Rock Guitar Techniques – Part 3
Hey everyone, back for the 3rd installment of rock guitar techniques.
In this lesson I go a little more in depth.
Today I will show you several techniques that the famous guitarists like Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Yngwie etc. used to make their playing shine in the 80s and 90s.
These techniques are difficult and will take some time to master so take it slow and get things right before trying to play them faster.
There is tabulature and video lesson below.
Let’s get started!
1. String Skipping
The first time I heard this technique was on a Racer X CD by a guy named Paul Gilbert. The arpeggios he played had a different sound and I had to find out how to do it.
Luckily enough Paul put out a lesson video in the late 80s so I could see this neat technique in action.
Check out the tab below in Fig 1 and follow the pick strokes or come up with your own
2. Alternate picking
This technique is the defacto way most rock guitarists pick and is important because it achieves the best tone (other than straight downstrokes) that you can get out of a guitar.
Again I harken to Paul Gilbert who had a mini lesson in an advertisement for GIT back in the 80s.
The idea is to pick down then up or vice versa and not waver from that pattern.
Check out Fig 2 and follow picking or start with an upstroke.
3. Sweep picking
This is a technique I first heard used by Yngwie Malmsteen although I know many other guitarists in other genres such as jazz were technically using it.
The idea with sweeping is to have a shape in mind and let the pick fall through the strings as your fret hand release the notes you already played.
Check out figures 3 and 4 below for examples.
Thanks and see you for Rock Techniques part 4!
