This week, it's all about making the guitar sound as beautiful as possible.
For me, the masters of this are Eric Johnson and Tim Miller (who was actually a teacher of mine at one point). We'll get to what they both do that sounds very unique. We'll also go over ways I like to doll up some otherwise normal-sounding guitar parts.
The first and easiest way is to open up your chords. I mean use spread triads. This is super helpful in creating a clear sound — the kind of sound a lot of people get surprised by.
Example 1 is an normal yet mildly crowded way to play D–A–G. Here we have five notes played in this D chord and six played in the A and G chords. This sounds nice and full and very familiar as a “guitar” sound.
In Example 2 we break down the chords to three notes. It's still a full chord (triad, the root-third-fifth), just arranged in a fun way.
Here we have the D chord spelled out root-fifth-third low to high D-A-F#, the A chord A-E-C# and the G chord G-D-B. As you'll be able to hear, it makes for a much clearer representation of the chords. At the end I go through all the D inversions. An inversion is just a different order of the same notes. The orders go 1-5-3, 3-1-5, 5-3-1 then 1-5-3 again.
Example 3 goes through inversions of all the chords and makes a nice melody on the high strings. Spread triads make an ignorable guitar part stand out dramatically.
Tim Miller is a great example of someone using spread triads and very clear chord voicings in general. I'd highly suggest listening to his Trio Vol.2 album and the song “Night Sky” as examples of amazing chord work.
The other is a more familiar name: Eric Johnson. We all know and butcher our own version of "Cliffs of Dover," but if you listen to his clean chord playing, it's clear he has thought a lot about chord voicings. Check out basically any live intro to "Cliffs of Dover" for an example.
Another way to make things pretty is by keeping the open strings ringing. Example 4 is the same chords as the previous spread triad examples but with open strings and moving inversions. I know this last example has nothing to do with spread triads, but it does have to do with making the guitar sound beautiful!
Moving from D to G while keeping the low note an open D string also gives the part a piano-y vibe (to me). Using open strings when applicable gives some freedom to your fretting hand to wander about and make melodies while still sounding like intended chord.
Hope this helps! Feel free to post any questions in the comments section.
Elliott Klein is a New York City-based guitarist/singer/songwriter who plays in Bright and Loud, Party Lights and many more.
This video is bonus content related to the April 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at our online store.
In my last column, I went over the differences and similarities between the major scale, also known as the Ionian mode, and another fundamental major mode, Lydian. This month, I’d like to take the same approach to comparing two fundamental minor modes: Aeolian, also known as the natural minor scale, and Dorian.
In our examination of Ionian versus Lydian, I pointed out the notes within each mode that I feel give it its characteristic quality, such as the major third and major seventh in Ionian, and the augmented, or “sharp-ed,” fourth (s4) in Lydian.
In composing songs, riffs or solos, I like to emphasize these characteristic tones so that the listener gets a clear picture, harmonically speaking, of the music they’re hearing. Let’s now take a look at what I consider to be the characteristic tones of Aeolian and Dorian.
In September 2009, Earle received an Americana Music Award for New and Emerging Artist of the Year.
With a total of five albums under his belt, he released Harlem River Blues in 2010 and the album Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now in 2012. He also appeared in an episode of the HBO television series Treme with his father. In 2011, Earle received the Americana Music Award for Song of the Year category for "Harlem River Blues."
Here Earle gives us a nice meaty taste of his own special, laid-back twang. Check it out:
In this brand-new video, former Guitar World cover star Orianthi plays and discusses a Fretlight guitar.
In fact, the Australian guitarist is Fretlight's latest endorsee.
From the company:
Learning to play the guitar has been frustrating and difficult for decades. Traditional methodology forces you to look back and forth from charts and books. You have to try to memorize the fingering patterns on the paper in front of you and then translate those patterns to a blank fretboard. No wonder 80 percent of first-time players quit!
Fretlight eliminates this frustration by letting you see that same finger placement information for chords, scales, songs, riffs and tablature light up on the fretboard where you need to see it most–right under your fingers! No more guesswork, no more frustration of spending hours to play a simple riff. With the Fretlight built-in LED learning system, you can get started in minutes.
Think about like this: Look down at the keyboard of your computer. Where did they put the letters and numbers? On a piece of paper to the side of a keyboard with blank keys? No. They put those letters and numbers exactly where you need them: on the keys.
Whether you want to play easy songs, complex scales or anything in-between, the Fretlight guitar is the key for you to unlock that desire of playing guitar or getting better. It’s so simple, it works.
For more information on Fretlight, visit fretlight.com. For more about Orianthi, visit orianthi.com.
Recordings Led Zeppelin made as they were creating 1975's Physical Graffiti will be available at auction next month.
RR Auctions, which is based in Amherst, New Hampshire, says several songs on the tapes that are up for grabs differ structurally from their officially released versions.
As you can hear from the examples below, the band re-recorded guitar and vocal parts on some of the songs. In several cases, they used only John Bonham's drum tracks and overhauled everything else.
The tapes are part of the Ron Nevison collection, which also is auctioning rough mixes of Bad Company's debut album and four songs from Eric Clapton's live 1973 release, Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert, plus recordings by the Who, Ozzy Osbourne and more.
Rolling Stone reports that audio engineer Ron Nevison recorded the drum parts for "Kashmir," which was then called "Driving to Kashmir." John Paul Jones was late to the session, so Jimmy Page worked out the riff with Bonham. "Driving to Kashmir," as it appears on these tapes, is totally instrumental.
RR Auctions is offering pieces of the Ron Nevison Collection as part of its "Marvels of Modern Music" auction. The auction will take place March 13 through 20.
On January 29, 2014 Martin Guitar officially announced professional snowboarder Danny Davis as an Ambassador.
Danny became an ambassador after Burton Snowboards, Martin Guitar and Danny came together this past year to collaborate on Burton's new Winter 15 Easy Livin Snowboard, which features Martin Guitar-inspired graphics.
Danny won the 2014 X Games Snowboard Superpipe and went on to compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
He is also a member of the Frends Crew, responsible for producing the Frendly Gathering music festival of which Martin Guitar is a sponsor.
Check out this video of Danny Davis as he wins the SuperPipe:
Danny Davis talks about his different approach to snowboarding:
Martin's Senior Artist Relations Manager, Chris Thomas, unveils two new beautifully crafted Custom Shop models, the Eric Clapton OM-ECHF Navy Blues Model and the CS-00S-14 that debuted at the 2014 Winter NAMM Show.
The Eric Clapton OM-ECHF Navy Blues is the third in a series of collaborations between C.F. Martin & Co., Eric Clapton, and Eric's multi-talented/friend and associate in Japan, Hiroshi Fujiwara.
The CS-00S-14 is a premium Style 42 12 -fret slotted head fingerstyle model crafted with rare Honduran rosewood back and sides.
The music business was in the toilet when a fledgling channel named MTV hit the airwaves to start the engine again.
Throughout the decade, MTV became one of the biggest things on the planet and revolutionized the music industry with a new medium — music videos.
Viewers would regularly host their own MTV parties, tune in for Friday Night video fights and experience unprecedented musical events such as Live Aid. The MTV phenomenon was so big that Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler referenced the channel, incorporating its "I want my MTV" slogan in the band’s massive 1985 hit, "Money For Nothing.”
Four of the original MTV VJ’s — Alan Hunter, Nina Blackwood, Martha Quinn and Mark Goodman — have written a book about their experiences, VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV’s First Wave.
The book, which is co-written by Gavin Edwards, is a narrative-driven oral history of MTV, complete with behind-the-scenes tales and anecdotes as told through the VJs' own voices (NOTE: JJ Jackson, the fifth original VJ, died in 2004).
From stories on how each VJ landed their job, the channel’s historic launch, the changing dynamic and their eventual departure, the book details the triumphs, pitfalls and everything in between. Today, in addition to acting and producing their own syndicated radio shows and films, the four original VJs can regularly be found on Sirius’ '80s on 8.
I recently spoke to Hunter and Blackwood about the book and their days at MTV. They also discussed their favorite guitarists and other projects they’re working on.
GUITAR WORLD: What made you finally decide to write a book about your MTV experiences?
Blackwood: We had originally thought about writing one years ago, but as we were preparing to find a writer, JJ passed away. It was sad because he would have contributed a lot of his own great stories. He was known as “Club Man” from his days at WBCN in Boston and being out every night with those guys [the artists] until dawn.
Let’s discuss a few of the artists you encountered at the time, starting with Van Halen.
Hunter: There are a lot of stories in the book about David Lee Roth. In fact, the book opens with stories about partying with him. Dave really liked to party, but what a great guy he was. Eddie was a little bit more of a recluse. But MTV quickly became the epicenter for all entertainers. Artists would regularly just come in and hang out. We’d see them at parties but always knew we had a job to do. We were friends with them, but in a business way — and the occasional party way, too! [laughs].
Ozzy Osbourne
Hunter: I was the first to interview Ozzy in 1982. I was always a big fan and remember being really well prepared for the interview. I still remember when he and Sharon came walking onto the set and Sharon told me that Ozzy was a little “out of sorts” because he had been taking some cold medicine [laughs].
Do you remember seeing an artist that really blew you away?
Blackwood: I grew up in Cleveland and remember when Jimi Hendrix played there. I really wanted to see him, but my mom wouldn’t let me go because quote, “He does dirty things with his guitar” [laughs]. But I’ll never forget the day Mark Goodman came into the studio.
He was ecstatic and said, “I just saw the second coming of Hendrix last night! This guy will blow you away!” He was just raving about this great guitarist that he had seen. So the next night, I went to see for myself. I may not have gotten to see Hendrix, but I did get to see Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Was there someone you wanted to meet during your time at MTV but never did?
Blackwood: George Harrison. I got to meet Paul [McCartney] and Ringo [Starr] but not George, which was a shame because he was my biggest influence. Not just in music but also in life. His search for spirituality really came through, especially in his solo music.
Part of the book deals with the idea that MTV somehow “ruined” Live Aid. Do you believe that?
Hunter: We jokingly say that. We were the major TV outlet for it and covered it for 17 hours straight. For me to literally stand 20 yards from some of the biggest musical happenings in history, like the reunion of Led Zeppelin, was surreal.
Blackwood:Rolling Stone really went to town on us for that. We were crushed because we were proud of our coverage. We had done our research, had our facts straight and everything was done professionally. The only thing I didn’t like that day was at the end when the director told us to all sway along to Paul McCartney singing “Let It Be." We got nailed for that, but we didn’t have a choice.
Do you have a personal favorite moment from your days at MTV?
Hunter: In terms of my career, the kick off at 12:01 August 1, 1981, was the biggest moment of my life. We couldn’t believe we were there.
Blackwood: The start of it all was the most emotional, unusual and wonderful experience you could imagine. No one knew for sure what was going to happen. It was a gamble for everyone involved.
Had MTV not happened, where do you think you'd be in 2014?
Blackwood: I studied harp classically and would often bring my harp to jam with rock bands at gigs. Playing the harp was always my full-time job in the evening, and I was also acting and hosting some music programs. I imagine I would have continued down that path.
Hunter: I was bound to become an actor. I was actually in a David Bowie video ["Fashion"] before MTV came about. Even though I didn’t have a clue about what it would be like to be a host in the beginning, I think I went down the right road.
In addition to your Sirius radio gig on 80′s on 8, what other projects are you working on?
Hunter: I have a reality show in the works and started the Sidewalk Film Festival in my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, that recently celebrated its 15th anniversary.
Blackwood: I have a few syndicated programs — Nina Blackwood’s Absolutely 80′s and the more alternative/punk Nina Blackwood’s New Wave Nation. We’re also working on an audio version of the book.
What do you think made the Eighties and MTV so special?
Hunter: I think the world embraces the Eighties 30 years later because it has a certain quality to it. People who lived it have fond memories, and young people today like the innocence about it.
Blackwood: It was a very visual medium. MTV was young and new, so people gravitated toward it. Then there was the fashion, the hair and the makeup. It was a very colorful era that reminds you of happy, carefree moments. But it wasn’t the TV aspect of MTV that made it so great. For us, it was always about the music.
James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.
Cooley, a premier guitar instructor, has played on records by All Shall Perish, Austrian Death Machine and many more and has had a serious influence on a generation of young players.
Cooley appears on Michael Angelo Batio’s new album, Intermezzo (on the song “8 Pillars of Steel”), and Cooley's new band, Day Of Reckoning, has released a single — with a new album on the way.
We recently checked in with Cooley to discuss Day Of Reckoning, his Dean guitars, gear in general and a lot more.
GUITAR WORLD: Day of Reckoning's new single, "Left to Follow," is ultra-heavy. What gear did you use? And what can you tell me about the upcoming album?
For amps, I used a Splawn Nitro, Bogner Uberschall and a Peavey 6505+. For guitars, I had a couple of my signature Dean RC7s loaded with an EMG 85-7 in the bridge and a 707 in the neck. I also used an Axe FX II, Morley Tremonti wah, some Diamond cabs and a Maxon OD808. Hopefully, the CD will be out by May, if not earlier. We're just waiting on final mixes. People can check out the single at our site.
Let's discuss your new signature Dual overdrive pedal by EC Pedals and your signature strings by SIT. What makes them different?
The new pedal has two twin overdrive channels so I can have a different setting for rhythm and lead with the push of only one button. The pedal only has two buttons; one is an on/off and the other toggles between the overdrive stages. For example, if the pedal is off, one of the overdrive channels will be on standby, as indicated by a red or blue LED. When you engage the pedal, that channel kicks on and then whenever you want the other option you hit one button to change.
By designing the pedal this way, I'm eliminating one more button to push. That might not seem like a lot, but if you're going from a rhythm to a lead and you need to turn something else on or off, it can start to be a lot to do while still shredding and not missing a beat or a change.
The signature set of strings from SIT is going to be the exact string gauges I use on my seven-string guitars, which is .09 to 042 and then a .060 for the low B. All of my Dean models will come stock with these strings.
Speaking of your Dean seven- and eight-string signature models, what affect do they have on your playing?
These guitars are like the Lamborghini of seven- and eight-string guitars, built for speed and performance with killer versatile tone. They’re suitable for just about any style. The import model won the Gold Award from Guitar World in, I think, 2012; and that's one of the things they mentioned, that it was versatile enough for jazz or country. You might get some funny looks showing up to a jazz or country gig with one of these, but the tone speaks for itself.
They have the thinnest necks with the tallest frets so that when you are playing, it's your fingers against the string and the string against the fret, so your fingers are not really hitting the fretboard. At first it can be a challenge if you are used to putting the death grip on everything because you'll be fretting everything too hard and making your guitar go sharp.
In the long run, you develop much greater dynamics and control. It also sports the deepest and widest cutaway on the market, giving you more access to the highest frets and giving you ability the to stretch as much as you want without the body or upper horn getting in your way.
It has one volume knob and no tone knob. Mine was on 10 always so I figured why bother with it? The guitar comes loaded with two EMG 707's, and soon we're going to release some other options like the 66 and 57 and even some single coils.
Why more strings? It simply gives you more range and opens the doors to new and exciting territory. The sevens are high E to low B. There are two different eights. One is high E to low F#; the second one is high A to low B for maximum shredding, creativity and originality.
In 2013 you played on the new Falling In Reverse CD with Jacky Vincent. In fact, you've also appeared on many albums, including releases by All Shall Perish, After The Burial, etc. How do you approach your solos on tracks like this? How do you tend to compose in general?
I haven't composed a solo in a long time. I usually improvise all of it. Just go in and go for it. Sometimes I won’t even listen to the track before I go in the studio. The Falling In Reverse stuff — they couldn’t even let me hear it, so I flew to Florida and got there and listened to the track and heard what Jacky had already done, so I knew what not to do and what to try to add to make it stand apart.
Let's talk about your book with accompanying CDs by Rock House Method, Fretboard Autopsy. Why would you recommend them to other players?
Fretboard visualization is something to be taken very seriously if what you seek is total fretboard control. With fretboard visualization, you see all of the notes on the fretboard light up in your mind's eye like tiny LEDs. When you can see this, you're on your way to musical freedom. When you can see the neck as a whole, it has many benefits, like seeing chordal possibilities and arpeggio possibilities and more choices for creative leads.
So Fretboard Autopsy is reverse engineering the fretboard. I take you step by step through all of the patterns I have used throughout the years to gain fretboard visualization. Truefire just released a great program from me called Rusty Cooley’s Lickopedia: Licks, Techniques & Concepts for the Modern Guitarist. I highly recommend it!
You have been on more than eight instructional DVDs. What has teaching done for your playing?
It has given me a much greater understanding of the instrument and how to communicate with others. It's funny. I've written some of my coolest stuff while teaching, because I'll need a way to show a certain idea, and boom, that's where creativity and inspiration hits. I think it's because I'm not at home trying to write for myself; it's because I’m trying to get an idea across that the metal gods shine down and present me with these gifts!
Honestly, I don't know where half of the stuff comes from. I pick up the guitar and it just flows. Also because of teaching I have met some of the greatest people. People I would have never been exposed to otherwise, everyone from other musicians to leading doctors, lawyers, judges, professional athletes, you name it. Bryan Johnson from Mallrats is on a TV show called Comic Book Men on AMC. He asked me for one of my signature T-shirts to wear on the last season. How cool is that?
Dave Reffett is a hard rock and metal guitarist and lover of all genres of music. He's a Berklee College of Music grad and has played with Guthrie Govan, Jeff Loomis, Michael Romeo, Mike Mangini, George Lynch, Michael Angelo Batio, Chris Poland, Glen Drover, Glen Sobel, Derek St. Holmes, Michael Devin, Rusty Cooley, Craig Goldy, Joe Stump, Annie Grunwald and many others. He is a guitar and bass instructor at the Real School of Music in Boston and works with Dangerous Guitar. He produced The Call of the Flames, which Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden called "a must-have album." He played a major hand in Batio's new album, Intermezzo, played on the album's single, "8 Pillars of Steel," and wrote and produced "Juggernaut." Dave is an endorsee for Seymour Duncan, Mogami, Eminence, Kahler and Legator. He has worked at Sanctuary Records and Virgin Records/EMI Music, promoting acts including the Rolling Stones, Korn, Iron Maiden and Meat Loaf. Dave has taught his licks and ideas to people across the globe.
Often heralded as one of heavy metal's more outspoken personalities, Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian has hit the road with a one-man, stand-up/spoken-word show.
His tour, fittingly titled "Speaking Words," began with a few shows in the U.K. and spiraled into a short North American tour and a live DVD.
Ian, who's in the middle of a two-week U.S. run, is running a Pledge Music campaign to fund the release of the Speaking Words In Glasgow DVD.
We recently caught up with Ian to discuss the tour and more.
GUITAR WORLD: How did the "Speaking Words" tour start? I know you had done some shows in the U.K. previously.
Yeah, that’s how it all started, basically. I got offered to do this one-off show in London in November 2012, and I said yes based on the fact that I had about five months to prepare for it. I figured that in five months I'd be able to come up with an idea of what I'd actually do [laughs], but I didn’t do anything. I did zero preparation, but somehow I just pulled it off.
I was able to get on stage, and on my wife’s advice, just go up there and pretend I was in a bar with my friends, just telling stories. That’s kind of what made this happen for me, and I had such a good time doing that, it snowballed into doing the other tours and shows in Australia and what not, and now this North American tour.
How has the response been?
People seem to be digging it! People who come out to these shows don’t really know what they’re getting themselves into. Maybe they have some idea of what it’s going to be like. But I haven’t had a disappointed crowd yet. I don’t think so, anyway. Everyone seems to be digging it.
For people who are going to the upcoming shows and don’t know what to expect, what is it like? Is it like a monologue, and then people questions?
I’m just telling stories from my life, experiences I’ve had traveling the world, and the experiences I’ve had with people I’ve met along the way. There’s a lot of humor, a lot of times at my own expense, and there’s a Q&A section in the show as well, wherein people are open to asking me pretty much anything.
I believe you did a DVD recording of the Glasgow show — and now you’re now trying to put that out through a Pledge Music campaign. How's the campaign going?
I don’t know, really. I don’t really follow it on a day-to-day basis because it’s an ongoing thing. I just try to send them updates and keep it moving. We’ll see how it turns out, but I made a decision that I didn’t want to go the normal route to put this out because I want to own my content and I feel that by doing this Pledge Music thing, it gives me a direct link to the fans and people who’re interested in this.
By them pledging, it enables them to own an experience. This is the only way they could get something like that. It’s not like you’re sending me money for nothing. You’re sending me money that helps produce the DVD, and you basically buy an experience, whether it’s just $10 for the DVD or $10,000 for me to come hang out with you and do a private show. So I thought it was just a great way to go directly to the audience.
A lot of artists are turning to these kinds of campaigns to fund albums and other projects. People — fans — tend to have positive and negative responses to this. I it as a pre-order — and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it! Your thoughts?
That’s just what it exactly is! If you’re going to take $10 to go and buy something at Best Buy, you’re giving Best Buy your money, and the artist at that point is getting the smallest piece of the pie. With something like this, the money is going directly to the artist, and you’re still getting your album or DVD. I think it’s the best way to do something. It makes the most sense. Even if you imagine a band like AC/DC doing their next record through a pledge campaign, they'd probably have 3 million people in advance pledging $10 to buy the next record. It just makes the most sense this way.
Do you think the business could eventually move to this method, as opposed to retail?
I hope so, because it’s the way for the artist to control their own destinies. It puts power back into the hands of the artists and takes it away from the record labels that have been ripping off bands and artists since record labels have existed! So I hope so. I'd love to see all record companies fail [laughs]. Not some of the smaller labels — don’t get me wrong. I think labels like Megaforce, Metal Blade and Nuclear Blast, they do abide by their artist. I’m talking about the big corporate entities. Nothing would make me happier than to see them all just go away.
In terms of "Speaking Words," you’ve talked about musicians that you look up to and admire when it comes to doing the stand-up thing — like Henry Rollins and Jello Biafra. What inspiration do you take away from those people, and what do you like most about their styles?
I can’t say I’ve taken any inspiration, but I saw Henry do it probably in the early Nineties. The only thing I took from that was, “Wow, that was a great show!” [laughs] You know, I was a Henry Rollins fan before I did any talking shows, and as a fan, going to see him have such a great command of the audience by just telling stories, I was impressed by the whole thing. But that was many years ago, and I can’t say I’ve been out researching that stuff for my shows. I just do my own thing.
When you’re doing these shows, are you cautious about addressing topics that might affect Anthrax in any way?
Not at all. If anyone is familiar with Anthrax and the things we’ve done over the years, I don’t think there’s any reason for me to worry about anything. We just do what we want [laughs].
You have a lot of friends in the music business. Can you think of anyone who'd make a great spoken-word artist?
Oh yeah, Lemmy! Can you imagine if he gets on stage with a drink and a cigarette and tells stories for two hours? He’s the first one that comes to mind, and he'd be incredible. I’d love to see Bruce Dickinson do it, and I think he did perform a show or two like that in Scandinavia last year, if I’m not mistaken. But yeah, those two come to mind immediately. I think Phil Anselmo would be great at it. He’s really funny, he’s got great stories and he knows how to tell a story.
You’ve been involved in music for all these years and you’ve had opportunities to get involved in other fields like TV, comic books and now this stand-up thing. Are there any other avenues you'd like to explore?
Right now, no [laughs]. I can’t say I’m thinking about anything else. Between writing the new Anthrax record and doing this right now, it’s pretty much filling up my brain.
In a recent interview, you said you and Anthrax aren't working on a schedule. So it’s clear you’re taking your time with it. You did that with Worship Music and the results were great.
That’s how we work on every album. We just don’t give ourselves a hard deadline because I don’t think as a band of songwriters that we should have to have one. I don’t think it’s the best way to work, truthfully. It doesn’t help me to have a deadline. If I have a deadline, it would certainly hinder my creative ability, and I think that goes for all of us. I just don’t know how you can put a deadline on something like songwriting. You have to be happy with what you’re doing, and if you write 10 songs and you’re like, “Well, this isn’t quite ready yet, but we’re going to record it anyway,” that doesn’t make any sense. So when we’re ready and we feel like we’ve got the record we want, that’s when we’ll start recording it. I can tell you, I think we’re very close to that because the material is awesome.
It won’t take as long as Worship Music did, right?
No, definitely not [laughs]. I can safely say that at the latest, we'll have a new record early next year.
You also did so much touring for Worship Music. It must be nice to be on a little bit of a break, aside from this current tour.
Oh yeah. Up until yesterday I was home since August, so it’s been a great break. And I’m only out on this tour for two weeks and then I’m off again until May before we go to Europe to play festivals. So yeah, it has been a really nice break as far as being able to be home with my family and kind of clear my brain to get ready to do it all over again.
There has been talk of more dates to be announced. Will there be another leg of the tour, maybe on the West Coast?
Nothing now. There are no plans right now for anything. I can’t really plan this too far in advance or announce anything because everything is based around Anthrax’s schedule. That’s obviously my priority, so I can’t really go ahead and book two weeks in October for my "Speaking Words" thing on the West Coast now because if Anthrax dates come up, then I'd have to move it. I just kind of have to wait and see when I would have a window.
I’ll also have to balance it out if I’m out with Anthrax, and whether then I would really want to fill all my time up because once I start with Anthrax again, when I’m not touring with Anthrax generally I would want to be home with my family. It’s just about finding the balance and figuring out when I’d be comfortable traveling that much.
2/28 - Lancaster, PA @ Chameleon Club
3/01 - Baltimore, MD @ The Ramshead Live: Power Plant Live
3/02 - Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live
3/04 - Boston, MA @ Hard Rock Café
3/05 - New York, NY @ BB Kings
3/06 - Syracuse, NY @ Lost Horizon
3/07 - West Warwick, RI @ Manchester 65
3/08 - Portland, ME @ Port City Music Hall
Andrew Bansal is a writer who has been running his own website, Metal Assault, since early 2010, and has been prolific in covering the hard rock and heavy metal scene by posting interviews, news, reviews and pictures on his website — with the help of a small group of people. He briefly moved away from the Los Angeles scene and explored metal in India, but he is now back in LA continuing from where he left off.
I've been rediscovering pentatonic patterns lately.
While searching for new licks and scales to incorporate into my playing, I occasionally like to re-examine pentatonic shapes. In this lesson, I want to give you some tips on how to construct your own ascending and descending pentatonic patterns.
To begin, we must make a pattern of notes from the pentatonic scale.
I suggest you start with choosing something simple like a four- or six-note pattern. Something appropriate would be the six-note pattern demonstrated in Example 1. Because it is six notes, I play it as a triplet or rather a sextuplet (six notes in one beat) and use strict alternate picking. Then I play the pattern across three octaves to get a feel for playing the pattern in different areas of the fretboard.
Once you've mastered a pattern in a single position, you can use the pattern to ascend and decent through the scale in different ways. This will open up the fretboard for you and give you many options when soloing.
To demonstrate, I use my pattern to ascend and descend through D minor pentatonic in 8th position or shape 5. I play the pattern once on each string and ascend through the entire scale. Then when I reach the high E, I reverse the pattern and descend. This could be used in a solo very effectively and played in any position or any key. It also makes a good exercise for alternate picking and speed building.
This final example uses my simple pattern to make an ascending lick that moves diagonally across the fretboard. This is a much more "musical" application for the pattern and something I would be likely to use in my own solos. If you analyze the lick, you will see it's actually the same sequence played across three octaves.
As with all my lessons, this is meant to be a starting point for you to experiment with creating your own ideas. Make up a pattern and apply it to the whole scale all over the neck. See you next week, cheers!
Will Wallner is a guitarist from England who now lives in Los Angeles. He recently signed a solo deal with Polish record label Metal Mind Productions for the release of his debut album, which features influential musicians from hard rock and heavy metal. He also is the lead guitarist for White Wizzard (Earache Records) and toured Japan, the US and Canada in 2012. Follow Will on Facebook and Twitter.
We thought we'd drop in on Queen — Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor — who hosted the star-studded Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on April 20, 1992.
Hey, why not?
The show, which was witnessed by a crowd of 70,000-plus, took place at London's Wembley Stadium.
Among the special guests that day were Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi and the Who's Roger Daltrey, both of whom sat in for this spirited performance of "I Want it All," a track that originally appeared on Queen's The Miracle (1989).
Queen singer Freddie Mercury had died the previous November 24.
While doing a bit of research on an upcoming story about noteworthy Deep Purple covers, we were reminded of this live 1992 performance of "Smoke on the Water" by Yngwie Malmsteen.
Note that Malmsteen also sings on this version, doing double duty by handling the original roles of both Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore.
It's absolutely no secret that Blackmore had a profound influence on Malmsteen's playing, and it's cool to hear Malmsteen cover one of the elder guitarist's best-known recordings.
"Hendrix is godlike to me, but for a kid who wants to play guitar, the early Ritchie Blackmore solos were more challenging to play," Malmsteen told Guitar World.
"There's no question Blackmore was a big part of my development. I learned how to play the blues from studying him. He has a unique sound a look, and there's a cool mystique about him. There's no one like him."
I’ve followed the musical career of Jonatha Brooke for a dozen or so years, but knew very little about her thespian side.
I had read bits and pieces about her family life, and a trickling about the musical play that she wrote and in which she now stars at the Duke Theater in New York City.
The title, “My Mother Has 4 Noses” was, I presumed, a comedic homage to her mother, whom I had read about some years prior, who had some affiliation to the clown community.
It made sense to me. After all, a clown’s got its human nose, and then at least one big red nose, and who knows how many more?
As it turns out, the title is not a metaphor. Her mother did indeed, have four prosthetic noses.
So there I was in row F, close to the stage, actually, at The Duke, the ideal venue for this intimate-style show, since every seat provides the physical ability to connect with the performer.
The sparse quaint set was dressed with a table, chair, bookcase replete with books and trinkets, a digital piano, and not one, but two Olson acoustics. Ben Butler (guitar/musical director) and Anja Wood (cello) are positioned towards the rear of the stage, subtly out of the limelight, providing seamless support.
Then, out came Jonatha Brooke. The journey begins with Brooke acquainting us with her mother’s four noses, using projected images to aid our visual perception. She continues to use projections along the way to draw us closer to her mother’s world of reality, as well as surrealism.
And then, just as the clicking ceases when a roller coaster inches over the summit about to plummet towards the ground, the audience gets catapulted into two 45-minute rides, separated by a brief intermission, twisting and turning through the mind of Jonatha Brooke.
Brooke recounts the stories of her childhood—what it was like to grow up in a Christian Scientist home and how that played a role in casting her malleable character, for example, when she broke her wrist, she was told, “God would heal it.”
Her affectionate, yet sometimes satirical portrayal of her mother probes deeply into the world of healing, cancer, and dementia, demonstrated throughout with wit, charm, and intellectually penned pieces of music. One scene is even titled “Poop,” and offers a detailed, albeit humorous account about dealing with her mother’s biological needs. Not an everyday topic, one would agree.
Brooke’s multi-dimensional voice can be angelic, aggressive, passive, and outraged—but always appropriately tuned to the melody. Well into the play, there’s a line “How far you’d go for love.” As Brooke explained, “That's a story I tell when Mom is sort of at this very clear turning point, and she's starting to talk about dying.
“I think that anyone who’s been through this knows that it becomes part of the daily dialogue of someone who’s down this path…but it was also the point where I was realizing how much I loved her, and how grateful I was for the opportunity to care for her. So I wrote this song called ‘How Far You'd Go For Love.’ In the play, the song is split in half by this dialogue about how scary it was, and yet how beautiful the caregiving was.”
“How far you’d go for love…" the chorus sings… “You never know how far you'd go for love, until you go far beyond what you have ever known of love, for love.” It’s a sentiment Brooke explores throughout the performance, and perhaps in her adulthood, caring for her mother as she aged. Brooke was inspired to write the play while her mother was still alive, with her mother’s blessing. She also received encouragement from her fans and husband/manager, Patrick Rains.
Here's an excerpt of the show, "Are You Getting This Down?"
Born in Chicago and raised in Boston, Jonatha Brooke is the daughter of the late Robert Nelson, a writer for The Christian Science Monitor, and Nancy Lee Stone. Stone, who attended Principia College and Northwestern University, was a poet and professor. As Brooke said, “The column she wrote [for The Christian Science Monitor] for 10 years was penned under Darren Stone Nelson. In later years, as her focus was more on her poetry, it became simply Darren Stone. But Mom preferred to be recognized affectionately by her nickname, “Stoney.”
According to Brooke, both parents were her primary source of encouragement throughout her life. When asked how much her mother’s love of poetry played a role in her ability to write music and lyrics, she replied, “Mom was my most beautiful fan, as was Dad. Mom loved language, words, and of course, poetry.”
Brooke’s music has appeared on several films, including Disney’s “Return to Neverland,” “Tinker Bell,” and TV shows such as Joss Whedon’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and the short-lived “Dollhouse,” as well as “Ally McBeal,” and “The Hills.”
Her musical influences—Rickie Lee Jones, Suzanne Vega, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, The Who and Joni Mitchell, and the musicals “West Side Story,” “Godspell” and “The Sound of Music” (“I know that show by heart”, she said) are abundant throughout her catalogue. She has recorded with Joe Sample, Christian McBride, Steve Gadd, Greg Leisz, Davy Knowles, Chris Botti, and others, and has released several wonderful solo albums, including 2008’s amazing The Works.
Today, Brooke’s religion is “Love.” Brooke appears to be at peace with the relationship she had with her mother, and the selfless tribute and dedication shown to her is evidenced by “My Mother Has 4 Noses.” Audience members who have cared for an ailing loved one will appreciate the honesty Brooke weaves in, recalling loved ones of their own.
The production runs through May 4 at The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 West 42nd Street, Manhattan; 646-223-3010, dukeon42.org. Jonatha’s website is jonathabrooke.com. Her new album, which bears the same name, can be found on iTunes, Amazon, and jonathabrooke.com or 4noses.org.
This video is bonus content related to the April 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at our online store.
In contrast to many of his contemporaries in the progressive fingerstyle world, Daryl Kellie’s musical proclivities and background lean more toward jazz and classical forms rather than the ethereal, percussive-heavy approach of Hedges and Reed.
Which, in a sense, made Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” an ideal showcase for the 30-year-old’s abilities as a solo guitar arranger and performer. Kellie’s interpretation of the song is remarkably evocative of the original, with the guitarist employing complex chords, tapping, hammer-ons and plenty of harmonics (both natural and artificial), to great effect.
Explains Kellie, “I’ve always come at this from a jazz-fingerstyle guitar angle, and the classical guitar thing is something I’ve always kept up as well. With that in mind, something like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is in a way similar to the kind of very dense arrangements you often find in classical guitar music. So arranging the song came pretty naturally to me.”
For the rest of this story, and a COMPLETE TRANSCRIPTION of Kellie's version of "Bohemian Rhapsody," pick up the April 2014 issue of Guitar World, which is available now.
Below, check out Guitar World's exclusive “Bohemian Rhapsody” tutorial video featuring Kellie. Below that, you'll find Kellie's performance of the complete song. For a complete transcription of the song, check out the April 2014 issue of Guitar World.
This video is bonus content related to the April 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at our online store.
It’s about time that someone named a distortion pedal after an AC/DC song. Of course, the reason it hasn’t happened before is that it’s hard as a rock to get the perfect balance of clarity, hair, big balls, attack and sustain that will shake you all night long.
If the sound it produces doesn’t instantly evoke visions of Angus and Malcolm, you’ve got a problem, child.
The Seymour Duncan Dirty Deed Distortion pedal does the deed, and it does it dirty. Its circuit uses a pair of cross-connected MOSFETs to produce a rich, thick and dynamic overdrive that makes your guitar and amp sound bigger (and this is the truth, son, not some late-night male-enhancement supplement pitch).
You can use it equally well with a clean or already overdriven amp and it will always intensify your tone without turning it into indecipherable mush.
Here's our first interview with Stevie Ray Vaughan from the May 1984 issue of Guitar World. The original story by Bill Milkowski ran with the headline "Stevie Ray Vaughan: Hendrix' White Knight," and the story started on page 36.
In an age where musical tastes are being shaped by technological innovations, where sensibilities are being assaulted by arsenals of Linn drums and Fairlights and Mini Moogs, it's downright refreshing to see someone playing straight from the gut again.
With his stripped-down attack and electrifying prowess, Stevie Ray Vaughan has refocused attention back to the bare essentials — guitar, bass and drums in a basic twelve-bar format.
He has no light show to speak of, no dry ice, no fog, no lasers. He doesn't go in for the leather-and-studs macho posturing of popular heavy metal bands and he's not particularly adept at crowd manipulation as many of the top rock bands are. Yet Stevie Ray Vaughan is a hot property, perhaps the hottest thing to come out of Dallas since J.R. Ewing.
A longtime local hero in juke joints throughout Austin, Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth, Stevie Ray is now proudly waving the Texas flag all over the country in one sold-out concert venue after another. His formula hasn't changed much from his humbler days, but young concertgoers can't seem to get enough.
His secret? A soft-spoken, laconic man, Stevie Ray sums it up in three little words: "I just play."
Of course, there's more to it than that. Though he's not one to admit it, Stevie Ray is perhaps the most in-the-flesh exciting blues-based electric guitarist to come along since Jimi Hendrix passed.
[[ Be sure to pick up the new March 2013 issue of Guitar World magazine, which features SRV on the cover and celebrates the 30th anniversary of Texas Flood. The issue also profiles the amps and effects in Vaughan's arsenal, dissects 10 Vaughan albums and discusses Vaughan's "Number One" Fender Strat. The new issue is available now at the Guitar World Online Store. ]]
Comparisons to Hendrix are inevitable. Listening to Stevie Ray's debut Epic album, Texas Flood, the similarities are all-too apparent. The title cut recalls the searing blues power of Jimi's "Red House," while the tender ballad "Lenny" is reminiscent of such lyrical Hendrix offerings as "Angel,"" Little Wing" or "Wind Cries Mary."
The Hendrix influence looms large over Stevie Ray Vaughan. Yet, this is no clone act. The twenty-nine-year-old Texan is playing it sincere, offering up a heartfelt homage to someone who obviously touched his soul.
Says Stevie Ray of his alter ego: “I loved Jimi a lot. He was so much more than just a blues guitarist. He could do anything. I was about sixteen when he died. I could do some of his stuff by then but actually I’ve been trying to find out what he was doing moreso lately than I was then. Now I'm really learning how to do it and I'm trying to expand on it ... not that I can expand on it a whole bunch. But I try."
Like many of the young guitar enthusiasts who come to his shows, Stevie Ray never saw Hendrix perform live. Other than a few tips early on from his big brother Jimmie, he had no mentor to show him the way. He couldn't read music (still can't), so he didn't pick up any techniques from the various instruction books available on the market that dissect Jimi's technique.
Instead, he relied solely on his ears and an uncanny ability to capture the emotional essence of Jimi's playing just from listening to his records. He still relies on his keen ears to this day.
"I took music theory for one year in high school and flunked all but one six-week period," he confides. "That's because I couldn't read music and the rest of the class was already eight or nine years into it. The teacher would sit down and hit a ten-fingered chord on the piano and you had to write all the notes down in about ten seconds. I just couldn't do it. It was more like math to me.”
He adds, “A lot of the songs I write now … I don’t even know what key they're in. I have to ask somebody to find out. I can play it, I just can't name it. Jazz changes and all. But I don't know the names of what it is I’m doing.”
When asked how he communicates his musical ideas to the other members of Double Trouble (drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon), Stevie Ray again doesn't waste words: "With this," he explains, uncovering a recently purchased Fostex four-track cassette recorder. "Now I can just lay down tracks and play it back to the guys so they can hear just how I'd like it to sound. I did one the other day with two guitar tracks and a drum track. I played some drums before picking up the guitar and I still like to mess around with them. So now I can use this Fostex and get down pretty much what I want, then let the guys take it from there."
When asked if his current interest in the Fostex might eventually lead to some experiments in multiple-guitar parts, a la Hendrix'Rainbow Bridge rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner," Stevie Ray laughs and says, "I'll get there ... I gotta figure out how to run this thing first."
For the young crowds flocking to see this new Texas sensation, Stevie Ray is providing a vital link to something they missed out on. He's carrying on the Hendrix legacy. Maybe these kids have seen pictures of Jimi and they may have attended midnight screenings of Monterey Pop or Woodstock or Jimi Plays Berkeley.
They certainly have purchased his records. But they never saw the late guitar hero in the flesh. They never felt the sheer electricity that Jimi could generate. But now they can get those vicarious thrills through Stevie Ray. His reverence for Hendrix becomes all the more obvious when you see him in action. His renditions of "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" and his extended jam on Jimi's freaked-out classic, "Third Stone From the Sun," are so emotionally charged and infused with the raw spirit of Hendrix that it makes your pulse quicken.
And it's not a blatant case of mimicry, either. It's more of a continuum than a rip-off. There's no cold calculation or planned choreography to Stevie Ray's show. He has no wardrobe person telling him what to wear on stage, no image-makers manipulating his career or no musical advisors (John Hammond included) telling him what to play.
Watching him in action, you get the sense that what he wears, what he plays and how he plays it is merely an extension of who he is and where he has come from.
According to Hammond, the respected industry sage who was instrumental in bringing to the public's attention such talents as Charlie Christian, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen: "Stevie is in that great Texas tradition of T-Bone Walker. It's a wonderful tradition. T-Bone, who I first saw back in 1936, used to do what Stevie does now ... play the guitar behind his neck and everything else.”
At a recent performance in New York at the Beacon Theater, Stevie Ray was indeed in classic Texas-showman form. Decked out in a blue Japanese kimono, loose-fitting and accented by an array of pastel silk scarves slung around his neck, he radiated that flamboyant charisma that was so much a part of the Hendrix mystique.
During one boogie-down number he reached up and removed his ever-present black, wide-brimmed Tex-Arx hat, plopped it on top of a nearby microphone stand as if it were a hat rack and proceeded to play his beat-up '59 Strat from behind his head as he shuffle-stepped his way across the stage. The crowd erupted, many abandoning their seats to push their way toward the stage for a closer look. Some of them fixed their gazes on Stevie Ray's fingers; trying desperately to memorize his licks. Others just stood by in awe, mesmerized by his stage presence.
It takes more than just sheer chops to generate such excitement. There's a hidden X-factor that goes into creating such pandemonium. Hendrix had it. So does Stevie Ray, but darned if he can put it into words, other than those same three words he keeps going back to: "I just play."
Not one to analyze his own style, he prefers to talk about the music he listened to as a kid in Texas that helped shape what it is he's doing today. “I started out trying to copy licks from Lonnie Mack records. He was a really big influence for me. And my older brother Jimmie used to bring home records by B.B. and Albert King, Albert Collins and guys like Hubert Sumlin, Buddy Guy ... all of 'em. I didn't hear as much of Johnny Winter as a lot of people around Texas. I'm not sure why. I remember seeing his picture and stuff on posters around town, but I really didn't hear that much of him."
He recalls seeing many of the local R&B bands that were popular around Dallas, including Johnny G and The G-Men and Hank Ballard and The Midnighters (also a favorite of the fledgling Jimi Hendrix, who dug Hank Ballard 's records from his hometown in Seattle). And on occasion he got to see the big names like B.B., Albert and Freddie King whenever they blew into town. It was all a vital part of his musical education during his formative years in Texas; more valuable to him than scribbling down the notes to ten-fingered chords on a piece of paper.
One other guitarist whom Stevie Ray is particularly taken with is Django Reinhardt, the phenomenal three-fingered gypsy guitarist who helped revolutionize the instrument in the thirties.
"To me, Django and Jimi were doing the same thing in a lot of ways. Django would do it with acoustic guitar and Jimi would do it on electric, using feedback and things. Instead of using feedback, Django would just shake those strings like crazy. And neither one of them had anything to build on ... they just did it. Django didn't have any book or anything to borrow from. He wrote the book. Same with Jimi. Nobody was doing those kinds of electronic things he was doing. He just did it.”
Besides absorbing the essence of Jimi's spirit, Stevie also took a technical tip from Hendrix (and players like Otis Rush) by mounting a left-handed bridge assembly on his '59 Strat. "I like it better, it just makes more sense to me, " he says. "You don't have to really hold on to it. It 's right there."
Other modifications oh his main ax include a drastic fret job. "I don't like Fender frets," he explains. "I just can't grab onto the strings. The frets just aren't big enough for me to be able to get into it at all, so I use Gibson Jumbo Bass frets. If I didn't, I'd wear 'em out in no time."
No catalog of Stevie Ray's musical influences would be complete without mention of his brother Jimmie, currently the lead guitarist with another hot Texas band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Being three and-a-half years older, Jimmie naturally exerted a significant influence over his younger brother. It was, after all, Jimmie who brought home all the records that Stevie Ray would eventually emulate, and it was Jimmie who would inevitably supply Stevie Ray with his first instruments.
"Jimmie would leave his guitars around the house and tell me not to touch 'em. And that's basically how I got started. I actually wanted to be a drummer, but I didn't have any drums. So I just go into what was available to me at the time."
Stevie Ray recalls that there was a certain amount of tension between the two when he was playing bass for Jimmie's band, Texas Storm. "I was little brother, especially then, " he says. "What happened was he was moving ahead a little faster than me and I guess I was dragging it down a bit, so that didn't work out too well. But I think with any brothers there's a period of time when the little brother always gets in the way. That's just brother-to-brother shit. It wasn't anything between us that lasted. Hell, now we can't see enough of each other."
When I mentioned to Stevie Ray that his older brother now brags about him in interviews, he laughs and insists, "Well, I think he's the better guitar player ... so there."
Be sure to pick up the new March 2013 issue of Guitar World magazine, which features SRV on the cover and celebrates the 30th anniversary of Texas Flood. The issue also profiles the amps and effects in Vaughan's arsenal, dissects 10 Vaughan albums and discusses Vaughan's "Number One" Fender Strat. The new issue is available now at the Guitar World Online Store.
Robert Cray and his band have debuted a track from their upcoming album, In My Soul, which will be released April 1 through Mascot/Provogue.
Check out "You Move Me" below — and be sure to tell us what you think of it.
One thing is certain: The song features plenty of guitar, which is delivered with the same crisp, slightly driven "Cray tone" we've happily become accustomed to throughout the decades.
The album, which was produced by the Grammy-winning Steve Jordan, also features covers of Lou Rawls’ “Your Good Thing (Is About To End)” and Otis Redding’s “Nobody’s Fault But My Own,” the latter of which features vocals by Cray's new drummer, Les Falconer.
The band also includes keyboardist Dover Weinberg and bassist Richard Cousins, who wrote a tribute to Booker T. and the MGs called “Hip Tight Onions,” a very rare Cray instrumental.
For more about Cray and the new album, visit robertcray.com.
Of the myriad contributions Jimi Hendrix has made to the lexicon of modern guitar, one of the most enduring is the legendary “Hendrix chord."
The chord, an E7#9, was definitely nothing new when Hendrix famously used it in “Purple Haze” (Jazz and R&B guitarists used it extensively, and the Beatles featured it years earlier on “Taxman”), but its use by Hendrix inspired its use by generations of guitarists in a wide range of styles.
Example 1 is the most famous fingering of the “Hendrix chord," though Hendrix and many others would often also use the voicing found in Example 2.
Note that the #9 is the enharmonic equivalent of the minor 3rd, so the chord can be seen as just a comfortable fingering that consists of the root, flat 7, and both the major and minor 3rds.
This major/minor ambiguity makes the chord perfectly suited for the blues, while using it as a substitution for the V chord in a key can help lend a jazzy feel to a turnaround (Stevie Ray Vaughan often used it in this manner).
While much has been written about the 7#9 chord and Jimi’s use of it, an oft-overlooked chord voicing featured prominently in Hendrix’s recorded work is his sus2 chord shape depicted in Example 3.
The chord should be fingered in the “Jimi-approved” manner of using the thumb to fret the low E string root, with the ring finger fretting the D string, the index fretting the B string, and the pinky grabbing the high E string.
The A string should be muted with the tips of the thumb and ring fingers, and the G string should be muted with the underside of the ring finger and the tip of the index.
Since the chord is a sus and has no 3rd, it can be moved around throughout a given key while maintaining the same fingering. Jimi would often slide the chord around in a line (see “Castles Made of Sand” and “Little Wing”), further emphasizing its open, airy qualities.
Example 4 is a Hendrix-inspired line demonstrating the chord’s versatility within a key.
Another cool thing that can be done to take advantage of the chord shape’s idiosyncratic fingering is to ease off the mute on the G string and allow it to ring out as you move the chord around.
Example 5 is a group of particularly good sounding positions of this chord that take advantage of the open G. Try it in the unlisted “in-between” spots too!
As always, get these down and experiment with finding uses for this concept in your own playing. Happy shredding!
Scott Marano has dedicated his life to the study of the guitar, honing his chops at the Berklee College of Music under the tutelage of Jon Finn and Joe Stump and working as an accomplished guitarist, performer, songwriter and in-demand instructor. In 2007, Scott developed the Guitar Strength program to inspire and provide accelerated education to guitarists of all ages and in all styles through state-of-the-art private guitar lessons in his home state of Rhode Island and globally via Skype. Learn more at GuitarStrength.com.
