Major or Minor?

Part of my confusion was caused by tutorials that always take C major as their starting point for discussing modes. Admittedly, it’s easier to talk about intervals and scale degrees without having to deal with sharps and flats, but C major is, well, kind of bland and boring. It’s not particularly guitar friendly either. Why waste time messing about with happy major tonalities (GHAY!) when you can cut straight to the dark and evil sounding stuff? That’s why the discussion below starts with E natural minor(or E Aeolian in modal terms). Of course, Nigel Tufnel has conclusively demonstrated, D minor is the saddest of all keys. But E minor is definitely the most metal. It sure doesn’t hurt that it’s (arguably) the most guitar-friendly as well, at least in standard tuning.

Modal tonalities vs. scale positions

Here is the key (snort!): if you play, say, a C Lydian “pattern” over a backing that has a pronounced E minor flavor, it’s still not going to sound like the Lydian mode. For instance, if you start your melodic line on the 8th fret (C) and play the Lydian “pattern” over an E minor chord, it will still sound like plain old E minor (Aeolian)!

Herein lies the confusion — understanding the difference between static scale positions on the neck and the sound of true modality. Modes have distinct tonal flavors as a result of the intervals that they are made up of in relation to their tonic note and the tonic of the backing. If you’ve graduated from Metal Guitar 101 you can play E-minor scale patterns in positions all over the neck. Play them against an E-minor backing, and they will all sound like the Aeolian mode (E minor). To achieve various modal flavors using those same scale patterns, you need to change the tonic flavor of the backing to establish the modal mood you are after. The difference is far more difficult to explain than it is to hear. If your are confused, play around with the demo and listen to the different moods…that should clear things up.

About the demonstration

You need Flash Player 6 or higher to view the demo. If you haven’t done it already, then click here to open it in a new window.

The example begins with a diagram of the notes from the E (natural) minor scale (E Aeolian) from the open position to the 12th position. (Please note that the actual sound samples are in E flat minor because I tune my guitar down one half-step.) If you click on the mode names, you will see the different modes shown in a 3-note-per-string pattern covering all 6 strings. They are superimposed on the extended pattern (olive green) for reference. The root note of each mode is highlighted in turquoise.

You’ll can listen to two sound samples for each mode. Each sample features the same guitar part, but one is played over the “modal” backing note, and the other over an E. This lets you hear the same melody taking on different modal flavors due to the harmonic context within which it appears. The take-home point is that modes are context-dependent moods or flavors, not static scale positions!

Although the visual demo highlights only one 6-string pattern per mode, the patterns can actually be extended up and down the neck when you play. In fact, in the sound samples I don’t stick to the illustrated patterns, but extend the melodies up and down the neck. I’ve not included any sound samples for the Aeolian positions, because the other modes’ samples over E backing all sound Aeolian anyway!

I hope this will help you understand modes a little better. If none of this makes sense to you, just try to remember that modes are a sound, not a scale position. That’s really what it’s all about in a nutshell.

Note: This post originally appeared years ago on my static website at lorilinstruth.com. I never bothered to move it over to my blog, probably because I didn’t think the sound samples were clear enough and I couldn’t be bothered to re-do them and reauthor the Flash. Thanks to Alan and other readers who have written to ask about it, giving me a reason to dust off the cobwebs and upload the old demo to my new site. The perfectionist in me hates the sound of the old samples, but WTF. Sorry it took so long for me to pull my thumb out and get around to it!

The Sanyo Pedal Juice

HOWEVER, the Sanyo Pedal Juice looked like a quality product that would actually help me solve a real-life problem I was having, so I agreed to have Sanyo’s kind representative send me a unit to evaluate. Here is the info that piqued my interest (bold text my emphasis):

One Pedal Juice battery can provide up to 50 hours of continuous, stable power for a single analog pedal or up to 20 hours of continuous power to three digital pedals. Because the eneloop 9V rechargeable lithium-ion battery eliminates the need for AC power, the output voltage is more stable for longer periods of time without the possibility of AC ground looping noise. The battery can be recharged hundreds of times, thereby eliminating the waste and inconvenience of disposable 9V alkaline batteries. With two DC outputs, Pedal Juice can power multiple devices including pedals, multi-effect units, and portable recorders. Pedal Juice provides portable battery power to a single pedal or can be used to power several pedals at the same time.

So what is this problem I’ve been having? Well, space is at a premium in my practice room because it doubles (quadruples?) as my business office, my computer room, and the headquarters/packing station for the ArjenLucassen.com official store. It’s a pain to keep in any kind of order, particularly when things get busy — like during an album release cycle. So anything that can help me keep my work and practice area tidy is good in my book! As you can see below, I was in dire need of help in that department:

Ugh - Mess!

For me the main appeal of the Pedal Juice was that it might help clean up the demotivating MESS of cables in my practice space by eliminating 2 unwieldy AC adaptors. The Pedal Juice did not disappoint — behold the new pristine tidiness:

Order is restored

The Pedal Juice can be charged hundreds of times (it takes about 3.5 hours for a full charge) and colored LEDs tell you the charging status. It automatically stops charging when the battery is full, so you can just plug it in to charge and then forget about it. With other “non intelligent” chargers I would have to set a timer to remind me to unplug the charger once the charge cycle was complete (lest much badness ensue). I’m happy for any chance to reduce the things I have to remember to do, or that I have to program my phone to remind me not to forget to do. Seriously.

When you’re using the Pedal Juice, its 3-stage LEDs tell you how much power you’ve got left to play with: green at 60 percent power remaining, yellow between 30 and 60 percent, and red at under 30 percent. (I think you clever readers can figure out what happens at 0 percent power remaining.)

The Pedal Juice has an on-off switch — if you just switch it off when you’re done playing, you don’t need to unplug your effects like you do when you use normal 9-volt batteries. This may seem like an inconsequential feature, but when you’re in a massive creative slump (like I have been since 2007) you’re thankful for every little thing that reduces the hassle factor by even a nanosecond.

Another useful feature is that the power level of the Pedal Juice remains consistent at all charge levels. So you never need to throw away batteries that still have life in them because you don’t want them to run out midway through an important playing event. And if you’re one of those tone junkies who think you can hear the difference between a fresh 9-volt battery and a not-so-fresh one, then the Pedal Juice removes at least one source of “tone anxiety.” You can then go back to worrying about how much the solar flares and current barometric pressure are messing with your tone.

The unit is also shockproof and water/coffee/beer/blood-proof, which is a bonus if you’re playing in the kind of environments where your pedals might encounter water, coffee, beer, or blood (the first two are all that apply in my case). It’s got a solid, robust construction that feels decidedly sexy (in a gadgety kind of way, if you’re into that kind of thing). All in all, the Pedal Juice is a well-made piece of gear that does an excellent job at what it’s designed for. At first glance it may seem rather pricey, but if the features appeal to you I would not hesitate to say that it’s money well spent.

Disclosure: I was sent a Pedal Juice free of charge for the purpose of review. However, had I not liked the Pedal Juice and found it useful, I wouldn’t be writing about it.

Carl Begai gets me talking about Guilt Machine, my lack of tabbing skill, and why my elementary school teachers were right when they marked “works well with others” as one of the skills that “needs improvement.”

ShredThisWay.com 20 questions about guitars, guitar playing, and my infamous distaste for jazz

Gearwire.com interview about my Luna Andromeda

Gearwire.com interview about my Vigier Excalibur

For those of you unfortunates who are not familiar with the inimitable Mr. Glitter, I strongly suggest you acquaint yourselves with his singular style by reading his (in)famous gear reviews on Harmony Central. Listed below are the 4 confirmed authentic Rip Glitter gear reviews (the pages are long: use your browser’s search function to find the word “glitter”):

• SIGNATURE Jackson Rhoads Custom Shop Polka Dot Flying V. (25-july-2001) This one is a must read
• Peavey 5150.(16-feb-2001)
• Danelectro DD-1 Fab tone (9-jan-2001)
• Dod FX59 Thrashmaster (12-may-2000)

It took me ages to muster up the courage to ask Rip for an interview, as I feared that if he found his inbox infected with an unsolicited email request from a far lesser player (and a GIRL no less), I’d be in for a counterblast of sarcasm and vitriol in customary Glitteresque style. Or even worse, he’s just IGNORE me, which would totally hurt my itty-bitty girly feelings.

Fortunately, he turned out to be more of a gentleman than the acerbic tone of his Harmony Central reviews would lead you to believe, and graciously agreed to take a short break from unleashing pure metal fury on his SIGNATURE Jackson Randy Rhoads Flying V to answer some questions for PLAG readers.

‘Scuse me for going all gushy fan-girl on ya, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that my humble blog would be graced by an interview with a LIVING LEGEND like Rip. Read on, Chickadees, and learn from the master!

[Warning: probably not safe for work, and definitely not suitable for those of you who are offended by naughty words]

Rip Glitter Interview

LL: The last review of yours I was able to locate on Harmony Central was posted in July 2001. Why have we been denied more of your sage wisdom and insightful analysis since then?

Rip: One word, Lori: fucking posers. You might think that’s two words, but that’s probably because you’ve never had to pull some whiny-ass indie-rocker’s tooth out of your knuckle because he showed up at your last show — because “he likes all kinds of music,” or so he tells the two people who read his blog — and then he grabbed you by the shoulder of your authentically-forged paladin’s armor and asked you where you take “lessons.” First off, any real rocker knows that there’s only one music that matters, and it starts with an M, ends with an L, and in the middle is a whole lot of face-blistering punishment. Also, true demons of metal know that there’s only one way to learn to shred like the masters (and by “masters,” I mean Mr. Randy Rhoads, of course, who counts as more than one person because his solo on “Mr.Crowley” is still stomping the shit out of every fifteen-year-old wannabe rocker who thinks a Fender Squier and a Steve Vai tab book is going to turn him into a royal bitch magnet). If you want to handle your axe like a real metal maniac, you need three things: a quality axe, a copy of Rust in Peace, and a basement where your mom fears to tread.

Anyways, the reason I stopped blessing the masses with my reviews is because, as usual, some dimestore (not DIMEBAG, mind you) punks wanted to get a little attention for themselves, and started writing up their own gear reviews and posting them in my name. I mean, did you see that Dean Markley Pro-Mag bullshit? Do I fucking LOOK like I would ever touch an acoustic guitar, except maybe to whip out a quick version of Satyricon’s “Min Hyllest Til Vinterland”? (That’s Swedish for you pussy-ass poser bitches out there who think metal starts in Florida and ends in Mexico. Or maybe it’s Norweigian. I don’t give a fuck, those dudes are arcane forest kings who get chicks leaking like my Camaro’s fuel line.) So after I realized that my good and rockin’ name was being associated with things like acoustic guitars and unnecessary bullshit they sling to moms at Sam Ash on birthday buying sprees, I decided that I was done trying to teach the masses of unlearned “musicians” out there what it means to be truly dedicated to musical perfection. There’s a few out there who seem to appreciate my advice, and all those metal maniacs can join me anytime for some cold brews and some rocking out on Dino’s porch.
 
LL: In your reviews you mention participating in several bands/projects (i.e., SLUTBANGER, LETHALICON, and a brief stint with RABID WOLF). What have you been up to lately music-wise? Still unleashing uncaged metal mayhem at the Greenbriar community center?

Well, LETHALICON disbanded right after we put out our 6-song CD-R EP, “Harvesting the Bitches.” Some fatass librarian (who I thought was cool) over at the Greenbriar Community Center turned out to be just another puppet for the corporate non-rockers who couldn’t handle my metal-infused Glitter cream being shot all over their faces once a week. She said she had a whole bunch of letters about “noise complaints,” “public nudity,” “mailbox urination,” that sort of bullshit. If you ask me, she was just pissed that she couldn’t cram herself back into a studded leather skirt and a halter top and get the metal injection she obviously wanted. So after my drummer puked up half an ashtray onto some little kid browsing their “Recommended Reading” display, we had to pack it in. After that, we tried to hook up with my buddy Dino’s brother’s band, GOATS OF THE NORTHERN WASTES, in their weekly set at Chuck’s Auto Body, but then our lead singer got a fucking girlfriend, so I was done with that. You know what I mean.

As for RABID WOLF, fuck that band. I saw Jimmy the other day when I was mowing his dad’s lawn, and he was all like “Good to see you,” and blabbing about some new power-pop crap band he started that just got signed to a three album deal. And I was like, “Dude, that’s great, except that it’s a shame you’re such a pussy ass bitch.” Then he got all pissed off and tried to kick me off his property, but I wasn’t going anywhere, because once you let them start pushing you around, you aren’t rocking. You might as well just sell your amp, buy yourself a drum machine and a computer, and start “rocking” while sitting on the couch and making shitty music for dudes in glasses and sneakers. Oh, and his dad owed me twelve bucks for the lawn, so fuck if I’m leaving without that shit.

Anyways, SLUTBANGER just finished up a five-city tour in northwest Wisconsin, and right now we’re taking a break because our rhythm guitarist (a.k.a. “pussy guitarist”) started crying about losing his hearing and shit like that. Lori, you know as well as I do that guitarists who can’t handle the gain, can’t handle the fame. So Dino and I started flyering the record stores looking for a “Metal-Souled Guitar God to Join Voracious, Thrash-Rocking Metal Squadron with More Ultra-Melodic Ball-Ripping Brutality Than Maiden’s Last Tour.” Of course, just so you know, that’s pro-gear or no-gear, because I don’t need some short-haired chubby with a Danelectro and a Pignose trying to step up on my stage. Anyways, if you know someone, let me know, and I’ll send them a flyer. I’m not sure if we put a phone number on there, but they’ll figure it out.

LL: Did your little brother Randy ever metal up so you two could jam? And more importantly, did he ever LEARN TO KEEP HIS GREASY PAWS OFF YOUR SHIT?

Oh, fuck, listen to this: a couple months ago, my mom had a bunch of her church friends over for their book club. So me and Dino are in the basement, throwin’ back some brews, modding up this Diezel amp he picked up. So he cranks it up and I start whipping out Kreator’s “Storming with Menace,” because, you know, I’m not a bitch. So I’m just down there, letting my soul fill with blistering metal madness while Dino slams his head against the wall, and Randy comes downstairs and UNPLUGS MY FUCKING AMPLIFIER. He said he was yelling for like ten minutes, which I said was clearly not true, because “Storming the Menace” isn’t more than like four minutes long, unless I feel like stretching my metallic muscles over the fretboard and showing the people – or at least Dino – why the Dark Lord himself handed killer metal dudes myself the great gift of rocking out.

So I see Randy’s hand wrapped around the amp cord, and I don’t know, I think I blacked out. All I know is, when I came to, I was sitting on the living room couch, my brand-new “Snake Cage”-style leather pants unzipped, my Jackson V in one hand, and a bloody hunk of hair in the other. Meanwhile, I can hear Randy in his room, screaming like a front-row piece of tail at a Tesla concert, and my mom’s up there trying to make him stop. I guess what happened was, I grabbed Randy by the throat and ran up the stairs, slammed him onto the kitchen table – right in the middle of book club – ripped off his shirt, and raked his armpits with a cheese grater that was lying around. I mean, it’s not like the kid had much going on there anyway, so I don’t understand what all the crying was about, even if he lost some skin. But of course, mom starts bitching and one of her friends starts telling me to stop hurting Randy, but I just unzipped my pants and told her what she could do with that mouth of hers. Well, I ended up sleeping in Dino’s garage for a few days, because mom was being a pain about the whole thing. She told me I could come back, but I decided that my rocking lifestyle couldn’t be cramped anymore by my “sensitive little brother,” so I’m crashing at Dino’s for good. As for Randy, who knows, he’s probably crying somewhere, that’s all that kid ever seemed to do.
 
LL: How are your SIGNATURE Randy Rhoads Jackson V and Peavey 5150 holding up over the years?

That’s right, SIGNATURE. I’m glad you remembered. Some punk at the last Stormwarrior show said he saw my band and he loved the paint job on my ESP. ESP?! I couldn’t believe this kid. I fucking unleashed the tiger that night. They booted me from the show, but not before I pounded that kid’s face like I was Deicide and he was a double bass pedal. Anyways, I got so pissed off that I decided to have Dino rework the paint job, and so now its got those wicked dragon skulls all over it.

As for the 5150, you probably know what happened. Thanks to my reviews and the many sample cassettes I sent in to Peavey, they decided to release the 5150 II. Now, obviously it would have been better if they had named it the 5150 RG, because we all know whose gear reviews inspired them to take unadulterated metal perfection and crank it up beyond human comprehension. But no, they put Eddie’s name on the thing again, which is fine, because we both know I’m no fucking sellout. Besides, I’ll get enough attention when my new Asian-metal side project HIROSCREAMA shows up at next week’s Kane County Talent Fair. Oh shit, I said too much already.

LL: Between all those double shifts at Walgreens, the lawn mowing gigs, rehearsals/shows with your various bands/projects, and spending quality slutbangin’ time with your amigo Dino, you are one helluva busy guy. What advice can you give my readers about how to get the best results from limited practice time?

Anybody who says they don’t have time to practice is just admitting that they are a pussy-ass bitch, and they probably don’t have enough coordination to handle more than a couple of Pentagram tunes before complaining about their limp wrists and wheelchair rental fees. You read any interview with a truly triumphant guitar god, and you’ll see the same thing every time: they never let their axe leave their hands. They sleep with it, they bring it to work, they put it on the seat next to them when they’re riding the bus. Back in the 90’s, when I was trying to get SLUTBANGER more gigs, I tried to get booked at my mom’s church under the name CATHOLICK as “guest musicians.” When I went in to meet with the priest, he got all pissy because I kept doing scales on my V while he was asking me stupid questions like “What sort of music we play.” I mean, do you SEE this fucking guitar? Do you think these fucking wolves are for show? What do you think I play? I didn’t know priests were such fucking posers. Anyways, after a while, I told him I wanted to check out the stage, which he said was an altar, but all I know is it put me dead center, where hundreds of slavering metal worshippers could look up at me and benefit from my sermon of ear-shattering harmonic triumph. So I’m standing on that thing, fingering Morbid Angel riffs and imagining all that sweet plaid-skirted church poon slicking up those benches as they watched my crotch cobra thrust its way across the stage, and meanwhile this dude in a dress is telling me he’s going to call the cops. I mean, what the fuck? Anyway, the point is, you don’t stop rocking, ever.

 
LL: Who are your main influences as a guitarist?

I can’t believe you just asked me this question.
 
LL: In your experience, which is the more effective chick magnet: a hot car, or a hot guitar?

Let me put it this way: how many braless playmates do you see showing up backstage at a car show? Don’t even waste my time with this bullshit.
 
LL: What do you think about the following:
Mullets (hairstyle, not fish)

Mullets are for dudes who hang out in sports bars and play “Devil Went Down to Georgia” every time they hit the jukebox. Any guy who has a mullet is just saying, “I’m too much of a pussy to be a real rocker, because I’m afraid of what my parents might think.”

Jazz
This interview is about five seconds from being over. So either you take your shirt off, or you give me a real question and stop wasting my time.

Amp modelers (like the Line6 stuff)
Who would want an amp modeler instead of the real thing? Any guitarist who’s worth anything knows that if you want an amp, you work whatever shitty job you have to, save that cash, and then run down to the store and plunk down the cash with a big “Fuck you” look to the pretty-boy counter jockey who’s standing in the drum section thinking he matters. Amp modelers just tell people, “Hey, I’m not really into being a triumphant warlord of rock, I just want to fuck around and sound like Radiohead or whatever shitty art band is using equipment from the 70’s that I can’t afford.” I mean, let’s face it: Line 6 Pods are for spoiled teenagers and middle-aged businessmen who want to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan, but are too much of pussies to put a full stack in their basement and tell their moms and wives that they can suck it. Which is probably good anyway, because Stevie Ray Vaughan was a pussy, too. Anyways, yeah.

Chicks who play guitar (sorry, had to ask)
Look, let’s be honest here: chicks who play guitar just wish they were guys, because everyone knows that the most balls-down-your-throat solos were all written by rocking metal dudes. Plus, even when blazing metal leviathans wuss out and write sensitive crap to make their girlfriends happy, it’s just to get pussy, so unless a chick is into that – which is hot, don’t get me wrong – she’s already screwed. Chicks don’t have that hot metal erection that we dudes have, that burning desire that makes us want to spit blood, bang poon, and stand atop a mountain, unleashing note after note of symphonic musical doom.

As for you Lori, well look, you’re obviously pretty hot, and I can dig that. And if you hadn’t moved all the way to Greenland or wherever the fuck you are, I can guarantee you’d be staking out my van, just waiting around the Walgreens parking lot for a chance at sampling the goods. Unfortunately, you holed yourself up on some farm somewhere, bought yourself ProTools and an amp modeler, and convinced yourself that a true guitar god uses things like “arpeggios” and “sweep picking” and “chords,” and you play shows where guys just come to watch because they’re hoping you bought some new spandex that week. And that’s what the chicks do, they practice all the time, trying to get noticed, when we both know that no chick has ever achieved true metal messiah status. Why? Because they don’t have true filthy metal coursing through their veins. I mean, look at your Youtube videos – have you noticed how you’re always sitting down? I mean shit, you might as well put on a frilly dress and have yourself a little tea party with all your sorority sisters. Nobody can properly rock out when they’re sitting down!

So my advice to you is, come back to the States, and I’ll show you what being a guitarist is all about: hot licks, fast hands, and a little bit of crotch-pumping to get the crowd going. After that, maybe we’ll play some guitar, too. You know what I’m talking about.

1) I really love your tone on New Born Race. I think I saw once on a video that you were using a Pod Pro thru a Marshall, and was wondering what you recorded that solo through? Also the envelope filter/wah effect you are using in it, what is it? I love it, It’s sort of bubbly round and screamy all at the same time (can’t find a better description) – I just cant seem to come up with that tone/effect my self (always comes off sounding more ‘whiny’ and ‘thin’ rather than screamy and round)

First of all Lainee, thanks for the compliments! In the video below, you can see the solo Lainee is referring to (playback version for the album trailer):

For Newborn Race I used the bridge pickup on my Luna Andromeda, the Pod Pro, and the Dunlop 535-Q wah pedal, recorded directly into my computer’s sound card (the photo shows the whole chain). I always record with no added effects or EQ. During mixing, Arjen made many adjustments: EQ, compression, limiting, short reverb, long reverb, and delay. EQ usually involves hunting down and reducing any ugly frequencies, and often adding a bit of top. It depends on the solo sound used, and the characteristics of the backing.

You mention having a problem with only getting thin, whiny sounds. The only solution I know of is to try a load of different wah pedals until you find one you like. So far the Dunlop 535-Q is my “go to” wah, but sometimes I use a Bad Horsie II. The Dunlop Crybaby classic seems good as well — that will probably be the next wah pedal added to my own collection.

Another thing you can try is to “tune” your wah by opening it up and adjusting the range of the pot under the treadle to find the “sweet spot.” (see img below)

2) Your trem technique is brilliant, so fluid. Was wondering (for example on the Luna andromeda) when you set up your trem, how many springs do you have on the Floyd to get such a smooth and fluid motion and tone with it?

There are 2 springs on my Luna Andromeda (9-42s, standard tuning).The number of springs will depend on what gauge strings you use and whether you tune to standard pitch or some other tuning.

All of my guitars’ bridges are set up to be “floating,” which means that I can pull slightly up on the bar as well as press downwards towards the body. Floating trems have both advantages and disadvantages: you get a silky smooth trem action, but have to be careful when muting so as not to press too hard on the bridge and make the tuning go sharp. In general, tuning takes longer with a floating trem (for me, anyway).

I hope this answers your questions, Lainee. Best of luck with your music!

The ShredTracker is a form for systematically tracking your weekly guitar practice routine (and hopefully your progress). Its design is inspired by my form idol Dave Seah’s PCEO series.

The ShredTracker weekly diary is in European A4 format and comes in two colors: Pink (of course) and Blue for macho types who “don’t do pink.” Download this filled-in example to see how it can be used. Happy practicing!

If the word “shred” offends your tender sensibilities, then you might prefer my my more neutral version called (drumroll) the PracticeTracker.

Practice Tracker Weekly Guitar Practice Diary in Blue

Practce Tracker Weekly Guitar Practice Diary in Pink

You can find out more about how to use the ShredTracker in my original post.

Oh, and by the way, I’m taking an indefinite break from email and social media of all kinds. Email to my standard web addresses will be deleted unread until further notice.

Thanks for the tip, JH!

This is fine for developing basic coordination between your left and right hands, but it’s not exactly musical.

Life is short: if you’re going to spend time working on technical exercises, it makes more sense to design exercises that at least have some potential for musical application. Making an exercise more musical makes it more fun to play as well.

With some slight changes to the warm-up exercise above you can turn it into a true chromatic scale. This gives you both coordination practice AND the benefit of musical applicability:

Chromatic exercise 1 PDF ::: Guitar Pro 5

Make sure that you stick to strict alternate picking, even on the slides — every note should be picked.

I encourage you to experiment with variations on this exercise — for example, playing it with a triplet feel instead of straight sixteenths. And make sure that NO MATTER WHAT you play it clean. If it’s sloppy, you’re playing too fast. Pay particular attention to fingers 2 and 3 — for me those tend to be the troublemakers.

Have fun!

…Sweeping is fairly easy for me. I have the movements of my right hand sweep down just fine, and I can sort of figure out the Arps. I am self taught of a year or so, a little less and already I have associated myself among the best shredders around. =D Or so my friends say. I have been learning sweeps for about 2 weeks, and I need to know how you make it cleaner, with a distorted sound. I play Technical stuff, if you have ever heard of Necrophagist or something like Abigail Williams, and I can play the sweeps and arps just fine, except I leave all the notes ringing after the sweep on the string.

So, how do I..not do that? I try and palm mute, run my thumb over the strings as I sweep, but I end up making more noise. So I tried playing sweeps on clean just to get the motions down without banging on the strings with my fingers when playing fast. I know I am rambling, but sweeping is so frustrating when you can only hear static. My efforts in trying to clean by distorted sweeps have been destroyed…So as the only person to ever WANT to help me, Thank you.

Oh dear. Two weeks is nowhere near enough time to master a challenging new technique. Our fast-paced culture of instant gratification leads many people to expect to totally kick ass at new skills within an extremely short time. If they can’t manage, they think they either don’t have the “talent” for it or that they must be doing something horribly wrong.

Some skills just take time to develop. And beware: there are plenty of guitarists out there who will lie about grossly underestimate the amount of time and effort they need to master a given technique, just so they will appear more “talented.” This is total bovine excrement. So cut yourself some slack, realize that any skill takes time to develop, and don’t compare your own progress with other people’s.

OK then, without having seen or heard you play, my guess is that you are trying to play your sweeps too fast too soon.

You need to slow way the heck down, and here is why.

If you play very slowly, you can observe what you’re doing in detail and discover the exact source of the noise. It could be coming from either your left hand, or your right hand, or a combination of both. If you slow way down and still can’t tell where the noise is coming from, then ask a friend to help observe you. You might also find that the noisy problem disappears at a very slow tempo. In that case, gradually increase the tempo until the problem starts to occur.

Once you’ve identified the problem, THEN you can work on fixing it.

Sweep like a girl

For what it’s worth, here are some of my own observations about sweeping arpeggio technique.

• It’s not necessary to mute with the right hand unless you’re going for that Al DiMeola percussive effect. Try letting the heel of your right-hand palm glide lightly over the strings as you sweep to keep them from ringing.
• As you sweep through the arpeggio, your left hand should finger each note separately as you strike the string with the pick (or play a legato note). As you move to each new note, the preceding finger lifts off the string. So you only actually fret one note at a time. When you do a “bar roll,” make sure to actually ROLL your finger so that only the note you want to play is being fully fretted.
• I tend to keep my right hand and forearm fairly relaxed and loose, but I’ve noticed that some guitarists sweep with a much stiffer right hand and forearm. You can experiment with different feels to determine what’s right for you.
• Try practicing with varying levels of distortion, from clean to “more gain than God.” Using a clean sound will help you develop an even pick attack (you can hear if it’s not), whereas using lots of distortion will reveal any sloppiness that you need to clear up.

Just remember that the following applies to almost everything you’ll ever try to play: if you can’t play it at a slow-to-moderate tempo, then you’re not ready to play it fast. Period.

Good luck!

If you’re looking for a free metronome to use on your PC, you might want to try Weird Metronome. It’s tiny, eminently configurable, and FREE.

I’ve been using it on my PC for a couple of weeks now, and the only feature this metronome is lacking is keyboard shortcuts for adjusting the tempo. However, the author makes the source code available, so if you’re good at C++ you could try adding this feature (and get my eternal gratitude).

Advantages of a PC-based metronome
I love my little Korg metronome, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to practice without worrying about annoying others with the click, click, click. My Korg does have a headphone jack, but I’m too lazy to route the signal into my mixer so I can hear both the metronome and my guitar.

If you play your guitar through your PC, then using Weird Metronome makes it easy to get a good guitar-metronome headphone mix.

[UPDATE 2 September 2007: Some users may experience timing issues with Weird Metronome (I've not noticed this problem, but maybe my timing just sucks! Another free alternative that seems really great is Zetronome, which was pointed out by Mamadalica in comments. It can be controlled with keyboard shortcuts, is highly configurable, and uses real drum sounds. Oh, and for your speed demons, it goes up to 300 bpm. My spontaneous impression is that it kicks Weird Metronome's butt.

A non-free alternative is Beatcraft (thanks to Seb for the tip).

Blogging is cool. Not only do I get to share things that I discover, but I learn a lot from you alert readers as well! ]