Jack here jbf music and guitar lessons, what I’ve got for you here are these 3
super tasty Guthrie Govan signature guitar licks
Alright, that was them in context… how on earth can us mere mortals
ever hope to play like play like that?!?! Well, first thing first,
let’s have a look at the notes slow, isolated and with tabs; which you can get a copy of up at
Patreon.com/jbfmusic; then we’ll breakdown the cool combinations of techniques being used.
The aim is that by the end of this you’ll have those licks, of the gist of them
under your fingers, and just maybe bottle a little bit of that Guthrie Govan magic!
Fives first up, named so because it’s in 5/4- odd timings, grouping and phrasing will be a theme
throughout these licks- consider yourself warned! Slide to in to this note,
add vibrato to the next on, grace note quick slide up to that 15th,
hop on to the next string. Next bar; till sustain the note add on a small
but quick quarter tone bend followed immediately by a slide down. If you like this exotic
microtonal sound, give the I up there a click for even more licks using this kind of trick.
He actually also, does a slow subtle ¼ tone bend on this 12th fret as well. Grace note slide,
add vibrato, 1st finger grace note slide from the 7th. I like to fret this note with my 2nd finger.
The reason being when we play it again here; bending it by a tone, dip and re-bend;
I can reinforce with my 1st finger, then use my 4th finger to get this subtle double stop,
letting those ring in to each other a tiny bit. Not the easiest double stop; so if you’re new to
this you might want to check out the tutorial with the I up there for the top 10 common double stops.
This 18th fret, he probably rakes in to and adds a healthy whack of vibrato, so I’d make sure to
reinforce this one. Again bending with vibrato is a huge topic, so give that notorious i a click for
a compressive breakdown of the pitfalls to avoid. Then we’re off to the races! Guthrie seems to
hit this with a down, pull off, picks these, slides, picks these, pull off
then shifts position using this 3rd finger here; that 16th to 15th fret bit. Now,
if you pick if differently that’s totally fine. Two fingering options
that might be worth trying; using 4 fingers like this.
Using 3 fingers, but shifting position with your 1st finger; the 14th to 13th frets;
this is probably how I’d tackle this. I probably also do a mini sweep going from
that 13th fret on the E string to the 16th on the B string when playing this up at tempo.
Bad Asteroid here, this is like a master class in making a simple melody
Sound incredibly vocal and make the guitar appear to have
much more in common with brass instruments than it actually does.
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This lick can sound a bit rigid, if you try to chunk it over the strings, erm, like this:
So try to kind of let the lines melt in to each other; for me consciously
trying to link the lines over the strings really helped get that liquidy smooth feel.
Big stretch and quick legato; hammer, pull off, slide, slide.
If this is a totally alien style to you and you want a foot in the
door before tackling this be moth feel free to give the Steve Vai licks video;
you can get with the I up there; a look in We hit the string again, followed by more legato.
Now, I’ve tabbed this next part as picking the 9th and 7th frets,
but he probably just hits that 9th fret then uses legato;
but as ever adjust these to taste. If this extensive hammering on and pulling
off is giving you grief check out that tutorial for easier and better technique,
complete with a pretty epic Tom Quayle guitar lick to showcase the points.
Being a man who doesn’t really like using his pinky for guitar playing; a lot like myself;
Guthrie will slide using his 2nd finger. Sliding with the 3rd is totally valid
but it’s always worth highlighting players preferences as it can often
inform how they play and really shape the way they improvise.
Slide back it to that note, from below. Pick this, pick it again and use a grace note slide;
he’ll sometimes use a partial or full pinch harmonic here; and make
sure to add vibrato when you get to that 4th fret.
Slide in from below twice, hit it normally, slide in from below again, hit these and ¼ tone bend.
Alright final stretch! If you’re digging what we’re doing here,
make sure to give subscribe a click and ring the bell notification to make sure you
never miss out on more of these videos. An awesome upward rake,
picking these, and a grace note slide down. Here I need to use a big position shift and bend
with my 3rd finger; my other two aren’t strong enough to bend a tone and a half by themselves!
But, oh, it’s not just that dastardly bend,
he’s simultaneously hitting a tapped harmonic up at the 14th fret, because… well because he can,
he is after all The Wizard, Guthrie Gandalf Govan, lord of the strings.
Ner
Ner To wrap it up, and if you love that cool franticly smooth seemingly effortless
chromatic type of acseing run he like the whip out, this is a fantastic case study for it!
So, while we’re not in 5/4, we are in 6/8, and while we’re not using
the same wide and usual legato stretches, we are playing groups of 5 over 4. Pentuplets.
What I’d never noticed about his playing is how rhythmically he uses slides;
like this bit here where we hit the note then slide twice. Then hammer these; at the kind of
ferocious speed he does this I’d tend to hybrid pick- do whatever suits yourself.
Pull offs, slide to shift position and hammer on; these are twice as fast.
G string; pick it, hammer on, then pull off to these,
slide, slide again, hammer on. Skip over to the E string, sort of trilling
between these frets but in time; I’m thinking of it as like 3 pull offs,
going down to that 8th fret after. Hit these notes and slide up to that 10th fret, where it returns
to the main theme of the song. -
Click there for even more tasty Guthrie Govan licks, or check out the
signature guitar licks playlist. But yeah, hit subscribe to keep up to date with the channel,
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