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Developing Smart Fingers

This exercise involves diminished chords. The key to this exercise is to first learn the seven chords. Once you have the chords down then try the exercise. Play each chord clean and accurate and then mute the strings with your picking hand and move to the next chord. Take your time and play this exercise very slow and make sure you are playing the chords clean without any buzz or open strings. Play the chords up and then back down the neck. Once you can do that then you can try and pick up the speed a little bit.

Example 2 is a good variation to play that can really help your fingers muscle memory. When picking for example 2 us a down up up up down up up up.

Here is the tab. Click image to enlarge.

This is an exercise from a Joe Satriani guitar book in case you were wondering.

Dimebag Riffs

I promised some Dimebag so here it is. I am going to put some riffs down that I think are very helpful. Dimebag has a particular grove that most guitarist never achieve. If you do not know of Dimebag from Pantera then do yourself some justice and listen to him now. Even if you are not into metal you will appreciate how completely ahead of the curve Dimebag was.

For starters I we will look at the intro to "Shedding Skin" off of the "Far Beyond Driven" album. If you don't know or remember what the song sounds like here is a link to listen to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_igViwDG_nw&feature=related

Click images to enlarge


The beat count is 72 and it is played 4 X's before the change. Mess around with how you pick the notes on the guitar. There are a lot of different styles of picking that would work. Down up down up is not always the answer. This lick will also help you with moving from string to string.

This next riff is the intro to "5 Minutes Alone" which is also off of the "Far Beyond Driven" album. Here is a link to the official video. Sorry about the youtube commercial just wait a few seconds and it will start.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m7njvwB-Ks

This riff will help you learn how to slide a power chord both up and down the neck of the guitar. The little X marks on the tab mean that you don't really play a note. You instead hover your hand above and create a high pitch ringing sound instead. A type of sloppy harmonics if you will.

The end of the riff has a really great downward sliding scale that really puts a great ending to the opening riff. Just one of Dimes signature moves.

This next song is off of the "Vulgar Display of Power" album and it is called "This Love". Maybe one of the more popular mellow songs from Pantera. It is a nice easy mellow style that will help put more licks under your belt.

Here is the link to the official video for you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tymWpEU8wpM

I know that these songs are not the most complicated for all people but even if you are a more advanced player it never hurts to revisit some older tunes.

This next song is on the 101 Proof Live album. It is called "Where you come from" and is one of two studio songs on the album. This song really shows Dimebags Texas Blues influence in his metal playing. Make sure you listen to this song if you never have. Here is a link for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfKdgQ8kHPo

The song really is not as hard as it may first seem. There are a lot of hammer on and pull offs mixed with a lot of bends but when you get the rhythm of the song down you will get to where you want to be in no time. If you noticed the A.H. on the tab that means Artificial Harmonic. Artificial Harmonics are created by pinching your guitar pick very close to the edge and just barley hitting the string with it along with part of your thumb. This creates an artificial harmonic tone. These are not easy to do at first but try doing them all over the neck and on different strings. You will notice that some notes are much easier to pull this off than others.

In future posts I will focus on Dimebags soloing. Like Randy Rhoads he is a great composer of guitar and his solos are legendary. I hope you enjoyed learning some Dime and if you do not own the music you should remedy that problem now so you can continue to learn guitar from one of the greatest to ever play.

Rest in peace Dime.

Silent Lucidity - Queensryche

Today I am going to post a beautiful song. Silent Lucidity by Queensryche. Everyone at one point new about this song but it has fallen away from popularity and I am glad in a way because over hearing something takes away from it eventually.

This is a beautiful acoustic guitar song. You don't have to use an acoustic of course but it always sounds better. This song is a great exercise for using your fingers to pick instead of the pick. You should rotate from your middle finger and your thumb with your right hand. Left if you are a lefty I suppose. You could use whatever fingers feel comfortable but I use my middle finger and thumb. Maybe some would use there pointing finger and thumb it really does not matter. If you want to you can even use your pick which I actually do most of the time. For a beginner it is an easy song to toy with picking with your fingers however.

Anyway, here is the tab for Silent Lucidity. Again, always click on the image to enlarge it.


It is just the first run through of the beginning of the song before it breaks and the drums kick in. Take your time with this and use it to learn how to play soft and accurately. Once you have that accomplished you can even use this song to practice singing while you play if you are at all interested in doing that. I love every part of this song. You have to remember that there are two guitarists in Queensryche, as well as a bass player, but it should sound fine if you play it properly.

Have fun with this one.

I also want to add that if you have any suggestions or requests for some song tabs just let me know in the comments. You have to remember I am a picky musician so if I don't like your request sorry. That is a reminder for all of you wannabe misfits who want to learn "Smoke on the Water". Get real!