TSJMajesty
Rock Star
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Edit: so I've recently learned something to focus on more (keeping the pick kind of on top of the strings), instead of thinking about pick slant, and it does make playing riffs like this easier.
OP:
Still focusing mostly on my alt-picking skills, and I was messing around with yet another Dream Theater song, The Test That Stumped Them All.
There's this descending lick that has a really cool tonality to it, plus it's in 7/8, so it's got a different feel to it. I'm kinda fascinated by it for a few reasons.
One, it's just the notes of a C major scale, but the way it's played gives it a very cool tonality. It starts on a high E (2nd st. 17th fret), and basically descends: EDBA, DBAF, BAFEFA. Total of 14 notes, played as 16ths, so that's the 1st measure of 7/8. And there's 3 more measures. But he doesn't continue to skip the same notes, although the downward scale-like 'pattern' gets repeated. (sorry, I wish I had an easy way to post a tab.)
So the next measure starts on the 3rd note from the first measure: BAFE AFED FEDBDF
The next one starts on the 4th note of the original sequence: AFED FEDC EDCBCD
The last one starts on an E, one octave lower than the first note of the first measure: EDCB DCBA CBAFGA, ending on the low open E, 6th string.
The other thing that I find challenging about it, because of the various notes that get skipped, there's no consistency in the number of notes per string. And since it's a fast riff, I thought if I was ever able to play anything like it up to speed (or even close to it), I'd have to really think about how the pick slant needs to change.
Like if you play a basic 3-note-per-string run, and not repeating any of the 3 notes, you just change your pick slant each time you change strings. And if you do play the run in such a way as to do two 3-note groups on each string, you don't even have to change the pick slant.
But this riff!! There's no pattern to when/where you need to change the pick angle. I start in the 14th position, and do a shift down to 12th position at the highlighted D in the 2nd measure. That's the best way I've found to play it. Sometimes it's 1-note-per-string, sometimes 2, and sometimes 3. And in some places you hit one note, then go right back to the string you just came from, which is the hardest part of fast alt-picking for me.
So I figured, lemme practice this very slowly, and focus on where I need to change the pick slants. My hope is that maybe I can get a feel for when I need to alter that slant, just by how many notes I'm playing on a string, and what string I need to go to next. I'm trying to see if this will start to come naturally, for other types of licks that I might actually use. (Ah, who am I kidding? I just like messing around with this!) I'd also love to know what the thinking was in coming up with the notes, and what makes it sound so cool. I can hear certain notes imparting a diminished feel, but that's all I got.
I've watched a few videos, and one thing I'm pretty certain is it's all picked (I thought about, maybe some of it is legato, but no.) And even JP seems to have played it in different positions. I don't know how guys like him come up with this kind of stuff. The tonality of it is so cool, but wrapped up in the way it sounds is the fact that it makes changing strings extra challenging. I guess you could ignore pick slant, but if you did, I don't know how you'd ever get it up to speed, and clean at the same time.
Here's a guy playing it, very well. He stays in the same position, but I find doing that shift is easier for me:
OP:
Still focusing mostly on my alt-picking skills, and I was messing around with yet another Dream Theater song, The Test That Stumped Them All.
There's this descending lick that has a really cool tonality to it, plus it's in 7/8, so it's got a different feel to it. I'm kinda fascinated by it for a few reasons.
One, it's just the notes of a C major scale, but the way it's played gives it a very cool tonality. It starts on a high E (2nd st. 17th fret), and basically descends: EDBA, DBAF, BAFEFA. Total of 14 notes, played as 16ths, so that's the 1st measure of 7/8. And there's 3 more measures. But he doesn't continue to skip the same notes, although the downward scale-like 'pattern' gets repeated. (sorry, I wish I had an easy way to post a tab.)
So the next measure starts on the 3rd note from the first measure: BAFE AFED FEDBDF
The next one starts on the 4th note of the original sequence: AFED FEDC EDCBCD
The last one starts on an E, one octave lower than the first note of the first measure: EDCB DCBA CBAFGA, ending on the low open E, 6th string.
The other thing that I find challenging about it, because of the various notes that get skipped, there's no consistency in the number of notes per string. And since it's a fast riff, I thought if I was ever able to play anything like it up to speed (or even close to it), I'd have to really think about how the pick slant needs to change.
Like if you play a basic 3-note-per-string run, and not repeating any of the 3 notes, you just change your pick slant each time you change strings. And if you do play the run in such a way as to do two 3-note groups on each string, you don't even have to change the pick slant.
But this riff!! There's no pattern to when/where you need to change the pick angle. I start in the 14th position, and do a shift down to 12th position at the highlighted D in the 2nd measure. That's the best way I've found to play it. Sometimes it's 1-note-per-string, sometimes 2, and sometimes 3. And in some places you hit one note, then go right back to the string you just came from, which is the hardest part of fast alt-picking for me.
So I figured, lemme practice this very slowly, and focus on where I need to change the pick slants. My hope is that maybe I can get a feel for when I need to alter that slant, just by how many notes I'm playing on a string, and what string I need to go to next. I'm trying to see if this will start to come naturally, for other types of licks that I might actually use. (Ah, who am I kidding? I just like messing around with this!) I'd also love to know what the thinking was in coming up with the notes, and what makes it sound so cool. I can hear certain notes imparting a diminished feel, but that's all I got.
I've watched a few videos, and one thing I'm pretty certain is it's all picked (I thought about, maybe some of it is legato, but no.) And even JP seems to have played it in different positions. I don't know how guys like him come up with this kind of stuff. The tonality of it is so cool, but wrapped up in the way it sounds is the fact that it makes changing strings extra challenging. I guess you could ignore pick slant, but if you did, I don't know how you'd ever get it up to speed, and clean at the same time.
Here's a guy playing it, very well. He stays in the same position, but I find doing that shift is easier for me:
Last edited: