Happy Sunday guys!
As you may or may not know, I’m doing a guitar solo transcription every week this year. Today’s choice is the awesome funk/shred of Nuno Bettencourt. We’re looking at the epic solo at about 2:30 in Get The Funk Out, track 4 on Pornograffitti.
As I said in my post last week, if you have any questions, comments, or ideas, then do let me know in the comments below! Alternatively, you can send me a message here. Without further ado, let’s get on with the guitar lesson!
An admission
This solo is really hard to play; Nuno is an epic guitar player! I’ve not managed to get it up to speed yet… It’s about 80% there, but not quite. I had planned on doing videos to accompany these lessons, but I guess this one will have to wait until I’ve nailed it full speed! A shout out to Transcribe! here, it’s a great tool for slowing down audio files so you can hear what’s going on.
Having to work on the technical aspects of this has been really helpful for creating a proper lesson. We’re going to focus in on a 1 bar passage and work on some two handed tapping! If you’re just here for the transcription, skip to the bottom of this page and you’ll find it.
The all important guitar lick
I said that this is a one bar phrase, but in reality the phase is only two beats long and repeats to fill the bar. With the exception of the 18th fret tap in the middle of beat 4, and and the final note, that is. It does feel like the intention is a repeat, maybe the tap was a mistake? Without actually asking Nuno, I guess we’ll never know. Either way it’s pretty awesome! I love the feeling that he’s pushing the boundaries of what is physically possible.
It’s a D9 arpeggio, and it’s very fast. 32nd notes and 32nd notes triplets at 108bpm, meaning you’re topping out at over 21 notes per second! This pattern appears in multiple places in the solo, and is great for giving that iconic Nuno flavour to your tapping.
One of the reasons I’ve singled out this part is that keeping a steady rhythm, and a strong sense of the musical pulse, can be really difficult when doing two-handed tapping. The changes in beat length here will really help you get in time and stay there. Take a look at this extract:
This is a great way to start. Set your metronome (If you don’t have one, google it!) to a nice steady rhythm, and each click should fall where the circles in the example fall. This means your note groupings by click should be 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2. As you’re practising, gradually increase the tempo as you get comfortable with the way this rhythm feels. Once you can nail that consistently, we’re going to remove half of the clicks.
A bit less help
Hopefully you can see what I’ve done here. You’ll need to halve the speed of your metronome, and your groupings should now be: 4 + 5 (2&3) + 4 + 4. Make sure you keep the feel the same as before. You don’t want the rhythm wavering when you hit the triplet part. It should still feel like you’ve sped up noticeably, and then slowed back down for the rest of the piece.
Even less help!
You guessed it! Once you’re comfortable with 4 clicks, we’re going to take 2 of them away. Our groupings are now 9 (2&2&2&3) + 8. Again, you’ll need to halve your metronome to get it to feel the same. Really listen to what your playing, and try to hear the rhythmic subdivisions in your head while you play the lick.
All we have to do now is work on our speed by gradually increasing the tempo to try and match Nuno’s flying fingers! This same process can be applied to the rest of the solo too, to make sure you get that funky groove all the way through.
U got tabs bro?
Just coming here for the tab of the whole guitar solo? Here you go!
As always, thanks for taking the time to check this out. I really hope it helps you! If it has, please let me know in the comments! Next week we’re going to talk a walk with the blues. T-Bone Walker’s solo on Stormy Monday is where it’s at! Check back on Sunday 21st January to see how it goes. Also, if you’ve not seen my transcription of I Won’t Hold You Back then do take a look. It’s an epic guitar solo!
Do you have any suggestions of guitar solos I should transcribe? Or would you like to book a lesson to learn how to play your favourite shredder’s guitar licks? Get in touch with me using the contact page and I’ll do my best to help wherever I can.
Big love, and awesome licks.
Ed