My Favorite Guitar Techniques and Licks (English post)

My Favorite Guitar Techniques and Patterns

Hello, fellow guitarist!

If you're looking to improve your phrasing in your solos and melodies,
in this article, I'll review the main techniques I use in my own solos, with video examples,
and other ideas and thoughts to help you reach your full potential!

\m/ Happy reading \m/

Sylvain

This technique involves playing each note by alternating between up and down strokes of the pick.

It's very useful for medium- and fast-tempo melodic phrases.

Example: in the Hekla Mountain song's solo  :

Note the palm-muted passage in the middle of the solo, which gives a compressed effect to the phrase.

It can also be used to play arpeggios :

Okay, I use a bit of sweeping on the descent, but we are 80% fast picking on this lick !

Another very popular technique, sweep picking involves playing one note per string, always striking the pick in the same direction. It's as if you were sweeping the strings back and forth.

I'll start by showing you this excellent sweeping exercise on six strings. It's very useful if you're new to this technique :

(practice slowly)

Sweeping is very useful for playing arpeggios quickly.
Example: this first solo from the song Chiaroscuro Italiano:

This technique involves playing each note of the phrase with only the fingers of the left hand.

Either by striking the frets (hammer on) or by pulling the string (pull off).
That said, it is possible to strike the pick just at the beginning of the phrase and at each string change.

As its name suggests, this creates a "linked" effect between the notes. It is less harsh than a back-and-forth movement, which would add a pick attack to each note.
This is a technique to use especially for fast, light passages.

Example of a legato pattern in this passage from the solo in The Lord and the Crow:

Tapping is a kind of "extension" of legato technique. The right hand, which "taps" the frets, performs the same work as the left hand, with hammer-ons and pull-offs.

The act of striking and lightly pulling the strings while moving from one note to the next gives musical phrases created by tapping a slightly more "agitated" feel than simple legato.

This technique really comes into its own when you need to play notes that are very far apart.

Example: this passage from the solo in Refuse Tomorrow:

There are several variations to this technique, here are my favorites:

It's possible to swap hand positions in some tapping patterns.

This allows for a few more playing possibilities and is especially a great way to show off in concert, as this impressive technique is rarely used.

Check out this pattern from последняя взлетная(Last Departure) :

In the same vein, how about switching hands and using several fingers at the same time?

Example: this passage from the song War March by Andy James :

Another variation of tapping that's not widely used, yet very stylish.

It involves placing a finger of your right hand at a natural harmonic position on the string, such as the 12th or 7th fret, and tapping and pulling the notes with your left hand.

You'll have to relearn which notes you're going to play because they won't correspond to the frets, but you'll appreciate how beautiful these sounds are!

Introduction lick from последняя взлетная(Last Departure) :

This is a technique I haven't heard much of in the solos of my favorite guitarists, except for "screaming bends" (playing a note with your index finger on the high string and simultaneously bending the string next to it to reach the first note), which I'm not particularly fond of.

This very simple technique consists of deliberately letting one note ring out while playing the next one on the next string.
The dissonant effect is greatest when there's a diminished second (a semitone between two notes).

Very useful when you want to emphasize the importance of a passage in a musical phrase. I also like to use it at the end of a phrase, to end on a stylish effect !

I use it at the beginning of Point Nemo 's solo :

As its name suggests, the whammy bar allows you to vibrate your notes. This vibrato will be different from vibrating with your fingers directly on the fret.

Another stylistic effect: it can allow you to pick up notes from above or below.
For example, in the Refuse Tomorrow solo, at this passage:

You can also ascend a scale by attacking the notes from below,
Example in the ending ascending solo of Are you dead yet by Children of Bodom :

There are some very nice licks that can be reproduced without the whammy bar.

I'm thinking of the open string + upward whammy bar + natural harmonic tapped at the 5th fret + downward whammy bar.

You can achieve a similar effect by bending the fret instead of the whammy bar.

See the lick for this passage:

I have only recently started using the whammy bar because I played a guitar without a tremolo bar for a long time, the Jackson RR5 <3.

So I still have to improve on that, in any case it's a tool that has great potential for phrasing.

As you've seen, it's quite rare for me to use only one of the techniques mentioned in this article in a solo passage.
It's by combining different techniques that I'm able to create melodic phrases that are most meaningful to me.

It's good to work on them one by one to master them, but it's by being able to switch from one to the other in your playing that you'll develop your phrasing.

Before concluding this article, I'll leave you with the final solo from Chiaroscuro Italiano, which combines tapping, sweeping, double sounds, and a Floyd Rose lick :

In this article, I've talked about my favorite techniques, but there are many others that I rarely or never use, such as fingerstyle playing.
By listening to other soloists, you'll discover other approaches that may inspire you.

The same goes for effects and accessories: delay, wahwah, ebow, bottleneck, etc.
It's not my specialty, yet there are many interesting sounds to discover!

Even a background noise can become your trademark if you make it your own;
There are many examples: larsen effect, slap, string rubbing, etc.

We've come to the end of this article. I hope it has inspired you to play your guitar !

Feel free to send me a message to let me know what you think.

And if you like this music, I highly recommend listening to my latest album, In Sublime Presence, here:

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See you next time !

Sylvain