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In honor of his 68th birthday, here's an analysis ofJimmy Page's style, by GW's Jimmy Brown.

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Shred Zeppelin: How to Play Like JimmyPagePosted 01/09/2012 at 3:25pm | by Jimmy Brown

Though he's mostly revered for his huge-sounding, eternally cool riffs, inventive alteredtunings, acoustic fingerpicking masterpiecesand otherworldly, ambient soundscapes, JimmyPage also is one of the most influential leadguitarists in rock.

That his solos in such Led Zeppelin classics as"Good Times, Bad Times," "Heartbreaker,""Rock And Roll" and "Stairway To Heaven" areso firmly etched in two generations of guitarists'memories is testimony to his compositional andimprovisational genius.

[[ Be sure to check out the "How to Play theBest of Led Zeppelin" DVD, available now atthe Guitar World Online Store. ]]

In this lesson, we'll examine the main technicalelements and improvisational approaches thatcharacterize Page's soloing style, and we'll lookat some of his signature licks.

The Smear Box

Jimmy relies heavily on the minor pentatonic "box" patternillustrated in FIGURE 1 for many of his licks, using mostly thetop three or four strings. When he does go down to the bottomstring, he'll shift positions with his middle or ring finger on the5th string, as indicated here.

FIGURE 2 shows this fretboard pattern in the key of E with theroot note E falling on the top and bottom strings at the 12thfret. Using this visual pattern as a template, Jimmy will oftenbegin a phrase by playing the Chuck Berry-influenced "smear"motif shown in FIGURE 3 in the key of E.

This lick begins with a whole-step bend on the G string fromthe fourth up to the fifth (A to B). The bend is executed witheither the ring or middle finger while the index-finger barres theroot-fifth doublestop on the top two strings.

Page utilizes this smear motif as a springboard to dive into blazing E minor pentatonic speed lickslike those shown in FIGURES 4-6. As you play through these figures, notice the use of pull-offs onthe top three strings, as well as whole-step bends, such as from the minor third up to the fourth (Gto A) on the 1st string at the 15th fret. You can hear Jimmy playing licks along these lines in his

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solos in "Good Times, Bad Times" (1:30), "Dazed and Confused" (3:52), "The Lemon Song" (1:51)and "Communication Breakdown."

Jimmy also uses these same types of repeating smear/pull-offlicks in different keys. For example, in his outro solo to "BlackDog" (4:12), he plays a lick similar to the one shown inFIGURE 6, but in the key of A using the 5th-position A minorpentatonic (A C D E G) box pattern illustrated in FIGURE 7. Inhis first two lead phrases in "Moby Dick" (:36 and :41), he usesthis same fretboard shape in the 10th position (see Figure 8) toplay scorching blues licks in D minor pentatonic.

Page utilizes this same fretboard shape to play majorpentatonic licks as well. He does this by simply moving the minor pentatonic box pattern shown inFIGURE 1 down three frets, transforming it into a major pentatonic box pattern in the same key, asillustrated in FIGURE 9.

If you compare the E minor and E major pentatonic box patterns depicted in FIGURES 2 and 10,you'll notice that the fingering patterns are identical, but that the notes assume different harmonicfunctions. This simple three-fret transposition enables Jimmy to transform minor pentatonic licks intomajor pentatonic licks (and vice versa) in the same key using the same fretboard shapes andfingering patterns.

Jimmy applies this transposition principle brilliantly in his "Communication Breakdown" solo. Afterplaying several measures of rather dark sounding E minor pentatonic blues licks in the 12thposition, he suddenly creates a lighter shade of blue by playing E major pentatonic licks using theexact same fretboard pattern in the 9th position.

Page uses this same major pentatonic box pattern illustrated in FIGURE 9 to play bright-soundingcountry-style licks, most notably in "The Song Remains the Same" (in D, 7th position, at :58, and inA, 2nd position, at 4:19), "Celebration Day" (in C, 17th position, at 1:46, and 5th position at 1:53)

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and "Houses of the Holy" (in A, 2nd position, at 1:11).

FIGURE 11 is a signature Jimmy Page "wall of notes" triplet run played in the 12th-position E minorpentatonic box pattern illustrated in FIGURE 2. You can hear him playing similarly blistering runs,both ascending and descending, in "Good Times, Bad Times" (at 1:30, 2:02 and 2:33) using thissame fretboard pattern. In "I Can't Quit You Baby" (2:29), he plays almost the same lick in A minorpentatonic using the box pattern depicted in FIGURE 7.

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floodoneApril 14, 2012 at 8:43pm

I got to say that I now have a collection of Jimmy Page's music in my hands for my Gibson Les Paul.This should be fun and hard work well worth paying off.Sincerely,Flood

jt1234

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January 10, 2012 at 1:13pm

Jimmy Brown's stuff here always delivers the goods!! Thanks Jimmy - u the man. And thanks GW

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