Multi-String Picking Shred Lick

Want to play shred licks?

Many players would agree that alternate picking chops are the foundation of“shredding”… And almost all the teachers, from me, to Silvio Gazquez, to Paul Gilbert, all advocate building up your picking chops on a single string, first.

But where do you go from there? And how do you play something fast that also sounds musical?

One of most the musical but short phrases involves simply going up and down a 3 note section of a scale…(at a fast tempo, its more musical sounding to me than simply repeating notes going up or down). And you can do this on a single string.For example, B C D C B C D C etc… Try coming up with some of your own musical ideas based on this kind of pattern…

Here’s my idea of the day:

As with any 4 note pattern, you can repeat this on multiple strings and get the same “down up down up” picking pattern.

Let’s try this on 4 strings of the C major scale, starting on the B note, and repeating the lick 4 times on each string before going to the next string.

Crank the tempo up to 200 bpm, and we have some genuine shred guitar. wow…

To finish the phrase, i’m just continuing the pattern for 3 more notes, sliding up from the 10th fret to the 12th fret with my pinky on the last note , giving it some vibrato and a final slide down.

Importance of LegatoLet’s talk about legato playing today. When I say “legato”, I meanhammer-ons and pull-offs.

If you can’t do a basic hammer on or pull off, please please pleasedo yourself a favor and get my beginner lead guitar course(Killer Lead Guitar Made Simple)

It is often easier to use legato, sinceyou don’t have to pick every note , and picking involves , well…developing your picking chops.

However, sometimes playing stuff only legato is harder becauseyou’re really relying on that fretting hand to do a lot more work.Repeated hammerons and pulloffs take a lot more out of your frettinghand than if you just were picking every note.

What I mean is, when you’re picking every note, your frettinghand must be in place, but it doesn’t have to pull off and hammerto produce the right sound.

This is especially true if you want a nice, even, round tone, andmore so if the tempo is fast.

And a lot of times you do want a fluid, rolling, lyrical soundfrom your playing. Picking every note would sound stiff.

Any way you slice it, if you wanna be a good player, youneed to work on your legato chops at some point.

Here’s a few basic exercises for you.

The easiest is just playing 3 notes on 1 stringin a “diatonic” scale. In this case, from A minor.

Next, we have A pentatonic 3 notes per stringwhich is harder because of the wider stretch.(Please dont hurt yourself – never strain)

Finally, we can make it even more challengingby adding more strings to our lick.

Each of these 3 licks is a “repeating” lickso feel free to play it with feeling with a killer tonetill the cows come home… 

So , you have 3 licks in increasing orderof difficulty. I happen to be playing theseusing 16th notes at 176 bpm. If that’s toofast, by all means, slowwwwwww it dowwwwwwn….

Or, if you’re badass, try playing it at 200 bmp orfaster.

One more piece of advice on this, pay attentionto the other strings ringing open. You may need to do a bitof palm muting especially if you’re using a distorted tone.Record yourself and as Steve Vai says, “listen to yourselfwith a critical ear.”.

HAVE FUN!!!

Beginner – Diatonic

Intermediate – Pentatonic

Advanced – Pentatonic 2 strings

Lydian Magic Part 1

If you’ve been playing guitar formore than a day, you’ve probablyheard about scales and “modes”.

Although they can sound mysterious,they’re really nothing more thaninversions of a scale.

If you have C major scale, you havethe notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, and B.

Then you also have:

C Ionian (Major)D DorianE PhrygianF LydianG MixolydianA Aeolian (Minor)B Locrian

All with the same notes — the only differenceis which note you start on, or emphasize.

That’s why , for example, in the Guitar ScaleSystem software, there’s no modes listed.

Why? Because if you’re learning a patternacross the whole neck, all the notes wouldbe the same.

Still, we can create different sounds dependingon which note we start on.

In the next email, I’ll show you a few cooltricks using the Lydian Mode.

For now, I want to leave with you a cool chordthat emphasizes the lydian sound.

Let’s take E Lydian… The note that reallystands out is the Bb.

This forms a tritone interval, which is thecreepiest of all intervals   … Playan E note and Bb to hear what I mean.

I think tritones were actually illegal to playin the days of old. You could be accusedof being a witch. I’m serious. lol…

Anyway this interval sounds awesomely bittersweet when youmix it together with the beautiful Maj7 soundinside of an Emaj7#11 chord.

To me, this chord really captures the essenceof the Lydian mode.

Check it out:

–6––9––8––6––7––0–

Middle finger goes on the A string,ring finger on the G string,pinky on the B string, and you’re

barring the top 4 strings at the6th fret with your index finger.

Try playing this chord and thensome lydian riffs.

Lydian Magic Part 2

Continuing our discussion about the Lydian mode, let’s stay in the key of E Lydian.

A simple trick to making the Lydian sound come out is skip the 2nd note of the mode,and just play around with the root, 3rd, fourth, and fifth notes of the mode… With special focus on the 4th note. (Bb)

Then , after establishing this sound, you can change up the soundby hitting that second degree of the mode. (F#)

That’s the basic idea.

Pinky Power!

Hey there my friend… Pull up a chair, let’s talk guitar chops 

There’s SOOO many ways we can work on our chops.One obvious area of chops is our picking… Another obvious area isour left hand fretting. I want to focus on that today, and specificallyon the pinky because its often the weakest finger when it comesto fretting.

If we can improve the weak link that’s the pinky, wecan gain a lot more control, chops, and power.

So today, I’m going to focus on an 8-note repeating lick.Work on this one, and practice it as fast and as clean as you can.

Here’s the lick:

I’m going to demonstrate this at 160 bpm. First I’ll play it slowa couple times with pauses, then I’ll play it slow repeating, and then fast repeating.

See if you can play it faster and cleaner than I’m playing it here! Of course,if you can’t that’s fine, just play it clean at whatever speed youcan, and go from there.

Now, whenever I’m learning a new lick and I want toplay it as fast and as clean as possible, I often examine whatthe right hand picking is doing first, and master that on its own.

We are using strict alternate picking starting witha downstroke. If we don’t fret any of the notes and justplay open strings on the D and G strings, we get this:

JUST THE RIGHT HAND PICKING:

This isn’t too difficult… But now try adding the left hand. You’ll use the followingfingers for the eight note in the lick:

Index, Middle, Pinky, Middle, Pinky, Middle, Pinky, Middle.

So you’re using your pinky a lot and on 2 different strings. Have fun!

RIGHT AND LEFT HANDS TOGETHER: