Chris Poland Style Lesson

Chris Poland Style

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  • Welcome to my latest lesson!

    This time we will be looking at some licks in the style of Chris Poland. Chris played on the 1st 2 Megadeth albums and I have used that as my inspiration for this track. There's some typical thrash era open string riffing and power chords shifting, followed by the solo itself.

    Chris's style is very slippery sounding and also very precise. He uses a lot of chromatic passing tones in his licks which can make it hard to determine exactly what he's doing in his solos so it's no wonder that there isn't much learning material available which deciphers Chris's playing!

    It seems to me that Chris doesn't rely on a particular scale to get his sound, but rather use scales like minor pentatonic as his base and then add extra tones as he feels like it. So there might be major 3rds sitting back to back with minor 3rds or 9ths next to b2nds. There is no guarantee that any scale will be followed note for note so it's best to approach it like I described above.

    This lesson will work on:

    - Alternate picking / palm muting
    - Hammer ons / pull offs
    - Economy picking
    - Phrasing
    - String bending

    So, pick up that axe and remember.. guitar-ing is our business... and business is good !

    Tuning: Standard tuning. E A D G B E

    Tempo: 180bpm

    Gear: Marshall JVM 401H. OD2 Orange setting for rhythm and OD1 Red setting for lead.

    Scales:

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