Hello GMC!
Welcome to my second lesson in the style of Bucketead! This time I will cover his more melodic side that can be found on albums like “Electric Tears” and “A Real Diamond In The Rough”.
Music Style:
As I said eralier, in this lesson I’m covering his more ambient and experimental side. It’s a calm lesson that has a clean warm tone and really melodic melodies. It has a second section where I added some distortion and tried to emulate the most dramatic section of this Buckethead side.
Tonality & Chord Progression:
This tune is in E minor key so both the melodies and chord come from the E minor scale. I also used E pentatonic minor scale for the solo. I found this type of chords in many of his songs, that why I decided to use these weird extended chords.
Techniques:
The techniques used here are sweep picking (for arpeggios), alternate picking, bending, vibrato and slides. It’s not a difficult lesson but you have to be precise with timming and concentrate on feeling and expression. That’s why vibrato and the overal feeling are very important.
Sound:
I used my Pod HD 500 to record this lesson. For the clean channel I used the Tweed B-man amp and a 4x10 tweed cabinet. I added some flanger and phaser to the arpeggios track directly during the mix. I used the Treadplate Dual Amp Model with a 4x12 2001 Treadplate Cab Model. If you want the tone you can ask for it at my instructor board. My guitar is a Gibson Les Paul Studio. The drums are from Ezdrummer and the bass sound is from the Hyper Canvas.
Tuning:
I used standard 440.
OK GMC Bucket lovers - let's start working!