Rock Like Brian May Lesson

Rock Like Brian May

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    THE PROFESSOR As masterfully demonstrated by Ben in this lesson, there are a few items you need to have in your guitar tool belt in order to bring a Brian May sound to your guitar riffs and solos. Brian did use many of the common scales and modes in his soloing lines and guitar riffs, but he was also a big fan of using arpeggios when building the guitar sounds for many of Queen’s classic songs. 

    Learning how to build, play and solo with Arpeggio Patterns for guitar, will not only get a bit of Brian May vibe into your guitar lines, but it will open up a second texture that you can use when soloing with single-lines, to contrast the scale work you may already be doing.

    Welcome to my latest lesson where the spotlight is on Brian May!

    "Brian Harold May CBE (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and astrophysicist who achieved international fame as the guitarist of Queen. As a guitarist he uses a home-built guitar, "Red Special"." - Wikipedia

    Brian's work with Queen spans many different musical styles but I have chosen Queen's 80's commercial hard rock period as my inspiration, with such tracks as 'Hammer to Fall' and 'One Vision' providing a brilliant, attainable introduction into Brian's melodic style.

    He is known for having a very unique tone, very thick and mid heavy. He uses a guitar built by himself and his father and customised Vox AC30's. I added some chorus to my rhythm guitar sound to further emulate Brian's large guitar sound.

    This lesson will work on:

    - Chord shifting
    - Timing
    - String bending
    - Muting strings
    - Picking arpeggios

    So, do you want to break free of your guitar limitations? Get started!

    Tuning: E A D G B E Standard tuning

    Tempo: 120 bpm

    Key: A

    Gear:
    Marshall JVM 410. OD1, Orange channel. BASS 2, MID 4, TREB 8, GAIN 1

    Scales:

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