Tempos and Endings
BY PAUL GILBERT
Paul Gilbert purposefully began playing gui-
tar at age 9, formed the guitar-driven bands
Racer X and Mr. Big, and then accidentally
had a No. 1 hit with an acoustic song called
“To Be with You.” Paul began teaching at
GIT at the age of 18, has released countless
albums and guitar instructional DVDs, and
will remembered as “the guy who got the drill
stuck in his hair.” For more information, visit
paulgilbert.com
go wrong are often more noticeable than
things that go right. The squeaky wheel gets
the oil, or something like that.
What is our musical “squeaky wheel” or
kleptomaniac bus driver in today’s column?
Tempos and endings. I’m going to write
this in capital letters, two-and-a-half times,
to help you remember:
TEMPOS AND ENDINGS
TEMPOS AND ENDINGS
TEMPOS AND
My bus driver just stole all my equipment.
Can you believe this? I just finished a
very enjoyable 40-city tour of Europe. The
band was great. The crew was great. The
audiences were great. And I thought the bus
driver was great.
Until he took off with our gear.
I mention this for three reasons. First, I
want to warn you to keep an eye on your
guitars when you’re playing the last show
of your tour. Second, to add entertainment
value to the serious musical discussion
that we’re about to get into. And third, to
make an important metaphor: Things that
See! You need endings or you’re really
left hanging.
You can see in Fig. 1 how we will go
about this using these notes in a different
way. Start by playing G on the 4th string
and bend up to A (the root). This takes
some power from your hand. Use your first
three fingers (to make one giant finger),
and really grab that string and pull it up the
full whole-step. You can do it!
Now, play a B on the 3rd string and
bend up to C (the
3). I still recommend
using three fingers, but this should feel a
lot easier than the previous bend. It’s just a
half-step this time.
Next, play a D and bend up to E (the 5).
This is probably the most common bend in
all of rock ’n’ roll, so you’ve probably had
some experience with this one. Once again,
I recommend using three fingers to achieve
the most bending power and control.
Now that you’ve bent up to the
“Stairway” notes, let’s add one more useful
chord tone, the
7. Play F# and bend it up
to G. This is a half-step bend as well. And
you guessed it, three fingers gives you all
the power.
You did it!
You’ve emotionally and stylishly bent up
to all the chords tones in an Am7 chord. This
is fantastic. Each one of these notes is a great
place to end. Now let’s make sure that you’re
playing it with full stadium-rock power.
Fig. 1
&
ÍÍÍÍÍ
fi oej oe
ÍÍÍÍÍ
fi oej oe
ÍÍÍÍÍ ÍÍÍÍÍ fi oej oe fi oe j oe
ÍÍÍÍÍ fi oej oe
1
1/2
1
1/2
1
7
8
4
7
˙
5
Fig. 2
44 &
66
oeoeoe oeoeoeoeoeoe oeoeoeoe.j ‰ OE
66
oeoeoe oeoeoeoeoeoe oeoeoeoe.j ‰ OE
≤ ≥≤≥≤ ≥≤≥ ≤≥≤≥≤
≤ ≥≤≥≤ ≥≤≥ ≤≥≤≥≤
˙
2
5 4245
2
5
4245
2
2
5 4245
2
5
4245
2
≤
≥ = downstroke
= upstroke
