"Insanity 101: Malaguena"

- David "Skinny Devil" McLean
originally published at Insane Guitar, 2005

As I was about to sit down to write this month’s lesson, I was swamped with requests for more fingerstyle stuff. Rather than skip about madly from fragment to fragment of various pieces, I decided to examine one section of the classic “Malaguena” so that we could try several variations. It can be written several ways, but I decided on the following because it lays out easier if you’re unfamiliar with the piece.

The first example is to get your fingers ready. Break this into fret-hand and pick-hand patterns. The fret-hand is simply holding an E chord and chord, while the pick-hand is playing a simple (strings) 4, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1 pattern. To keep it simple, this pattern can be broken into alternating between thumb and finger (with the thumb, or “p”, playing allstrings except 1; the first finger, or “i”, playing only string 1).

"Insanity 101: George Lynch Style"

- David "Skinny Devil" McLean
originally published at both Insane Guitar and Skinny Devil Music Lab, 2004/2005

One of the big requests I get is for “style” lessons, and among the top request in 2004 was for George “Mr. Scary” Lynch. My apologies for the delay, guys, but it’s finally here!

George burst on to the scene back in 1982 with the band Dokken and quickly became one of the most admired guitarists of the decade by demonstrating extreme technical capabilities coupled with uber-aggression, a unique approach, and lots of soulful style. With a Grammy nomination, countless tours & guitar clinics, 9 Dokken albums, 6 Lynch Mod albums, and 5 solo offerings (from EPs to full-length albums), George is firmly established as one of the true Guitar Gods.

"Insanity 101: Tapping Into Mastery"

- David "Skinny Devil" McLean
originally published at Insane Guitar, 2004

I’ve been asked a lot as of late about tapping, or “touchstyle”, so I thought we’d revisit this topic as we boldly shred into the new year. The questions I’ve received have been about how to break beyond the standard “Eruption” style of applying tap technique, so I thought we’d take a brief look at some ideas that will translate well to both electric and acoustic styles of playing. They are also in the key of Am (C major) so that you can experiment freely in a single key.

"Insanity 101: Moonlight Sonata"

I got a few calls asking me to skip the “insanity” for one lesson and opt instead for a bit of focus on classical chops. Let it be known that I am less-than-adaquate when it comes to playing classical guitar, but I thought I might at least offer up something to assist those who want to work on a few classical pieces. To that end, here are the opening few arpeggios to Beethoven’s “Opus 27, #2″ (better known as “Moonlight Sonata” or, to Ludwig, “Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia”).

A quick tip or two regarding classical technique: Make sure your fingers are coming down on the string straight rather than at a sharp angle (as is common when playing rock guitar) and be careful with your pick-hand technique, being mindful to change the angle of attack so your hand doesn’t rest across the strings but comes down on top of them.

"Insane Guitar: Merry Christmas"

- David "Skinny Devil" McLean
originally published at Insane Guitar, 2003

One of my favorite pieces of Christmas music is “Do You Hear What I Hear?”. No only is it a gorgeous piece of music, but it’s a helluva lesson in composition and a great structure from which to practice multiple techniques.

Below is a very simple version (primarily melodic, so the harmonic options are completely open for you to interpret individually) arranged for guitar. It makes heavy use of harmonics – both natural and tapped – and touches on compositional ideas of both theme & variation and call & response. I also like playing it with a long delay to get those cool “rounds” (like “Row, row, row yor boat”).

"Insanity 101: Greg Howe Style"

- David "Skinny Devil" McLean
originally published at Insane Guitar, 2004

Greg Howe may be most famous as the hired gun for mega-stars like Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson, but he’s known in the guitar world as a player with impeccable chops, extraordinary knowledge, and unique musical vision. He always demonstrates clean lines with both fire and grace, and his ability to weave together tapestries of sound from often disparate genres make him a paragon of fusion.

I am assuming the fingerings below are correct, but only Greg can say for sure. When I spoke to him recently, he made note of some of his unusual fingering patterns, so we can only hope his video series will be available soon.

"Insanity 101: Phrasing"

Like last month, I’m going to include a little section from some recent guitar clinics I’m currently doing with fingerstyle guru Jerry Belsak and fusion wizard Philip High. One of the questions that comes up at clinics a lot is: “How can I learn to solo?” A lot goes into soloing well, but it begins with a basic understanding of the fretboard and some basic musical concepts (some of which we’ve discussed in the past, like melody fragments and octave displacement and variations on a theme), not just application of technique.

David with a student improvising a solo at a guitar student recital.

The concept I’d like to touch on today is phrasing.

"Insanity 101: Etude for Touch-Style"

- David "Skinny Devil" McLean
originally published at Insane Guitar, 2004

One of the fine fellows from the IG message-boards dropped me a line about writing practice pieces (etudes) for certain concepts. His question was in reference to the Harmonic Minor scale (lesson #11, “Modes of the Harmonic Minor”) and we’ll explore some etudes for that in a future lesson. This month, since I just finished interviewing bass master Billy Sheehan for the “Guitar Gods” series, I wanted to share an etude I wrote for touch-style technique (also known as 2-hand tapping).

This etude was written specifically for a series of guitar clinics I’m currently doing with finger style guru Jerry Belsak and fusion wizard Philip High, and I’ll be sharing some of their techniques in future lessons, too. It requires at least a rudimentary understanding & mastery of tapping (check out the archives for lessons I’ve written in the past [re: Jennifer Batten] and lessons by other IG writers, as well as Joel’s master class on tapping, and the current series by Jeff Wilde), so make sure you can both tap single notes and basic chord fragment shapes.

"Insanity 101: Exotic Scales pt.2"

- David "Skinny Devil" McLean
originally published at Insane Guitar, 2003

As we mentioned last time (in “Exotic Scales [part 1]“), the term “exotic scale” generally refers to scales outside of the standard Major Scale (& it’s modes), the Harmonic Minor, and the Melodic Minor…plus a few others (depending on which text you’re reading). Essentially, exoticism is the use of musical devices (melodies, harmonies, rhythms, instrumentation, etc.) to evoke the atmosphere of ancient or distant places, so the easiest way to gather such scales are to take them from non-western cultures.

Like the last two installments of “Insanity 101″, this article will assume a knowledge of modes. Rather than breaking each scale down myself as I have in the past, I urge you to pull each one apart yourself and experiment with them. Note that all scales herein are in the key of “A”.

"Insanity 101: Exotic Scales pt.1"

- David "Skinny Devil" McLean
originally published at Insane Guitar, 2003 

The term “exotic scale” generally refers to scales outside of the standard Major Scale (& it’s modes), the Harmonic Minor, and the Melodic Minor…plus a few others (depending on which text you’re reading). Essentially, exoticism is the use of musical devices (melodies, harmonies, rhythms, instrumentation, etc.) to evoke the atmosphere of ancient or distant places, so the easiest way to gather such scales are to take them from non-western cultures.

Like the last installment of “Insanity 101″, this article will assume a knowledge of modes. Rather than breaking each scale down myself as I have in the past, I urge you to pull each one apart yourself and experiment with them. Note that all scales herein are in the key of “A”.

"Insanity 101: The Modes of Harmonic Minor"

-- David "Skinny Devil" McLean

Originally published at Insane Guitar, 2003

This column will assume the reader already has a grasp on modes. If not, a modal primer will be available via my site very soon.

The Harmonic Minor is a fairly common scale, familiar to most intermediate musicians. However, one seldom sees a complete modal breakdown of this scale, though the 5th mode (sometimes called the Harmonic Phrygian) is used often in Flamenco and Metal musics. The other modes of this scale offer just as rich a potential as the two common modes; while not technically “exotic scales” (exoticism in music is essentially a western term meaning music – or scales – designed to "evoke the sounds & images of far-away lands"), many of these modes blur the lines between exoticism and standard scales. Immerse yourself in these for a while – one at a time – and see what you come up with.

"Insanity 101: Percussion Concepts for Acoustic Guitar"

- David "Skinny Devil" McLean
originally published at Insane Guitar, 2003

To my knowledge, it started way back in the 1920s & 1930s with acoustic blues players – players who not only sang and strummed, but also smacked the strings and the guitar body to get percussive effects. Unfortunately, the recordings of those days are of poor quality, so hearing more than the vocal and the basic guitar line is difficult.

Flamenco players also occasionally add “guitar body drum” to their playing, though mostly as sparse effects for a bit of spice. In the 1980s, Michael Hedges began popularizing the use of percussive effects along with extensive use of hammered ostinato, slides, and super-articulate finger-picking. Today, great acoustic players like Peppino D’Agostino and Laurence Juber have taken things to a whole new height, with Preston Reed being (in my opinion) the undisputed king of tap-n-slap.

Insanity 101; Way of the Gods (3) Jennifer Batten

- David "Skinny Devil" McLean
originally published at Insane Guitar, 2003

As many of you know, I write a column for TinFoilMusic called “Guitar Gods” that has featured some awesome players and will feature many more players in the months to come. (editor's note: Tinfoil is now off-line and all IG lessons and "Guitar Gods" interviews are found here at Skinny Devil Magazine) In the past, we’ve featured the playing styles of two of our “Guitar Gods” interviewees – Grammy winning guitarist Steve Stevens (of Billy Idol fame) and shred dominatrix the Great Kat. This month we feature the playing style of Jennifer Batten.

Jennifer is currently on tour with guitar legend Jeff Beck, andhas recorded and toured with the King of Pop: Michael Jackson. She has also released several solo albums and two books, and was for a time an instructor at the famed GIT.

"Insanity 101: Way of the Gods (2) The Great Kat"

- David "Skinny Devil" McLean
originally published at Insane Guitar, 2003

As many of you know, I write a column for TinFoil Music called “Guitar Gods” that has featured some awesome players and will feature many more players in the months to come. (editor's note: Tinfoil is no longer on-line, so all IG lessons and "Guitar Gods" interviews are found at Skinny Devil Magazine.) Two of those players, the Guitar Goddesses, are Jennifer Batten and The Great Kat. This month is a primer of sorts for the Kat style of playing…which is always intense!

The Great Kat – who is not only an excellent shredder, but a fine composer, too – is probably best known for re-orchestrating classical music standards for shred-metal interpretation. This has included the works of Vivaldi, Rossini, Beethoven, and others, and requires a firm grasp of both speed-picking and sweep-picking, not to mention a very limber fret-hand. Primers for these techniques can also be found in the IG “Master Class” archive (care of Joel Wanasek).

"Insanity 101: The Bridge to Esoterica pt. 2"

Originally published at Insane Guitar
2002

Last month’s installment of "Insanity 101" covered the whole-tone scale. We took a quick look at the scale and then a few runs and ways in which we might apply them. This month, we’ll look at some chords based on the whole-tone scale. These are not quite as easy to inject into a piece, so it may serve you to compose a brief etude (a short piece of music written to explore a specific musical idea or technique) as a means of more deeply exploring and exploiting the sonic potential of this interesting scale.

Here are a few possible chord shapes to start you off.
 

Listen (midi)

Insanity 101: The Bridge to Esoterica

Months ago, a fellow (whose name I can’t recall) posted to the IG forums requesting information about the whole-tone scale and other “exotic” scales, as well as advise on how to apply new scales to soloing and composition. A recent letter from an IG reader (Chad from Iowa) reminded me of whole-tone scales…and that the name of the site is “INSANE guitar”, and that I should tread a bit closer to the edge. Thanx for the reminder, Chad. Let me know how you like this one!

We’ll start with a common progression in A minor – let’s say: Am (8) – Am (8) – F (8) – F (4), G (4) – repeat. Improvise freely over the first two chords of this progression using A natural minor (A, B, C, D, E, F, G). When you get to the “F” chord, however, switch to the whole-tone scale until the progression returns to “Am”.


Listen!

Insanity 101 - Way of the Gods pt.1: Steve Stevens

 - David "Skinny Devil" McLean
Originally published at Insane Guitar

As many of you know, I write an interview series over at TinFoil Music Magazine (or, more properly, "Tinfoil.Music"). The series is called "Guitar Gods" and has featured well-known guitarists like the late Michael Hedges and Grammy Award winning Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens, as well as new players like Insane Guitar founder Joel Wanasek. In the future, there will be interviews with other IG columnists as well as established gurus like Jennifer Batten and the Great Kat. On occasion, we’ll take a closer look at these players right here at Insane Guitar – analyzing their styles and offering licks and exercises.

This month, I’d like to look at the incredible playing of Steve Stevens.

"Insanity 101: Reader Feedback"

- David "Skinny Devil" McLean
 Originally published at Insane Guitar
2003

This month’s lesson was going to be a fragments from several of Paganini’s 24 Caprices. However, I received a bit of mail last month asking me to expound on a few ideas for breaking out of ruts, and a bit of other advice.

One reader (Bob from Florida) wanted to know if I could elaborate on octave displacement (which we talked about in "Insanity #2 (Magic with Melody Fragments"). Well, Bob, rather than just moving the melody around in different octaves, try getting REALLY radical: Displace the individual notes of a lick or scale. This is bound to shake things up for you.

"Insanity 101: Mozart, Math, and Music"

- David "Skinny Devil" McLean
 Originally published at Insane Guitar
2002

This month’s installment of "Insanity 101" has little to do with shredding; more to do with charging up your creative energy. Let’s take a look at some classic Western masters of music.

There have been many composers who have used formalized systems as tools for composing. They range from serious and often complex methodologies (Schoenberg, Cage, etc.) to little games that toy with numbers or letters (Bach, Mozart, Stadler, etc.). One game I’d like to talk about today is one attributed to Mozart.

"Insanity 101: Magic with Melody Fragments"

- David "Skinny Devil" McLean
 Originally published at Insane Guitar, 2002.

Let’s say we start with a basic melody line. Then let’s say we cut out a signature section, something like this:





(click here for sound)