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Welcome to the second installment of my two part picking
mayhem. This week we are going to cover a couple of examples
that I personally dig. This is the kind of self-indulgent
stuff that usually only guitar players can relate to.
Others are often offended, insulted, or just outright
scared! Whatever the case, just be careful when you get
these things up to speed that you don’t let your fingers
get away from you. You could put an eye out.
I would also like to stress again "economy of motion"-
meaning the smaller the distance you move the pick,
the faster you will be able to go. That does not mean
that if you choose to use your whole arm to tremolo
pick, for example, that you are wrong. If it works for
you, then it is the right way. Eddie Van Halen chooses
to use his whole arm to tremolo pick. Who’s going to
tell him he’s wrong? I choose to use my wrist for all
picking type licks and tend to stick to strict alternate
picking as much as possible. I would strongly urge you
to do the same. This is common practice among "the picking
kings" - anyone who picks like a madman.
Example 1:
This example comes from Steve Vai’s, "The Animal."
It is in D minor. Notice how it doesn’t lock into the
click. It kind of has a "floating" sound. The effect
that was used was a harmonizer set to a fifth below.
Example 2:
This lick makes a great warm up exercise. It starts
out in E Dorian (E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D) and ends in
the A Blues scale. This lick works very well over the
A bar chord. In fact, if you choose to play this over
an A power chord, then theoretically, it is an A Mixolydian
(A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G). These are both modes from the
key of D Major, so note-wise they are all the same.
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