Diminished Legato String Skipping

[Gilbucci]

Man, I love to do this! It sounds crazy sometimes. I like tapping a really high note to make it sound even crazier. Have you guys ever screwed around with this? Rusty Cooley introduced me to it. I was watching a lesson he was doing for one of his tunes. Pretty sweet.

 

[DDDorian]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBgQLwIrerc

Here's a good one, Gus G's "Betcha Can't Play This"

I've totally abused diminished licks, sweeps and arpeggios to the point where I have to make a conscious effort to avoid playing them, heh. They're pretty easy and sound uber-dramatic so I've pretty much run them into the ground for the time being.

 

[Gilbucci]

Video isn't working

 

[DDDorian]

Edited, have another shot.

 

[distressed_romeo]

Diminished scales are taylor made for that shit! Try it with whole-tone patterns as well, particularly if you like Meshuggah!

Diminished scales are your friends...they are so useful in virtually every style of music!

 

[T_money419]

I don't want to sound like an idiot, but what's a diminished scale?

 

[distressed_romeo]

It's a symmetrical scale made up of alternating half and whole steps. There are two of them; the half-whole diminished scale, and the whole-half diminished scale.

The whole-half would be (using A as a root note)...

A B C D Eb F F# G#

Whilst the half-whole would be...

A Bb C Db Eb E F# G

Because they're symmetrical, any note from the scale can be treated as the root note, so it's usually the chord you play it over that defines what the tonal centre is.

The whole-half tends to get played over minor chords, whilst the half-whole gets played over dominant chords for an altered sound.

 

[Ciprian]

I don't want to sound like an idiot, but what's a diminished scale?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminished_scale

 

[distressed_romeo]

Diminished scale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I love the Arabic name for it, 'the String of Pearls'...it just screams out for some crude humour!

 

[Michael]

Rusty has some pretty insane diminished licks up his sleeve. I can never make the stretches because I've got small, podgy fingers. But they do sound badass.

 

[distressed_romeo]

Rusty has some pretty insane diminished licks up his sleeve. I can never make the stretches because I've got small, podgy fingers. But they do sound badass.

Thank god for tapping, eh?

 

[josh821]

Rusty has some pretty insane diminished licks up his sleeve. I can never make the stretches because I've got small, podgy fingers. But they do sound badass.

I feel for ya. I've got long slender fingers and I can't efficiently pull off those stretches if I'm starting below the 12th fret. I'm lazy when it comes to working on stretching. I'll do it for maybe 5-10 minutes before I get sick of my hand being tired.

 

[Bartok]

I'm lazy when it comes to working on stretching. I'll do it for maybe 5-10 minutes before I get sick of my hand being tired.

You don't have to have a guitar to practice though- I do it a lot when I get bored at work etc. It's meant to be good for avoiding RSI too

 

[distressed_romeo]

You don't have to have a guitar to practice though- I do it a lot when I get bored at work etc. It's meant to be good for avoiding RSI too

I do that as well...earns me lots of wierd looks. I practice stretching my wrist and arm muscles as well when I'm aways from the guitar.

 

[Jongpil Yun]

Rusty has some pretty insane diminished licks up his sleeve. I can never make the stretches because I've got small, podgy fingers. But they do sound badass.

Actually, RC's hands aren't that big. He's a pretty damn short guy if you ever see him. The trick with RC and Shawn Lane's huge stretch things are to make sure you have your thumb behind the neck and move your wrist down.

That's the reason Rusty Cooley's signature guitar has a low horn and deep cutaway -- he'd keep banging his wrist against the lower horn. Whenever I try to play some of his crazy wide interval things I do it too.

 

[Gilbucci]

How in the hell did he develop the stretch between his middle, and ring finger? I find it impossible.

 

[distressed_romeo]

How in the hell did he develop the stretch between his middle, and ring finger? I find it impossible.

Check out Brett Garsed's 'Rock Guitar Improvisation' DVD, as that's got a detailed section on 4NPS legato playing. He has fairly normal sized hands, but demonstrates ways to get around it. Actually, get it anyway, as it's great value, both from an instructional and performance (there's an incredible live recording of him with TJ Helmerich) point of view.

One thing that really helps with stretchy legato passages, especially those involving a stretch between the ring and middle fingers, is to rely solely on your fretting hand thumb for anchoring (as Jongpil said) and make sure you only have the finger that's fretting the current note down; don't leave the fingers that have fretted previous notes down on the fretboard, as that'll limit your stretch (i.e. don't do what most people do with their legato, and leave your index finger on the lowest note of each string).

 

[Gilbucci]

Check out Brett Garsed's 'Rock Guitar Improvisation' DVD, as that's got a detailed section on 4NPS legato playing. He has fairly normal sized hands, but demonstrates ways to get around it. Actually, get it anyway, as it's great value, both from an instructional and performance (there's an incredible live recording of him with TJ Helmerich) point of view.

One thing that really helps with stretchy legato passages, especially those involving a stretch between the ring and middle fingers, is to rely solely on your fretting hand thumb for anchoring (as Jongpil said) and make sure you only have the finger that's fretting the current note down; don't leave the fingers that have fretted previous notes down on the fretboard, as that'll limit your stretch (i.e. don't do what most people do with their legato, and leave your index finger on the lowest note of each string).

Damn. I got another habit that I need to tune out I usually anchor one finger on the lowest note to play legato.

 

[guitarplayerone]

Rusty has some pretty insane diminished licks up his sleeve. I can never make the stretches because I've got small, podgy fingers. But they do sound badass.

thumb all the way on the back and bottom of the neck. i have smallish fingers too... when I do that my hand is a lot more relaxed and suddenly i have vai- fingers...

Actually, RC's hands aren't that big. He's a pretty damn short guy if you ever see him. The trick with RC and Shawn Lane's huge stretch things are to make sure you have your thumb behind the neck and move your wrist down.

That's the reason Rusty Cooley's signature guitar has a low horn and deep cutaway -- he'd keep banging his wrist against the lower horn. Whenever I try to play some of his crazy wide interval things I do it too.

and that is the only good reason for me to buy the RC7 vs the J Custom RG 8327 (same guitar, same wood, same pups, universeish neck, no huge cutout)

Thank god for tapping, eh?

how about that you can link diminished runs directly to each other and just go ALL the way up