Jack here, Jbf music and guitar lessons, in this quick guitar tricks, we’re looking
3 signature Nuno Bettencourt licks licks; as requested! They’ll all be in E; links
to my Nuno Style backing track with the card in the top right.
Much like my Vai Signature licks; card in the top right; I’ll start with the most
straightforward lick and get more complex as we go. I’m going to dive in to the theory;
if you’re not interested in that, and just want the licks with tabs: I’ve put timestamps
in the description and that pinned comment. A new—ish system I’m trying out, so let
me know if it’s any good! Yeah, so we’re using the open E; our root; for a real Hendrix
or sort of funk vibe. That 12th fret in the tab could really be any note below the 14th
fret; again our root, but 2 octaves higher- you just want to slide in to it. Flat 3rd
to b7th, bending the major 6th up a semi tone to the b7th. W go to the 5th on the 12th fret
and end the lick on the ever so funky, but somewhat tense major 6th. This is a great
way to get a Dorian or mixolydian sound and very Nuno; particularly the 6th to b7th bend.
Bonus tip, while you could think of Nuno’s playing as mixing major and minor pentatonics,
he often uses more complex hybrid scales for extra spice. The most common being the Mixa-dorian;
a term I learned from the brief time I had Steve Smyth; who you might know from his work
in Nevermore and Testament; as a tutor. As you’d probably guess this scale combines
the Dorian and Mixolydian modes. So you can think of it as Dorian with an extra major
3rd, or Mixolydian with an extra b3rd. And on the subject of hybrid scale, lets dive
right in!
Ok, quite a lot to unpack here! If you take anything away from this lesson this shape
for the major/minor sound is all over Nuno’s playing, so even if this lick is not up your
street, that little shape is an amazing tool to have in the bag. So, ok we’re basically
outlining an E7, with that first group of notes. Then, when it goes up to the 17th fret;
A, E’s 4th, we’re suggesting an E7sus 4. The last group of notes has a slight variation;
Nuno will do this fairly frequently, which can give a more sporadic, organic and arguably
more ‘musical’ feel to solos. The other noteworth thing here is the rhythm, it’s
triplets, but also with a kind of funky gallop rhythm, which really make the line stand out.
After this, Nuno goes off on a bit of a rampage! B3rd to root, b7th; all pretty normal. Then
he chucks in the 5th to minor 6th, to 5th and the blues note! This bit The blues note
can come from our blues scale and we could think of the minor 6th as coming from Aeolian,
or Phrygian. Bonus tip; Guys like Hendrix, Van Halen, Tom Morello, Dime Bag and Nuno
have the luxury of being the sole guitarist in their band; having less defined chords
in the rhythm section really opens up what notes you can play; although there generally
still has to be some cohesion r tonal centre, or it will just sound like a bunch of random
notes. Unless your Alan Holdsworth, who’s insanely good playing squeezed in all sort
of notes! But, yeah, this minor 6th ; to me; just adds some nice crunch. And to wrap up,
Nuno gives our ears a nice little pentatonic run, ending on
a 7bth being bent up to the root. Here, you could end bending the major 6th up to the
b7th; like in the first lick. That soul will sound pretty good. Just a quick side note
on the pentatonic run, this shift here can be a bit tricky; or at least unintuitive;
a higher speeds, so just watch out for that. Also there’s a doubled note, again your
muscle memory might want to take over here and hammer straight away. Mine certainly did!
But I reckon doubling notes like that sounds really cool; something, I think I’ll be
working into my on playing a bit more often!
Alright, To explain what’s going on here, I’m going to start off by simplifying it.
We’ll go through each of these bars, then apply it to that lick.
String Skips here, you might recognise these a bit from my Paul Gilbert string skip lesson;
card to that in the top right. So, bar number 1, we’ve got an E major. It might be a bit
tricky to get your head around, but our root is here. and you could move this shape anywhere
to get a major arpeggio, so if we go to the 15th fret; which is a G, it will give us a
G major. But, back to E for now, the intervals are; 5th, 3rd, 5th, Root, 3rd, Root. I’m
not really sure how Nuno picks this, but logically it seems to me like there are 2 main ways
to go at it. If you tend to downward pick slant, start on
a down, up, hammer; make sure the pick is rotated enough that you won’t hit the B
string by mistake, then down up, pull off on the high E string. For upward pick slanting;
up, down, hammer, on the high e, up, down, pull off. I mean, just go with whatever works
best for yourself, but these might help out, so seemed worth mentioning. Bonus tip; you
can try this arpeggio starting on a different note, here are some examples . And Bar 2
Back to our arpeggios for the analysis and here, bar
2 give us a Lydian sytle arpeggio; you can still see the; 3rd, 5th, root and 3rd up the
octave are there, but the extra notes; this #4 on the 15th fret and 9th, or 2nd, on the
14th fret give that dreamy Lydian quality. Next up a Dominant 7 Sus4 type of sound; which
is what our lick outlining. This 19th fret on the G string is the b7th, adding in that
on top of our Major arpeggio will give you a Dominant 7th sound. I’ve also added in
these notes; 17th on the high e and 14th on the G string. As you may have guessed, these
notes are 4th, or 11th if it’s up the octave. When you add those in it will give the major
arpeggio a suspended, floaty feeling. The combination of b7 and 4th often gives an almost
psychedelic, hippy vibe; Green tinted 60s mind might be another example, lesson card
for that Paul Gilbert tapping lick in the top right. I was thinking about doing a Pro
tips on Nuno looking at his used of Hybrid scale in more depth; both in his riffing and
soling, then delve further into his string skipping patterns; so let me know if you guys
would be interested on that or not? Yeah, so let’s go back to the full lick and analyse
I using what we’ve just looked at: 5th, 3rd, root, tapping the b7th, 5th, 3rd. Almost
identical, but tapping the 4th this time; then it’s exactly the same.
Repeat these two bits and then in the next bar- 5th, 3rd, root, 4th, 3rd, root. On the
G string; b7th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 5th. To the high e, Root, 3rd, Root. Back to the G string,
5th, 3rd, 5th same as before on the E string: Root, 3rd, root and wrapping on the G string
up with 5th down to 3rd.
Those were 3 signature Nuno Bettencourt licks, let me know in the comments if you want more
signature licks, different modes, different players or styles? I’ll probably do another
poll to try and narrow down the main players you guys are interested in. This has been
quick tricks; that’s the playlist there. For more hybrid scale licks click on this
Geogre Lynch Pro Tips Tutorial. Hit subscribe, share, like and enable notifications with
the little bell on the side, if you feel so inclined, cheers guys.