If King Louis XIV were to strap on an electric
guitar, what would he play? My guess
would be triads. There is something regal
about the sound of triads. So as you sit atop
your throne and gaze across the realm, contemplating
swords, sorcerers, and serfs, you
might enjoy picking and pulling-off some triads
in the key of E minor (and finally resolving
to E major). Let’s look at the details.
Left-Hand Stretching: Your left hand
will get a good workout from these triad
phrases, but you’ll never have to stretch more
than a major third interval (four frets). I
jump up an octave towards the end in order
to make the stretching easier. If your hand is
sending you signals of panic or discomfort,
please jump up an octave at anytime. There
you’ll find the frets are much closer together
and the major third more stretchable.
Balancing Pick and Legato
Techniques: I wrote out my exact picking
pattern for the first measure. This
combination of picked notes and left-handgenerated
notes continues throughout the
following measures. So once you’ve got
one bar, you’ve got them all! (The last bar
is the exception because I used a different
phrase for the ending.) I can’t stress enough
how important this exact combination
is to making these phrases playable. One
method to check that you are in sync is to
observe what pick stroke you are using on
the downbeats. For this phrase, it should
always be a downstroke on the downbeat.
The Rhythm: The hammer-ons and
pull-offs allow you to squeeze the fast
16th-note triplets into the phrase without
having to stress the picking hand. These
phrases don’t require much muscle, just
accurate technique.
String Skipping: There’s a lot of string
skipping here, and if you like triads, you’ll
like these fingering shapes. After you have
memorized the shapes, you can try your
own phrasing ideas inside them. Again, I
must emphasize that the balance of picking
and legato techniques is the key to making
these work. Why do I keep saying that over
and over again? Because it’s true.
The Last Measure: I decided to end with
a different phrase. It still uses triads, but
the pattern is different. Please make note of
where the hammer-ons occur and make sure
to play them in those exact locations.
I hope you enjoy these triads, and for the
ultimate in powdered-wig rock ’n’ roll make
sure to check out a band called The Upper
Crust and their aristocratically excellent
song “Let Them Eat Rock.” Indeed!
Paul Gilbert purposefully began playing guitar
at age 9, formed the guitar-driven bands Racer
X and Mr. Big, and then accidentally had a No.
1 hit with an acoustic song called “To Be with
You.” Paul began teaching at GIT at the age of
18, has released countless albums and guitar
instructional DVDs, and will be remembered as
“the guy who got the drill stuck in his hair.” For
more information, visit
paulgilbert.com.