LESSON > SHRED YOUR ENTHUSIASM
is a fantastic tune and it makes me wonder
if Rush got some of their influence from
the odd time signature.
“The Hellion/Electric Eye” by Judas
Priest. Oh, rapturous metal! This is the
good stuff
and the audi-
ence responds
accordingly.
I learned this
pair of songs
back when I
was 16 and it
was the first
time I had any success with fast alternate
picking. It was fantastic to relive the experi-
ence while singing the line, “I’m made of
metal!” This song also spotlights the soft
white underbelly of jazz drummers. My
open message to jazz drummers around the
world is this: “Yes, you have to learn the
accents. You can’t be swishy and improvise
your way through this. It’s METAL. Get
the accents right!” End of rant.
I take a perverse pleasure in giving
the shredders what they don’t expect.
It’s all in the name of trying to get
guitar players to rethink their self-
imposed stylistic boundaries.
much cooler. I
love the overall
arrangement
because it has
so many stops
and accents.
And it’s fun
to play a blues
shuffle while
navigating through the daunting territory of
F, which is a key where all the dots (fretboard
markers) seem to be in the wrong place.
“Space Truckin’” by Deep Purple. For
those of us
who grew up
in the ’70s,
there is one
thing that
we sorely
miss about
the ensu-
ing decades:
They don’t put balance knobs on stereos
anymore. I loved my balance knob. Most
of the Beatles’ records, early Van Halen
records, and many other bands would pan
the instruments hard to one speaker or the
other, which made it much easier to sort
out the guitar part. Deep Purple’s Machine
Head album was mixed like this, and
Ritchie Blackmore’s parts are worth looking
at through this sonic microscope. My favor-
ite part is how the first two verses have one
rhythm pattern, but the third verse opens
up with a totally different chicka-chugga,
chicka-chugga, chicka-chugga, waaa part.
And the guitar solo is easily stretched out
into a long, satisfying jam.
“Boom Boom” by the Animals. I’ve always
been fascinated by the bass part in this version of the blues classic. I expect it to go up
but it goes down. And somehow, that is so
“Taking Care of Business” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Whatever the “classic”
need one because the whole song is like a
giant cowbell groove. I’m not sure if my
Italian audience could appreciate the philosophy of the lyrics, but I certainly enjoyed
them. On a more serious guitar note, the
solos continue to give me a great challenge.
The chord changes (C–B%–F–C) don’t
seem dangerous at first glance. The C blues
scale (C–E%–F–G%–G–B%) is often “good
enough,” but to really navigate through the
changes purposefully is beyond my current abilities. I still find myself relying on
luck and hope. This progression is a perfect
example of how even a simple song can be
a fantastic guitar teacher. Someday I will
get it right. (This is where you can visualize
me gazing upward and shaking my fist at a
giant, glowing B. T.O. logo.)
And last, but not least …
“Magic Carpet Ride” by Steppenwolf.
You can shred
through scales
all day, but
if you want a
real challenge,
try memoriz-
ing these lyr-
ics and then
singing them
at the same time that you play the alter-
nating rhythms of the guitar riff. It’s a lot
of rhythms for a single human being to
juggle. But once you get it, man, does it
feel great. The solo at the end is a chal-
lenge for me. The groove is busy with
accents and the tempo is right in between
my usual comfort zones. It must have
been challenging for the original guitarist
as well, because he doesn’t do much other
than a few choice volume swells. I wanted
to give my guitar clinic audience a rousing
finale so I had to find a way to put some
ripping guitar solos in there. And again,
the song is my teacher. A tempo, a key,
and a set of accents give me a whole world
of challenges and possibilities to experi-
ment with.
So I will end my column the same way
I ended my clinics—by encouraging you
to write down a list of 10 songs and start
learning them now. You can pick mine or
you can pick your own. Learn them all the
way through. If you can’t make it all the
way through, then toss out the tough ones,
save them for later, and replace them with
simpler ones. Scour your town for musicians and play the songs you learned with
a band. It’s fun and it will improve your
playing more than anything.
Learn songs.
Learn songs.
Learn songs.
72 PREMIER GUITAR FEBRUARY 2012
premierguitar.com
