Vinnie Moore: guitar messenger interview

LD: Let’s go back to the Shrapnel Days. Amongst that whole stable of artists, you were known for having a really clean picking technique. Can you talk about how you developed that in your shedding days?

VM: I used to do a LOT of right hand picking exercises and it really focused and concentrated me. I grew up and I heard Al DiMeola and he was just a master of picking fast with the staccato and the harmonic minor and I just thought “Wow! That’s amazing! I’ll never be able to do that.” I figured if I could just come close it would be really cool. So I really started to get into that style.

I started doing this workout routine with my right arm. It lasted 60 minutes a day. It was just over and over “upstroke-downstroke,” alternate picking back and forth. I just got way better to the point where the 60 minute workout started to take almost 35. I was getting quicker at it and I could see progress. It helped to not only get my right hand better but to get my left and right hand more in sync with one another.

LD: What was the revelatory Al DiMeola album that first pointed you towards that style and drove you to practice that hard?

VM: Casino. Elegant Gypsy was great, but Casino was my favorite. more