My Riffs

Nick Kay · May 12, 2019

Since I can’t post a riff on my profile might as well just put them all in a thread or something
I tend to mostly write little things, I get bored easily (unfortunately) and sometimes become obsessed with certain things too…lol
I’m a strange cat, that’s for sure.
Anyway — right now diminished sweeps are my go to thang.
I use them for warmups all the time and throw them in solos, probably way too often, but since they come so easy to me, it’s like I can’t help it, lol.
Here’s something that I’ll probably add to a full solo some day.
I’m no theory nerd (I don’t mean that as a bad thing either, I really wish I was) but what I generally like to do with these, as I’m doing here, is mix them somehow with a harmonic minor — hopefully that makes sense and I’m describing it proper.

idssdi · May 12, 2019

Since I’m a bit of a theory nerd I’ll help you on this one. A Diminished chord is basically the Vii chord in the harmonic minor scale. You can use diminished arpeggios over the V chord a halve step up from the V chord. so F diminished over E7 for example(or D, G#,B diminished, diminished is symmetric so they all consist of the same group of notes).

Nick Kay · May 12, 2019

Awesome Ids, thank you! I did have to read it a few times but that does make sense to me. I don’t really know _for sure_ the proper names for everything, and sometimes what I think is the right description, isn’t — but like, to me, I’ll just call it like “the Yngwe Malmsteen maneuver” or whatever, lol. For the longest time I didn’t even know what the harmonic minor scale was, I just called it the Yngwe scale!

Nick Kay · May 12, 2019

Something else I’m working on and –officially– setting a goal (next few weeks I guess) for is the intro to The Stage — that is a mother f’er for sure — Playing that A note on the B string is for sure a PITA…very hard to get that to come out cleanly especially without a fret wrap

This reply was modified 5 months, 3 weeks ago by Nick Kay.

Nick Kay · May 13, 2019

Progressing the intro Day 2…This is not going to be easy
I’ve never liked these kind multi finger tap licks, for good reason…
I’m using my pinky for the E flat on the 23rd fret

Nick Kay · May 16, 2019

Day 4
Had the cahones to move on and learn the last arpeggio sequences
Not sure if this is right, I slowed it down in a DAW and this is what I hear
I really can’t tell about that chromatic run though
What a beast

Nick Kay · May 23, 2019

Day 7
Haven’t been playing this much lately my tapping finger is ripped to shreds and bleeding needs some time to heal

Kfir Yaakovi · May 23, 2019

@nick kay This is amazing. I wish I could play like that.
I always get a lot of string noise or even moving my hands a bit causes strings to create scratching noise.
I guess I’m not muting very well (although I think I am). Even if I play really really really slow, even lifting up my fingers from strings causing too much noise

Nick Kay · May 23, 2019

Kfir, I used to have the same problem, I can show you an exercise that helped me learn how to play tapping licks a little cleaner…I’ll try to make a vid later. But aside from that, using a fretwrap (the red thing by the nut) helps a lot.

Kfir Yaakovi · May 24, 2019

Nick, thanks! will be waiting
I think I got what I was doing wrong both for tapping and sweeping – I don’t mute right with my right palm.
I was palm muting like I was playing some rhythm riffs close to the bridge. and the strings still have feedback, and I was messing up a bit.
What I tried this morning is mute a bit further and the background noises stopped.
+I Should change strings, haven’t done this in a long time. (just got back playing recently).

This reply was modified 5 months, 2 weeks ago by Kfir Yaakovi.

Andrew Fernandes · May 24, 2019

@nick Day 7 I think the last note you palm mute sweep pick onto the picked bend and aggressive vibrato. Great playing btw.

Nick Kay · May 24, 2019

I was gonna say though, if you can’t play as cleanly as possible with your left hand, nothing you do with your right hand will matter, in terms of muting technique or tapping or anything else. You really have to get the left hand down before anything else.
What really helped me figure this out was a string skipping tapping lick. I tried to make a video but my finger hurts so bad, lol, I couldn’t get through it without excruciating pain.
But, it’s not something I came up with — I got the lesson from Fred, the guitar player from Opeth.
The string skipping he does with the left hand forces you to figure out how to like have your fingers “bounce” off the fretboard, for lack of a better description, and move them around without hitting any of the strings you don’t want to be playing.
It took me months of practicing it to finally get it, but when finally did, I did I was like

You don’t even have to do the tapping part with the right hand, if you just take all that out and only do the left hand stuff but play it as clean as possible, then add the taps when you’ve got that down.

Nick Kay · May 24, 2019

Also something else I do to practice playing as cleanly as possible in terms of left hand legato style is this, took it from one of Rick Graham’s videos and changed it a little. No picking for most of it. Last thing is, to play this kinda stuff you really do need a noise gate and ya need to have it set at the proper level. I usually put mine up to where it’s cutting off TOO much then back it off just a little to find the seeet spot.

This reply was modified 5 months, 2 weeks ago by Nick Kay.

Nick Kay · May 29, 2019

I’m like over half way through my 3 week time goal and I’m at 120 BPM
I feel like it’s going to take 3 months (or more) to get to the full speed of 135 BPM and to be able to play it as clean as Syn does on the album at that speed

Also, thanks for the comment Andrew, but I’m not quite sure I understand.

This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by Nick Kay.

Calvin Phillips · May 29, 2019

Just ask jak how long it takes man lol the progress is nice tho.

Nick Kay · May 30, 2019

How long did it take Jak to learn it?
I feel like it could go a lot faster if my tapping finger didn’t look like this

I shouldn’t complain tho, it doesn’t hurt that badly anymore

This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by Nick Kay.

This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by Nick Kay.

Nick Kay · Jun 2, 2019

Giving my tapping finger some time to heal, though I would learn the next lead part from this amazing epic song
I am just going by ear for this early attempt and I dont have all the little nuances/slides/bends/vibratos down, and it’s possible I’m playing that D minor pentatonic slide thing totally wrong, lol

Nick Kay · Jun 15, 2019

Finally got it
135 BPM with backing drums

Working on the other solos in the song, they won’t take nearly as long to nail lol

Ed Seith · Jun 16, 2019

Amazing, Nick! Love seeing your progress here. Someday, I’ll get to the part of my list of skills that has “tapping” and get started on it. Sounding awesome!
And I’m loving the roasted neck on that AZ. Beautiful guitar!

Nick Kay · Jun 17, 2019

Thank U Ed, I appreciate it!
Tapping is easy honestly, muting is the hard part :O
The narrow string spacing on the AZ makes tapping a little easier I think
I am so in love with this song, I learned the slower solo too

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