Lick Of The Week 7

Rob Schumann: So this is the lick of the week and this is one is a little bit more metal oriented than some of the other ones that we have done and we will just change that for this week. This is sort of a riff oriented thing that we are using to disguise some power chords and this could be played as part of a solo but you will also things like this played in conjunction with rest of the band. You will see a long times of base player, we are playing with a guitar and to make really a fake guitar sound.

So it's kind of thing that sound great with a double base pedal going on and that's one of rhythmic accents with snaring simple crashes on there. Basically, what we are trying to do with this is, disguise your typical metal or hard rock power chord regression. So it really be outlined here, it would be a like D going to a B flat to a G to an A. And if we just have this kind of sounds in our progression all the time, everything really starts sounding similar after a while.

There is only so many ways that you can mix up power chords. So a lot of hard rock and metal bands use a lot of different tools to disguise this type of things and so with this particular four bar lick, we are taking that progression and using slides and pull offs to outline it with a sort of melodic line that's also very rhythmically accented. Specifically these chords would be a D minor since this is kind of in the key of D minor going to a B flat major to a G minor and then to really get real strong pull back to the D chord, we could do like an A dominant seven. So of course it will destroy this chord, to sound good and that is where we sort of have to imply them in the line that we are looking at.

So let's take a look at the techniques that I am using then we will talk about, how to outline chords using this technique. So we are starting off doing a slide from three to five on the fifth string, then hitting the seventh fret on the fourth string and then doing a pull off and then doing a slide down from five to three on the fourth string and then a pull off to the open four string. Then we are using that open string as an opportunity to get back to the seventh fret of the fifth string and then doing a hammer-on and pull-off and then pulling off to the open fifth string and then doing pull-offs to the open fourth string from seven and then five.

So that's how we are outlying that D minor chord. So a couple of things about that, first of all, when we slide up to this fifth fret, you notice that we pretty much have a D power chord, but it's also important we pull-off to these open strings, we still want to be outlining chord tones as much as we can and so towards the end of this bar, on pulling off to the open D string, quite a bit. So that's off to the route, but then when I am pulling off to the open fifth string, that's really just the fifth of D chord so it stills fits on the chord, so we had.

I should also mention that I kind of keep the right hand back here, almost permuting a little bit, when I am picking but that also keeps these notes when I pull-off to the open string from just ringing out of control, so I try to keep it pretty tight. Moving on to the B flat bar, we did this pull-offs in the previous bar from seven to five for the open strings and then we just jumped straight to a B flat power chord at the sixth fret. And here I am actually going to play arpeggio, if you will listen to this I would have B flat to F, then do an A which would kind of be, like the flat 7 of the chord or actually the major seven rather there, because there is our root.

So that one to five to the major seven and I am going to pull-off to that D. Now I am doing a lot of pulling off on D on this chord, that is because that's the third of a B flat chord. So we have got pulling off and then after we pull-off to that open fourth string, we will then do slide from five down to three and then pull-off to the open fourth string and then to a slide from two to three and pull-off again. So we add --.

Then we have got an interesting figure here, where I am going to hit this B flat, third fret of the third string, then hit five on the fourth string and then pull-off and then hit five on the third string and pull off from seven on the fourth string, set for bar and so you kind of a sort of three sequence there, which sounds cool against the 16 and that's so more time on that bar. Then, we are on to the bar of G, so here once again I have a G, kind of bar chord, but then I hit the third fret of the fourth string, it's the flat seven on the chord, pull-off to the open fourth string.

Now here, this open fourth string looks good, because that's the fifth of the chord, but then you will notice later, we are doing some pulling off on the open third string which will be the root. Here, there is so many pull-offs of slide from five down to three and pull-off to the open third string and then do the same from three down to two. And so when I am doing that, I'll switch fingers and you will notice quite a bit in a lot of this licks throughout these bars. I am sort of, using one finger and sliding around and trying to avoid using the same finger twice in the row a lot of times. That also makes it really cool visual for people watching, it will just look like you are and going around the neck like crazy and that's another thing people will do a lot times, rather than playing one string, when they are going up something, they will incorporate some open strings and that gets you to move around the neck more.

So we had, then we slide down and I am going to pull off to the open third string from five and then seventh and then in the bar when going from seventh to eight on the fourth string as a slide. So we add, and I like to use my fourth finger to do that, because the last chord I am going to, is that A right here. And there I am going to hit five on sixth string. Start from seven to eight and then pull-off and so I am really hitting the root in here this open A.

Then I am going to hit this fourth fret of the fifth string and that's the C sharp in this chord which outlines this A. This is sort of a surprising major chord or a dominant seven where we are using it and that is going to leave us back to the D and so that's a really important note to outline here. So I'll hit five, seven to eight, pull-off then four, pull-off and I think I used my finger for that, then I used my third finger I slide from fifth to seventh on the fifth string and then from five to seven on the fourth string, so it looks like this.

So it's kind of a cool visual there, then pull-off and then you can use seven to eight and then pull of on the fifth string and then I am going to pull-off fourth to the open string and then we can end the lick on the D minor, I'll go back and repeat the whole thing. So this looks as a cool break in a song, it can even work for being a solo, some bands use it as the compliment of the core progression and actually sing over it.

So it just depends, it's kind of almost a progressive metal kind of thing. So let's try that lick and have speed. Now usually on our lick of the week , we will show you, how to take these and put them in other keys. With a lot of things that end up being sort of progressive or heavy metal, some of them don't really transpose very well. And this would be one of those examples.

The reason is, we are using these open strings at a long times, things would be very dependent, on how the guitar is set up. That's why you'll notice a lot of metal so long as being an E and A and D and stuff like that. Because you are really able to use this open strings. So what a lot of groups end up doing of course is detailing their guitars, making the strings lower and lower, putting in another keys, but occasionally you just have to watch for chords that you can use, these open strings with.

So for instance, if I want to do a lick similar to this in another key. What you can do is, look at your open strings and figure out where they would fit into a chord. For example, open third string, we use that as the root of our G chord, but if you are playing over a C chord that could be the fifth of the C chord, so

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