Would I lie to you?
So today’s transcription isn’t strictly a guitar solo. It’s actually the main melody of Tumeni Notes by Steve Morse we are looking at. All I can say to the disappointed among you is wait until you’ve seen it! Also, it’s my New Year’s Resolution, and I don’t think I’ve broken the rules. 😄 This piece is a seriously tough study in strict alternate picking, and it really does live up to it’s name! It’s like trying to alternate pick one of Yngwie’s signature sweep arpeggios.
When I was nearly done with the transcription, I found this video online:
You can clearly see Steve’s right hand technique, and his use of the left hand thumb in the clean section. The fact that he plays the piece slowly will help with learning the patterns too. I made sure to do the transcription by ear, but I must confess I did use the video to correct a couple of positions.
Problem Solving.
The difficulty with alternate picking these arpeggios is the outside string changes. I’m having to take my technique apart to get it up to speed. I’m looking into Troy Grady’s idea of two way pickslanting to facilitate the string hops. You can find out more about this theory here. Hopefully it will help you too! For now, though, on to the transcription!
One final thing to look out for is the palm muting at the lowest notes of the arpeggios. It can be tough to accurately mute just this string, but the effect when you get it right is stellar.
Thanks for coming!
I really hope that this transcription has helped you! Do let me know how you’re overcoming the cross-picking issue. It would be really useful for me to see other solutions to the problem. Do check back on 25th February to see my next post! Can’t wait? Why not check out last week’s post!
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