Vic Black - Riff Magic: Natural Harmonics SI Lesson

Introduction

Hello GMC!

My name is Victor Knyrko, i'm from Estonia and i'm seventeen years old. I've been playing guitar for a while which is two years by now and my absolute #1 guitar player is Dimebag Darrell. Another major influences are Tony Iommy from Black Sabath and Kirk Hammett from Metallica. I play in numerous local bands as a session guitarist.

Lesson

In this lesson i'm going to uncover the possibility of using natural harmonics in heavy metal riffs in order to add some variety in the melody and to give it another feeling.

Heres is the main audio track which i called "Riff Magic": Riff_magic_NH.mp3 ( 1.13MB )

Fairly simple isn't it ? However almost all kinds of rhytm guitar techniques are involved here.
Now let's break this composition into 4 parts which represent four different riffs used in it.

(NB! '*' - is a natural harmonic note)

Riff 1

e|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
D|-9---------------------7---------------------5--------------------------------------------|
A|-9--*--*-*-*--*--*-----7--*--*-*-*--*--*-----5--*--*-*-*--*--*-----4----------------------|
E|-7--7--7-7-7--7--7--0--5--5--5-5-5--5--5--0--3--3--3-3-3--3--3--0--2--0--2--3--5--3--2--0-|

So basically this one is based on a power chord progression going down. Natural harmonics are played using alternate picking.

SLOW VERSION (100bpm): 1st_riff_slow_100bpm_.mp3 ( 226.84K )

Riff 2

e|------------------------------------|
B|------------------------------------|
G|------------------------------------|
D|------------------------------------|
A|-2--------------*-----*-----*---2---|
E|-0--0-0-0-0-0-0-5-0-0-3-0-0-2-0-0---|

In this riff you need a constant down-picking technique and always remember to remove your picking hand from the bridge when you're playing natural harmonics so they sound fuller. Open notes are player using palm muting.

SLOW VERSION (100bpm): 2nd_riff_slow_100bpm_.mp3 ( 227.25K )

Riff 3

e|-------------------------------------|
B|-------------------------------------|
G|-------------------------------------|
D|-------------------------------------|
A|-2----*-----------4/5---5/7---7/5--2-|
E|-0--0-4--0--0-0-0-2/3-0-3/5-0-5/3--0-|

That one involves chord slides which is a common rhythm guitar technique too.

SLOW VERSION (100bpm): 3d_riff_slow.mp3 ( 227.25K )

Riff 4

e|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
G|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
D|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
A|-2------5/7---7/8---8/7-5/7-7--2------5/7---7/8---8/7-*-*-*-----2--|
E|-0--0-0-3/5-0-5/6-0-6/5-3/5-5--0--0-0-3/5-0-5/6-0-6/5-4-4-4-0-0-0--|

Nothing special here. The same as previous ones

SLOW VERSION (100bpm): 4th_riff.mp3 ( 372.55K )

Backing Tracks

BACKING TRACK (FULL SPEED - 175bpm): backing_track_175bpm.mp3 ( 1.13MB )

BACKING TRACK (SLOW - 125bpm): backing_track_slow_125bpm.mp3 ( 3.17MB )

Last words

So basically what we you have to know is that natural harmonics are on 12th,7th,5th,3d and 2th frets. Though you must turn your GAIN control to almost maximum to hear harmonics on third and second frets. Incorporating natural harmonics in rhythm figures is very effective when you search for some variety

For more inspiration i recommend you to listen to such tracks as:

Pantera - Heresy
Megdeth - Tornado Of Souls

Check out the riffs

Good Luck and LET THE PRACTICE BEGIN!
All the best, Vic