in really any form, classic rock has always been my thing and anything heavier than “Enter Sandman” has usually seen my attention waver... endlessly chugged E5 chords with “WHHOOOAAARR!!!! THINGS ARE BAD!!! AMERICA IS BAD!!” lyrics across the top of them doesn't really do it for me.
But that's just me. And I'm willing to admit to being wrong about things.

That said, I absolutely will admit to the metal genre producing some absolutely INCREDIBLE guitar players, and during the Grunge/ Britpop Era of the 90s the genre was really the sanctuary for more technical players. Marty Friedman, Kirk Hammett, Kerry King – these guys could absolutely rip up the fretboard and whether you were a fan of the style or not you had to admit that these guys could really play. Just because you're not a fan of the end product, doesn't mean you can't appreciate the skill that goes into making it.

And with that in mind, let's turn our attention to the player who tipped guitar playing on it's head and arguably defined a whole genre – Yngwie J. Malmsteen (the J is for Johan, just in case you were about to get him confused with any of the other Yngwie Malmsteens out there...).

Born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck, third child to an already musical Swedish family in 1963, Yngwie's guitar story begins (at least officially) with the death of Jimi Hendrix. His first musical venture at age 10 consisted of himself on guitar and a school friend in drums... well, we've all been there! During his teenage years, Malmsteen immersed himself in many different styles of music, but along with classic rock such as Deep Purple (see last month) and The Scorpions, he also absorbed classical music from composers such as Bach, Vivaldi and the notorious violin virtuoso Nicolo Pagannini. This is an important point, because while researching this (yes, I do research things), Yngwie is always very insistent that whereas players like Blackmore, Uli John Roth and Michael Schenker were essentially blues based payers who added classical elements to their styles, he instead applied violin technique to the guitar.

Now, I'm not 100 % sure about this – having spent a month transcribing his solos, I didn't find anything that made me think Yngwie plays in a completely unrecognisable way compared to a Vai or a Petrucci or a Satriani... different? Yes. Recognisable? Yes. Distinctive? Yes. But one a mortal player such as I can absorb? ...well, yes. Just be prepared to put some time into it!

Yngwie's big break came in 1982 courtesy of Mike Varney's now-legendary Shrapnel Records (who never got back to me regarding Two Pint Solos, but oh well..) and after a brief and ill-fated stint with the bands Steeler and Alcatrazz (the latter seeing him fired on the spot and replaced by Steve Vai), his solo career began in 1984 with the album Rising Force and although the band has gone through numerous line up changes, he's pretty much found his niche and stayed with it. During the “anti-shred” eras of the 90s and early 00's Yngwie rode out the storms with a strong fan base in Japan and Eastern Europe, who presumably hadn't been out from behind the Iron Curtain long enough to be told what to think by the NME. 2003 saw him go on tour with Vai and Satriani as part of the G3 iteration for that year, and in 2019 he recorded a blues influenced album “Blue Lightning” and during COVID he recorded his new album “Parabellum” which returned him to his classical roots.

Oh, and the “UNLEASH THE FURY” meme? In 1988 he was on a flight to Japan, drunk and behaving “obnoxiously” - he then proceeded to fall asleep until a woman poured iced water on him (presumably for reasons best known to herself) at which he awoke and bellowed “YOU'VE UNLEASHED THE F**KING FURY” several times at her and anyone else in her general vicinity. His bandmates recorded this, because that's what bandmates do, and eventually it became the title of his 2005 album.

So there we go, potted history over, let's take a look at some licks!

First thing to master – fours. Yngwie's style places a huge emphasis on diatonic scales sequenced in fours, although obviously played with insane speed and accuracy. This first lick is inspired by the solo from “Blitzkrieg” and features the F# natural minor (aka Aeolian mode) and features a blistering sequence in fours followed by a soaring bend on the E (b7) into the F# root – give this HEAVY vibrato, Yngwie's vibrato is often overlooked due to the fact that he tends not to hold notes...

In the next lick, we can see Yngwie taking the same idea but this time mapping it horizontally across a single string – in this case, the B. Once again, the scale is F# natural minor. Strict alternate picking is the order of the day and you'll want to check out the YouTube demonstration video to see how to handle the position shifts.

Another signature technique associated with Malmsteen are sweep-picked arpeggios – although he didn't invent the technique, classical-style arpeggios form a huge part of his style. This is definitely the Paganini violin influence at work here, although the difference in tuning between violin (tuned in 5ths) to guitar tuned largely in 4ths. He tends to favour the B, B & high E strings for his triad fingerings – I've tabbed out a Bm triad (B D F#) in root position (R 3 5 ), first inversion (3 5 R) and second inversion (5 R 3). Sweep picking is a tricky technique to explain, if you're unfamiliar with it, so keep your eye on the YouTube channel where I will be endeavouring to show rather than tell!

For the final lick, I noticed that (in common with EVH ad Pantera's Dimebag Darrell) Yngwie is fond of using the occasional atonal pattern imposed across the fretboard. This technique is used in Van Halen's “Jump” solo where he hammers across the 15^th, 16^th and 18^th frets, creating an atonal blue of notes that resolves to the G, and Pantera's “Cowboys From Hell” using the same idea across the 12^th, 15^th and 18^th frets. This idea takes the same approach, but rather than going vertically in one position, Yngwie applies the idea diagonally, shifting positions as he goes and ending on a heavily vibratoe'd B note (the 4^th of the key of F#m). Don't try to analyse the harmonic content, as it's basically chord tone – garbage – chord tone! A perfect demonstration of that fact that if you start and end on a good note, whatever sins you commit on the journey in between the two will be forgiven by the listener's ear!

Well, it's been a brutal month, but I've learnt a LOT – primarily the fact that Yngwie actually uses a lot fewer ideas than I initially thought! What he does do, however is play those signature patterns and ideas with utterly ferocious speed and accuracy, and in so doing, has forged a sound that is unmistakeably his own.. something we can all aspire to.

Right, it's not getting any easier next month, as we pick apart the gone-too-soon fusion virtuoso Shawn Lane... see you soon!