Becker Made Easy

Hi and welcome to my new lesson. This time we are aiming to simplify the incendiary guitar playing of Jason Becker. Jason's guitar work is legendary and many aspire to learn his licks and his songs. His material is highly technical so can seem like a far away goal to any guitarist. That's why I like to create lessons like this - that give you a chance to experience the style of many of the greats without the need for acres of technical wizadry.

The main technical feature of this lesson is using the whammy bar for vibrato. This can seem odd at first but it's a very cool and effective approach.
Jason also likes to shift position to another fret whilst pulling up on the bar, perhaps inspired by one of his contemporaries, Steve Vai. This results in what I like to think of as a 'wailing baby' kind of sound. You might hear the analogy or may not, but that's how I describe it!

Aside from that, you'll mainly tackle two other things:

-Alternate picking
-Sweep picking

Both of those techniques are among the foundations of technical shred guitar playing. You will want to develop those techniques further as you progress into your guitar playing, which will unlock the keys to more complex material.

Good luck and enjoy!

Tuning:
E A D G B E - Standard Tuning
Tempo:
115bpm
Gear:
Marshall JVM, OD1, Red setting. Cubase SE3. Superior Drummer
Scales: