Here are the exact specs for the new guitar:

• Modified body shape for more access to higher frets
• Natural satin finish on neck
• Pink LTD logo and artist signature on headstock
• Pink “COBHC” design on back of body
• Pink pinstripes on back of body
• Neck-thru-body design (25.5” scale)
• Alder body
• 3-piece maple / ebony neck
• Floyd Rose locking nut / 42mm
• Thin U neck shape
• Pink sawtooth inlays
• 24 extra-jumbo frets
• Black hardware
• Grover tuners
• Floyd Rose bridge
• EMG HZ-4 bridge pickup
• No neck pickup
• 1 Volume control

I love the look of these guitars, but the missing neck pickup is a real downside as far as I am concerned. If you want to sound exactly like Alexi Laiho then this guitar would be great for you, but otherwise you are limiting your tone by not having that second pickup. Then again, if you play strictly metal, you might not even know the neck pickup exists.

In this video there are 5 examples played at both normal speed and slow speed for learning. I have also included a Guitar Pro 5 tab file below that includes all of the riffs demonstrated. Here are the riffs that Alexi teaches us in this video:

• Ex-1 is the riff that starts at 1:03 on Are You Dead Yet’s first track Living Dead Beat.
• Ex-2 shows the intro riff that starts at 0:48 from that same song.
• Ex-3 shows the intro and chorus from Downfall.
• Ex-4 shows the intro to Are You Dead Yet?
• Ex-5 shows the riff that starts at 0:42 in the song In Your Face.

When I was watching this video and looking at some Guitar Pro tabs I realized that although the tabs are very close to the way Alexi plays the songs, they were not exact. For example, I found several differences where the tab shows you to play a riff on the 7th frett, but Alexi plays it on the open strings. The notes are the same, but the open strings give a much heavier sound to the riffs. I think this is part of what makes Alexi’s sound so unique. Here is an example of where I found a difference.

In the 5th example, all of the tabs that I found for In Your Face were tabbed like this:

E||-----------------------|------------------------|
B||-----------------------|------------------------|
G||-----------------------|------------------------|
D||-----------------------|------------------------|
A||-----------------------|------------------------|
E||--6----3----5----0~----|--6----3----6--6--0--0--|

-----------------------|-----------------------------||
-----------------------|-----------------------------||
-----------------------|----------------------8--11--||
-----------------------|---------------7--10---------||
-----------------------|---------6--9----------------||
--6----3----5----2~----|--7--10----------------------||

But when you watch the lesson with Alexi he clearly plays the last bar in a position that is lower on the neck like this:

|--------------------------||
|--------------------4--7--||
|--------------2--5--------||
|--------1--4--------------||
|--0--3--------------------||
|--------------------------||

I just think it is something to keep in mind when learning or writing metal music. If you want it to sound heavier, try and play the same notes on lower frets.

Here is a Guitar Pro 5 tab file that includes all of the riffs as Alexi plays them in the above video.

Also, check out these other Alexi Laiho Lessons:
Alexi Laiho Guitar Lessons and Instructional Videos

Sweep picking is like strumming a chord, except you want to accentuate each note in the “strum” . What you are actually going to do is pick several different notes in succession on adjacent strings with a very very slight pause in between notes. When switching strings in the direction of low to high you always pick the string down, when switching from high to low you always pick up. Using this motion it allows you to play notes much faster than if you were to alternate pick. The catch though, is you must have great coordination between both hands. As your picking hand moves up and down the strings, your fretting had has to be quick enough to keep up.

Forget trying to explain it using words, lets watch Paul Gilbert show us how in this video:

The reason I have been practicing Alexi Laiho licks is he is not the worlds greatest sweep picker. As a result his riff are somewhat simple compared to someone like John Petrucci. Although the following riff is not from Alexi, it is a common exercise for learning and practicing sweep picking.

E||------------------12--15p--12----------------------|
B||--------------13---------------13------------------|
G||----------12-----------------------12--------------|
D||------14-------------------------------14----------|
A||--15---------------------------------------15------|
E||-----------------------------------------------12--|

----------------------12--16p--12------------------|
------------------12---------------12--------------|
--------------13-----------------------13----------|
----------14-------------------------------14------|
------14---------------------------------------14--|
--12-----------------------------------------------|

--------------------------14--18p--14--------------|
----------------------14---------------14----------|
------------------15-----------------------15------|
--------------16-------------------------------16--|
----------16---------------------------------------|
--12--14-------------------------------------------|

------------------------------16--20p--16----------|
--------------------------16---------------16------|
----------------------17-----------------------17--|
------------------18-------------------------------|
--16----------18-----------------------------------|
------14--16---------------------------------------|

--------------|-----||
--------------|-----||
--------------|-----||
--18----------|-----||
------18------|-----||
----------16--|-----||

Download the tab for this riff for Guitar Pro 5.

The following riff is from Children of Bodom’s Towards Dead End off of 1999’s Hatebreeder. This is the intro riff as well as the chorus. I have just posted the sweep picking parts that I use to practice the technique.

----------17--22p--17--------------17--22p--17------|
------18---------------18------18---------------18--|
--19-----------------------19-----------------------|
----------------------------------------------------|
----------------------------------------------------|
----------------------------------------------------|

----------17--22p--17--------------17--22p--17------|
------18---------------18------18---------------18--|
--19-----------------------19-----------------------|
----------------------------------------------------|
----------------------------------------------------|
----------------------------------------------------|

----------12--17p--12--------------12--17p--12------|
------13---------------13------13---------------13--|
--14-----------------------14-----------------------|
----------------------------------------------------|
----------------------------------------------------|
----------------------------------------------------|

----------12--17p--12--------------12--17p--12------|
------13---------------13------13---------------13--|
--14-----------------------14-----------------------|
----------------------------------------------------|
----------------------------------------------------|
----------------------------------------------------|

----------12--17p--12--------------12--17p--12------|
------15---------------15------15---------------15--|
--14-----------------------14-----------------------|
----------------------------------------------------|
----------------------------------------------------|
----------------------------------------------------|

----------12--15p--12--15--18--17--15--------------|
------14-------------------------------18--17--15--|
--14-----------------------------------------------|
---------------------------------------------------|
---------------------------------------------------|
---------------------------------------------------|

Download the tab for this riff for Guitar Pro 5 now.

The following is the start of the solo from the song Children of Bodom which is also from the album Hatebreeder. It just shows how sweep picking can be incorporated into a solo. The sweep picking part starts on the 4th bar below and can be found at 3:03 in the song.

E||--------------------------------------------|
B||--------------------------------------------|
G||--------------------------------------------|
D||--10--9--7------------12--10--9-------------|
A||------------10--9--7-------------12--10--9--|
E||--------------------------------------------|

---------------------------|
--15b--------17b----18b----|
---------------------------|
---------------------------|
---------------------------|
---------------------------|

--19--17--15--------------15--14--12--------------|
--------------19--17--15--------------15--13--12--|
--------------------------------------------------|
--------------------------------------------------|
--------------------------------------------------|
--------------------------------------------------|

------------------12--15--------------------------|
--------------13----------15----------------------|
--12------12------------------16--------------16--|
------14--------------------------17------17------|
--------------------------------------17----------|
--------------------------------------------------|

------------------14--17S--19p--15-------------------||
--------------15--------------------17---------------||
----------14----------------------------16-----------||
------16------------------------------------17S--14--||
--17-------------------------------------------------||
-----------------------------------------------------||

Download the sweep picking riff from Children of Bodom solo for Guitar Pro 5 now.

So that is my little sweep picking lesson. It is not a technique that comes easily. It takes a lot of practice and you really have to focus on timing when practicing it so that when you build up speed everything is coordinated.

I have been a huge Children of Bodom fan for about 2 years now. They are one of the many great metal bands that have come out of Eastern Europe over the past few years. Alexi’s call to fame was his amazing playing style and his unique vocals. Although, in the interview he admits he didn’t choose to be singer, he was “stuck with it”. He credits a lot of his technique to virtuoso Steve Vai and living metal legend Zakk Wylde. Personally I love the guy for his ability to play in such harmony with the bands keyboardist Janne Wirman.

Modern Guitars gives a few paragraphs of background on Children of Bodom for those of you who aren’t familiar with the group. After that you can listen to a stream of the song Living Dead Beat off the band’s latest album Are You Dead Yet?. Then the author, Brian D. Holland dives right into the interview.

In the interview I found it interesting to hear what Alexi had to say about Yngwie Malmsteen:

I read somewhere that although you’ve been a huge fan of Yngwie Malmsteen, you’ve since gotten away from him and his style of playing.

Alexi: Yeah, well, Yngwie is Yngwie. I mean, what can you say? He’s fuckin’ bad ass, and that’s like stating the obvious. I was more into that neo-classical guitar thing when I was younger. Yeah, I was a huge Yngwie fan. You can hear that influence, especially on the first two albums. At that time, in Europe, there were so many guitar players, you know, Yngwie-copies running around everywhere. They all wanted to be like Yngwie and sound like Yngwie. It kind of pissed me off, you know. I didn’t want to be one of them. So I kind of turned off to that whole style of playing and decided it wasn’t going to be my thing. That’s Yngwie’ thing. He’s one of the greatest ever. End of story.

I just that it was funny… seems like over there Yngwie is like Jimi Hendrix or Zakk Wylde is here, everybody wants to be them.

Anyway, this was a great read for me and I’ll be excited to pick up the new DVD. Check out the whole interview for yourself.

Source: Alexi Laiho Interview at Modern Guitars Magazine

Alexi Laiho Interview and Instructional Video

This first is pretty sweet it’s both an interview and a practical lesson. Alexi talks about a lot of important stuff like practicing with a metronome, starting slow and building speed, how he writes a solo, and his musical influences.

At about the half way point he does do some hands on stuff on his guitar. He starts off playing it quickly and then slows it right down so you can learn it. He shows off some sweep picking licks with some tapping thrown in and then some chord phrases. At the end of the video he goes through 5 or 6 licks from some of his songs as well.

Alexi Laiho Lesson Riffs

This second is another half and half. There are two sections of Alexi Laiho and his “buddy Robert” playing some licks and two instruction bits where Alexi slows the riffs down.

At about the 4:30 mark Alexi starts to show the licks at a slower pace, however the video is a little blurry so you will have to get the general position of his hand from the video and figure out the rest by ear. At the 8:30 mark there is another demonstration section where the two seem to jam for a bit. At the 13:00 mark more of the riffs are demonstrated slowly. The video is still very blurry though so don’t expect much. I’m guessing that with the original video there is an accompanying tab or sheet music book.

Young Guitar Magazine Alexi Laiho Video

In this next clip its pretty impossible for the average person to determine what Alexi is doing. It is still pretty sweet to watch though.

Children of Bodom playing Downfall at the 2003 Tuska Open Air Metal Festival

To finish it off here is a 4 minute video of Children of Bodom playing Downfall at the 2003 Tuska Open Air Metal Festival in Helsinki. “Ooh Hell yeah!”

So there you go. I hope some people can find what they are looking for now!