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When
one thinks of a lead guitarist, the first thing that usually comes
to peoples heads is the flashiness of Eddie Van Halen, or the
trickery and stage presence of Zakk Wylde. Because of this usually
people dream off pulling the same things off, the only problem is
this...
You
cannot pull of tricks and flashiness until you have learnt the
basics.
An
easy way of describing it would be to use the old say, You can build
a house on wet cement. You need to get your foundations strong
before moving on.
But
for those who want to have a little bit of fun, (and I call it fun
because at the end of the day guitars are made for music!) here are
a few easy tricks you can do that really impress some people. The
best part is, they don't need much practice.
With
all of these, the idea is to play around with them, make weird
noises, make them your own!
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1. Bend Behind the Nut
The
nut is the white or black 6 slotted piece where the strings start at
0 fret. Play around bending different notes behind the nut.
1
- Strike chosen note (e.g. 7th fret, G string)
2
- Use picking hand (while still holding down note with fretting
hand) and push down in between the nut and the machine head of the
string you just played.
3
- Try multiple bends, vibrato etc to get different sounds.
Note: Will not work on floyd rose locking nuts.
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2. Whammy Bar Tricks
The
whammy bar opened up a new window for lead guitarists. I allowed
them to create sounds no one had ever heard on a guitar before. Not
all guitars have whammy bars, but for those of you who do have one,
here is a couple of easy tricks that sound wicked.
1. Dive Bomb
1 - Play note
2 - Use whammy bar to slowly lower note until it sounds sub
sonic.
Another thing you can do is bring the note back up (it may need to
be played again) and take it back down multiple times.
2. Whammy Strums
1 - Hold whammy bar in picking hand holding pick in picking
position
2 - When picking notes or chords, push down on whammy then
release
Optional: You can also let chords or notes ring out, then hit
quickly down on the whammy and release. This will give a smooth
sound instead of a picking strike to make the note/chord sustain
longer.
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3. Swirling Tornado
This
trick is popular with guitar players like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani.
It can be pulled of pretty easily but the result is awesome.
1
- With fretting hand, hammer on and pull off on one string keeping
the string going to open. (E.g. hammer on and pull off on second
fret, A string so both the second fret and open fret are getting
played.
2 -
While still puling off/hammering on, use index finger of your
picking hand to lightly rest upon the string you are playing close
to the bridge.
3 -
Move finger down towards fretboard and back to bridge slowly. You
will hear the sound changing.
You
are creating harmonics and because you are moving your finger the
harmonics are changing creating the cool effect. Works best on an
amp with gain/overdrive turned up quite high.
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So
that's lesson 8, hope you liked it. Try come up with your own lead
guitar tricks, mix ideas together. As long as you have a guitar you
can never stop creating!
This Lesson
Brought to You By
Guitar Burning Speed
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