Why I Suck... Series 5, Episode 8 - Allan Holdsworth!

 Forget Buckethead. Never mind Satriani, Vai, Eric Johnson & Paul Gilbert, or even Brent Mason - THIS was the single most intense (guitar playing) challenge I've ever encountered.

The name Allan Holdsworth may lack the widespread appeal of a Clapton, Hendrix or Slash but those of you interested in the higher technical end of guitar playing will recognise as being synonymous with an absolutely ferocious level of musicianship and technique, with a harmonic vocabulary so advanced as to practically seem like magic. 

And I, foolish mortal that I am, decided I was going to spend a month learning and analysing his licks to see what I could learn, perhaps absorb some of his style and incorporate it into my own.....

Hubris. That's what this was. Pure, unalloyed, hubris. BUT - I think it's important to share this, because when you're learning any sort of skill, it's not going to be 100% smooth sailing all the way. You're going to hit obstacles, you're going to - bluntly - fail. And that's what happened here. Just because I've been playing 30 years (!?!) doesn't mean I know everything, not by a long shot.

But to quote a small green wise individual, "the greatest teacher, failure is" - so even an experience like this is a chance to learn - more on that later! For now, as is customary, let us look at a (very) brief potted history..

Born in Bradford on Augist 6 1946 and raised, by his maternal grandparents - grandfather Sam was a jazz pianist - Allan received his first guitar at.... 17?????

Right, that's it, I assumed he'd started aged no more than 3... so I have no excuse! 

Sigh.

Having now received a guitar, young Allan was tutored by grandfather Sam and began a career around the Yorkshire club circuit in the mid 1960s, making his recorded debut with  'Igginbottom in 1969 on the album 'Igginbottom's Wrench, which I present here for your perusal..

https://youtu.be/zgzIPSF6rbY?si=yov9_8J7ChkazjJu

This is fascinating, as you can hear Allan's atonal jazz approach and the proto version of his incredible legato technique already present, before it became honed to such phenomenal effect later on.

He continued a successful - if somewhat niche -solo career through the 70s with bands like UK and Soft Machine, but got a fairly major career boost in 1985 after releasing the album I.O.U when none other than Eddie Van Halen brought it to the arttention of Warner Bros, and Holdsworth left his native Yorkshire for South California.. unfortunately the collaboration with Warner didn't last, but Holdsworth was able to sign to the Enigma record label and released his next album, "Metal Fatigue" - he would continue a successful - albeit, once again, niche - solo career to his eventual death in 2017.

So with a very brief overview of his life and times, what about the playing? 

Well, as with Brian May, looking at licks in isolation is going to miss the point a bit, so let's begin with a couple of his signature approaches, particularly with scales.

Holdsworth would describe his approach as trying to move beyond conventional scale fingerings, instead viewing a scale across the whole fretboard and finding different "pathways" through it. So for exxample, if we were to look at a C major scale (C D E F G A B) we would start on the E as that's the lowest accessible note - frequently Holdsworth would take a 4 note per string approach, so that would mean in this case:

 E F G A along the E string

B C D E along the A sring

F G A B along the D string

C D E F along the G string

G A B C along the B string

D E F G along the high E string followed by a position shift and then A B C D with a bend to the high E.

Some of you are looking at that and thinking "that's E Phrygian - YOU FOOL", and you're both right and wrong, as it really depends where you resolve to and the context - for instance, over an Em and resolving to an E absolutely will create an E Phrygian vibe, whereas over a C will just mean you're in C major and resolving to the chords 3rd.

It's possible to use a sequencing approach (3s demonstrated in the video  and tabbed here):

but Holdswoth doesn't really do that, preferring to use legato - hammer ons, pull-offs and slides particularly - to flow around the neck. So I'd advise practicing this approach "finding your way" through the notes rather than trying to stick rigidly to a set fingering pattern.

Holdsworth applied a similarly holistic approach to chords, looking at the notes of a particular chord and then mapping out every possible combination. He seems to have had a particular antipathy for the major 7 chord, so let's take a look at a C major 7 - R 3 5 7, C E G B.

If we build this chord from a C, we get the potential combinations of:

C E G B    C E B G    C G B E    C G E B    C B E G   C B G E 

leading to the fingerings below:

Now do this for every note in the chord - start from the E, then the G, then the B. 

Then do this for EVERY CHORD.

Now you understand why it's possible to look upon an Allan Holdsworth transcription and simply go mad with fear.

The final two examples are taken from "Proto Cosmos"  - that's it, all I was able to manage all monoth was two minutes of a single track - and the first is the ind of thing that could work quite nicely over a blues in E or B, featuring a nice mix of a six note box B Mixolydian for the legato flurries before resolving to the D - b7 over the E, b3 over the B. Shunt everything up a semitone and you could even stick that over the top of "Mustang Sally"!

Finally we'll take a look at a typically Holdsworthian "outside lick" - although something like this is so insanely harmonically dense as to basically be impossible to analyse, I think it's worth pointing out the use of the b3 (D) to begin with, the symmetrical shifting finger patterns in the second bar, and the final resolution to the F# (5th), illustrating a prime principle of - start and end with a chord tone and end with a chord tone, and you can get away with damn near anything in between!

So, to sum up, this has been a slog this month. Not to detract from the enthralling brilliance of Holdsworth's playing - the fact is, I simply dropped myself into the deep end far too soon. So, the plan is to look at some of the players Holdsworth namechecked as influences (including jazz legend Charlie Christian), and then start with transcribing "Igginbottom's Wrench", and from there try and follow his progress chronologically.. I think that's the best way forward!

Next month, we'll be looking at the fiery blues playing of another gone-too-soon blues legend, the incredible Jeff Healey! Stay tuned, don't forget to #LikeShareSubscribe to the YouTube channel ;-)

 

Why I Suck... Series 5, Episode 7 - Jimi Hendrix, "Electric Ladyland" Pt. 1

 And we are back with probably the most iconic guitarist since the electric guitar was invented - say what you want, but when anyone - even a normie - compares anything or anyone to Jimi Hendrix, you straight away know that that is a high bar to clear.

For me, I've been all over the place with Jimi since I started playing - from straight up not "getting" what the fuss was about, to be being flat out obsessed by, before levelling out to what I hope is a more considered position as someone who (in technique terms, at least) may not be in the same league as a Malmsteen, Vai, Satriani etc., but as someone who made a massive contribution to the electric guitar in its early years, redefined and hugely expanded the boundaries of what was considered possible with the instrument, and someone who still has plenty to teach a player who chooses to drill down deeply into his recorded works.

Since I refocused the blog for 2020, Jimi has cropped up every year along with SRV - giving you a pretty good idea of my influences as a guitar player - from a look at his blues days, to transcribing "Are You Experienced" and in 2023 "Axis: Bold As Love", so it was no surprise that this year I set myself the goal of transcribing all of "Electric Ladyland".. yeah. Someone forgot that EL was a double album, someone never bothered to  heck that it has two tracks that are each 15 minutes long, and that someone, ladies and gentlemen.. was me. 

So, I'm dividing this into two halves, with a view to finishing EL in 2025 (unless of course Putin has other plans for us all...) and I'm going to have to say... I'm not an unqualified fan. AYE was full of the "Holy crap, I can't believe we're doing this" enthusiasm of a band in their first flush of success, "Axis.." is (although lacking a little in guitar solo moments) a pretty tightly edited and focused album of great pop songs (mostly) written by a chap who just happens to be an incredible guitar player. By comparison, EL is what happens when nobody says no to you.

Don't get me wrong, the high points - "All Along the Watchtower", "Voodoo Chile" - are INCREDIBLE, even now, and there are some earworm tracks that are slow burn growers - "Long Hot Summer Nights", " Little Miss Strange" - but there is a lot of indulgence, tracks with no obvious structure or hook that I honestly think would have been edited out of the previous two albums - "Have You Ever Been To Electric Ladyland", "1983 A Merman I Should Turn To Be".

Certainly, reading accounts of how the album was recorded mirror some elements of SRV's "Soul To Soul" - excessive drug use, increasing detachment from reality, a record company enabling all the excess ad indulgence because they know damn well anything emblazoned with the right name will sell regardless... it's hard not to be a little bit cynical about the commercial imperative but also hard not to think "Jimi- you knew better". Certainly fellow Experience members Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell found themselves incresingly isolated from the recording process, exacerbating tensions within the band, hence why EL was the final Jimi Hendrix Experience album. 

Your mileage may vary of course - and if it happens to be your favourite Hendrix album then fair play, I can see the appeal even if it's not necessarily for me...

But, however you look at it, it's a Hendrix album. Which means there is some phenomenal guitar playing on it... so let's take a look at some of it!

Let's start with the absolutely epic blues jam tht is "Voodoo Chile" - at 15 minutes long, this an absolute smorgasbord of E minor pentatonic blues licks - as anyone who follows the YouTube channel will be aware - and this one is a corker, about 12 minutes 30 seconds in, and shows Jimi in full on pedal to the metal mode:

E minor pentatonic (naturally) and this shows Jimi really milking a repeating pattern based around the 3 Magic Notes concepts (students of mine will recognise that) brought up on to the E and B strings - notice first the duynamic nature, Hendrix building tension with a held bend (D - b7 - into E - root), before into a flurry of repeating pentatonics before finishing with an even bigger bend, G (b3) bent into A (4th) and actually going slightly past the target pitch for the feel of the note going almost out of the atmosphere and into orbit!

Notice too the timings - 5 note groups on the first bar (use a 5 syllable workd like "opportunity" to keep yourself in time here) before developing into a blistering sequence of 32nd note ("helicopterhelicopter, helicopterhelicopter" ) - fans of Zakk Wylde might recll him doing a similar trick on the "No More Tears" guitar solo climax section.

In a s similar vein, here's a section nicked from the solo to "Come On (Let The Good Times Roll)" - again, E minor pentatonic, but Hendrix is mixing in the open strings - I should mention that this gets a little messy in place as Jimi really was gunning it and hoping for the best, so I've tabbed what I believe to be the "intended" lick:

Notice the mix of bends going on here - whole tone, half tone, amd pre-bend and the slightly unusual venture up to position 3 of the minor pentatonic as Jimi bends the 19th fret high E - although I suspect he was probably visualising the kind of E minor arpeggio we heard on Axis: Bold As Love.

The last bar contains one of his signature "up/down bends" that are all over Electric Ladyland, bending up on the 15th fret B, catching the G at the 14th fret and sounding the pre-brend as you bring the string down - if that sounds complicated, don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds and I'll be demonstrating how to do this in the upcoming video!

On the subject of arpeggios, these seem to have been increasingly becoming a part of Jimi's style, as they crop up towards the end of "Little Miss Strange", tracing the chord sequence Gb - Ab - Bb using second inversion shape (5 R 3) and colouring the basic triad by adding in the 4th and 3nd:

So if you've ever wondered where Yngwie got the idea from, wonder no more....

The last example is taken from the start of the solo to "Long Hot Summer Nights" using the Eb minor pentatonic and again based on the Magic Three Notes, but again, look at the string bending - whole tone, quarter tone (in between minor and major 3rd), repeated unison bend and then a classic blues/rock pentatonic run in the final bar concluding on the root note.

So we'll wrap things up there- yes, I know I haven't touched on "Voodoo Child (Slight Retun)" but I'm saving that for a more in depth video... although YouTube is not exactly short on tutorials on how to play that! Meanwhile I hope you enjoy playing through the examples, make sure to check in on the YouTube channel for the demonstration video (not for getting to like, share & subscribe - past 1000 now!) and I'll see you next month for... 

...brace yourself...

..Allan Holdsworth!

Why I Suck.. Series 5, Episode 6 - Stevie Ray Vaughan! (Soul To Soul)

 And we are back with one of the blog's most stalwart featured artists and one of my all-time favourite guitarists, Texan blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan! So far SRV has featured in each year of the current blog iteration - in 2020 I transcribed his 1983 debut album "Texas Flood" , 2021 I did his incredible version of "Little Wing" (among others), 2023 I finished up 1984's follow up "Couldn't Stand The Weather" so this year it was the turn of the "difficult third album" - 1985's "Soul To Soul".

Now, it has to be said that this one didn't grab me quite as much as the first two - of course it's a good blues album and of course it's got some searing guitar playing in it, but compared to the first two it felt a little like SRV and the boys (this time featuring keyboard player Reese Wynans, who would also show up in Joe Bonamassa's band for "Live At The Greek", the album that started off this iteration of the blog..) were going through the motions to some extent.

This is backed up by some accounts from those involved with the recording - basically, by this point, the punishing performance and recording schedule was starting to take its toll on the band. Bass player Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton recalled waiting for cocaine deliveries before the band would go in to record and Stevie Ray himself recalled an incident pre-gig where Albert King gently took him to task for being a little too fond of the bottle.

And I think this shows to some extent as although all the tracks are pretty solid with some great playing throughout, there didn't really feel like any standouts like "Lenny", "Little Wing" or "Tin Pan Alley"... plus does anyone else think it's weird seeing SRV wielding a 335 on the alnum cover?!?

Nonetheless, there are a a slew of great licks to steal as always, so let's dive into the minutiea and get nicking!

This first example is a portmanteau of a couple of signature ideas SRV uses on "Ain't Gone 'N' Give Up On Love" using the A minor pentatonic scale - the first example is kind of a hook that Stevie repeats through the song as a response to the vocal line, while the second incorporates some interesting string bending ideas as SRV is clearly channelling his inner Albert King! 

Here the tricky part is where Stevie bends the D note (10th fret high E) up to E (4th to 5th) but comes off back to the 8th fret bent up a tone (b3 into 4th), gradually releasing the 8th fret note as it moves down from D to in between C & C# (b3 and major 3) before resolving to the root note A on the 10th fret B string. This is easier shown than told so as always, keep an eye on the YouTube channel (approaching 1000 subscribers now!!!) for the demo video (and don't forget to check out the preceding ones) .

Of course, it wouldn't be an SRV album without some serious showboating somewhere in there, and this next example from "Say What" shows exactly that - SRV head down, pedal to metal, charging through a repeating pattern based on the B minor pentatonic (but also note the use of the 2nd, C#, just to tweak the ear a little) - regular students of mine will notice the Magic 3 Notes concept at work here  - dig in hard and make sure your vibrato is strong and confident, as so much of Stevie's tone came from his sheer attack and precision.

As with "Lenny" and "Stan's Swang" on the earlier albums, SRV teases us with some hints at the jazzier elements of his playing, and on "Gone Home" we see him using the D blues scale to great effect - this line comes in just after the organ solo, Stevie creating a jazzy melodic affect without using anything outside the standard blues vocabulary. This run works it's way down from 2nd position D Blues to 1st, and watch for the tasy major 3rd (F#) right at the end of the line.

And just as no SRV album would be complete without some blistering pentatonic fury, equally it wouldn't be complete without some of his gorgeous, clean toned Hendrix-style partial chord rhythm playing, as this intro to "Life Without You" shows - here SRV works his way down the CAGED system with doublestops to imply the A chord, working through the A, C & G shapes before using an F# blues scale phrase to imply the F#m chord.

So that wraps up another look at one of my all time heroes - stay tuned for the demo video (as I'll be the first to admit that my rhythmic notation is not alway 100% accurate ;-) ) as we all know SHOW > TELL every time when it comes to music! Meantime check out the One Minute Licks and Licks Of the Legends series as well as the newer Five Minute Solos and the Guitar Gymn series for more content to help you develop your skills.

See you next month as we take trip to Electric Ladyland - let's see how much of this one I can get through!

Why I Suck... Series 5, Episode 5 - Albert Lee!

 As I may have mentioned in this blog before now, I really have a thing for country music and in particular the absolutely dizzying "shredneck" styles of Nashville's finest. It's a slightl irony the  that this month the spotlight falls on a man who's name is synonymous with some of the most blistering country guitar playing ever put to tape - but hails from...

... Herefordshire.

And grew up in London's Blackheath district.

So, quite a way from the Deep South of Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama et al. But despite that, you can't deny the man's staggering ability or rootsy authenticity. Steeped in a rich heritage of James Burton, Cliff Gallup, Scotty Moore and Jerry Reed, Alberts gravity defying scattershot country licks  are one of the definitive sounds of Nashville "hot country" guitar playing, and his playing had influenced a huge raft of guitarists including none other than fellow blog subject Zakk Wylde!

So as is customary by this point, first a little potted history before we get to the licks. Born, December 21 1943 in Blackheath as mentioned and to a musician father, Lee originally began on the piano aged 7, before receiving a guitar for his 15th birthday - presumably enamoured by the ease of transporting a guitar instead of a piano - and left school the following year (1959) with the intent of making a living full time as a musician.

A succession of local pub & bar bands followed, including a stint with UK R&B legend Chris Farlowe and the Thunderbirds, but by 1968 things had crystallised for Lee and he knew playing country music was his true calling, joining British country rock band Head, Hands & Feet where he really began to make his mark as a blistering Telecaster wielding guitar hero. Session work followed, becoming a noted sideman for the likes of Emmylou Harris (replacing his idol James Buton in the Hot Band) and Eric Clapton Eric Clapton in his solo years during the late 70s and 80s Since then, Albert has carved out a successful career for himself as a solo artist, with his most recent album released in 2008. Along the way he won the Guitar Player magazine "Best Country Guitarist" award on no less than five consecutive occasions and swapped the Telecaster for his own Music Man signature model (I tried one and it's lovely..). 

So there we are, he may not be a household name on Radio 2 like his former boss, but this is a man who's carved out a very successful music career in his chosen niche... simply by being extraordinarily good at it!

So let's have a look at how he does it.

I would be remiss if I missed out his signature track, "Country Boy" from the Head, Hands & Feet days, so let's begin there. This will make more sense when you see the demo video (Like, Share & SubscribeSubscribe, folks!) - and revolves around a couple of variations on the G chord, featuring the ambiguity between b3 & major 3 (Bb and B), embellishing the G arpeggio with elements from the major pentatonic (R 2 3 5 6 G A B D E) along with the b7 (F).

We'll stay with Country Boy (there's a LOT of it) for this next one, which is something of an Albert Lee signature run - 16th notes, running through a diatonic scale (in this case G major.. of course it's G major!) alternating groups of 3 and 4.

Changing key to E, we can see a lot of similar Albert Lee ideas in the intro riff to "Fun Ranch Boogie" wit the use of the unison E notes on the 5th freb and open E, the use of the 6th, 2nd bent to minor 3rd and octave E notes - note also the use of the funky little mute, another hallmark of Albert's phenomenally precise and rhythmic playing.

We'll finish up with a blitzing C blues scale run from "Sweet Little Lisa" and really the thing to take away is the rhythmic precision from the fearless stream of 16th notes - Albert running aling the tightrope, refusing to look down.. it's interesting to note that this same lick, with a little more rhythmic variation could easily fit into the vocabulary of next month's entrant, Mr. Stven Ray Vaughan..

So with that in mind, I shall bid you adieu, gentle reader - check in on the YouTube channel for the deminstration video and see you next month!

Why I Suck... Series 5, Episode 4 - Gary Moore!

 As a young whippersnapper learning my craft on the working men's club circuit (remember them?) back in the 90s, there was always one song that a drunk punter would request as we were packing away.. "You, young man.. <hic> you should do Paris <hic> Parizh <hic> Parisienne Walkways, that Gary Moore" before stumbling off in a haze of pipe smoke and cut price brown ale.

So I duly learned it, or tried to - only to be consistently stymied by the MAD widdly bit in the middle - despite all the tabs, all the scales I practiced, I could never, ever get the bastard thing right. And so - to my shame - I grew to hate Gary Moore and the overblown gurning high drama widdliness of his playing...

And then in early 2011 he died at the age of 49, and I looked back and realised, hold on, he's actually really rather good. And by all accounts, a remarkably nice, unassuming chap too... arguably someone who, like Rory Gallagher, never quite got the widespread mainstream success he deserved.

I'll say this for the Irish, they breed a fearsome blues guitarist. Shame they don't make them last longer.

So it was with the idea of righting a wrong and getting some of Gary's ferocious pentatonic blitzes under my belt, I set about transcribing some of his greatest licks and solos, some of which I'll be sharing today.

First, as is customary, a little potted history - born in Belfast (great city, by the way) April 4 1952, infant Gary's first exposure to live music came at the age of 6 when his dad invited him onstage to sing "Sugartime" wih a showband.. this clearly spurred something as his first guitar came at age 10, and despite Gary being naturally left-handed, he learned right handed - I think we can attribute some of his legendarily ferocious attack and vibrato to the fact that his strongest hand was on the fretboard doing the cool stuff.. when you think about it, the guitar is a ridiculous instrument!

His Career began with The Beat Boys who played Beatles covers and along the way befriended Rory Gallagher - and at 16 moved from Belfast to Dublin, joing Irish blues rock band Skid Row, fronted by one Phil Lynott. After what seems to have been quite a complex disagreement within the band, it imploded and Gary decided to start a solo career - but before this could get going in earnest, Lynott invited him to join the first incarnation of Thin Lizzy, a band that would become famous for (among  other things) the remarkable quality of their guitarists.He would, however, return after Brian "Robbo" Robertson injured his hand in a bar fight, and recorded the bands' best-selling album "Black Rose" in 1979 before leaving again in 1983. He & Lynott would remian firm friends until Lynott's death in 1986, with Lynott contributing vocals to "Out In The Fields" amongst other tracks.

And there we will leave it! To business - let's get the elephant in the room out of the way - here is the widdly bit to Parisienne Walkways:

As you can see, we're in A minor and Gary is basing this roughly around the A minor pentatonic scale, but notice the added B (2nd) and Eb (b5) so we're getting  little hybrid Blues scale/ Aeolian mode flavour, but what really sells it is the sense of drama that is at the heart of all Gary's playing - the soaring bend that builds the tension that is then released with the blistering flurry of legato. Take this slow, broken down into small sections and with a lick like this it's really worth taking it through every key - kee an eye on the YouTube channel for the demo video where I'll expand on this concept. 

Blistering pentatonics juxtaposed against searing held bends are a key part of Gary's style, and this next lick taken from his cover of Albert King's "Oh Pretty Woman" is a cracking example of this.

 Built from the C Blues scale, Gary milks a bend on the 11th fret E (Eb, minor 3rd) bending the b3 into the 4th and then a quarter tone tweak in between minor & major 3rd (E) before hammering his way through the blues scale like a freight train, finishing the phrase with more powerful held bends on the A string, bending the F (4th) into G 5(5th) before finishing on a low root note. As always with Gary's stuff, pick hard and wring every drop of emotion from your bends and vibrato!

It's not all pentatonics, however - the shred era of the 80s left it's mark on Gary as well - his solo track "Out In The Fields" features the kind of shred run that wouldn't have been out of place on a Yngwie Malmsteen track!

This is the D natural minor scale sequenced in 3s across the octaves, but Gary creates rhythmic interest with the "hemiola" idea- essentially a different number of notes in the melodic grouping to the one in the rhythmic grouping. In this case, melodic groups of 3 notes are placed into a 16th note rhythmic pattern - 4 notes to the beat - meaning a different note of the melodic group  falls on the beat each time. Be careful with the tricky position shifts and make sure to practice this idea slowly and in all keys, as it's a really useful lick to get down. And hit that last bend like you mean it!

I couldn't do a post about Gary Moore and not put in something from "Still Got The Blues", could I? So to round off, here is a glorious little run down hidden away at the very end of the track as free time "cadenza" idea.

Even a brutal lick like this can still trace a lineage back to the Three Magic Notes - I'll demonstarte this in the video - but notice how skilfully Gary weaves the 2nd and b5 notes from the natural minor and blues scales into this pentatonic format, as well as the characteristic bluesy perfect 4th finger rolls.

This one has been a LOT of fun, and I've gained a huge amount of respect for the sheer force of nature that was Gary's blues playing and his "take no prisoners" attitude combined with devastatingly accurate technique, and I'm looking forward to returning to analysing more of his playing in the future. 

Keep an eye on the YouTube channel for the demonstration video and see you next month for Albert Lee!

Why I Suck.. Series 5, Episode 3 - Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme)!

 It's been so long since the 1990s that they've almost descended into legend. We look back fondly on Nirvana, Britpop... peace... but let me tell you child, I was there when the deep magic was being written, and I can tell you it was not all plain sailing. Back then, many were the doubters and detractors who mourned the apparent death of high level, super-technical guitar playing, who loathed what they saw as the ham fisted idiocy of the Cobains and the Gallaghers – but the die was cast, and the eye-watering, face-melting solos that had defined the 1980s would not be heard again until The Darkness and Dragonforce ushered in a new era of shred and hairspray in the 00's.

Except that nobody told a certain Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt. No less than Brian May described his epic solo on 1990's “Get The Funk Out” as worthy of it's own medal, and he's absolutely right. Nuno Bettencourt kept the shred flame alive throughout the 90s almost (but lets's be honest, not quite) single handedly through his frankly apocalyptic solos on Extreme's albums, and it's a treat to see that he now his Rihanna as his lead singer. So, as is customary for both my regular readers, let's look at a little potted history before we take a dive into some tasty Mediterranean sun-dried shred licks..

Born September 20 1966 in Terceira, in the Azores Islands as the youngest of ten (!) children, in 1971 (aged 4) his family made the move to Boston and young Nuno began experimenting with a variety of musical instruments, eventually settling on guitar in his early teens. A series of local bands led him to Extreme in 1985 and by 1989 they were on the radar of several labels – the songs that would make up their breakthrough album “Pornograffiti” would be heavily demo'd during this time, meaning that the band had a rock solid basis from which to get their recordings together. They would release their debut album “Extreme” in 1989 but it was in 1990 that “Pornigraffiti” would make it to major release and that's where this months licks are drawn from. So, to business!

Let's start with everyone's favourite Nuno widdle pattern - the string skipped tapped arpeggios from "Get The Funk Out": 

 Clearly, Nuno is channelling his inner Paul Gilbert here - root on the D string, 3rd and 5th on the G, skipping up to the E for another root and 3rd - but he's enhanced with an added hammered note - the 2nd hammered from the root on the D - and then poured a layer of tapping on top, as the right hand taps the 5th on the D, the root on the G and the 5th again on the high E, creating a slick add9 sound. In "Get The Funk Out" he uses this pattern to follow the underlying chord sequence of Bb, C , Eb & F, doubling up on the speed over the Eb & F. 

So I'll be warming up thoroughly before attempting the demo video for this one....

Next, we have a quirky and interesting repeating pattern that kicks off the solo to "Money (In God We Trust)":

This is an Eb7 arpeggio (R 3 5 b7 - Eb G Bb Db) played with a relatively low gain tone using sixteenths, but the interesting thing here is the length of the phrase - 3 beats. This means that the arpeggio cycles round in what is known as a "hemiola" effect, each time starting on a different beat. If you look at the notation you'll notice that it starts on beat 1, then beat 4, then 3, then 2 before finally coming round to start again on beat 1 on the fourth bar. This makes the pattern alot more tricky sounding than it actually is, and I think reflects Nuno's undoubted skill with a groove - although we're focusing on lead licks here, it is important to remember that you can't really be an effective lead guitarist without the feel for groove and timing that underpins a good rhythm guitarist.

The next lick, taken from "L'il Jack Horny", features an interesting mix of a D minor pentatonic outline but with both the b5 (Ab - 13th fret G) and b6 (Bb - 11th fret B) making an appearance, creating an air of tension and dissonance before Nuno concludes the phrase with the b7 (C). However, this is all superimposed over a backing in A, meaning that the Ab and Bb in fact work as 7 and b2 respectively, effectively bracketing the root note before ending on the C which is acting as a b3 - a very nifty piece of superimposition that gives a kind of Harmonic Minor/ Phrygian Dominant vibe.

Finally, we come to this awesome lick from "Decadence Dance" in A, using the A "major blues" scale - this is the "3 frets back" rule we often employ with the minor pentatonic, except that here Nuno is using it with the blues scale, meaning that he now has the b3 (C) and major 3rd (C#) to play with.. which he does, repeatedly! Notice the use of tone and semitone bands to take the B up to C# and C, as well as hammering between the two in the second bar - and I should mention , the Three Magic Notes that starts it off - even Nuno uses them!

OK, so cards on the table, I haven't come out of this as a huge Extreme fan, there's just something about what they do that doesn't gel with me - but that's a personal opinion, and it certainly does not take away from Nuno Bettencourt being a truly AWESOME guitar player, even if he might not be the household name that Hendrix, Slash or Eddie Van Halen are. I've still learnt a ton of cool licks and ideas, and each of his solos is a treasure trove of great ideas to pilfer!

Next up, the late lamented Irish blues firebrand, Gary Moore... there will be screaming pentatonics, epic string bends and, lots LOTS LOTS of vibrato!

Why I Suck.. Series 5, Episode 2 - Brian May (Queen)!

And so we come at long last to the Greatest Perm in Rock History... the one and only Brian May! In terms of reach and enduring legacy, you could make a pretty convincing case for Queen being the biggest band the world has ever seen, and it speaks volumes that a band can create tracks as disparate as “Another One Bites The Dust”, “Tie Your Mother Down” and of course the gold standard of rock songwriting and musicianship, “Bohemian Rhapsody” - and still have it all sound uniquely Queen. Add to that the fact that “Don't Stop Me Now” will fill a dance floor no matter what generation your audience, the fact that everyone from 1-100 can and will sing along to “We Will Rock You” and you have a band whose contribution to the pantheon of popular music really is quite extraordinary!

So it really is long overdue that we recognise the superlative playing of Sir Brian May CBE, a chap that even Eric Clapton once professed to be in awe of - after all, it's not often you encounter a guitar player where the audience can sing along with each note of his solo! Or that gets invited to play a solo on the roof of Buckingham Palace..

First, as is customary, a little potted history... Born in Middlesex on July 19 1947, Brian was a natural musician as a child – always singing, began playing the piano around age 6 as well as dabbling with the ukulele.. but it was age 7 that he received his first guitar, a nylon strung classical which he adapted, adjusting the neck and even improvising a pickup to fit under the strings – pretty impressive stuff for someone of his then tender years! This saw him through to his early teenage years, but ultimately he coveted an electric guitar – sadly, this was financially out of reach for his family at that point (no Yamaha Pacificas back then), so rather than admit defeat, Brian and his dad Harold (a Ministry of Aviation engineer) in 1963 set to work creating the now-legendary Red Special out of an old fireplace – which is a story that deserves a post all of its own. This remarkable instrument served as Brians' weapon of choice throughout his year with Queen, albeit being supplemented by various copies made by Guild (among others) and of course the Tele that did the job for “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”.

Before Queen, however, Brian cut his teeth first in band called 1984, founded in 1967 with schoolfriends Tim Staffell & Dave Dilloway, who notably opened for none other than Jimi Hendrix in May of that year, which led into May & Staffell forming Smile – a short lived affair from 1968 to 1970 that did however lead to meeting future Queen drummer Roger Taylor, as well as an impressive slew of gigs around West London opening for other more famous bands of the time. Staffell left before long, however, and a young Ealing graduate named Farrokh Bulsara joined forces with May & Taylor.. of course, we wuld come to know Farokh by the name he later took, Freddie Mercury. By May of 1971 the group and settled on John Deacon as a bass player and Queen as we know them were formed!

Brian May's playing was a cornerstone of Queen's sound – his signature, mid-heavy tone typically through a Vox treble booster and a Vox AC30 (something he and Rory Gallagher had in common), but his sense of melody and harmony goes far beyond the conventional Page/ Clapton/ Hendrix pentatonics of the time, having more in common with classical musicians than blues. In fairness, May lists all of the above (plus Jeff Beck, of course) as influences, but also Shadow's lead guitarist Hank Marvin and The Beatles George Harrison.

This presents a problem for a blog like this, as Brian is not exactly a “lick guy” - to really get a handle on his style, we're going to need to look at his playing in a little more context. To this end, rather than tackle a handful of licks, we'll instead look at a couple of his standout guitar solos – and to address the elephant in the room, no Bohemian Rhapsody (that deserves its own video) and no Killer Queen as you can't really do that one justice with just one guitar!

First though, we'll take a crash course through May's signature technique – harmony.

We'll start with the scale of A major laid out along the G string – A B C# D E F# G#

Next, we'll add a harmony note. This is typically (but by no means always) a 3^rd higher: So C# will harmonise with A, D with B, E with C# etc. Note that this is not always a major 3^rd harmony – we're sticking to diatonic (ie notes in one key) to get the hang of this technique.

The second harmony will typically (although again, by no means exclusively) be a 3^rd up again: so root - 3^rd distance - 3^rd - 3^rd distance – 5^th, and again will occasionally be a diminished 5^th.

Brian would occasionally add 7ths or 6ths or sometimes go underneath the root (a 3^rd down from the root taking him to the 6^th) – so take the tools given here and experiment!

Now, on to the solos – we'll start with “Don't Stop Me Now”, an absolute tour de force of melodic string bending. Of particular note is how Brian really milks the repeated bend on the Bb (4^th) – this is interesting, as most players would have simply slapped F major pentatonic over the top (R 2 3 5 6) which doesn't include that interval, but Brian really makes it sing. Be accurate with your pitching – try playing the target pitch before the bend when practicing – and make the vibrato string and confident.

Next up, Brian May meets Chuck Berry, as we tackle perennial favourite “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, this time blending D major and minor pentatonics. Notice his use of doublestops as a way of building tension to be released by those held re-picked string bends, mixing his signature melodicism with rock & roll attitude, not to mention deftly navigating a key change with the end phrase!

Finally, we'll take a look at the impeccably phrased “It's A Kind Of Magic” in A. Brian starts of with the Keith Richards I-IV chord move, before a languid string bend leading into an effortless sounding legato blitz through the A major blues scale (R 2 b3 3 5 6)– it's over in moments but an absolute masterclass in tension and release phrasing, pulling back the spring and then letting fly!

It's been a privelige working through these classic solos and it's brought home to me just how firmly the Queen back catalogue is stitched into the soundtrack of our lives – and May's incredible sense of melody and dynamics is a huge part of that. As a casual listener/ appreciator rather than out and out fan, I was really struck by how much of this stuff would trigger memories and that speaks volumes for what this band managed to accomplish over the years. Definitely a month well spent!

Join me next month as we dive into the the Extreme Shreddery of the one and only Nuno Bettencourt!