Jack here, jbf music and guitar lessons, back with some signature guitar lick goodness for you!
From a player many consider to be the Death Metal pioneer, Chuck Shuldiner
Three licks in ascending difficulty
exploring a few different aspects of Angus Young’s lead guitar playing style.
The tabs; PDF, PNG and guitar pro files; are up on Patreon.com/jbfmusic if you want ‘em.
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of the youtube overlords and let them know that, actually you’d quite like to see a bit
more of this sort of stuff. For a broader strokes version
analysis of Aeath, coupled with some great riffs and music theory check out that informal
analysis or critique with the I up there. To clear stuff up, I’m in standard tuning
for all of these licks, I’m playing the licks in the same pitch as the recorded versions,
so if you’re downing tuning, you’ll need to shift them up by the appropriate amount- if that doesn’t
make sense hit me up in the comments and I’ll do a better job of explaining myself, haha!
I’m doing a wee bit of an experiment here,
doing this video focusing on technique and a separate one on the music theory; which
I’ll link to when it’s live with the little I up there- so please do let me know what you think!
But yeah, let’s crack on,
eh?
Skipping the first beat of the bar, pick note and trill; so pull off,
hammer, pull off. Pick this note then do a pinch harmonic on the next one, adding vibrato.
We’ve got the same idea, but displaced- more on that with the I up there.
Picking the next 4 notes with no pinch harmonics, then
hit the string again and slide up to the 10th fret, adding vibrato.
Same idea as bar one; that trill thing followed by that note on
the G string. Then we’ve got octaves, using the under side of your 1st finger, mute the B string,
and just strum through all 3 of those strings, same thing a semi tone higher, then pull
off only on the E string to that 9th fret. Watch your muting here I don’t want to derail this
video too much so; for my top 10 favourite muting technique click the I up there.
Picking these next 5 notes, I’ve had the most success fingering it like this you
might want to try barring that 9th fret- it feel pretty unintuitive, but I think that was
part of Chuck’s kind of unorthodox solo writing style. Pull off, slide down and pick this note
notes, adding in vibrato on the 2nd time.
Ok, main takeaways: Phrygian and Phrygian dominant, more on that with the
little I up there; but in a nutshell that exotic, heavy metal lead sound;
reaping a phrase or idea, displacing that phrase, pinch harmonics, octaves, slides, legato and
vibrato, somewhat unusual fingerings, pedal point; again a deeper dive on that with the I up there.
Alright, this lick might sound tougher than it is, once you get a feel for it,
it’ll just sort of roll off your fingers. If you get the left hand’s melody in your ears
It’ll
make the tapping easier and pretty intuitive. We kick off with a hammer from nowhere;
for a breakdown of how to strengthen your legato technique, give the little I up there a click,
then we’re tapping every other note, making sure to give the strings nice little flick, so the note
we’re pulling off to is nice an prominent. In terms of technique, fret the notes on
your let hand just after you’ve tapped; so tap,
fret with the left hand, pull off, tap, left hand fret, pull off, and so on
I find that saying all the notes with tapping licks becomes a bit of a word salad and makes
it sound even more complicated, so I’d suggest thinking of first 9 notes
as one chunk, get that under your fingers. Then do the same with the next 7 notes.
The good news is that bar is just repeated, so once you’ve got that, you’ve got the lick!
There’s a cool harmony here a 5th lower. Again the good news is it’s the same technique,
the same interval spacing, just starting down at the 3rd fret
The final noteworthy thing is the rhythm; rather than being straight 16th He
uses this sort of swung rhythm
if I just scratch that groove out
so the tapped notes are shorter making them feel more like a decoration,
really letting the lower melody shine through. Main takeaways: that lower static 5th harmony,
pedal point, tapping, the Aeolian mode; or natural minor; a sinister feeling
and using that swung rhythm to make the part feel more unhinged
Ok, the toughest of the bunch here, I get the feeling Chuck played this from
intuition rather than meticulously working it out note by note, because it’s got a flow to if
and there are cool little techniques and tricks that tend to pop up when people are improving.
Could be wrong, but that’s what my gut and indeed my ears are telling me!
Slide in to this note and we go up the scale; I find using my 1sy, 2nd and 4th fingers
makes bar 2 flow more, where we bounce between the B and e strings, then have a
little ghost note and slide to the 11th, followed by vibrato.
Pick that note again on to the E string, mini trills: 10 to 11 and 8 to 10, again alternate pick
between the b and E strings. Like the other lick, I’d lump that half of the bar in to one chunk.
Then chunk then second part starting on the e strings 10th fret, 8 to 10 mini trill, come down
the scale, 8 to 10 hammer. On to the G string; pick these 4 notes,
mini trill to the 7th and back, slide, slide, add vibrato.
Back up to the previous postion, pick twice,
hammer, pick, hammer, pick, over to the B string, down the scale,
then pulling off 10th to 8th. Roll your 1st finger on to the G strings 8th fret, pick it twice and
slide down a semi tone, pick the next 3 notes, pull off an wrap up with vibrato on that 7th fret.
If you’ve stuck it out and got those down, fair play to you,
this isn’t easy stuff! And a shout out to the lick squad elite – you guys rock!
Main takeaways: The Aeolian mode, feel the solo out not necessarily being too strict
on picking or technique, let your hands tell you what they feel like doing, mini trills,
legto spanning a wide range over one string, position shifts,
and I suppose using a similar motive of theme- these trills in that minor shape.
Click there for more shredding metal leads. This has been signature guitar licks,
that’s the playlist there. But yeah, hit subscribe to keep up to date with the channel,
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