Tony MacAlpine is a standout on the prog metal/rock scene. In this video, filmed in 1992, he presents his techniques to achieve versatility and dynamic range. You’ll learn how he gains melodic and expressive sounds on the guitar, how he approaches speed picking using his “economy of motion” technique to create powerful riffs, and how he uses slapping, hammer-ons, and pull-offs to create intense new sounds. He also shows you how to use arpeggios, pentatonic, and chord suspensions to create your own solos, bend, and slider to add dimension and color. In addition, this DVD demonstrates 4 songs: Sammy bone shuffle, Broken Dreams, More than a lot, and Baloney pony blues.
Legendary Tony MacAlpine’s 53-minute instructional video Shred Guitar is a misnomer, as this video offers much more than skills to playing fast. The student looks inside into Tony’s playing and how he combines various techniques that encompass his style. The sound and video quality are crystal clear and top-notch, as though you were sitting in the room with Tony and his band. Tony touches upon several concepts; he does not delve deeply into any point but provides an example and discussion to get an idea across for the student to apply to their playing. He starts the technical section with string slapping to give a funk style, and this is how the first band number starts (there is a mix of the song playing with technique demonstrations), as Tony and the bassist play a slap riff in unison. In no time, Tony gets into speed picking techniques and emphasizes his ‘economy of motion concepts, particularly in his picking hand – i.e., he strives to use the fingering hand more by rolling, hammering, pulling (with lateral movement patterns along the neck on one string) and sliding as many notes as possible to keep his playing and style fluid (he implements a lot of arpeggio forms and broken chords in this manner as he works up and down the neck).
Tony next discusses soloing concepts and understanding ‘methods to be applied’ instead of merely memorizing (which helps when improvising), as he demonstrates getting a synth-like tone when hammering chords or even a bell-like ring with hammer-ons. At that point, Tony addresses Pentatonics and how they can increase one’s ‘groove’ in playing and sweep them in the mix in a modern blues/rock direction.
Although Tony is quick on the fretboard, he uses bowed effects well while string bending. When applied within his runs and sweeping, he increases the diversity of his note selection, besides increasing the number of notes being heard while playing fewer fret positions.
Other ideas Tony addresses are harmonic thirds (used in runs and tapping along the neck), chord suspensions (integrating rhythm with lead and being able to ‘hear’ rhythm chops while soloing), combining backward slides (coming from the top of the note) for a more modern sound, and how to sound ‘fresh’ while playing Blues (including mixing major and minor pentatonic over dominant chords and adding an emotional Blues feel even when playing fast Rock/Metal passages).
As Tony explains, it’s more important to understand the concepts he shows, rather than memorizing them, so that you can apply them anywhere on the neck and during your soloing. This DVD offers a plethora of ideas that can be integrated into any style of music, not just fast instrumental Rock. Another key concept of Tony’s is the idea of playing outside the ‘box’ (those scale patterns everyone memorizes) so that you have more than one place to go while practicing or improvising, but also being able to play in multiple positions or directions on the neck (viz., playing the same passage, but at a different location).
Legendary Tony MacAlpine’s 53-minute instructional video Shred Guitar is a misnomer, as this video offers much more than skills to playing fast. The student looks inside into Tony’s playing and how he combines various techniques that encompass his style. The sound and video quality are crystal clear and top-notch, as though you were sitting in the room with Tony and his band. Tony touches upon several concepts; he does not delve deeply into any point but provides an example and discussion to get an idea across for the student to apply to their playing. He starts the technical section with string slapping to give a funk style, and this is how the first band number starts (there is a mix of the song playing with technique demonstrations), as Tony and the bassist play a slap riff in unison. In no time, Tony gets into speed picking techniques and emphasizes his ‘economy of motion concepts, particularly in his picking hand – i.e., he strives to use the fingering hand more by rolling, hammering, pulling (with lateral movement patterns along the neck on one string) and sliding as many notes as possible to keep his playing and style fluid (he implements a lot of arpeggio forms and broken chords in this manner as he works up and down the neck).
Tony next discusses soloing concepts and understanding ‘methods to be applied’ instead of merely memorizing (which helps when improvising), as he demonstrates getting a synth-like tone when hammering chords or even a bell-like ring with hammer-ons. At that point, Tony addresses Pentatonics and how they can increase one’s ‘groove’ in playing and sweep them in the mix in a modern blues/rock direction.
Although Tony is quick on the fretboard, he uses bowed effects well while string bending. When applied within his runs and sweeping, he increases the diversity of his note selection, besides increasing the number of notes being heard while playing fewer fret positions.
Other ideas Tony addresses are harmonic thirds (used in runs and tapping along the neck), chord suspensions (integrating rhythm with lead and being able to ‘hear’ rhythm chops while soloing), combining backward slides (coming from the top of the note) for a more modern sound, and how to sound ‘fresh’ while playing Blues (including mixing major and minor pentatonic over dominant chords and adding an emotional Blues feel even when playing fast Rock/Metal passages).
As Tony explains, it’s more important to understand the concepts he shows, rather than memorizing them, so that you can apply them anywhere on the neck and during your soloing. This DVD offers a plethora of ideas that can be integrated into any style of music, not just fast instrumental Rock. Another key concept of Tony’s is the idea of playing outside the ‘box’ (those scale patterns everyone memorizes) so that you have more than one place to go while practicing or improvising, but also being able to play in multiple positions or directions on the neck (viz., playing the same passage, but at a different location).
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