2.10 Solo Example: Metallic Demonstrations In D…

As the great Nigel Tufnell once opined, D minor is the saddest of all keys: and this is Andy’s chosen key for our first rip into applying some of these concepts into a musical situation, rather than the purely technique building drills and exercises we’ve so far covered. Sad D minor may be - but it can also prove a comfortable and suitably metal lick friendly zone of the fretboard.

Performance Notes

After opening with a hard core double stop (two notes played together in a lick format) bend and vibrato phrase, this solo can be broken down to 6 separate conceptual areas/licks.

Lick 1

Bars 5 to 8 see a pentatonic cell of 4 notes – C, D, F and G – arranged into two alternating sequences. Bars 5 and 7 simply ascend with strict alternate picking alternating with the same 4 notes descending in Bars 6 and 8.

This creates both a call and response/question and answer type sequence (side bar on this) that creates a recognisable melodic hook (see sidebar) as well as the added benefit of a duplication/doubling of the notes in the G at the 12^th fret of the G string which provides the central axis between the patterns: played machine gun style as this is it gives a pleasing accentuation of the speedy elements of the phrase…

Many legato/stretch licks as favoured by players such as Ritchie Kotzen utilise this technique as it ratchets up the musical intensity without any excess demands on the players efforts.

Lick 2

Bars 9 to 12 start to move things into utilising the rhythmic displacement and odd note groupings that we will look into more detail in Module Three. Adding in the b5 takes us out of a strictly pentatonic tonality into the realms of the Blues scale, and this particular sequence takes a 6 note ascending an descending pattern – ( G – Ab – G – F – D – C ) in 16th notes played 4 times (that’s 24 notes of a 32note ‘pool’) before a wide stretch/extended pentatonic lick (looked at in later Modules) descending pattern concludes bar 10. We then repeat the 4 patterns of 6 notes again in Bars 11 and 12 before finishing Bar 12 with a b7 to root ‘rocktastic’ bend for two beats (a half note or minim depending on your personal choices of rhythmic nomenclature) on beat three of bar 12 to conclude the phrase...

Lick 3

Bars 13-16 utilises a comparatively simple pick n slick variation of the earlier drills with a descending and ascending four note pattern in position one on the 1^st and 2^nd string played repetitively with attitude: dig in hard…

Lick 4

Bar 17 introduces a signature Andy-ism: groups of 5’s. After a repetition of the previous lick’s descending and ascending pattern, midway through beat two Andy kicks in with a five note descending pattern: F – D – C – A – G; C – A - G – F – D. We will look into detail at this sort of phrase and concept in the next chapter as this 5 against 4 move is very effective…

Bar 18 takes us down to the 6^th string in position one, and then on beat four and into the next bar shifts us down to position five with some more phrase/melodic ideas. Technically nothing much to worry about – but a couple of these licks utilise barring across the strings to attain notes on adjacent strings at the same fret: watch for note bleed…

Bar 18 takes us down to the 6^th string in position one, and then on beat four and into the next bar shifts us down to position five with some more phrase/melodic based ideas. Technically nothing much to worry about – but a couple of these licks utilise barring across the strings to attain notes on adjacent strings at the same fret: watch for note bleed…

Lick 5

Apart from the initial string skip, a fairly standard ascending and descending position one pentatonic climb takes care of Bars 21 and 22 - before a melodic/phrasing based variation on a classic rock style Pentatonic lick in Bars 23 and 24 sets for the finale…

Lick 6

But wait for it… Bar 25 keeps us in position one territory, with some b5 blues scale addition to grease things up, before a final sequence that provides a great example of taking a pattern and expanding it up and down the neck: the accompanying diagram will help you visualise what’s going on.

Taking a four note descending ‘cell’ Andy starts sticks to the 3^rd and 4^th strings and commences the lick in position one, taking it down to positions five and four, before ascending up again through each position to conclude in position four. Zakk Wylde has occasionally been known to indulge in these sort of licks…!