electric-etudes

Even with a wealth of theoretical concepts at his fingertips, Mahavishnuā€™s leader still plays from the gut.


Chops: Advanced
Theory: Advanced
Lesson Overview:
ā€¢ Understand how to use odd time signatures.
ā€¢ Create extremely syncopated and emotive solos.
ā€¢ Learn how to use the ā€œdouble harmonic minorā€ scale.


Click here to download a printable PDF of this lesson's notation.

What do you get when you cross odd meters with synthetic modes, displaced accents, Eastern philosophy, Marshall amps, and unbridled energy? Unfortunately, most of us would just get a mess of noise, but if youā€™re John McLaughlin you get the essence of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and some of the most revolutionary music to come out of the 20th century.

In The 50 Greatest Guitar Books I wrote extensively about how The Inner Mounting Flame, Mahavishnu Orchestraā€™s debut recording, literally changed my life overnight, so I wonā€™t retell that story here. Nevertheless, itā€™s worth saying that hearing John McLaughlinā€™s music for the first time was a pivotal moment, and I am delighted to have been given this opportunity to try to relate some of his musical concepts to you.

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One of the heaviest guitarists to come out of Seattleā€™s grunge scene combines flashes of Hendrix with glimpses of Sabbath.


Photo by Chris Kies

During the late ā€™80s and early ā€™90s, the focus of the music industry shifted towards Seattle and the grunge movement. Gone were the big-hair bands, their spandex and pointy- headstock guitars swept away by groups offering a more blue-collar approach to rock. One of the biggest bands to emerge out of this scene was Alice in Chains. Formed by guitarist Jerry Cantrell, vocalist Layne Staley, drummer Sean Kinney, and bassist Mike Starr, the group had a different sound from other alt-rock bands that emerged from the Emerald City. AIC was much heavier, yet also featured rich vocal harmonies, and even folk and acoustic elements.

Their debut album, Facelift, spawned ā€œMan in a Box,ā€ which was in heavy rotation on MTV. Dirt, the bandā€™s multi-platinum second album, proved to be their most successful with ā€œWould?ā€ gaining traction on the soundtrack to the movie Singles. Sadly, Staley and Starr (who left the band in 1993 and was replaced by Mike Inez) died from drug-related incidents. In 2006, William Duvall stepped in as vocalist and contributed to the two most recent albums, Black Gives Way to Blue and The Devil Put DinosaursĀ Here.

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