Learning Yngwie Malmsteen

[ite89]

Yngwie has been one of my favorite guitar players ever since I started playing guitar. I started off learning from tabs/guitar pro, but I was honestly never able to learn the right technique. I guess what I took away from learning his songs was how to economy pick.

Now I just really want to be able to play a yngwie song from start to finish note for note.

There are quite a few problems with that since
1. Most tabs are not that accurate, the note could be right but I realized from watching some Troy Grady lessons that note groupings per string was a very large factor in playing yngwie songs.

2. Yngwie does not have any good learning resource material put out. I've seen most of them and he doesn't really explain the mechanics of his playing.

3. "Official" tab books have no instructions on how to play the scales and don't account for Hammer-Ons and pull-offs and how they relate to picking sequence.

I've seen a lot of players cover Yngwie songs, I guess they really took the time to slow the song down and learn the song note for note. I just wanna be able to play the song EXACTLY how yngwie plays it, by that I mean the same finger placement and picking mechanics. The only way I think I will be able to achieve this is through slowing down specific song performances through youtube.

TLDR: Guys, I just really wanna be able to play Yngwie Songs. If any of you have any specific advice on how to do this it would be most welcome.

THANKS

 

[prlgmnr]

Have you subscribed to any of Troy's stuff?

Subscribe to Masters in Mechanics and you can view the entire archive of stuff, including an analysis of Malmsteen's playing so in depth you'll wish you never asked.

 

[ite89]

I've watched most of his Yngwie inspired lessons on youtube. after seeing his videos I'm a little bit more particular about the accuracy of some tab fingerings. Yes they do help!

 

[Lorcan Ward]

Look up a guy called Straten Marshall on FB/IG/YouTube, he has a bunch of Yngwie lessons and has his technique down to a T. He offers Skype lessons that will teach you all the mechanics of yngwies playing.

As for tabs most of those guys learned by ear or took existing tabs and rearranged them correctly. I think Mitch DuCran has a bunch of Yngwie tabs, he's always been very good with tabbing how the artist would play it.

 

[Rachmaninoff]

I used to listen to a lot, I mean *A LOT* of Yngwie when I was learning guitar as a kid. One thing that could help is watch videos (those made to Japanese guitar magazines) where you can see his hands closely. I remember watching hours and hours of some VHS tapes (haha!) of him, and we have most of these on YouTube today:

 

[Eptaceros]

It seems like you're looking for some kind of shortcut or a Sparknotes: Yngwie Edition.

Notice how so many incredible older guitarists talk about their past and reference "jamming along to/learning records"? They got to their level of playing by using their ears and hammering away for hours on end. Guys like Yngwie built their technique through countless hours of struggling the hard way. If you want to play like him, you have to look back at his work ethic and follow those first steps.

I know, I know, I'm starting to sound like "that old guy" who talks about how kids have it easy these days. Truthfully, I think it's amazing that there are guys like Troy Grady offering such in depth services for aspiring musicians. But at the end of the day, it's still up to you to put those hours in and just work at it. There's no shortcut to mastery.

Watch videos. Slow them down. Listen to the tunes, slow those down too. Get frustrated. Throw your pick at the wall and immediately lose it forever. But grab another and keep going.

 

[prlgmnr]

The point that Troy makes quite a lot is that just putting the time in isn't enough for everyone. He put in hours and hours and hours but never quite worked out the basic techniques that virtuoso players used. So great for you if you worked it out for yourself, but if you didn't it's worth getting a bit of a leg up.

And once you know the correct techniques, THEN you put the hours in.

 

[extendedsolo]

The point that Troy makes quite a lot is that just putting the time in isn't enough for everyone. He put in hours and hours and hours but never quite worked out the basic techniques that virtuoso players used. So great for you if you worked it out for yourself, but if you didn't it's worth getting a bit of a leg up.

And once you know the correct techniques, THEN you put the hours in.

Yngwie transcribed all of Paganinis 24 caprices by ear and played them up to speed as a kid. He was also a huge Richie Blackmore fan and a blues fan. I'm willing to bet he put in the hours and wasn't worried about inside or outside picking but rather he figured it out. I think that was the other posters point, speed and accuracy like yngwie takes YEARS and thousands of hours of practice. No amount of videos on youtube are going to make up for it. Putting in the time IS enough for a large majority of people, the issue is not many people want to put in the time.

It seems like you're looking for some kind of shortcut or a Sparknotes: Yngwie Edition.

Notice how so many incredible older guitarists talk about their past and reference "jamming along to/learning records"? They got to their level of playing by using their ears and hammering away for hours on end. Guys like Yngwie built their technique through countless hours of struggling the hard way. If you want to play like him, you have to look back at his work ethic and follow those first steps.

I know, I know, I'm starting to sound like "that old guy" who talks about how kids have it easy these days. Truthfully, I think it's amazing that there are guys like Troy Grady offering such in depth services for aspiring musicians. But at the end of the day, it's still up to you to put those hours in and just work at it. There's no shortcut to mastery.

Watch videos. Slow them down. Listen to the tunes, slow those down too. Get frustrated. Throw your pick at the wall and immediately lose it forever. But grab another and keep going.

I can't tell you how boring of an answer this is. I could tell you countless stories of guys who thought they had it figured out by shortcuts and realized they just hadn't been working hard enough. This is also the most correct answer. I think the troy grady stuff is great, but if you watch all of his videos other players find a way around it no matter what. Martin Miller has insane cross picking skills from thousands of hours of playing. Whereas someone like jeff loomis does economy. The best players don't need these videos because they just find a way to make it work.

TLDR: Guys, I just really wanna be able to play Yngwie Songs. If any of you have any specific advice on how to do this it would be most welcome.

THANKS

There are tabs on guitarinstructor.com, buy the yngwie books and stop relying on user made tabs. If you can't afford those, start trascribing by ear. Work your butt off and one day you'll be able to play the songs like yngwie.

 

[Rachmaninoff]

Notice how so many incredible older guitarists talk about their past and reference "jamming along to/learning records"? They got to their level of playing by using their ears and hammering away for hours on end. Guys like Yngwie built their technique through countless hours of struggling the hard way.

Wise words.

 

[ite89]

Much appreciated guys! Well, it is true though I've been looking for Sparknotes/shortcuts to getting the Yngwie Style down and I really do recognize that it really does seem like the lazy route! But then again I'm really just frustrated at how seemingly complex his mechanics are. So I am indeed going to start working on the Troy Grady stuff.

I do agree there are no shortcuts! But I do recognize that there are ways in which you can learn more efficiently. It's also true that most guitar players nowadays including me are quite privileged to have youtube and this vast amount of resource that we can learn from. Then again it's really a lot of information that I would have to sort and sift through. We actually have books/tabs that have been approved by the songwriters themselves if not actually written by them (stuff from sheet happens). It just so happened that yngwie wasn't really that good at articulating his technique as compared to Paul Gilbert, Frank Gambale, or even Tosin Abasi.

I appreciate all the help guys, thank you so much for the words of wisdom.

 

[prlgmnr]

Yngwie transcribed all of Paganinis 24 caprices by ear and played them up to speed as a kid. He was also a huge Richie Blackmore fan and a blues fan. I'm willing to bet he put in the hours and wasn't worried about inside or outside picking but rather he figured it out. I think that was the other posters point, speed and accuracy like Yngwie takes YEARS and thousands of hours of practice. No amount of videos on youtube are going to make up for it. Putting in the time IS enough for a large majority of people, the issue is not many people want to put in the time.

I am not saying not to put the hours in, I specifically said you DID have to put the hours in.

If you want to learn the drums, you'll find out that you can use traditional grip, French, German or American matched grips, Gladstone technique, Moeller technique, push-pull, you'll get your list of 40 rudiments and get told to go and practise them.

If you want to learn the saxophone you've got Teal's The Art of Saxophone Playing which tells you how to form your embouchure, or you've got Liebman's Developing a Personal Saxophone Sound which gives you a bit of a window into the alternative method taught by Joe Allard (you might want to call these the classical and jazz embouchure, but you might not).

You want to learn guitar you just get told "put the hours in, Yngwie did it". Players who clearly DO use the sort of techniques Troy talks about say "oh I don't know what I'm doing, I just practised till I could do it" almost universally in fact, and that's fine, but that doesn't mean it's going to work for everyone. It quite clearly DOESN'T work for everyone, as plenty of people put the hours in and don't get anywhere.

For every MAB who can practise the same 6 notes a thousand times until he comes up with a fluid technique there are thousands of people who will bang their head against it for a lifetime.

Yngwie, Mclaughlin, Van Halen, MAB and the like all invented technique because it didn't exist before them. But they've done it now, asking every new player to do it completely by themselves is like asking people to invent the lightbulb every time they find themselves in the dark.

And please, please don't twist this as if I'm trying to say you should never figure anything out by yourself as a player, that's a skill you have to learn as well, I'm simply saying that not everyone is going to figure everything out on their own, and that's fine, and totally expected in the way other instruments are taught.

 

[Eptaceros]

And please, please don't twist this as if I'm trying to say you should never figure anything out by yourself as a player, that's a skill you have to learn as well, I'm simply saying that not everyone is going to figure everything out on their own, and that's fine

I know this is going to sound crazy/corny, but I DO think that everyone can figure it out on their own. However, everyone's capacities for practice and efficiency are going to vary, which means it takes some people longer than others to get to those "lightbulb" milestones. That being said, I'm not trashing the fact that we have so many tools at our disposal now, I think it's amazing. All I did back in the day was scour the internet for sources on guitar techniques.


My point was that if you take away one of these:

- study quality, educational material
- spend 10,000 hours just doing it

which one will actually give you the results?


and to the poster that said "this is the most boring answer", it most definitely is! because it's the most frustratingly simple and practical answer there could be. It strips away all the details that vary from player to player, and brings to light the common thread of all the greats in any sport/musical/you name it activity.

 

[extendedsolo]

esults?


and to the poster that said "this is the most boring answer", it most definitely is! because it's the most frustratingly simple and practical answer there could be. It strips away all the details that vary from player to player, and brings to light the common thread of all the greats in any sport/musical/you name it activity.

It was a compliment honestly! It's just an answer that people have heard so many times that I feel like they ignore it.

And please, please don't twist this as if I'm trying to say you should never figure anything out by yourself as a player, that's a skill you have to learn as well, I'm simply saying that not everyone is going to figure everything out on their own, and that's fine, and totally expected in the way other instruments are taught.

No I agree. In fact I know I didn't figure everything out on my own, I have Petruccis rock discipline video (on VHS no less) to thank for that. In fact I remember sitting there for HOURS because I only had the VHS and not the booklet. I remember listening to him talk about "clean and clear picking" and alternate picking. I remember reading malmsteen in interviews saying he only used alternate picking all of the time. I learned that so early that maybe I thought I always knew it since I've been playing close to 20 years. I did come off a little like those guys who say "I'm completely self taught!" with a smug smile.

More to my point, to get back to the orignal post, is that the OP sounds like he wants ONE link to tell him how to play like malmsteen. In reality there isn't one link that will unlock the secrets (USE THE REH MALMSTEEN VIDEO!) and he has to be willing to figure it out to some degree on his own. What's more is that the not-so-secret of it is that he will have to put in the work.

I think we are agreeing on this one, but are saying it in different ways, because I agree with everything you said in your response post.

 

[ite89]

Guys! The suggestions are much appreciated! Digging into the Troy Grady Master of Mechanics: Volcano and Stranten Marshall as a start! To clarify, I wasn't looking for that "one" link I was just looking for some advice from people who have gone through the process and have succeeded. Thanks everyone for the knowledge

 

[Drew]

Guys! The suggestions are much appreciated! Digging into the Troy Grady Master of Mechanics: Volcano and Stranten Marshall as a start! To clarify, I wasn't looking for that "one" link I was just looking for some advice from people who have gone through the process and have succeeded. Thanks everyone for the knowledge

You know, Troy Grady's videos are amazing, and I think are an incredible resource for guitarists, not just because of their content (which is great), or his generally excellent transcription ability (some of the stuff about his approach to transcribing Vai's crossroad licks was awesome, for how thoughtful it was) or for his passion for guitar and the way he conveys the excitement of being a kid in your bedroom with a guitar and a record that was blowing your mind (which I watchhed the first season in its entirity because it brought back that feeling), but because of the conversations it's sparking.

All his "downwards pick slanting" and "string hopping" and "ascending fives" and all that jargon that he probably brings from his management consultant days (wasn't that his background originally?) not withstanding - and it IS a little cheesy - he's got guitarists looking at and thinking about the mechanics of their pickstrokes. Not just in the crude "economy vs alternate" or "wrist vs elbow" or whatever senses that were the norm back when I was first getting serious about technique (late 90s), but rather in the manner in which the pick physically impacts the string, and how particular movements can make some things easier but others far harder, and why. I think that more than anything has been a benefit to me, and while you can certainly sit down and learn Yngwie's downward pickslanting plus sweeping approach, take that, and tackle his music, I think there's also a lot you can do to simply just become more thoughtful about your own picking mechanics, experiment a bit, and develop an approach that works for you.

My picking technique has increased significantly since I discovered his video series, and while I spent some time working on a downward technique, ironically I'm finding a lot of lines I tend to play flow better with an upward slant. Long story short - looking past Yngwie, the biggest takeaway from his series is to analyze HOW your pickstroke impacts your ability to pick certain sequences.

As for Yngwie, you're going about it in the right manner - take what you've found so far, choose a song, start slow, and practice your ass off. One other thing - Yngwie, especially early on, played with surprisingly little gain. This is really not all that distorted, it's just the combination of a clear attack and killer picking accuracy:

 

[Descent]

All of YJM's lessons are pretty much shaking of the wrist bracelets, a touch on the Ferrari amulet and an exclamation "it is just too hard to explain".
I think I remember seeing some Joe Stump lessons on how to play YJM. The guy was really good, he even copied him down to the bracelets

 

[remnant24]

You may want to check out Steve Vai's 30 hour workout. He did master Yngwie's style before putting that together.

IMO, there's no point trying to play things exactly like another guitarist. You're wired differently and have different hand size and shape, so the technique that's optimal or feels most comfortable to you won't be the same as his. You can master his tracks without having to use the same form of picking, same direction of pickslanting, same fingering, etc. Not to mention, Yngwie's playing is far from the cleanest as shredders go.