Tommy Bolan - Riffs and Techniques

Hi, I am Tommy Bolan from the band MYC and I appreciate you checking on my tape here. I am going to show you a bunch of stuff like riffs and exercises and patters. Basically, to get your fingers moving and get you in the fast lane as quick as you can there.

Basically, most of the stuff I jam out is based on Minor Dorian, Mixolygian, or Pentatonic, Pentatonic Blues. So, most of the stuff will be pretty much from that. I will show you some of my picking techniques, some warm up exercises, stuff like that. Stuff to get you wearing out

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Alright, one riff I like doing a lot is just quick hammer-on, just to get you warmed up. Something simple like this, I will show you at full speed first.

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The riff I am going to show you here is basically a chromatic one which is usually based on hammer-on’s

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Now, I will speed up

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And I will slow it down for you. Notice that I keep my hand here at the bridge, and the hammering as well.

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Now, another cool trick, you can actually mute on the bridge (Guitar Demo) and it will be like this

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Essentially, putting your palm right there on the bridge.

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Another cool riff that I do is involving hammer-on and pull-off’s. Basically, I will show you at full speed.

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Basically, in slowing it down, it starts off with the

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Notice this note is always muted, which gives that texture.

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Now, I have got these other strings kept quiet by my palm here, and the way I have my hands hanging over. Otherwise, it will be

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A lot of excess noise so, if you speed that up,

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You can also vary it by extending the pinkie, which would be

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Not essentially a noisy riff, but live when you are just shredding out. You can even move it up to the top here.

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Now, that is noise here, but you are playing all the open strings, so you got to keep it quiet here by muting.

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Now, let us say that riff there is in G-minor. You have G-minor pentatonic

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You will find all these riffs, all these scales at iconsofrock.com, well. Now, I could continue that pattern

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So you can go

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