The Leads Are Weak: You Better Use Two Hands
Hey-oh. What’s up?
Before heading off to Europe for our Bonecrusher tour, I have another couple of licks today to show you guys using a technique I’ve yet to cover.
This week’s shenanigans are brought to you courtesy of Marty McFly. This lesson is going to cover some old school style tapping techniques that will make your mom swoon. Tapping is pretty much a standard technique in any shredder bag of tricks, so it’s cool to try new things, and lately I’ve been futzing around with some no pick all legato licks. It’s fun to ditch your pick once in a while and work on the strength of your left hand and a cool way to make that work for bigger runs is to use hammer on’s from nowhere and tapping. This can create cool wide sounding licks that are very fluid and synth like. Thorendal from ‘Shuggah, Shawn Lane, and Holdsworth come to mind, among many, many others. Figure 1 is an A minor arpeggio tapped a fifth up in the same shape that dribbles down into some hammers from nowhere. It’s fun to tap the same shapes in different intervals because it’s easy and you can get it fast. Also you can harmonize the shit out of them. This would sound best over an e type chord because the left hand shapes implies an E minor9 chord.
Exercise two is another legato-y lick that I took from the E hungarian minor scale. It’s a cool sounding scale that I really love to use because of the chromatic tendencies that I frequently like to pepper into leads. The first part is all legato and hammers from nowhere into a Daniel Mongrain inspired tap shape. This is the half-whole-half shape that lends itself to cool diminished and tapped licks and fits great with the hungarian scale. This again sounds best over an E5 chord which is easy enough in metal. It shouldn’t be played too fast but should be kept fluid and the dynamics consistent regardless of the strike of the note coming from the left or right hand. Check out Martyr and Voivod to hear Mongrain shred nuts Quebecois style.
Lastly, come check Job for a Cowboy out this March all over Europe with our Quebec buddies Beneath the Massacre. Our stateside friends can check us out on an upcoming run in April with Hatebreed. Tour dates are at the bottom of this post!
Stoked to play with some great bands and pack on mass. It’s important to pack on mass. Speaking of mass, check out my buddy Paul Carter’s lifting blog Lift-Run-Bang.com for some real shit on lifting and life.
Take it easy, ninjas.
JOB FOR A COWBOY TOUR DATES
Bonecrusher Fest w/ Beneath The Massacre, War From A Harlots Mouth, Gorod + more
03/01 — Köln, DE — Underground
03/02 — Drachten, NL — Iduna
03/03 — Nottingham, UK — Rescue Rooms
03/04 — Glasgow, UK — Cathouse
03/05 — Leeds, UK — Uni Mine
03/06 — London, UK — Underworld
03/07 — Antwerpen, BE — Trix
03/08 — Savigny le Temple, FR — Empreinte
03/09 — Montauban, FR — Rio
03/10 — Madrid, ES — Sala Caracol
03/11 — Badalona, ES — Sala Estraperlo
03/13 — Esch-Alzette, LU — Kulturfabrik
03/14 — Yverdon-les-Bains, CH — L’Amalgame
03/15 — Aarau, CH — Kiff
03/16 — München, DE — Backstage
03/17 — Graz, AT — Explosiv
03/18 — Würzburg, DE — Posthalle
03/19 — Berlin, DE — Lido
03/20 — Warsaw, PL — Progresja
03/21 — Brno, CZ — Melodka
03/22 — Chemnitz, DE — Talschock
03/23 — Rostock, DE — Alte Zuckerfabrik
03/25 — Helsinki, FI — Nosturi
03/27 — Stockholm, SE — Göta Källare
03/28 — Gothenburg, SE — Brewhouse
03/29 — Copenhagen, DK — Pumpehuset
03/30 — Bochum, DE — Matrix
w/ Hatebreed, Every Time I Die, Terror, This is Hell
04/09 — Millvale, PA — Mr. Smalls Theatre
04/10 — Kokomo, IN — CenterStage Bar and Grill
04/11 — Grand Rapids, MI — The Intersection
04/12 — Iowa City, IA — Blue Moose Tap House
04/13 — Milwaukee, WI — The Rave *
04/14 — Toledo, OH — Headliners (Jamboree Fest)
04/15 — Louisville, KY — Headliners Music Hall
04/16 — Spartanburg, SC — Ground Zero
04/17 — Baltimore, MD — Rams Head Live
04/18 — Rochester, NY — Water Street Music Hall
04/19 — Worcester, MA — The Palladium (New England Metal & Hardcore Festival)
* No Every Time I Die
