Blues Meets Metal - Vai Inspired

Hi GMC'ers - time to dive into Steve Vai's bag of tricks. Let's look at an example of a soloing using minor & major arpeggios with minor pentatonics. This combination can help create passages, melodies, fast scale-runs and other very useful techniques. This will test both your physical and mental capabilities.

The majority of the lesson is based on the Ab minor pentatonic scale so I created some blues licks. However, they don't sound completely bluesey within this context and that's precisely the idea. Use "old-school" material, but give it a personal touch or new twist, to make it sound updated.

As the lead guitar combines the Ab minor and E major arpeggios the base changes chords accordingly. Rhythmically, the purpose is to transmit different intentions with the same pattern. It progress's to a fast scale-run in Ab minor pentatonic using hybrid picking and tapping which then ends on the Emaj9 chord in the Lydian mode.

Keep practicing!/ Chowy

Tuning :
* D - G - C - F - A - D
(From thick to thin string)
* Down one step

Chords:
Ab minor7 - E major 7 - Ab 5 - Db minor 7 - E major 9 - D add11+ - B suspended4 - A/F#

Techniques:
* Picking
* Hybrid Picking
* Tapping
* String Skipping
* Legato
* Arpeggio Melody
* Octaves
* Harmonic Bends with Whammy Bar

Scales:
Ab minor Pentatonic - with blues notes

E lydian scale

Ab minor pentatonic scale

Ab minor arpeggio

E major arpeggio