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Malmsteen techniques

6449 Views 42 Replies 17 Participants Last post by  surfdog777
Well i caught the Yngwie bug, i used to hate listening to his songs but i bought a compilation cd of his songs and i haven't stopped listening to it.

Is there a good website that shows some of his techniques and how he uses them within his playing?
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mi2tom said:
Play his music then
What a rediculous/stupid comment!

Anyway, back to the question. I have had the Yngwie bug for about 2/3 years now. And it still hasnt gone away! I love my USA Fender Yngwie Strat to bits - the best guitar I have ever played.

As for his techniques - alternate picking mainly 99% of the time. People keep saying that he "sweep picks", but he hardly ever does! He alternate picks everything he can. He sometimes sweeps long arpeggios though.

Apart from that, just learn his scales. Phrygian and Harmonic Minor. That IS the Yngwie sound. Those scales are it.

Also, defenitely learn Pedalling. Thats what Yngwie usues 50% of the time too. Just repeated phrases or tones of little licks. Again, played in the Phrygian or Harmonic Minor modes/scales.

And lastly.....learn some of the riffs from his songs. They have made my playing come on leaps and bounds. Playing the riffs and licks from Black Star, Rising Force, I'll See The Light Tonight......
the.godfather said:
What a rediculous/stupid comment!

Anyway, back to the question. I have had the Yngwie bug for about 2/3 years now. And it still hasnt gone away! I love my USA Fender Yngwie Strat to bits - the best guitar I have ever played.

As for his techniques - alternate picking mainly 99% of the time. People keep saying that he "sweep picks", but he hardly ever does! He alternate picks everything he can. He sometimes sweeps long arpeggios though.

Apart from that, just learn his scales. Phrygian and Harmonic Minor. That IS the Yngwie sound. Those scales are it.

Also, defenitely learn Pedalling. Thats what Yngwie usues 50% of the time too. Just repeated phrases or tones of little licks. Again, played in the Phrygian or Harmonic Minor modes/scales.

And lastly.....learn some of the riffs from his songs. They have made my playing come on leaps and bounds. Playing the riffs and licks from Black Star, Rising Force, I'll See The Light Tonight......
Check out his webpage there are quite few tabs to his songs. I've had my Malmsteen bug for more than 10 years now :).

Regards

André
"Quote:
Originally Posted by mi2tom
Play his music then

What a rediculous/stupid comment!"

BWHAHAHAHAHahahahah!!! Be nice mate. hahahaha

Anyways, here's a url where you can find a couple of licks which yngwie uses.
(make sure you have your pop-up blockers on before hitting it)

http://www.intimateaudio.com/psycho_licks.malmsteen.html

Fong
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Thanks guys, i chose to ignore the first comment.

I've learnt the Phrygian mode and harmonic minor, when improvising stuff it does sound pretty close to what he would play. I'm mainly trying to focus on his pedalling. What i need is something that goes into detail about it abit more.



P.s, i've also strung up my strat again after not playing it for months ("properly" about a year). Fallen in love with it again even though it doesn't play as well as my RG. Bigger frets would probably help that and a good set up. So i've started to learn "Judas" which i thought would be a good idea because of how he uses arpeggios within the verse of the song. Very tunefull.
As already mentioned Yngwie uses the Harmonic minor scale as well as the Phrygian and Aeolian minor modes.

I don't think it's ridiculous to suggest playing his music, this way you can use your own technique and play it your own way instead of his.

Yngwie uses pedal tones too, where you basically play a phrase but alternate between one specific note and a totally different note. eg -

E|-17-15-17-13-17-12-17-----17-----17----
B|------------------------15-----13-----12-

As you can see we always go back to the A on the high E after we play a different note, it alternates. You can hear this in many of Bach's numbers and other classical music.

As for techniques, he sweeps all the 3 string arpeggio stuff, and he alternate picks the licks which are on the same string (obviously) but when it comes to those trademark runs he will usually economy pick.

Generally Yngwie's solos are very repetitive, he is just using the same licks now as he has done since this debut album, even before that when he was in Steeler and Alcatrazz, he is still great to listen to.
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Can i have your brain andy so i can try and soak up the theory knowledge and music ability? haha
Heh, I really have no theory knowledge at all man. I have just listened to him for a few years and just watched a bunch of his instructional videos.
I heard that his video's were quite crap? that he didn't go into detail enough and played way too fast to see what he was doing. Is that true?
Yeah, very true. He will play an example and then say "now I will play it at a slow speed" and it will be played slightly slower than the original tempo, haha. You can still see how he plays by watching, but you're right, he doesn't spend too much time describing what he is actually doing.

I think a very important aspect of Yngwie's playing is his wide vibrato which is always intonated with perfection, probably because he has perfect pitch.

Here are a couple of vids for you -

Joe Stump also released an instructional video, he is basically like Yngwie but without the bad attitude, no seriosly, he shares exercises and advices to get that Yngwie sound
I think Joe Stump is a malmsteen clone. Very similar tone, similar set up, similar dress sense and very similar songs. Chris Impelliteri sounds a hell of a lot like Malmsteen too.
There's also George Bellas, check out his site at http://www.georgebellas.com/

He has a couple "yngwielish" lesson.
hmmm..i just went there, seems like his lessons now cost money.. but you can still check out his videos.

Fong
Chameleonfong said:
There's also George Bellas, check out his site at http://www.georgebellas.com/

He has a couple "yngwielish" lesson.
hmmm..i just when there, seems like his lessons now cost money.. but you can still check out his videos.

Fong
George is one mean sweep picker ;).

Regards

André
....one of the coolest, yet most difficult things about Yngwie isn't even his blurry speed, it's his seemingly effortless switch from sweeps to alternate picking to insure every note comes through clear...and his timing!...I can play some of his stuff if I organize it in a friendly way...namely, the bridge in "Liar"...those sweeps and such, they're all logical, but when you hear him play them he's adding little notes here and there and essentially you KNOW he's not using strict up down up picking....just going off!

I'm not one to sit down and listen to his stuff lately, but every now and then it's great. I recommend the Trial by Fire...it's great, but I can't make it through the entire CD...just too much for me.

Yngwie is great for practice, and helping you increase your speed. Use it as such and your playing will improve immensely...check out the Anthology tab book if you're really into it..the old Wolf Marshall tabs are pretty close, and it's got all the songs you'll need to cure the fever!
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I've been blasted pretty good here but I'm cool. I learn many of Vai's technique by playing his music, that is why I said what I feel like saying
Adagio_777 said:
Yeah, very true. He will play an example and then say "now I will play it at a slow speed" and it will be played slightly slower than the original tempo, haha. You can still see how he plays by watching, but you're right, he doesn't spend too much time describing what he is actually doing.

I think a very important aspect of Yngwie's playing is his wide vibrato which is always intonated with perfection, probably because he has perfect pitch.

Here are a couple of vids for you -

Bah, it looks so effortless in those videos! DAMN HIM! :p
he also does that violin-ish thing by picking and adjusting the volume knob.

Yea his video is sorta useless, but if you can get the tab book to his REH video (if there is one) it'd be pretty useful. Or you can slow down the video, that's what I did anyway.
...I recall an old video clip where Yng does this crazy delay effect which truly sounds like 2 guitarists...wish I could find more stuff online like it...you can tell the guy is a true virtuoso..not only does he not play the slow stuff at a slow pace for those to learn, he probably doens't CARE, either!...I find it funny how he 'cues' the 'band' on the trilogy suite opus...I can imagine a guy off camera hitting the 'play' button on the drum machine!...hahaha, oh, I still love Yngwie, even though he's pompous and arrogant....Guitar World had this great article years back where Yngwie systematically hacks and cuts down just about every major guitarist EVER....except himself of course! Great stuff.
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