The Second Surface

Go to Lesson

Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock

Excerpt: For this song tutorial, I wanted to break down a few of the key sections in an original track of mine entitled "The Second Surface". Complete with all kinds of funky rhythms, dorian and phrygian melodies, pentatonic goodness and string skipped, tapped arpeggios, we'll be sure to get a great workout under our belts. The backing track is available, so check it...

Media Length: 2:15

Go to Lesson

Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock

Excerpt: So we open with a few measures of odd time. Make sure the rhythmic distinction between "on" and "off" is adheared to. Meaning, to give the rhythm the most amount of punch, avoid noise during the rests at all possible cost. The verse itself is just a groovy riff in E with a lead line playing off the rhythm. Again, to produce the best possible results, use cau...

Media Length: 0:38

Go to Lesson

Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock

Excerpt: The melody line in the pre-chorus is pretty straight forward, the reason I isolated this section is due to measures 17 and 18. Here, we see a run that rhythmically, seems rather... sloppy, in a sense. It's intention is to "float" over the beat, simply to be played fast and to occupy a certain amount of time without locking into straight 16ths or any form of ...

Media Length: 0:26

Go to Lesson

Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock

Excerpt: The "trademark" of this tune is in this Ghost Busters-esque pentatonic section. Although we're playing a total of 4 or 5 notes in a rather familiar section of the fretboard, there can be hiccups with regards to execution due to fast position changes. The 16th note triplets serve as the catalyst for some of these problems so be certain that, as always, the rh...

Media Length: 0:46

Go to Lesson

Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock

Excerpt: Alright, so let's finish this off with some utter chaos! Through bars 39-42, the rhythm contains 16th note triplets. The catch is, however, that the starting point of each arpeggio doesn't begin perfectly on a quarter note. This will throw a monkey wrench into the learning process but playing to the backing track will definitely help the process along. That...

Media Length: 0:54

Go to Lesson

Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Rock

Excerpt: Download the backing track and get busy!

Media Length: 2:00