Why I Suck... Series 3, Episode 11 - Stevie Ray Vaughan Pt. III

 The weather out there is frightful.. but playing the blues can be so delightful... and we find ourselves taking another look at the unmistakeable style of the one and only Stevie Ray Vaughan! Last year I polished off the remaining tracks on his debut album “Texas Flood”, as well as the utterly gorgeous “Little Wing”, so this year I cracked on with his second studio album with Double Trouble, 1984's “Couldn't Stand The Weather”.

This album saw SRV start to experiment with grooves and styles distinct from the 12 bar format more so than on “Texas Flood”, most notably with the title track, but also included a pedal to the metal cover of Hendrix's “Voodoo Chile” along with an absolutely epic 9 minute minor blues in the shape of “Tin Pan Alley” and some startlingly convincing jazz work on “Stan's Swang” - and of course let's not overlook the absolutely blistering open string work on the opening track “Scuttle Buttin'” that famously even had Metallica's Kirk Hammett shaking in his boots!

We've already covered the history of SRV's tragically cut short life in his first entry here so I'll let you go back and reread that (and this one) – meanwhile let's take a deep dive into some of the playing on this album!

For the first example, I've outlined the riff to “Scuttle Buttin'” - well, I couldn't leave this out, could I? Here you're dealing with the open string blues scale and don't discount the difficulty open strings present – quite often this sees players struggle wth their hand synchronisation as the picking hand is working while the fretting hand isn't, so go slowly and you may find that making small “micro movemets” with the fret hand while you're picking theopen strings can help alleviate this problem. Also, SRV would regularly switch articulation between bends, slides and pull offs so feel free to experiment with the basic shape of the riff. I'll be expanding on this in the demo video.

In this second example, we're taking a look at an often-overlooked aspect of SRVs playing – his rhythm work. Although feted – rightly – as a brilliant lead player, SRV had a phenomenal sense of groove and in the rhythm figure for the title track “Couldn't Stand The Weather” Stevie Ray got his groove on and then some. We can summarise the harmony as being roughly a Dm7 – but check out everything going on here, octaves, muted 16ths, bends.. this is a terrific riff to work those rhythm chops up to speed. Essential here is keeping your pick hand moving in a constant 16^th note rhythm, just moving it away from the strings to create gaps in the rhythm and using fret hand muting to keep the chord voicings clean and free from unwanted open strings ringing out and messing up the clarity of the part.

The third example is taken from the cover of Eddie Jones' “Things (That) I Used To Do” in the key of G and of particular note here is SRV's use of the 2^nd (A) above the usual minor pentatonic/ blues scale note palette, used in the turnaround to imply the V chord – in this case, a D7, of which A is the chords' 5^th. There's a lovely bit of chromaticism here as well, A-Ab-G, all connected by a wonderfully greasy slide/pull off combination.

For our final example, we'll turn our attention to “Tin Pan Alley” by Robert Geddins which gave SRV the chance to showcase just what he could do with a slow minor key blues (in C minor, specifically). There is an absolute truckload of great playing to choose from here – I've picked a lick that comes in about 1.50, utilising the 2^nd position blues scale (you may also recognise the Dm-shape Cm arpeggio shape inside that pattern) and also brings in the 6^th from the major pentatonic (A). This creates a neat diminished 7 arpeggio – C, Eb (b3 from the blues scale), Gb (b5 from the blues scale and A – C Eb Gb A, R b3 b5 bb7. Theres some wonderfully delicate legato work here too, and check out the hybrid picked double stop to finish off as SRV resolves the b5 into the natural.

So that wraps things up for this month, keep an eye on the YouTube channel for the demo video and get the Les Paul ready for next month's as we cover Stoke-On-Trent's favoured son, the one and only Saul Hudson, aka Slash!

Why I Suck.. Series 3, Episode 10 - Paul Gilbert!

 OK, I was braced for this one. Anyone who's heard any of Paul Gilbert's stuff – whether that be solo, with Racer X or even just his aptly-named “Terrifying..” guitar videos on YouTube – will be well aware that this guy is a straight up lunatic. Technically flawless and utterly fearless, Paul's playing really is “more is more” with a MASSIVE grin on it's face! By this point I'd already tackled Godfather of Shred Yngwie Malmsteen, not to mention G3 core Satch, Vai & Johnson and the prog rock insanity of John Petrucci, so I wasn't scared, I was wired for this! And let's not forget YouTube's handy feature of slowing down to ¼ speed....

As is by now tradition, let's start with a little potted history. Born November 6^th 1966 (happy 56^th as I write this) in Ilinois, Paul began playing at just six years old, citing The Beatles as a major influence on him initially. This would be soon followed by Led Zeppelin introducing him to the iconic sound of a screaming distorted string bend! Guitar lessons followed but these didn't include string bends, being largely focused around sight reading and nursery rhymes (yep, been there!) – but a musical uncle showed him the way with this technique, and a further teacher introduced the young Paul to this technique, introducing him to Black Sabbath along the way.

As with many guitarists of his (and others) generation, one Eddie Van Halen's debut in 1978 would prove seminal, and learning “Eruption” with his teacher was a huge influence on Paul's technical development, to the point where by the age of 15 he was touring with his then band Tau Zero, had been featured in Guitar Player magazine (along wth a youg Swede named Yngwie Malmsteen) and felt confident enough to contact Mark Varney of the infamous Shrapnel Records to ask for a gig with Ozzy Osbourne! Now THAT would have been something.. Needless to say that never happened, but Varney was impressed enough to keep the youngster on his radar – side note, I did send a copy of Two Pint Solos to Shrapnel but I can only assume it must have been too commercial for them... 😢- and this would eventually lead to Paul's relocation to LA and his famous tenure at the Guitar Institute of Technology. Enrolled at 17, by 19 he had graduated and been hired as an instructor!

Whilst teaching at GIT, Gilbert formed Racer X and acquired unsung hero Bruce Bouillet who demonstrated an uncanny ability to harmonise Paul's signature wide interval string skipping sequences – tracks from this era include Scarified and Technical Difficulties (and we'll be taking a couple of looks at the latter), and when this band split having effectively hit a career brick wall as no major label was ineterested, Gilbert formed Mr Big with bassist Billy Sheehan who had recently left David Lee Roth's solo band. They achieved notable success with singles “Green Tinted Sixties Mind” (BRILLIANT riff, demonstrated here) and “To Be With You” before splitting in 1996. Since then, Gilbert has pursued a solo career interspersed with Racer X & Mr Big reunions, carving out a nihe as a phenomenal shredder and building on his teaching experience with his online guitar school.

With the history lesson thus concluded, let's take a look at some licks! Although famed for his frankly staggering technical expertise, Gilbert's sense of melody, harmony and above all fun is apparent through every recording and despite the obvious technical challenges I've really enjoyed this month's assignment! We'll begin with this excerpt from the outro of the 2011 re-recording of Racer X's “Technical Difficulties”:

 - in this example, Paul takes the E natural minor scale and maps 3 note per-string fingerings all across the fretboard using the “stacked six” pattern previously discussed when we looked at Sophie Lloyd. Students of mine will recognise the “scale fragment” approach taken here, interlocking 6 note fingerings mapped across the neck. Check out my book “Progressive Guitar Training” for more ideas on how to incorporate these ideas into your playing.

Arpeggios play a major part in Paul's playing, but unlike Yngwie a few months back, sweep picking doesn't seem to be a major part of his playing, instead preferring to stick to alternate picking and generating the wide intervals through string skipping. Here I've tabbed out the basic major pattern, and shown how Paul will extend this using tapped and slid notes – and as a bonus, tweaked it to deal with minor arpeggios. All about value here.

Staying with arpeggios, this is another section from the 2011 “Technical Difficulties”, showing more of a conventional approach to arpeggios, following the chord sequence with the triad along with added 2^nd and 4^th intervals at blistering speed using alternate picking and pull offs. This is similar to licks played by Jimmy Page in "Dazed & Confused" and Iron Maiden's Dave Murray, or even the end of Hotel California... just on steroids.

Finally, let's wrap things up with some good ol' fashioned WIDDLE! Much of Paul's faster playing is based around repetitive scale fragments with legato, similar to Shawn Lane – this last example makes use of the E natural minor using a six note fragment based on the B Phrygian mode and illustrates how these fragments can be looped and repeated to create a blistering barrage of notes!

Right, after that lot I'm going to apply an ice pack to my fingers and chill with some Pink Floyd.. keep an eye on the YouTube channel (remember the holy trinity of Like, Share & Subscribe...) for the demo video in a few days time before we move back to the Texas Tornado himself, Stevie Ray Vaughan!

Why I Suck.. Series 3, Episode 9 - Brent Mason!

 Yee-ha, y'all. Yes, this month we're going down Nashville way... and full disclosure here, I have a HUGE soft spot for the type of “hot country” playing exemplified by Nashville virtuosos like Brad Paisley, Albert Lee (incongruously enough a Brit) and the subject of this month's post, Brent Mason. There's something about the twang of a Telecaster through a Fender Twin, double stop bends, chicken-pickin' and sixths that just makes me grin like a lunatic.. so I'd been looking forward to this one.

First a little on the man himself. Born July 13, 1959 in Van Wert, Ohio, Brent taught himself to ply at a very young age - various sources state five, although in interviews Brent says seven or eight, but he began entirely by ear. In an interview for Premier Guitar from 2007 he states that he used a table knife on an old nylon-string guitar, playing slide and picking out melodies and licks by ear. In the same interview he lists Chet Atkins and Merle Travis as early interviews, as well as a Jerry Reed album called “Nashville Underground” which he cites as a real eye-opener.. so yeah, expect that to crop up in next year's blog at some point. Remember, if you want to get inside the style of a player you admire, go check out who influenced them.

In fact.... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiVNfZmNYxSMxV_DIhGlSTbLQgayhVRhK

You're welcome.

In his mid-to late teenage years (there seems to be some confusion about exactly when), Mason moved to the electric guitar – in a 2020 interview with Guitar Player magazine he cites his first electric guitar as a Hagstrom Swede, bought for him by his dad aged fifteen.

Interestingly, if correct, this is an archtop jazz guitar, about as far removed from the Tele twang as if he'd been given a Charvel...

Changing from nylon to electric broadened Brent's horizons to include jazz and rock players like Pat Martino, George Benson and Jeff Beck -  (who would have been releasing Blow By Blow at around about that point) – and you can here that influence on the beautiful track “Cayman Moon” which a lot of this months' examples are taken from.

After graduating from high school, Mason moved to Nashville to pursue a career in country music, and his first break came with the Don Kelley Band, a working Nashville cover outfit. It was with this band that he would make the jump to the Telecaster, acquiring a secondhand one covered with grey car primer.. this guitar would form the basis for his Fender signature model many years later, which you can pick up for (brace yourself) £8,500..

A stiff drink, and now back to the story.

The big break came when the legendary Chet Atkins was recording his “Stay Tuned” album which would include guest spots by Larry Carlton, Steve Lukather, Mark Knopfler, George Benson and more. This album came out in 1985, so this would put Mason at around 25. This put him on the fast track to a wildly successful session career, playing on well over a thousand records by a huge range of artists and making him (along with Larry Carlton) one of the most widely recorded and heard guitarists in history. In 1997 he signed to Mercury records and recorded his album Hot Wired, and the title track being specified by the Registry of Guitar Tutors as one of their tracks for the the FLCM performance diploma.. which is where I came in!

Hot Wired album onYouTube:

So we'll leave the history lesson there and start looking at some of the licks.

I've taken this first pair of examples from the ferocious chicken-pickin' tour de force that is the title track, “Hot Wired” and can broadly be regarded as being in A Mixolydian (R 2 3 4 5 6 b7 – A B C# D E F# G). We kick off with the classic country technique of major sixth intervals moving down the scale, and I would recommend hybrid picking these with the pick playing the G string note and the middle finger pulls the high E. The second part of the run moves down the B and G strings from F# to A, alternating a conventionally fretted note with a muted one. This is the classic “chicken-pickin” technique which can be performed by picking the string as normal and alternating it with a note picked with the middle finger on the pick hand curled round to mute it. This gives a clucking sound similar to (guess what) a chicken, and is a hallmark of hot country players like Mason.

The second example follows straight on and illustrates a bluegrass – inspired chromatic lick in open position. You can see the five note pattern that starts off the line before it mutates into a blur of chromaticism before resolving to the root note A.

The second two examples are from “Cayman Moon” in Eb and illustrate the jazzier side of Mason's playing. This phrase is based largely around an Ab arpeggio (the IV chord of the key), and decorated with chromatic passing notes before resolving down a second inversion Eb triad to end up on the G (the 3^rd). Note the use of hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides to smooth the line out.

This final example follows the same idea, being based seemingly on the Bb blues scale but leans heavily on non-diatonic notes being emphasised and given vibrato – the Gb, the A, the B – before once again resolving it's way down the same second inversion Eb arpeggio.

As always, we've barely scratched the surface of the incredible playing of this month's subject, but I do urge you to dive in and give him a listen – and if you're unfamiliar with the dizzying breakneck speed licks of the hot country genre, get listening! It's hugely entertaining from a listening and playing point of view nd will only help your development.

Next month – Shred legend Paul Gilbert, so make sure you're warmed up!

Why I Suck... Series 3, Episode 8 - Shawn Lane!

 OK, confession... Shawn Lane was a big guy and I had planned to make a few tongue-in-cheek jokes about “a giant of the instrument” “crushed by the weight of his own talent” - but then I read his story and chanced upon a tragic story of ill health and talent gone far, far too soon. Which goes to show if you're going to make a fat joke, do your research, because there's every chance you're going to end up regretting it.

Born March 21, 1963, Lane would just make it to 40 before passing away September 26 2003. But despite his tragically short life, his musical accomplishments were off the scale. I thoroughly recommend out his album “Powers Of Ten” for the incredible breadth and depth of his musicality, and his technical command of the guitar was simply jaw-dropping.. liquid legato runs incorporating all manner of wide intervals and outside notes that he would somehow resolve and make sense of, played with a speed, accuracy and dexterity which makes Yngwie sound like... well, me.

Then you discover that he also was a blinding pianist. And that Powers Of Ten was recorded with Lane playing drums on the keyboard, inventing technique as he went along to create the sounds he heard in his mind. You can't even be jealous, really – it would be like a bacteria being jealous of Brian Cox.

Sadly, there was a dark side to this prodigious talent. Lane struggled with psoriasis, which as he moved into adolescence, morphed into psoriasitic arthritis, causing pain and inflammation in his joints – including whilst playing guitar. Hydrocortisone was used to treat these ailments, but this came with it's own problems – weight gain which developed into Cushing's Syndrome, a horrible condition where his metabolism essentially rebelled against him causing massive weight gain, loss of the body's ability to regulate itself, diabetes, sleep disorders and more besides. It sounds utterly miserable, and it was really the maladies associated with this that would end his life aged 40. A massive, tragic loss of a truly otherworldy talent – and it should be noted, he recorded “Powers Of Ten” follow up “The Tri-Tone Fascination” whilst in the grip of this condition. Check out his MIT live performances – it's clear he was already struggling, but his playing is simply phenomenal.

It's worth noting here that for most of his adult life, Lane was working as a freelance self employed musician, moving from gig to gig – crucially, this meant no health insurance. Which in the US, means you're pretty much on your own. Arguably, had he had access to an NHS or equivalent, he wouldn't have been left to self-medicate, might have had alternative treatments recommended.. and he might still be here today.. worth bearing in mind the next time you're grumbling about being called in for a check up.

Anyway, with that rather sad and all too short potted history, out of the way, let's take a look at some of the man's breathtaking guitar playing. All the licks below are taken from various versions of the classic track “Get You Back” - and the fact that you can learn so much from just one song is testament to the man's genius. So, deep breath, limber up with a few stretches and let's dive in!

This first example is based around an E major arpeggio (the V chord, as “Get You Back” is at least largely in the key of A) – the deft use of slides keeps things slippery and the wider intervals are particularly melodic and ear catching. Notice the perfect 5^th interval between the A and E notes at the very end of the lick – more typical of a classical violin piece.. and as it happens, in his REH tuition video, Shawn mentions spending time transcribing violin and flute classical pieces for guitar. So guess how I'll be spending my evenings from now on.

One thing that marked Lane out even during the hyper technical shred eras of the late 80s and early 90s was his absolutely monstrous speed and accuracy and in this second example you can see some of the legato groupings that helped him with this. I've slowed them down for mortal fingers but take note of the different rhythmic groups – in this instances, fives. Counting fives across a beat is quite difficult, so I use the word “opportunity” as it has five syllables in it. Match each note to a syllable and before too long this will start to feel natural.

The third example shows Lane in absolute Beast Mode, to the point where even at 0.25 speed I'm basically transcribing a blur! Here he's injecting a dose of chromaticism into his legato – more for dynamic effect than melodic, I think, a feeling of “shifting gear”. Again, some odd note grouping here – notice the group of 7, for which I use the phrase “what-an-opportunity” to be able to “feel” seven notes to the beat.

At this point, it would be tempting to dismiss Shawn Lane as all flash and no soul.

It's not true, but it's tempting.

However, he was just as (sickeningly) adept with a melodic phrase as he was with a jaw-dropping technical one, and in this last example we can see a signature melodic legato pattern – combining A major scale tones with an E6 arpeggio, and note the three against four rhythmic effect (known as a “hemiola”)

As always, we've really just scratched the surface here, but hopefully these are some concepts that will make their way into your own playing. Go check out YouTube to see the man's incredible talent – I really don't have enough superlatives to apply here!

Next month, dust off the Telecaster and the compressor, we're going down Nashville way for the lunatic genius of Brent Mason!

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!

Ritchie Blackmore Style Analysis Video

 

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Why I Suck.. Series 3, Episode 6: Ritchie Blackmore

 Let me candid with you, readers. Have you ever been convinced that you remember reading or hearing an interesting snippet of information, only to find out you were completely wrong?

Well, I have. You see, I was convinced I remembered reading an interview with Yngwie Malmsteen referencing the Deep Purple “Fireball” album as one that was a major influence on him, to the extent that he learned the entire thing by ear, even copying Ritchie Blackmore's pickup changes.. and it wasn't. It was “Made In Japan”. Unfortunately we were 28 days into June before it occurred to me to go and check this.

Sigh.

(EDIT – in fairness to my Swiss Cheese brain, Yngwie has claimed “Fireball” was an influence on him.. just not the one he spent hours learning note for note...)

Still, although I can't claim to be a Deep Purple fan, I've definitely picked up a few tricks. Ritchie Blackmore often gets overlooked in the pantheon of British 60's and 70's guitar heroes relative to the likes of Clapton, Page, Jeff Beck and so on, but he occupies an interesting position as guitar techniques start to move away from bluesy pentatonics and embrace more exotic sounds, but before the Van Halen revolution that kick started the 80's shred era.

Born April 1 945 in Somerset, Blackmore took up the guitar aged 11, having been given one on the condition that he learned to play it “properly”. To this end, he spent his first year taking classical lessons – because of course that is the only “proper” way to play the guitar... - however, by 15 his interests had broadened and he was studying with studio legend Big Jim Sullivan (who was also something of a mentor to Jimmy Page).

Around this time, in 1960, he left school and began playing with session band The Outlaws, who were essentially the house band for legendary producer Joe Meek. They would perform as backing bands for pop singers including Glenda Collins and the Monster Raving Loony himself, Screaming Lord Sutch. In 1967, at the invitation of musician Chris Curtis, Blackmore joined proto-hard rock/ psychedelia outfit Roundabout – ironically, Curtis was forced out before the band was fully finalised. Blackmore suggest the name “Deep Purple” as it was his grandmother's favourite song, and after a few more changes of line up, they recorded the first album “In Rock” in 1970 – following the riff-based hard rock trail laid out by Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Much of this material was based on jams and Blackmore described his playing as simply wanting “to make as much noise and play as fast and as loud as possible.", which is something my teenage self would very much have related to.

“Fireball” was released in 1971, by which time the characteristic revolving door of band members had already begun – the core of Blackmore, keyboard player Jon Lord and bass player Roger Glover being joined by vocalist Ian Gillan, and was a roaring success, hitting No. 1 in the album charts and staying in the charts for over a year – and with that, let's pull the potted history up short and take a look at a few licks.

This first example is not really a lick at all, but the “Ritchie Blackmore Scale” - although fundamentally a pentatonic-based player, elements of classical music made there way into Blackmore's soloing, so this scale takes the minor pentatonic framework and blends in the 2^nd, b6 from the natural minor (although he would occasionally veer towards the major 6^th from the Dorian mode) and the b5 from the blues scale. I've presented it here in the key of A minor as it's a nice accessible key bang in the middle of the fretboard:

The second example takes the same ideas and moves them into the key of B minor and is taken from “Strange Kind Of Woman” - notice the use of the D# (8^th fret G) major 3^rd on the run up, as well as the position shift at he end to bend the E (4^th) into the F# (5^th).

I couldn't cover Ritchie Blackmore and not include something from “Smoke On The Water”, could I? This is a fairly conventional lick based around the “3 magic notes” template, but expanded on to contain the 2^nd (A) and b6th (Eb) notes from the G natural minor scale. Note as well as the quick position shift to get the A at the 2^nd fret G string, the use of repeated, repicked bends – another Blackmore hallmark.

The final example takes us back to A minor and Blackmore blasts through a run based around the A blues scale – notice the mix of picked (staccato) and pull-off (legato) approaches here. Overall I think he veers more towards a staccato approach, a clipped precision possibly with it's roots in his classical training. Note the use of the chromatic passing note G# - shouldn't work, as it's a major 7^th played in a minor blues context, but as it flashes by momentarily we only really experience it as “seasoning” to the main run before ending on an A root – the moral of the story being, it's not what's in the middle, but what's at the start and the end that counts!

So overall this has been an interesting look at a transitional stage of rock guitar, certainly one that arguably cracked open the door for the era of neoclassical shred that became popular in the 80s.

And speaking of such.. best get yourselves limbered up, as next month we Unleash The Fury with the one and only Yngwie J. Malmsteen! See you then.

Eric Johnson Style File

Why I Suck... Series 3, Episode 5: Eric Johnson!

 So we've discussed the style of Satan's own guitarist, we've discussed the guy who taught him.. where next? How about the guy who came out to jam with them?

The softly spoken but instantly recognisable style of Eric Johnson shot to prominence with the 1990 with the Ah Via Musicom album containing Grammy-award winning hit “Cliffs Of Dover” but there is a lot of history preceding this.

Born Austin, Texas in 1954 to a musical family, the young Eric initially began studying the piano, but he made the switch to guitar around the age of 11, recounting hearing one of his three sisters playing some blues out on the front porch at a very young age - “I remember thinking, 'what sound is that?'” he remarked in an interview with Total Guitar in 1996. Early influences included (of course) Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, but also country players like Chet Atkins and jazzers like Wes Montgomery.

In 1969, aged 15, he joined his first professional band – a psychedelic rock outfit named Mariani, and the following year they recorded a demo (which has subsequently become something of a collector's item). The next few years were spent travelling in Africa with his family but in 1974 returned to Austin and joined a fusion band called The Electromagnets, before forming his own band – The Eric Johnson Group – in 1976, and spent the next two years recording his debut album “Seven Worlds”. Unfortunately, due to contractual wrangling, it would be an incredible twenty years until this was finally released in 1998.

The next few years saw Johnson working as a session musician with Cat Stevens, Carole King, Christopher Cross, Richard Marx and more, eventually being recommended by Cross to Warner Bros. Records and being signed as an artist in his own right in 1984. In that same year he would go on to appear on the popular “Austin City Limits” music TV show (think Jools Holland but in Texas) performing the career-defining anthem “Cliffs Of Dover”, and in March 1986 his first album “Tones” was released (featuring “Zap”, the track I managed to transcribe most of this month's examples from). May 1986's Guitar Player magazine ran a feature in him and the album, but it proved not to be a major scuccess commercially. It did, however, strengthen the cult following that had built up around Johnson's playing since the early days of his career. Due to the poor sales, Warner let his contract drop and in 1990 he switched to Capitol Records independent division, Cinema Records.

1990 brought the now famous “Ah Via Musicom” and with it the breakthrough hit “Cliffs Of Dover”, firmly establishing him as major force in the guitar world, and 1996 would bring the follow up “Venus Isle” as well as the first iteration of the G3 guitar tours woth Steve Vai and Joe Satriani.

That's where we'll leave the potted history for now, although it's worth mentioning that Johnson is still recording and touring, having recorded the albums “Yesterday Meets Today” and “The Book Of Making” and in 2023 will be touring both of them. Assuming that next year doesn't try and top COVID and war by slamming a comet into the earth.

Right, let's take a look at some licks -

This first is an “in the style of” to illustrate Johnson's unique use of the humble minor pentatonic. Crucial to his technique is the use of larger, often odd numbered note groupings – here, we're using position 1 of E minor pentatonic in descending run grouped in 5s. A side note to help get the rhythmic feel – it's tricky to count 5 to a pulse, so I use a five syllable word, “opportunity”. Practice saying that to a beat, timing the first syllable on the beat and you'll find it easier to get the rhythm. Then have the notes match the words you're saying.

In this second example we'll take a look at Eric's approach to chord voicings – specifically, a technique known as “open voicing” (worth checking out the Neil Zaza blog entry from last year for more examples of this). What's happening here is we're taking the usual chord inversion ideas – Root position (R 35), 1^st inversion (35 R) and 2^nd inversion (5 R 3) and breaking the sequence, and in doing so we raise one note of the chord into the next octave up. So an open voice chord will be played R 5 3, 1^st inversion 3 R 5 and 2^nd inversion played 5 3 R. For this example I've taken an A major chord (A C# E) to demonstrate how this applies on the fretboard. As a side note on technique, Johnson will often play these either fingerstyle or hybrid picked with a clean tone for a more “pianistic” sound.

Starting along the D string, we have Root position, 1^st inversion, 2^nd inversion and then the same idea extrapolated onto the A & E strings.

Moving on to an example from the classic “SRV” from 1996's “Venus Isle” (which features guest solo from Jimmie Vaughan), this is an absolutely devastating pentatonic blitz including some of Eric's signature harmonics. Take note of the large note groupings in the run down – this is a significant part of Johnson's sound. For the tapped harmonics, you're aiming 12 frets above the fretted note, and to begin with at least you'll need to eyeball it- so take note of reference points like pickups, polepieces etc.

Our final example comes from “Zap” on 1986's “Tones” in Ab, but our example uses the F minor pentatonic – this is nothing to clever though, most of you reading this will recognise the “3 frets back” or relative minor hack. Note some of the wide intervals and position shifts involved in this – and I would put money on Joe Bonamassa having spent some time working this one out...

It's been a fascinating month looking at this utterly unique player and rest assured he'll be going under the microscope again before long! Next up we're looking at Deep Purple's riffmeister Ritchie Blckmore, as a prelude to Unleashing The Fury with Yngwie! See you then , don't forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel to see these licks and ideas demonstrated.

Why I Suck... Series 3, Episode 4! - Joe Satriani

 So last month we checked out the style of Satan's own guitarist, Steve Vai! So where do you go from there? Well- how about the guy who trained him up?

Born Joseph Satriani in Westbury, New York, on July 15 1956 as the youngest of five,“Satch” would go on to become (at the time of writing) the best selling instrumental guitarist of ALL TIME. No mean feat.

Legend has it that the 14 year old Satriani, on hearing the news of Jimi Hendrix's death during football practice, decided right there and then to quit football and take up guitar instead (moving over from his previous instrument, drums). His influences during this period were the classic “British Blues” guitar heroes – Clapton, Beck, Page – as well as Queen's Brian May and British fusion maestro Allan Holdsworth, the last known for his incredibly smooth legato playing, which forms a key part of Satch's style. Far and away his biggest credited influence, however, was Jimi Hendrix. By age 18-19, he was studying with jazz professionals Bill Bauer and Lenny Tristano, who Satriani credited with teaching him the technique of “scat singing” - literally singing what you play – as well as immersing him in advanced theory concepts.

In 1977 aged 21, Satriani made the move to San Francisco, Californina to pursue his own music career, and began by establishing himself as a teacher – notable among his students was the young Italian virtuoso Steve Vai, who Satch recounts as being “just a year or so behind” him in development. It's worth taking a moment to look at his teaching roster, as it reads like a veritable Who's Who of guitar virtuosi – as well as Vai, there's Metallica's Kirk Hammett, Testament's Aex Skolnick, Larry LaLonde of Primus, David Bryson of Counting Crows... I'd have guessed that his Grade 8 pass rate was pretty good!

As the 1980s dawned, Satriani was playing with a band formed with his brother-in-law Neil Sheehan called the Squares, which Satch recounts as playing “Police-style poppy stuff”, before joining the Greg Kihn Band (famous for hits “The Breakup Song” and “Jeopardy”). During this time he had recorded his first album, “Not Of This Earth” funded entirely by credit card – this was a completely solo effort with Satriani programming electronic drums and playing bass and keyboard parts. Playing with Greg Kihn Band allowed him to pay off the dents incurred recording this, and allowed him to raise the money to record his second album in 1987- the now legendary “Surfing With The Alien”.

Interestingly, although this would become Satriani's breakout album, it was recorded on a shoestring - $13000, largely using electronic drums and keyboards to synthesize orchestral sounds, Satriani recording all the guitar parts with a pair of budget Kramer Pacer guitars and a modified Stratocaster! Worth keeping in mind that 35 years later, if you're reading this with a basic DAW and a couple of half decent guitars, you've probably got a more comprehensive set up already... so stop making excuses and get to it! Off the back of “Surfing..” Mick Jagger hired him as lead guitarist for his solo tour in 1988, Satch's first high-profile gig.

“Surfing...” was followed by “Flying In A Blue Dream” in 1989 inspired by the death of his father and in 1992, Satriani released his most successful album to date, “The Extremist” - described by the man himself as a “pretty rock & roll record”. This was hugely successful, “Summer Song”, “Cryin'” and “Friends” all making the Billboard Top 100 – quite a feat for an instrumental guitar album!

In 1996, Satriani & Vai partnered with Eric Johnson for the first G3 tour, and over the years the “third guitarist” position has been filled by Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, John Petrucci and Robert Fripp (who I saw in Nottingham in 2007) – so as you can see, it's a pretty prestigious position to fill!

By this point, Satriani was well established on both sides of the Atlantic as a bona fide guitar hero – so this is where we'll leave the potted history and get to looking at some licks!

We'll start with a couple of “in the style of” licks to get to grips with the concepts Satch uses to navigate the fretboard. This first is in the key of A and looks at how he navigates the fretboard horizontally using 1 and 2 string legato patterns – interestingly, Satriani refers to his legato technique as a “workaround” from not having a particularly strong picking technique. This is a 1 octave run using a sextuplet pattern mapped across the A major scale along the high E string – Satriani would regularly use these legato “cells” as building blocks for his longer licks and runs, describing them as his “liquid mercury” technique.

This second pattern involves the B string as well, Satch beginning in one position but moving to the position above on the E string and below in the B string before finishing right back on the same A root note we began with – students of mine who have gone through my diagonal scales method will recognise the six note mini boxes Satch is utilising for this technique. You see, I'm not making this stuff up!

For the third pattern I took an approach similar to what Satriani takes in is fluid legato opus, “Flying In A Blue Dream” - note that this is not a direct transcription, I've tried to instead pare back his approach so as to better understand it rather than simply give you a mass of notes to learn. What I've done here is to take a legato “cell” and extrapolate it across three octaves. Again, if you're familiar with my “diagonal” scale system you'll recognise the Locrian cell pattern at work here.

Finally, we'll end with a bluesier run that takes familiar Clapton/ Page/ Angus Young pentatonic ideas and dial in a Dorian vibe courtesy of adding the 2^nd and 6^th degrees of the scale – this is in Bb and taken from the recent (and HUGELY catchy) track”Big Distortion”, toward the end of the final solo. Note the slides and position shifts at the end and how much more melodic the semitone moves sound.

As always, this is just scratching the surface – I could happily spend a year transcribing Satch and still not get close to the detail and effortless fluidity of his playing, but hopefully these ideas are things you can incorporate into your own playing. See you next month for G3's original “Other Guy” - the quietly spoken pentatonic genius of Eric Johnson!

Why I Suck... Series 3, Episode 3 - Steve Vai!

 The year was 1995. The month was April (or March). The location was WH Smiths. And there I was having played guitar for about 4 or 5 months, picking up a copy of my first ever guitar magazine, “Guitar For The Practicing Musician” because of a transcription of the Nirvana cover of David Bowie's “The Man Who Sold The World”.

Along with a host of articles that I understood nothing of, there was also transcription of something called “Bad Horsie” by someone called Steve Vai... and because I had no concept of how one song might be more difficult than another one, I thought “Well, I got “The Man Who Sold The World”, let's try this”

27 years later … I still can't play the bastard thing. Although I got close! X-D

So let's see who this legendary Vai chap is., shall we?

Born Steven Siro Vai on June 6 1960 in Carle Place New York, the fourth son of Italian immigrants John and Theresa Vai, it was at the age of 5 that the young Vai was introduced to a piano and had the realisation that as you went right the notes got higher, and as you went left the notes got lower... the following year he saw a 9 year old boy in his school playing the guitar and realised that sooner or later, he would be fated to play the guitar! It would take until the age of 12 however, on hearing Jimmy Page's “Heartbreaker” solo on Led Zeppelin II that would be the final spur into picking up the guitar in earnest. And, as legendary encounters go, he would start taking lessons from a certain undiscovered local virtuoso by the name of Joe Satriani!

During this time, Vai gained plenty of experience playing in local bands, developing a style influenced by Jimmy Page, Brian May, Ritchie Blackmore, Jimi Hendrix, Al Di Meola and Allan Holdsworth amongst others. At the age of 18 (so having been playing for just six years at this point, let's keep that in mind) he enrolled in Berklee College Of Music (as did last month's entry, John Petrucci), and whilst there he not only met his wife to be but also took on his first professional music job, as a transcriber for Frank Zappa... … and right there is an idea for a blog entry... and he would quickly make the transition from transcriber to full time band member, being credited with “stunt guitar” parts.

In 1983 (so aged 23, 11 years playing experience, let's keep track of that) Vai struck out on his own, releasing his first album “Flex-Able” from unreleased material recorded at his home studio whilst playing with bands The Classified and 777. This started to catch the eye of the guitar community when the magazine “Guitar Player” published a transcription of The Attitude Song, packed choc full of signature Vai virtuosic tricks and featuring a main riff in 7/16 over a 4/4 rhythm section groove. The following year he replaced Yngwie Malmsteen in Alcatrazz and then went on to join Dave Lee Roth's solo band (after DLR split with Van Halen.. so again, pretty big shoes to fill... at this point in my career I'd made it to playing Haven holiday parks!) . Two hit albums followed – Eat 'Em & Smile (which included the hits Yankee Rose & Shyboy) and 1989's Skyscraper (with the massive hit Just Like Paradise). By this point Vai was firmly established as a very big name in guitar circles – but there was plenty more to follow.

After leaving Dave Lee Roth's band, Vai would join Whitesnake for the “Slip Of The Tongue” album, replacing the unfortunately injured Adrian Vandenberg, and as big a hit as that was, for Vai it was a precursor to his own breakthrough – from 1985 to 1990 he had been recording a follow up to “Flex-Able”, which would be released as “Passion & Warfare” in May 1990. This included the signature track “For The Love Of God” and would reach 18 in the Billboard Top 200 – which, for an instrumental guitar album, is an incredible success.

This was then followed by 1993's “Sex & Religion” with Devin Townsend on vocals, 1995's Alien Love Secrets (containing my nemesis “Bad Horsie” as well as Vai classics “Die To Live”, “Tender Surrender”, and “The Boy From Seattle”) which was recorded almost as a stop-gap while he recorded the double album Fire Garden (including the hit “The Crying Machine”) which released in 1996.

1996 was also the start of the now-legendary G3 project, a collaborative tour featuring Vai, Satriani and a third guitarist – the first iteration featured Eric Johnson. I caught the 2007 version in Nottingham which featured Robert Fripp, John Petrucci has also guested on occasion, as has Paul Gilbert. Along the way, he collaborated with Ibanez to produce the iconic JEM signature series with it's distinctive “Lion's Claw” cut out tremolo cavity, with the first version coming out in 1985 and still available today (I actually had a JEM 555 for a while and although it wasn't really for me it's certainly a extraordinarily capable instrument). There was also the appearance as Jack Butler, Satan's own guitarist, in the infamous “Crossroads” movie of 1986.

There we'll leave the potted history and start taking a look at some licks. There is a HUGE variety of techniques here – tapping, 3 note per string shredding, whammy bar lunacy, wide interval lines.. so I'm going to include a couple of his actual licks but also a couple of portmanteau “in the style of” licks that demonstrate the way he conceptualises things.

This first example takes an approach used in “Tender Surrender” and “For The Love Of God”. In the first bar, Vai sweeps across a series of arpeggios based on 1^st inversion D shape major arpeggios giving G, A & D major arpeggios – “Tender Surrender” is more or less rooted in E Dorian, 2^nd mode of D major, so these are effectively the I, IV and V chords of the related major key. In the second bar, he ups the ante, moving through two string major arpeggio shapes on the B and E strings building tension with chromaticism before finishing off with a climactic bend on the 22^nd fret high E.

In this second example, also from “Tender Surrender” (in fact, immediately preceding the first example in the song) there's a fantastic bit of string skipping as Vai pivots off a C pedal note on the 20^th fret high E moving across the E, B, G, D and A strings before finishing off with a soaring bend on the 15^th fret high E string. For those unfamiliar with the pedal tone technique, it just means that one note stays static whilst the other notes in the phrase move. The wide intervals this produces are a recognisable quirk of his playing.

Staying with “Tender Surrender”, this next example showcases a technique I'd never encountered before – he's using an octave shape, but trilling between the root and octave notes using just the fretting hand. This is one where "show" is far better than "tell", so keep an eye on the YouTube channel for the demo video!

Finally, this wouldn't be a Vai piece if I didn't give you something widdly to play with, would it? This next example is not an exact transcription from “Tender Surrender”, but more an example of how Vai builds these runs. Starting with a small legato “cell”, this cell is effectively multiplied across the E natural minor scale to produce a dizzying cascade of notes. Vai will often throw a few pick hand tapped notes into the mix, but here we're going to stick to fret hand legato only. Start simple, then add tricks! Full disclosure – yes, I did do this a few weeks back as a One Minute Lick, but it's SO useful, and so indicative of Vai's style that I consider it worth revisiting... and if you want a challenge? Try playing it backwards!

As always, there is a phenomenal amount that can be learned from studying Steve Vai's style, so I urge you to dive in and take a listen – and back next month for his mentor, Joe Satriani!