Clutch Style Lesson

Clutch Style

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  • Hi GMC!

    Welcome to my new lesson inspired on the great band Clutch, a band from Maryland, USA formed in 1991. They have been rocking for many years, and released 10 albums. The current members of the band are Neil Fallon (Vocals, guitar, harmonica), Tim Sult (Guitar), Dan Maines (Bass) and Jean-Paul Gaster (Drums).

    Music Style:
    Their music has influences that come from hard rock, metal, hardcore punk and funk. They are usually defined like an alternative metal and stoner rock band. They have really powerful songs but where I’ve found even more personal stuff is on their mid-tempo tunes that combine electric with acoustic guitars. A combination of groovy rhythms and rocker riffs made with a nice texture created by the combination of distorted and acoustic guitars made songs like “The regulator”, “Ghost” and “Spacegrass” very unique and cool to hear. This lesson is based on that side of their music.

    Tonality, Chord Progression & Scales:
    This tune is in D minor tonality. Their music is mostly based on minor keys and their favorite scale for writing riffs and melodies is the blues scale. They have strong blues influences from classic rock and blues, and what it’s even cooler for me, they have an Argentinian legendary guitarist among their influences, the great Pappo. They even recorded a cover from him (“Algo ha cambiado”). In this composition I used D blues scale and some extra notes that will be explained on the slow video parts.

    Techniques:
    This lesson combines strumming with some riffing and melodic stuff. The main techniques used on this one are alternate picking, bending and vibrato. This is a good lesson to training rhythm, timing and also dynamics, which means giving different accentuation to some notes to give a different feel to riffs and grooves.

    Sound:
    I used LePoin plugins to create the guitar tone. These are free amp emulators that are extremely recommended. The cabinet used for this guitar tone is Poulin HyBrit which is a Marshall Emulation. Check out the settings:





    Click HERE to download my Patch.

    I used Cubase to record audio and midi, Superior drummer for drums and Trillian for bass.

    Tuning: Drop D tuning

    Tempo: 90 BPM


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