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PAUL GILBERT presents

SHRED ALERT!!!

DVD

THEULTIMATE

DVD GUIDE!



Photograph by PHOTOGRAPHER

2 GUITAR WORLD

PAUL GILBERT pres ents

SHRED ALERT!!!

DVD

1. ALTERNATE UNIVERSEUsing alternate picking and note skipping to play interesting arpeggio patterns

2. READY TO RUMBLEQuick, effective pick-hand warm-up exercises

3. READY TO RUMBLE, PART 2More pick-hand warm-up exercises

4. ASSUME THE POSITION Using position shifts to your advantage when soloing

5. ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVEAlternate picking with accent patterns

6. FAST AND CLEANAlternate-picked 16th notes—the business card of shred guitar

7. STICK YER NECK OUTUsing neck diagrams to your advantage

8. SHAPE SHIFTINGHow to organize patterns on the fretboard

9. SNAKE-CHARMING LICKSThe fifth mode of harmonic minor

10. UNITED MUTATIONSMastering muting techniques

11. BREAKIN’ OUTThe blessings and benefits of live performance



Instead of just playing a C major triad(C E G) over C5, let’s add the s4 to themix, as shown in FIGURE 6 with the notesC, E, Fs and G. If we apply the note-skipping concept, we get C-Fs as ourfirst pair ( FIGURE 7a ). FIGURE 7b illustratesthe ensuing sequence played across

»three octaves. It’s also fun to play eachpair as a two-note chord ( FIGURE 7c ).

Try applying this approach towhatever scale or mode you can thinkof. As shown in FIGURE 8a, it works wellwith E Dorian, the E blues scale and anA diminished-seven arpeggio.❒

ALTERNATE UNIVERSEUSING ALTERNATE PICKING AND NOTE SKIPPING

TO PLAY INTERESTING ARPEGGIO PATTERNS

CHAPTER 1

3 GUITAR WORLD

HI, AND WELCOME to the firstchapter of Shred Alert, whereI’ll teach you many of thetechniques I use. Let’s beginwith a very simple pickingexercise ( FIGURE 1 ) and look

at some of the neat and musicallyinteresting variations you can spinfrom it. We have two notes, E and B,picked repeatedly with alternatingdownstrokes and upstrokes, a techniqueknown as alternate picking . This is agood exercise for what I call “outsidepicking,” as the pick movement isconsistently on the “outside” of the pair

of strings, which is considerably easierthan “inside picking.”

What I am going to do now isexpand on this idea by applying amathematical pattern to an Em triadarpeggio (E G B). In FIGURE 2a, thenotes are played sequentially in anascending fashion in two octavesacross the neck; in FIGURE 2b, the samenotes are played in a different positionas a sweep-picked arpeggio (sweeppicking involves dragging the pickacross the strings in a single downwardor upward motion).

This is how most rock guitarists

play arpeggios—straight up and down.What I like to do in order to createa more interesting melodic contour is apply a note-skipping pattern thatgoes “up two, back one, up two, backone,” etc,” as demonstrated in FIGURES

3a-d: in FIGURE 3a, instead of playing Eto G, I play E to B, just like our initialpicking exercise. In FIGURE 3b, I moveon to the next pair, G-E, using the same“outside picking” motion. Now that wehave a new pattern, let’s get it underour fingers by alternating betweeneach note pair ( FIGURE 3c ). FIGURE 3d shows the next pair, B and G, and allthree pairs are played in sequence in

FIGURE 4a. The pattern sounds coolwhen continued across three octaves,as demonstrated in FIGURES 4b andFIGURE 4c.

This note-skipping concept canbe applied to other arpeggios, aswell as scales. A very common chordprogression in rock and metal is Em D5C5 ( FIGURE 5a ). It’s standard practicewith this progression to substitute theraised, or sharp, four ( s4) for the fiveof the C5 chord, sounding C and Fs instead of C and G. This alludes to theC Lydian mode, shown in ascendingfour-note groups in FIGURE 5b.

P.M.

P.M.

FIGURE 1

* = downstroke

*

2

4

2

4

= upstroke

FIGURE 2a Em triad

12

10

14

14

12

16

( )17

151919

FIGURE 2b

sweep arpeggio

1210

99

89 12

FIGURE 3a

1214

1214

12

3 3 3 3 3

FIGURE 3b

1014

15

14

15

14

FIGURE 3c

15

14

15

1214

15

14

FIGURE 3d

1417

1417

1417

FIGURE 4a

sim.

12

14

15

14

14

17

FIGURE 4b

1214

15

1414

171416

17

1716

20

FIGURE 4c

1719

1214

15

1414

171416

17

1716

201719

1719

1620

17

17

1416

1417

15

14

1214

FIGURE 5aEm

7998

7998

D5

XXXX

XXXX

XXXX

XXXX

577

577

0

C5

XXX

XXX

XXX

XXX

355

34

35

034

35

34

FIGURE 5b C Lydian mode

87 9 10

109 1 1 12

1312 14 15

1

!12 12 10

13

FIGURE 6

(root)C

8

(maj3)E

7

F

( 4)

9

G(5)

10

FIGURE 7a sim.

89

89

!8

FIGURE 7b

89

1210 9

1010

9 10 11 14 12 11

13

12

1213

1417

15 !19

20

20

FIGURE 7c

89

1210 9

10 X10

91011

1412 1 1

13 X12

121314

1715

01920

FIGURE 8a E Dorian

19

1817

1 9 1817

1920

1/2

1721

E blues scale

1213

151413

1214

141212

141512

1215

1512

1215

15 ( )

1/2

1718

18

A diminished-seven arpeggio

1415

17

1615

1416

1714

14

17

1719

20

FIGURE 1 FIGURE 2 FIGURE 2b FIGURE 3a

FIGURE 3b FIGURE 3c FIGURE 3d FIGURE 4a

FIGURE 4b FIGURE 4c

FIGURE 5a

FIGURE 5b FIGURE 6

FIGURE 7a FIGURE 7b

FIGURE 7c FIGURE 8a



the two. You’ll find that when playing

very quietly it takes a lot of control tokeep the picking even.

Let’s move to some different chords:FIGURE 12c begins with a G major voicing,again altered by changing the note onthe high E string: FIGURE 12d features anascending D diminished-seven voicing,and FIGURE 12e begins with some naturalharmonics (N.H.), sounded by lightly

READY TO RUMBLEQUICK, EFFECTIVE PICK-HAND WARM-UP EXERCISES

CHAPTER 2

»laying a fret-hand finger across the top

three strings directly above the fretwire.If you play all of these figures in

sequence without stopping, you willhave repeated this picking motion forabout three minutes. By this point,your pick-hand will be warmed up.In the next chapter, I’ll offer somepermutations on this useful andeffective exercise.❒

P.M.

P.M.

P.M.

FIGURE 1

*

* = upstroke = downstroke

Em

0

0

0

FIGURE 2

Am

5

5

5

FIGURE 3

sim.

Am

55

5

75

5

85

5

75

5

3 3 3 3 3 3

FIGURE 4a

P.M. throughout sim.

Am

810

9

810

14

1213

14

FIGURE 4b

sim.P.M. throughoutAm

1513

14

1413

14

1213

14

1413

14

3 3 3 3 3 3 3

1513

14

1413

14

1213

14

1413

9

810

9

1010

9

1210

9

1010

9

810

9

710

9

810

9

710

5

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

55

5

75

5

85

5

75

5

55

5

cresc.

f

cresc.

f

3 3 3 3 3

FIGURE 4c


G

78

7

88

7

108

7

88

8

78

7

58

7

78

7

3 3 3 3 3 3 3

FIGURE 4d


Ddim7

4

6 7

4

6 10

7

9 10

7

9 13

10

12 13

10

12 16

13

15 16

13

15 14

Am

12

13 14

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

FIGURE 4e

sim. N.H.Em

1212

12

55

5

55

5

00

0

3 3 3 3

Am

55

5

(slow down)

07555

3

IN THIS CHAPTER, I’d like to

show you my favorite right-hand(pick-hand) warm-up exercise. Iuse this exercise at every show,every clinic and any time I needto warm-up my right hand

before performing.The entire exercise is played on the

top three strings in a rhythm of repeatingeighth-note triplets. This means thateach beat in a bar of 4/4 is dividedlike this: ONE-trip-let, TWO-trip-let,THREE-trip-let, FOUR-trip-let. To playeach eighth-note triplet, I use a pickingmotion of up-up-down. As illustrated inFIGURE 9, I pick the open high E stringwith an upstroke, followed by the open B

picked with an upstroke, followed by theopen G string picked with a downstroke.I also use palm-muting (P.M.) to attaina more staccato (detached) sound. Palmmuting is performed by resting the edgeof the pick-hand palm across all of thestrings, at the bridge saddles.

Note that the upstrokes are performedas individual strokes, as opposed topicking a single upstroke dragged acrossthe top two strings, which would bewhat’s known as a reverse sweep orreverse rake. It requires more musclemovement and coordination to performtwo upstrokes, but that’s why this is a

good warm-up exercise—repeating threedistinct picking motions in this way willbuild up the muscles in the pick hand.

Because I get bored hearing the samethree open strings over and over, I like touse different chords to make the exercisesound more interesting. As shown inFIGURE 10, I can barre across the top threestrings at the fifth fret to sound an Amtriad. This will soon get monotonous aswell, so I can easily make it sound moreinteresting by changing the note onthe high E string to imply a melody, asdemonstrated in FIGURE 11.

In order for this exercise to be an ef-fective warm-up, I need to keep picking

the strings in this way for at least twominutes, which of course inspires meto move around the fretboard a little bitand find some other interesting shapesand figures to play. Let’s start with dif-ferent inversions (chord voicings) of Am,as shown in FIGURE 12a: I begin in eighthposition, with the minor third, C, on top,and then shift up to a 12th-position in-version of Am with the fifth, E, on top.

Likewise, I’ll alter the note on thehigh E string for a little variety, as inFIGURE 12b. Another good thing to do isto practice picking dynamics, by pickingsofter or louder, or switching between

ON DISC ONDISC

4 GUITAR WORLD

FIGURE 9 FIGURE 10 FIGURE 11

FIGURE 12a FIGURE 12b

FIGURE 12c

FIGURE 12d

FIGURE 12e



Now let’s apply our picking tech-nique to these chord shapes, as dem-onstrated in the second part of FIGURE

14. Following an eighth-note pickupon the fourth string, picked with adownstroke, each eighth-note tripletis picked up-up-down on the second,third and fourth strings, respectively.Notice that I like to use palm muting

throughout (rest the edge of the pick-hand palm across the bridge saddles)to attain a more percussive attack and aclearer separation of notes.

Now that you have a handle on theconcept, let’s experiment by movingthese chord shapes around the board indifferent patterns: as shown in FIGURE

15, I begin by descending in the same

»manner as FIGURE 14 for the first twobars, but at the end of bar 2 I anticipate each new chord shape by shifting to iton the preceding eighth note, soundedon the fourth string with a down-stroke. This approach is then adheredto for the remainder of the exercise.Anticipating each new chord shape likethis serves to make the exercise sound

even more interesting.Once you’ve become comfortable

with the picking technique and musi-cal concept, try to invent your ownways of connecting these kinds of tri-adic chord shapes. For the truly adven-turous and ambitious, try applying thepattern to all the other groups of threeadjacent strings. ❒

Freely

FIGURE 1

12

1/2E7 9

121013 1210 9

910 9

10 10 9

10 910

9

10 9 7 9 7 6 7 68

68 7

8

1/2

7 7 7 5 7 5 4 1

0

0022

100

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

P.M.

FIGURE 2

E E7 9 A m E 7 F

141313

121012

109

10

979

E D m E

756

645

323

211

0

*

* = downstroke

14

E

13

13

14

E7 9

= upstroke

12

10

12

Am

10

9

10

E7

sim.

F

9

7

9

E

65

7

54

6

Dm

32

3

E

11

1

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

FIGURE 3

14

P.M. throughout

13

13

14

12

10

12

10

9

10

sim.

9

7

9

6 57

5 46

3 23

1 16

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

54

3

32

7

65

6

54

9

99

7

65

10

109

9

97

14

1313

12

1210

10

109

9

97

7

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

65

6

54

3

32

2

11

3

32

7

65

10

109

14

1313

14

15

1

15

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

IN THE LAST CHAPTER, I pre-sented an intensive pick-handexercise that I do before everyshow or clinic. I know thatin any situation it will get mewarmed up and ready to play

in no time. To refresh your memory,the exercise is built from sequences ofeighth-note triplets that fall on three

adjacent strings, one note played perstring, moving from the highest stringto the lowest. Instead of playing eachtriplet as a reverse sweep, which in-volves dragging the pick across thethree strings in a single upward mo-tion, I prefer to use individual pickstrokes, picking the first two noteswith upstrokes and the last note witha downstroke. It is the use of theseindividual strokes that really builds upone’s picking strength and stamina.

With just about everything I use asa warm-up exercise, one of my hopesis that I will eventually use the given

technique in a piece of music. I’m notinterested in warm-ups that are simplymuscle-building routines. To me, it’smore useful and enjoyable if the exer-cise exudes some musical merit as well.

One of the ways to apply a musicalapproach to this picking exercise is toinstill a scalar concept, molding theexercise to the musical structure of agiven scale. A scale that works well withthis exercise is Phrygian dominant,which is the fifth mode of the harmonicminor scale. Sometimes referred to asthe “snake charmer” scale, Phrygiandominant is intervallically spelled 1 f2 34 5 f6 f7. In the key of E, the notes are E

F Gs A B C D; FIGURE 13 is a descendingrun based on this exotic-sounding scale.

The first thing I did with the scalewas to harmonize it in three-notechords, as shown in the first bar ofFIGURE 14. Starting with an E+ (E aug-mented) triad, I move the chord shapesdown the neck by shifting each note oneach string to the next lower scale toneon that string, i.e., the E note on thefourth string moves down to D, the Gs on the third string moves to F and theC on the second string moves to B. Theprocess continues down the fretboardto first position.

5 GUITAR WORLD

READY TO RUMBLE, PART 2 MORE PICK-HAND WARM-UP EXERCISES

CHAPTER 3

FIGURE 13

FIGURE 14

FIGURE 15



sane) position-shifting exercise is toplay the entire A minor pentatonic scalein fifth position using just one finger. Asshown in FIGURE 19, I first play the entirescale using only my index finger, whichforces me to move it up and down thefretboard very quickly and, hopefully,accurately. I then repeat the exercisewith the middle finger, ring finger andpinkie. This type of drill will get youaccustomed to making instantaneousposition shifts with every one of your

fretting fingers.The last position-shifting lick in this

chapter is shown in FIGURE 20. Thisone looks a little crazy because I shift

»back and forth between two positionsvery quickly. In the first bar, I begin in10th position and use string skipping,from the high E to the G, to play thefirst two notes. I then play the last fournotes in 12th position. The lick in bar 2is almost identical, except the first andfourth notes in the lick are played onefret lower. When you get this one up tospeed, it sounds a little like a synthe-sizer lick.

Hopefully these exercises will help

you to get a handle on position shift-ing, and I do hope you have fun play-ing minor pentatonic scales with yourpinkie only. ❒

FIGURE 1 A minor pentatonic scale

8 58 5

7 57 5

7 58 5

FIGURE 2

0 3 53 5 7

5 7

5 7

0

17 1917 19

17

1

2017 20 20 20 17

20 17 20

1

FIGURE 3

5 75 7

0

17

5 75 7

0

17 1917 19

0 3 53 5 7

5 75 7

0

17 1917 19

0 3 53 5 7

5 75 7

0

1 7 1 91 7 1 9

17

1

2017 20 20 20 17

20 17 20

1

index:middle:

ring: pinkie:

1234

FIGURE 4

1234

1234

1234

1234

5 85 7

1234

1234

1234

etc.etc.etc.etc.

5 75 7

5 85 8 10 8 5

8 57 5

7 57 5

8 5

1

FIGURE 5

3 1 4 1 3

10

1212 15

12 14

1 3 1 3 1 3

9

1212 14

12 14

3 3

I’D LIKE TO ADDRESS the dodgysubject of “position shifting.”A great way to jump into thistopic is to use as our basis oneof the most commonly usedscales in rock, the minor pen-

tatonic. FIGURE 16 illustrates A minorpentatonic played in fifth position.Most guitar players have played thisscale in this position a million times. Inthis chapter, I’ll show you how to playit “outside of the box,” using position

shifts that give you greater movementand versatility over the fretboard.

When this scale is played in fifthposition, the highest note is C (firststring, eighth fret) and the lowest noteis A (sixth string, fifth fret), and you arestuck within the limitations of thoseboundaries. Position shifts open thoseboundaries, allowing us to play thisscale from the absolute lowest note pos-sible, the open low E, to one of the high-est notes possible on a guitar, the D onthe first string’s 22nd fret.

FIGURE 17 illustrates a very comfort-able way to traverse this scale, as well

the entire fretboard, across three anda half octaves of A minor pentatonic.Following the first note, the open lowE, I fret a G on the third fret of the sixthstring and then hammer-on up to A atthe fifth fret. I then move over to the Astring and start with a hammer from thethird fret to the fifth, then slide up fromthe fifth to the seventh fret. This is fol-lowed by fifth-to-seventh-fret hammerson the D and G strings.

The next note is the key to this ex-ercise: using the open high E string tosound the next note in the scale, I amafforded the opportunity to shift all theway up to 17th position and continue

playing the rest of the scale.Making that position shift sound

seamless can be a little tricky, so it’s agood idea to break the phrase up intosmaller pieces, as shown in FIGURE 18.Begin by looping the first six notes ofthe scale with the position shift. Oncethat begins to feel comfortable, add afew more notes and continue to do sountil the entire phrase feels comfortableand seamless. Familiarizing yourselfwith an expanded note register like thiswill afford you a range that is normallyexclusive to keyboard players.

Another good (but admittedly in-

6 GUITAR WORLD

ASSUME THE POSITIONUSING POSITION SHIFTS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE WHEN SOLOING

CHAPTER 4

FIGURE 16 FIGURE 17

FIGURE 18

FIGURE 19

FIGURE 20



*by Paul Gilbert

»IN THIS CHAPTER we’re go-

ing to look at the concept ofsyncopation, and we’ll beginwith a rhythm figure that laysout an accent pattern. Keep

that rhythmic syncopation in yourmind, because I use those same ac-cents in the crazy picking exercisethat is the focus of this column.

Check out the rhythm guitar figureriff in FIGURE 21: this pattern is madeup of root-fifth power chords playedin a syncopated fashion against anopen low-E pedal tone. This is essen-tially a two-bar rhythm pattern withvery pronounced, specific accents: inbar 1 they fall on the downbeat of beat

one, the upbeat of beat two and thedownbeat of beat four; the accents inbar 2 fall squarely on beats one, twoand three. If one were to recreate thatrhythm orally, it would sound likethis: ONE (and two) AND (three and)FOUR (and) ONE (and) TWO (and)THREE (and four and).

FIGURE 22 illustrates the pickingexercise, which is based on a longsequence of 16th-note triplets. Noticehow the line is contoured with ac-cents falling in the same places as inFIGURE 21. It’s in the key of E minorand stays diatonic (within the scale

structure of) to the E natural minorscale, which is also known as the EAeolian mode (E Fs G A B C D).

The great majority of the lick is al-ternate picked, but I throw in a coupleof double hammer-ons, which serve tosmooth out the sound. Also, it’s veryimportant to begin this lick with anupstroke. Throughout the exercise,the initial pick on each new string isexecuted in this manner.

I begin FIGURE 22 in ninth positionand play the initial pattern twice. Ithen move up to 12th position andfollow the same pattern contourwhile staying within the scale struc-

ture of E natural minor, which neces-sitates a slight change in fingering. Ithen do the same thing in 16th posi-tion. In FIGURE 22a, I move the lick upthe fretboard one scale degree at atime, beginning in ninth position onFs, then starting on G, A, B and C.

A great thing to do is focus on onepart of the lick, such as the fragmentshown in FIGURE 23. Play this slowly un-til it feels comfortable, then graduallyincrease your speed. ❒

7 GUITAR WORLD

ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE ALTERNATE PICKING WITH ACCENT PATTERNS

CHAPTER 5

P.M. P.M. P.M.

1.

P.M.

2.

FIGURE 1 = 152

B5 D5

244

0 0577

E5P.M.

A5

0 0799

0

P.M.G5

P.M.E5

121414

0101212

0799

G5

0 0

P.M.F

5P.M.

E5

101212

09

1111

0799

0 0

P.M.

3.

P.M. P.M.

D5P.M.

G5P.M.

E5

577

0101212

0799

B5

0 0

D5

244

0 0577

E5

0 0799

799

P.M. P.M. P.M.

FIGURE 2

Em = downstroke

9

12

10

8

10

12

= downstroke

9

10 129

12

10

9

10

12

9

10 129

12

10

9

10

12

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

9

12

10

9

10

12

(repeat prev. beat)

9

X

sim.

12

15 14 12 14 1512 14 15

12

15 14 12 14 1512 14 16

12

16 14 12 14 15

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

12

0 1 5 17 1 915

1 9 1 7 1 5 1 7 1 9151719

16

1917161719161719

16

19171617 19

16

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

P.M. P.M. P.M.

FIGURE 2a

Em

9

12

10

9

10

12

9

1 0 1 29

12

10

9

10

12

9

1 0 1 2

9

12

10

9

10

12

9

X

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 sim.

10

14 12 10 12 141 0 1 2 1 4

10

14 12 10 12 141 0 1 2 1 4

11

14 12 10 12 14

11

X

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

12

15 14 12 14 151 2 1 4 1 5

12

15 1 4 1 2 1 4 1 51 2 1 4 1 6

12

1 6 1 4 1 2 1 4 16

12

X

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

14

17 15 14 15 171 4 1 5 1 7

14

17 15 14 1 5 1 71 4 1 6 1 7

14

17 16 14 16 1 7

14

X

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

P.M.

15

1 9 1 7 1 5 1 7 1 91 5 1 7 1 9

16

1 9 1 7 1 6 1 7 1 91 6 1 7 1 9

16

1 9 1 7 1 6 1 7 1 9

16

FIGURE 3

16

19

17

16

17

19

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

FIGURE 21

FIGURE 22

FIGURE 22a

FIGURE 23



directly against the 19th fret.As these exercises include a few

two-notes-per-string descending lines,a cool twist is to use pull-offs whereverpossible in order to attain a smootherlegato sound, as demonstrated in FIGURE

26. And despite what some people say,

»

FIGURE 1a

*

* alternate picking:

Em

7

5

8

5

= downstroke;

FIGURE 1b

= upstroke

Em

7

5

8

5

sim.8

7

10

7

!8

710 7

8

FIGURE 1c

Em

10 812 8

!10

812 8

10

FIGURE 1d

Em

12 1013 10

!12

1013 10

12

FIGURE 1e

Em

14 1215 12

!13

121 5 1 2

14

3

FIGURE 1f

Em

2 4 1 3

15 1417 13

2 4 1 3

!15

1417 13

15

FIGURE 1g

Em

1 7 1 519 15

!17

1519 15

17

FIGURE 2Em

19 1720 17

(play 5 times)

1917

20 1717 15

19 15 1715

1 9 151 5 14

17 13 1514

17 13

14 1215 12 13

1215 12

12 1013 10 12

1013 10

10 812 8 10

812 8

8 710 7 8

710 7

7 58 5 !7

58 5 7

1/2

!

*T.H.

*Tap harmonic

7

(19)

FIGURE 3 legato (w/pull-offs)Em

19 1720 17 19

1720 17

17 1519 15 17

1519 15

15 1417 13 15

1417 13

14 1215 12 13

1215 12

12 1013 10 12

1013 10

10 812 8 10

812 8

8 710 7 8

710 7

7 58 5

(play 3 times)

!75

8 5 7

1/2

)

using pull-offs and hammer-ons is notcheating! Legato phrasing is a very validtechnique, and, personally speaking,I do not adhere to a “pick everything”approach when I play. I actually usea combination of picking and legato,which I think sounds great. ❒

I WANT TO talk about an in-gredient that is essential to

every guitar soloist’s arsenal:alternate-picked 16th notes.Sixteenth notes are like the“business card” of shred guitar,

as the essence of the style is the abilityto cleanly execute fast, alternate-picked16ths throughout the fretboard. I’d liketo show you a great 16th-note sequencethat can be played all over the neck, isgreat for both your right- and left-handtechnique and also sounds very melodicand musical.

For the sake of familiarity, let’s usethe key of E natural minor (E Fs G A BC D). FIGURE 24a illustrates the initialshape, which we’ll adapt to various posi-

tions, moving up the neck through thescale. Using alternate (down-up) pick-ing, starting with a downstroke, I playon the top two strings exclusively, begin-ning with two notes on the high E string,followed by two notes on the B string,then one note per string, ending withtwo notes on the B. In this and all otherexamples, the index finger remains atthe same fret throughout the melodicshape. Begin by playing this lick slowly,and gradually build up speed.

For FIGURE 24a we started on B, thefifth of the scale. Let’s move the ideaone note higher within E natural minor,

beginning on C, the sixth ( FIGURE

24b ).Notice that the fingering is slightlydifferent—this is to accommodate thestructure of the scale: whereas the firsttwo notes of FIGURE 24a were a wholestep apart, and fretted with the ringand index fingers, the first two notesin FIGURE 24b are a half step apart, andare fretted with the middle and indexfingers.

For FIGURES 24c-g, we continue tomove the pattern up one scale degreeat a time. FIGURE 25 then begins on thefifth, B, one octave higher than wherewe started.

Each of these “shapes” offers a new

challenge in terms of fret-hand finger-ing. FIGURE 24f is particularly interestingbecause you have to use all four fingers(fret-hand fingerings are indicated belowthe tab). Another cool thing about thatlick is its pull to a C Lydian (C D E Fs G AB) tonality (C Lydian and E natural mi-nor are comprised of the same notes).

Now let’s run these melodic shapes insequence. In FIGURE 25, I play the initiallick five times and then descend throughthe shapes. I end with a little flair, bend-ing the Fs up a half step to G and ap-plying a tapped harmonic, executed by“bouncing” the pick-hand index finger

8 GUITAR WORLD

FAST AND CLEANALTERNATE-PICKED 16TH NOTES—THE BUSINESS CARD OF SHRED GUITAR

CHAPTER 6

FIGURE 24a FIGURE 24b FIGURE 24c

FIGURE 24d FIGURE 24e

FIGURE 24f FIGURE 24g

FIGURE 25

FIGURE 26



the seventh fret, as demonstrated at thebeginning of FIGURE 29c.

String bending is a technique thatimparts a lot of emotion and char-acter to your playing, and as such Idon’t want to be limited to just oneposition—I want to be able to bend ev-erywhere! In searching for more placesto bend, I realized that, in the key ofA, I could use the notes of the C minortriad shape in FIGURE 28, as long as I

»

fret-hand: 2

FIGURE 1a

Am

1 4 1 3

8fr9fr

7fr

5fr 3fr

.. ...!

7

5

9

5

8

3

FIGURE 1b

Am

1 4 1

8 5

9 5

3

8

FIGURE 1cAm

8 5

9 5

75 9

5

(play 3 times)

8 5

9 57

FIGURE 1dAm

8 5

9 5

(play 3 times)

75 9

5 8

1

8

5 8 5

9

5

9 5 9 57

5 9

3 3

5 8 5 8 5

9

5

9 5 9 57

57

7

3 3

FIGURE 2

Cm

!

11 8

12 810

FIGURE 3a

A71

7 7 57

FIGURE 3b

1

85 5

8

1

3

FIGURE 3c

freely

A(7)1/2

8 7 7

1/2 1/2

57

57

1 1/2

55 8 8

1

5 8 58

58

58 5 8 5

85

8 75

1

8 7 57

5 7 7 7 57

5

5

1

7 7 57

5 57

3 3 3

3

FIGURE 3d

grad. bends

A(7)

1/2

1 4

1/4

1

1

2

1/2

11 8

12 8

1/2

1

10

7

FIGURE 4

A(7)

1/21/ 2 1

1/4

11

8 12

8

1/2 1/2

77 7

1 /2 1/ 2 1/ 2

5

6

1/2

5

3

1

3 3 3

1

A5

2 03

022

022

bend each note up a certain amount toa “right” note in the key of A, as dem-onstrated in FIGURE 29d. Now that I hadthese new places to bend, I combinedthem with the more conventional “keyof A” bends, as shown in FIGURE 30.

Try incorporating these bends intoyour playing. For the adventurous, takea really bad note in the key of A—likeBf—and bend the daylights out of it untilit sounds good.❒

ONE THING I’VE FOUND veryhelpful in my guitar studies over

the years is using what I callneck diagrams to map out riffs,patterns and melodic “shapes.” Ifind that diagramming makes it

easier to visualize and, in turn, remem-ber, new shapes on the fretboard.

A good example of a common fret-board shape is an open D chord: justabout every guitar player is familiarwith the triangular shape of a D “cow-boy” chord. But when the shape is alittle more complex, it helps to map itout and study it visually.

Let’s start with a string-skipping ar-peggio in the key of A minor, illustratedin FIGURE 27a: this begins at the seventh

fret on the D string, followed by thefifth and ninth frets on the G string, askip over the B string and then the fifthand eighth frets on the high E string.Notice the visual shape created bythese points on the fretboard (see dia-gram)—it looks a little like a rhombus.Pay close attention to the fret-handfingering indicated for this shape.

Aside from picking every note, youcan use hammer-ons and pull-offs, asthere are two consecutive notes pres-ent on the G and high E strings. FIGURE

27b illustrates how to play the lick usingpull-offs, and FIGURE 27c takes things a

step further by incorporating pull-offson the way down and hammer-ons onthe way up. Using hammers and pullslike this makes the lick considerablyeasier to play than it would be if youwere to pick every note because of thenumerous skips over the B string.

Another advantage of using ham-mers and pulls is that you can get somegood speed going and create interest-ing phrasings. As shown in FIGURE 27d,I use quick hammers and pulls on thehigh E and G strings to keep the lickmoving along. Practice all of these pat-terns slowly, striving for a very smoothand even sound.

Now that you have this patternclearly visualized, I’d like to show youa cool bonus benefit that I discovered.If we transpose the pattern up a minorthird (three frets), we get a C minorarpeggio, as illustrated in FIGURE 28.But here’s the twist: one day, I de-cided I was going to explore the entirefretboard and find every single placeI could possibly bend a note withinthe context of a blues in A. In this key,most guitarists will bend the G stringat the seventh fret, as shown in FIGURE

29a, or the B string at the eighth fret, asin FIGURE 29b, or perhaps the B string at

9 GUITAR WORLD

STICK YER NECK OUTUSING NECK DIAGRAMS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

CHAPTER 7

FIGURE 27a FIGURE 27b

FIGURE 27c

FIGURE 27d

FIGURE 28 FIGURE 29a FIGURE 29b

FIGURE 29c

FIGURE 29d FIGURE 30



which is a little more work for the brainbecause it involves different “shapes.”

Let’s use this approach to create licks.FIGURE 35 incorporates the root/fifth“power chord” concept, with the notesplayed separately and in sequence. Givena chord progression like A5-G5-F5, asshown in FIGURE 36, you can play that lickin F over the F5 chord. Add a few notesto that shape, and we can get an F Lydiansound, as shown in FIGURES 37a-c.

»

Let’s apply the concept to an E minorlick ( FIGURE 38a ). We can move this upone and two octaves, as shown in FIGURE

38b, fretting it exactly the same way. Forfun, try improvising around those shapes.

FIGURES 39a-c incorporate this con-cept with a Csm7f5 arpeggio; for anadditional twist, FIGURE 39c positions aCsm7f5 arpeggio-type lick over an A7chord, which yields a cool, fusion-y A9(A Cs E G B) sound. ❒

FIGURE 1

5

7

10

FIGURE 2

a)

0

A5

57

b)

0

A5

79

c)

0

A5

1012

FIGURE 3

a)

54 7

b)

76 9

c)

109 !12

12 910

9 67

7 45

9 67

12

3 3 3 3

FIGURE 4

54 7

76

55

56

77 4

54 7

76

55

9

3

9

FIGURE 5

57

79

10

12

3 3 3 3 3 3

FIGURE 6

A5

577

G5

355

0

E5

155

1315

15

!17

1820 20

FIGURE 7a

1312 14 15

FIGURE 7b

15141617

18171920

3 3

FIGURE 7c

1312 14 15

1514 16 17

1817 19 20 17

1

17

15

!13

FIGURE 8a

7 107 9 10

FIGURE 8b

9 129 1112

1215121415

FIGURE 9a

C

m7

58fr

T 2 3 1

7 97 10

FIGURE 9b

7 97 10

7 97 10

FIGURE 9cA7

5 7 97 10

7 9 11

9 12 1 0 1 2 14

12 15

1/2

14 14 14 12

1/2

!15

1213

14

5 5 5 3

FIGURE 6

I’VE FOUND IT VERY helpful asa guitarist to familiarize myself

with the layout of the keyboardon a piano. This in turn hasmade it easier for me to visual-ize patterns on the guitar fret-

board. A quick look at the black keys ona piano reveal the logic with which theyare laid out: starting on the far left andmoving right, there are two blacks keysfollowed by three black keys, and thepattern repeats across the entire key-board. The great thing for piano play-ers is that any scale, chord or musicalphrase in one position and octave can beeasily moved to another because it willlook exactly the same; you only have tomemorize its “shape.”

The guitar, however, is not like this;depending on the string or fretboardposition, the “shapes” of scales andriffs can change quite a bit, even whenplaying exactly the same notes. But I’vedeveloped an approach to the guitar’sfretboard wherein you can use the sameshapes, and very easily move themthrough different octaves.

As shown in FIGURE 31, there is an Anote located on the sixth string’s fifthfret, another A one octave higher lo-cated on the seventh fret of the fourthstring (two strings over and two fretshigher), and another A located at the

10th fret on the second string (twostrings over and three frets higher).It’s very valuable to memorize the

positions of these three A notes, becausethe patterns of many licks based aroundone of these A notes can easily be movedto either of the other two A notes. Thisis especially true if the lick falls on thesixth and fifth, fourth and third, or sec-ond and first strings, because these pairsof adjacent strings are tuned in fourths,and the shape of any lick on these pairsof strings will be identical.

A simple example is an A5 powerchord: FIGURE 32a combines an A rootnote on the sixth string with an E note,

which is the fifth, on the fifth string; youcan move this shape up an octave to thefourth and third strings, two frets high-er ( FIGURE 32b ), or the second and firststrings, three frets higher ( FIGURE 32c ).

FIGURE 33a illustrates an A major triad(A Cs E) played on the bottom twostrings; we can move this same trian-gular shape over to the other A notes( FIGURES 33b and 33c ) and yield the samemusical result in higher octaves.

In comparison, fingering the notes ofthis arpeggio across all of the strings inone position would give us somethinglike what is illustrated in FIGURE 34,

10 GUITAR WORLD

FIGURE 31

FIGURE 39a

SHAPE SHIFTING HOW TO ORGANIZE PATTERNS ON THE FRETBOARD

CHAPTER 8

FIGURE 32 FIGURE 33

FIGURE 34 FIGURE 35

FIGURE 36 FIGURE 37a FIGURE 37b

FIGURE 37c FIGURE 38a

FIGURE 38b FIGURE 39b

FIGURE 39c



»BEING A FULL-TIME guitar

player is an amazing experience.I’ve had this “job” for the past20 or so years, and it’s broughtme a great deal of happiness.

I’ve often thought about themost important aspects of my job. Oneis that, when I perform, it’s not neces-sarily essential that I play all the notesperfectly or in a technically pristinemanner. More important is that I havea great time. If I am really having funonstage, that energy translates to theaudience and they have a great time too.Of course, if I hit lots of wrong notes, Idefinitely won’t be having a good time.But if I hit one bad note and in my mind

I’m thinking, “I don’t care—the rest of itis great,” then everything is cool. It’s allabout enjoying having the opportunityto perform music.

This brings me to the matter of thedifference between being a “bedroom”guitarist and one who is experiencedand comfortable playing live in front ofpeople. I’m of the firm belief that whenperforming onstage you should playthe guitar with more than just yourfingers—you should play with yourentire body.

I performed at a tribute to theWho last year, and had to follow Pete

Townshend’s lead when it came to rec-reating his parts. Pete absolutely doesnot play with just his hands; he useshis whole body, including his back,torso, legs and arms. It’s a stunningexperience to play Who songs with themindset of being a vessel for the music,as Pete does. The Who’s music is veryhigh-energy, and it feels great to standup and play it with all your might.

One of the first times that I really“got it” and understood what thismeant was when I was listening to JimiHendrix. I shouldn’t say “listening,”because my parents gave me a coupleof Hendrix albums when I was young,

and I did like them, but the thing thatreally got me excited was when I sawa Hendrix movie, and suddenly I couldwatch how he played, and how hemoved when he played. For example,he took a very simple string-bendinglick, along the lines of FIGURE 52, and

just shook the earth with the thing byadding such physical force and rhyth-mic drive to it. There was so muchpower in his playing, and I thought,“Oh, that’s it—that’s why people keeptalking about Hendrix.”

To play rock music back in thosedays, you had to get together with

other musicians and crank up the ampsloud, as opposed to simulating this viausing Pro Tools in your bedroom. Thisis why so many musicians of Hendrix’sera tended to be good at deliveringpowerful musical statements to the au-dience. I encourage you to get togetherwith other musicians and find a placewhere you can crank it up.

There are an infinite number ofthings to be learned from live perfor-mance. An obvious one is getting over

making a mistake—if you’re used tomerely hitting “undo” on your key-board, you won’t know how to dealwith it when you are onstage.

All the pioneers of rock—JimiHendrix, Pete Townshend, EricClapton, Jimmy Page and Eddie VanHalen, to name a few—learned thesevaluable lessons early on. When youthink of young Eddie jamming in hisbasement with his brother Alex, youcan envision how the two of themlearned to play together like they wereone person, or like musical twins. Ifyou can build musical relationships by

finding musicians you enjoy playingwith, and do so over a long period oftime, you will increase the likelihood ofmaking magic come out of your guitar.So play with other musicians as oftenas you can. If you know that the drum-mer is showing up at seven o’clock, itwill motivate you to get your act to-gether. I’ve written many a song usingthat specific motivation.

Here’s another tip: Even if you areplaying some terrifying shred-type

licks, you should end the solo with asmuch expression as you can muster.For example, if you play something likeFIGURE 53, which features some blaz-ingly fast shredding, end things withan expressive bend and some extremebody movement, in order to send it offwith a big exclamation point. Try toharness as much energy as possible andchannel it into your playing.

This wraps up our the Shred Alert.I hope you’ve learning the techniquesI’ve taught you, and that they help yourplaying to improve and become moreexpressive. ❒

FIGURE 1

1

7

Th

N.C.(A)

7 57 5

5X7

5X7

1

5X7

7

7 57 5

1

Th

7 7 5

1

5X7 5

7 7 5

5X7 5

1

7 7 5

G5

5X7

XXX

355

355

355

355

355

355

FIGURE 2

E5

1312 13 12

15

12 15 15 13 12

14

12 13 1512 14 12 14 12

1512 15 14 15 14 12 15 14 15 14 12

15

6 7 37

5 5

1215 13 15 13 12

14

1112 13 1512

1 5 1 3 1 5 1 3 12 1 2 1 114

11 14 12 14 12 11 14 12 14 12 1114

1114

7 9 9

1214121114

11121114

11141214121112111912

912111211 9

129

12

grad. bend

1

101210 912

910

0

9 5 5 9 6

BREAKIN’ OUT THE BLESSINGS AND BENEFITS OF LIVE PERFORMANCE

CHAPTER 11

FIGURE 52

FIGURE 53

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