Riffing Variations Lesson

Riffing Variations

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  • Hi

    Here is an interesting approach how you can play riff variations on different positions on the neck. I've heard it done by many great guitarists and this is a common thing when making a riff progression in modern pop/rock music.

    Besides the musical idea I was also trying to make an interesting finger exercise at the same time. If you watch my fingering carefully you will notice that I was trying to avoid barre shapes. Each note is played with a different finger. Many times I am using 2nd, 3rd and 4th finger instead of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. You can clearly see that fingering in slow videos and try to play this lesson the same way.

    There were also some experiments with the sound. I used a warm rock overdrive with about 20% of flanger. That gave the sound very interesting definition. The guitars are also doubled and panned 100% left and right. On top of that there is the 3rd guitar playing the exact same thing but one octave up and its volume is set to about 30%. All these guitars together sound much more powerful than if I only used one guitar. Remember this trick when recording and mixing as the sound gets much richer with this technique.

    The whole lesson is played with alternate picking technique so try to play it that way if you want to execute every note with the same amount of attack.

    I hope you will enjoy playing this one and see you soon.

    Emir

    A MIXOLYDIAN

    G MIXOLYDIAN


    D MIXOLYDIAN
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