Jack here, jbf music and guitar lessons, back with some guitar licks to impress for you,
all from Judas Priest, all from Painkiller and it’s titular track!
In this licks to impress we’ve got 4 leads, ascending in difficulty- timestamps and chapters
below if you want to jump ahead; if you appreciate this format let me know with a like and a
comment; both little gestures, but do really help out the channel and let’s me know what
content you’re most interested in. By the end if this you should have the makings of
4 great licks and hopefully some inspiration for new ideas of your own!
I had always assumed that KK Downing and Glenn Tipton traded solos on this track, I seem
to remember the booklet in the album sleeve saying that, but from live clips it seems
to only be Glenn Tipton- if you can shed any light on the matter, please do! How well he
constantly pulled off those live is just a marvel to watch, definitely at least a little
bit jealous about that, haha! As a side note, I’ll be focusing on technique rather than
music theory here.
So, I’ve done these by ear, no access to the stems sadly, but cross referenced with
some live clips I found. I went to learn a few of these licks and the transcriptions
didn’t seem quite right; any suggestions or corrections, as always more than welcome!
Tabs are up on my Patreon.com/jbfmusic.
Alright, probably the least impressive one here, but I reckon that stretch-y bit towards
the end sounds just plain killer! Plain killer? No, not getting away with that one, huh? Ah
well, so the way I’m playing this alternate picking, starting on a down; using my 3rd
and 4th fingers; that first note is a grace note, you don’t really hear it, it’s just
sort of squished in there. The next slide is a regular 16th note, so it’s the same
length as the other notes around it. Just watch out, the second time we slide to that
16th fret, it’s just from the 15th.
The triplets kick in here and sort of act as a lead in to the next bar. You might be
tempted to trem pick this , but if you want to keep it clean, you probably want to avoid
that. You might find your hand feels rigid from the slower picking- if so check out the
little “i” up there for dialling in your picking hand.
Again, my 4th and 3rd fingers are taking care of this, probably moving my hand a little
bit to get ready for that 14th fret in the next bar. Groups of 3 really, two higher,
one lower. Same again, then down to the next string, with the same motif, ending on that
16th fret
If these sort of wide legato stretches are giving you grief, pause this check out my
top 6 tips for flawless legato- with the little “i” up there. For me, this is a 1st, 3rd
and 4th finger job; using the tips as much as I can and moving my hand when needed. You
might want to try the classical position for this one as well! I’ve seen clips where
Glen will tap the higher notes, presumably, if his hands aren’t feeling up to the stretch,
the songs maybe being played a bit faster that night or perhaps he just wants a different
sound?
Alright, first 6 notes hammering on, then over to the next string, more hammering. Aside
from the wide intervals the other tricky part; for me; is picking this 17th fret- I want
to play that whole string legato, but picking it really helps lock in to that triplet groove.
Pulling off on the B string, down to that 18th fret and repeat
What makes this one really pop, I think is the same note being played on a different
string, here and here a bit like a timbral trill, more on that with the “i” up there.
Exciting explosion! Just making sure you’re still with me! Let me know with a “ka-pow!”
in the comments, haha!
So, as a side bonus lick, until I’d tabbed this one out I always heard it like this so
the first 8 notes the same, but only picking the E string once and doing this with the
last 4 notes . Fairly irrelevant, but I always think it’s interesting how we can think
we know what sometime we’ve heard hundred to times goes like, only to find out it’s
not correct. I might be alone in that, though? It happens all the time!
Another one here, where I’d heard this lick wrongly- I thought it was sweeping, not dissimilar
to Herman Li’s lead break in Dragonforces Valley of the danmed, tab and demo with the
little “i” up there. I’d suggest going and listening to the original at 50% or 75%
speed and seeing if you agree with me on these observations; would be interesting to find
out!
The other give away was that the live clips I used as reference, he clearly wasn’t sweeping
until the end. Anyway! A pretty light touch really helps out here; for me anyway; this
1st 20th to 21st fret slide; hang on the 21st fret for a little bit; don’t be tempted
to rush it. The second time, don’t hang on it. I’m using my 1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers
this time- sliding with the 3rd, then pulling off to the 2nd and 1st. In all honesty if
I had to nail this live on a regular basis, I’d probably just slide my 3rd finger roughly
in the right way Just a sort of reminder that if you want this stuff to sound like it does
but run into a bit of a wall, just make your own trick bag work for you.
But back on track, sliding the 20th to the 21st with my 3rd finger, pulling off to the
19th, where my 2nd finger is, then pulling off again to my 1st finger on that 16th fret.
Quite an intricate little move! I’m starting on a upstroke, alternate picking until the
ending sweep.
Two upstrokes; 17th and 18th frets across the B and G string. This bit was pretty hard
to make out, so I could be mistaken, but sounds about right. You can rake through the remaining
string, provided you mute them, but I’m hopping over it; hitting the A with a downstroke
and sweeping across; playing 32nd notes for the first 4 notes then triplets for the rest
Also, uing that trill to switch to and upward pick slant- I’ll link to more on those concepts
with a tutorial up there.
Right, this one is a total nightmare to play. If you’re new to sweeps I’d suggest starting
with 3 string, like in the I card up there, bfore tackling these monster 6 string ones!
Glen holds his pick quite close to the tip, if you want that harmonic attack- I can’t
make it work very well, just comes out sloppy. So we start off sweeping down through those
2 strings and then a little trill; I find using my 3rd finger works best here; then
hit the string with an up stroke and hop over to the low E.
3rd finger on the low E, rolling my 2nd across the A and D and during this sweep the notes
ring in to each other a bit; or it could just be a by-product of the delay effect; so I
suspect more or less resting your 1st finger, baring it; essentially; across the 12th on
the G, B and E strings is the best thing to do- just watch out for string noise- your
right hand may have to be more vigilant here, if in doubt just mute a bit more heavily!
This big sweep, try to get the first 2 notes clear, then when it goes to an Ludacris speed,
don’t worry too much about it- just aim for the 14th to 17th trill. So, I’m sort
of thinking, these down notes, almost raking here to get to that trill. Now, this isn’t
exactly textbook technique, but the original version does have this aggressive slight lack
of clarity, which just seems to add to the overall vibe.
After the trill, angle for coming back- you’ll notice my 1st finger is still in place. On
the G string trill here- you can try and get this note on the B string, go back to the
G and hop over the E- I can’t get that to work at all! So skip over to the E
string pick the 14th, hammer the 17th, tapping the 21st- this tapped note is really quite
short. Come back down the way you came, sweeping the B
to D strings- again my 1st finger has just been sitting here waiting for more 12th sweeping
madness! Really similar on the way back up except you want
to tap the 22nd fret. Coming down I’m just using my 2nd finger to get that 15th fret-
my 1st is still barred. Sweep through the muted A string, or hop over it and slide 17
down to 16.
If you enjoyed this, you’ll probably also like these spiced up sweeps, this has been
guitar licks to impress, that’s the playlist there. But yeah, hit subscribe to keep up
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