Thoughts on studying and learning

Some thoughts on studying and learning new stuff.

After the release of “The Way of the Exploding Guitar” I took some quality time on studying music theories and stuff that had always puzzled me. Also went into studying the modes of harmonic and especially melodic minor. Checked out a lot of books and videos. Then figured out my own ways of understanding things. Now when I’m listening to some of new tracks I can really hear a lot of musical progress in many directions. This is exactly what I wanted.

It’s really, really important to master all the fingerings of all scales and arpeggios etc. But most imporant is to get the tone of these into your ear. To be able to sing it. Best way to really master stuff is simply start using the new stuff. Making music out of it. And what happens is the when you really master a scale or mode, you suddenly start hearing many opportunities to apply them in music. New worlds are open for you.

Oh and fear not. Despite some melodic minor modes and stuff. The new album is definetly not jazzy. Altough it can be a bit trippy!

The Power of the Power chords II

Was showing a part from Big Trummors to a student and this made me think about the power of 5 chords once again. There’s something very clever with the main part / main riff and how lines and melodies are added on top of it.

Big Trummors-powerchords-clip

1. THE POWER CHORDS

Here’s the simple foundation. The power chords which were the initial start for the whole composition. All the chords actually go perfectly in G minor scale. So with these powerchords only you would easily hear it as minor.

2. THE MELODY

But let’s put the melody line on top. This came as the second thing when I was composing this track. Huuuh, The B note makes the G5 chord turn into major chord. But it works, and makes everything sound suddenly much more interesting.

3. ARPEGGIATOR

Later I added this Alice Cooper “poisonish” guitar arpeggiationg line on top of it all. It gives some of the chords more color. This arpeggiatior can be heard after the solos.

4. THE HARMONY

If you stack up all the harmony of all these parts together you could come up with such chords as these. For something like a single acoustic guitar arrangement these chords could come up handy. Go fo it!

There’s actually more stuff happening on top with all the synths and strings but I let you analyse it as your homework.
Big Trummors is a proof of how strong and clever power chords actually can be. Powerchord leave a lot of room for the melodies and other instruments to play on. With a little extra harmony stuff on top of these chords you can do amazing sh*tuff!

If  you wish to practice some of these parts individually here’s the Guitar Pro 6 file for you: Big Trummors-stack.zip And here’s Guitar Pro 5 version.

Zing Zing – The Solo

Oh yeah. Someone requested this tab a looong time ago when I put out some other parts of this song. Here it is.

A very flashy 80′s hairy kind of solo me thinks. I even made a video out of it. Enjoy.

This starts with some double bends and harmonics and stuff. But the real fun begins in bar 5. Was thinking of George Lynch when I did this diminished string-skipped stuff. these licks mix diminished and halftone-wholetone scales/arps in a cool way. More halftone – whole tone in bars 9-11 this time all altenate picked.
In bar 19-20 some typical octave arpeggio playing. The final has some more of nice alternate picking 16th notes.

ZING ZING – solo – backing
Note the cool groove this 7/8 beat gives the track. Very inspiring beat for soloing. Makes you wanna fly.

Zing Zing-Solo -GuitarPro6 zipped

4 Steps to Melodic Improvisation

4 Steps to Melodic Improvisation Backing

This lesson was commissioned by Tyler Correll. I met Tyler many years ago in this place called the internet. Now he is having a series of guest lessons on his site. He then requested Mr. Fastfinger to do a lesson. His lesson series has a challenge to stay within 4 measures. Aaargh, I couldn’t do it! I simply had to do 6 bars to express my ideas properly with the mini solo. And this was the point when I really got carried away…

Theoretically speaking I’m swpping between the tones of A mixolydian and E dorian modes (both from D major scale) but please read the actual lesson for further written explanations. You’ll also find tablatures and audio at Tyler’s site: http://tylercorrell.com/sounds-of-the-soul/
It will be there very soon for you.
Please check it out in order to better understand the whole concept of these 4 steps!

I hope you will enjoy this one. It’s one way to approach improvisation. Atleast this works for me. Thank you to Tyler for making me do this lesson.
Also thank you to Thomas Törnroos for the Drum beats.

Give this approach a try!
Look forward hearing feedback from you.
Also questions are always welcome,
Mika

Be sure to subscribe to MrFastfingerNet YouTube channel!

Scary Arpeggio Sequencing – Daemons & Ghouls

Here's a transcription to the scary chorus part of Deamons & Ghouls. Here's the Guitar Pro file zipped.
Real tempo is 205 bpm, but listen and see how it's played in half speed on the video.

Here's some guiding notes for you. If you dare to try it out!

Bars 1-2:  Arpeggiating across the strings. I suggest pure alternate picking here. Note the eighnote rest in the beginning and 3rd beat of bar one. These humble rests make the music more interesting I think.

Bars 3-4: Again rest in the beginning. But this part feels slightly trickier for me to play. After experiementing I decided to do some economy/sweeppicking to make it smoother. But I can say I still needed to practice it a little!

Bar 5-6: Again rest in the beginning, it's a habit! This is more relax and fun. Try experimenting with some palm muting if you like.

Bars 7-8: Switch into melodic playing here. Put all your soul to these notes!

Bars 9-10: Here we want to get slighty more playful. Use of grace notes does the trick. Grace notes are tiny little ornaments. Quick passing notes played in front of an actual notes. Here we have a two part lesson on grace notes just for you! http://mrfastfinger.net/index.php/tag/gracenote/

Bar 11: Single note on first string, 15th fret. Use your whammy bar to dive, but experiement how you get more depth and feel to the dive!

Bar 12: A true surprise element for the ear. Cromatic decending line. Totally out of place but it sounds beautiful as it lands on the right note.

Bars 13-16: It's good to get back into simple melodic playing again. Until the Sweeeep! Sweep begins with more interesting F6 add9 arpeggio but returns in classic major triad. Modern and classic tones combined.

Bars 17-19: Revisit the beginning of the solo. Repeat is good!

Bars 20-21: This is tight and can be try to get it clean and nice. Practice slow and work the tempo. Patience, patience!

Bars 22-22: We end with a variation of the little theme we first heard during bars 5-6. The final note is finished with whammy bar vibrato!

Enojy, have fun and good luck! Write me any questions and comments here, youtube or facebook.

Mixolydian Savanna (Magic Carpet Tour)

Ocean of Aeolian (Magic Carpet Tour)

Here’s a much requested backing track to the Ocean of Aeolian from the Guitar Shred Show game Magic Carpet Tour.

Mr. Fastfinger’s Guitar lessons

This is the guitar dojo. The place where all the visions and wisdoms are revealed. Techniques, scales and modes, patterns, rhythm tips, mental ideas, excercises, influences, special approaches and more. Also under “Shut Up and Play” you will find a collection of backing tracks that can be used for your practicing purposes. Use them wisely!
Full song and solo tablatures can also be found under “Transcriptions”. Practice hard!

Sensei Fastfinger

P.S. What would you like to know? Feel free to leave your ideas and comments below.

Calm down with C-Major

This is solo backing from Creatures of the Midnight (“The way of the Exploding Guitar”). Very nice and mellow track to improvise over I’d say. C-major scale works beautifully over the whole progression.

Guitar Shred Show

Just a tip for the ones who never saw Fastfinger animated Flash site. A great and entertaining source of bad ass licks is the classic GuitarShredShow.com. For starters choose “The Mountain of the Tapping Dwarves”. Once you’ve learned everything try out “Magic Carpet Tour” for more licks, it will also give you vivid tour in all 7 modes of the major scale.