I’m having a dry week. I want to post some stuff, but I just don’t have the motivation or don’t really know what to write about. So here is something that has been sitting in my drafts for like a year.

Here is a guitar technique that I stumbled across while browsing some YouTube videos called double down up. It is sort of a switch-up for alternate picking (down up, down up) that you can use when skipping strings. Instead of following the down up pattern when you skip down one string you want to use two down picks and then pick the second string up again.

Once you build up some speed it can be a really great sounding technique as is shown in this video. The first half is really show as he shows the technique, but if you skip to the 3/4 mark you can hear it in action.

I think this guy totally over does it, but if you were to master this and just toss it in for a few notes every once and a while it is one of those tricks that could really make your playing stand out from others.

I’m having a bit of a dry day today. I don’t really feel like writing or reading too much. I am trying to research a few things I have wanted to write about but somehow I just keep ending up back on YouTube.

Although I don’t really want a Dime signature, I am pretty sure my next guitar purchase is going to be a Dean ML of some sort. Here is a Guitar World video review for the Dimebag signature Cowboy from Hell I just watched on YouTube .

Apparently the tape is to keep the strings from catching on the pickups when Dime did his crazy dive bombs.

Has anyone else seen this commercial for the new Dodge Avenger and does anyone else want to smash their tv every time they see it? no? oh…

Why does Matt hate it so much you ask? Well it’s simple. I’m going to forget the fact that it essentially looks like the QA guy is “grinding the gears” on these 3 cars and skip to the point. As he’s going along with his tests he does something we have all done as guitarists, he is working on something and stumbles upon a familiar riff. In this case it happens to be Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple. The riff is simple, it has three chords. The guy has 3 cars that happen to be growling at G, A#, and C respectively. So he starts playing the song triggering each car in the order of the chords in the song. Ok, so here is my beef. He plays cars 1-2-3 and then 1-2-3-3. It’s like he did an up-strum on the last chord. Didja see that? It should be 1-2-3 1-2-3-2! Am I the only one who noticed this? Every time… pisses me off… yeah it sounds right because it’s just dubbed, but it’s musically wrong. Didn’t anybody on the set catch that?

Anyway, thanks for putting up with my little rant.

Check out this video I found thought Blabbermouth. It looks to me like Yngwie was trying to relic his guitar but he just couldn’t get the flame lit. In the end, in true Malmsteen fashion he gets frustrated with his failed attempt and took it beyond relic. I’m not sure what kind of white powder he is using there, but maybe he should consider checking out Relic Deluxe before his next attempt.

It has also been reported by Blabbermouth that Malmsteen will be reissuing his 1992 album Fire & Ice. It should be out in June.

I came across this demo video that someone recorded at NAMM this year. The Fender rep goes through all the functionality of the Stratocaster VG guitar pretty quick.

Essentially what we have here is a standard American Strat that also has digital modeling hardware built in. It runs off of 4 AA batteries. The guy in the video says “if you get the high voltage ones that you put in digital cameras it will last about 10 hours.”

Anyway, check out the video.

Video found via Zillinois

I am not really sure what to think about this guys technique. I think the first half is very noisy and it doesn’t really sound that great for what he is doing. However, in the second half he does some really amazing acoustic tapping and then does some kind of slapping as well. I would be willing to bet that he has some experience playing a bass guitar.

Half good half bad. If he had have done the stuff from the second half all the way through I would have been much more impressed. Interesting technique though, and I am amazed with the amount of volume he was able to get with no pick.

Here is todays YouTube guitar fix. This guy has done a cover of While My Guitar Gently Weeps on his Ukulele. I know, not quite a guitar, but I still think it is an amazing video. Lots of guitar players could learn a thing or two from Jake Shimabukuro’s playing. He has some amazing rhythm skills.

Here is an While My Guitar Gently Weeps Guitar Pro tab file for those of you who have Guitar Pro 5 and would like to learn it on guitar.

Enjoy.

I used to listen to Eric Johnson a bit a few years ago but I had forgotten all about him until I came across this video on one of my Guitar World CDs. This guy is a crazy guitar player, sort of the same style as Yngwie Malmsteen, but he plays jazz/rock not neo-classical metal.

Not only is he an excellent guitarist but this song is an example of some amazing song writing abilities.

Here is a Guitar Pro file for Cliffs of Dover for those of you who would like to try to learn it. Get your copy of Guitar Pro 5 here so that you can use this file.

I have found two more impressive shredding videos on Google Video. Both are the same player and he has some very impressive skills. The first thing that I notice is he is very precise. You find a lot with videos on Google, Yahoo, or YouTube most people who film themselves shredding are playing much faster than their technical ability allows them to. As a result it looks and sounds impressive to the untrained ear, but once you see a guy like this play you realize the others were not as good as they seemed.

This should be today’s (and every other day’s lesson): start slow and build up your speed. If you can not play each note cleanly, slow down until you can and slowly build up your speed.

This guy though, is very good. The musician is Chris Feener and the first video is titled Neoclassical Shred.

The second video from the same player is called Petrucci Shred. He plays licks from Flight of the Bumblebee and Into the Acid Rain Unison.

Basically his skills give me something to aspire to. I have just started practicing from John Petrucci’s instructional video, so hopefully I can build up my speed and ability and one day shred like this.

I was just browsing YouTube today and found these two videos of some amazing guitar players.

This first video the guy plays Canon in sort of a neo-classical style. It’s all very precise and reminds me a lot of Joe Satriani or Yngwie Malmsteen.

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