Joe Satriani Meets Metal

Hello again, GMC buddies!

On this occasion I'm playing a fragment (edited as a lesson) of one of the songs to be included in
my first solo album. At the moment, I'm still composing and recording the material, so this is fresh
from the oven as my granny would say! :P

All the first part, including the melody, is composed in E minor and Fmaj7. This means that we are on
the harmonic minor scale of E, where Fmaj7 is the second degree. The harmonic minor scale is a great device
for creating full-blown shred licks like those by Paul Gilbert and Yngwie Malmsteen.

In the chorus, repeated twice in the same way, we change to A minor. This note is the fourth degree of the
E minor scale. At the end of the chours, there's some tapping in the style of Greg Howe (album "Introspection")
with string skipping + tapping in the F diminished arpeggio.

Part A begins with a metalcore riff and then, when the melody starts, the second guitar gets more
rhythmical so that the solo's voice stands out more. I find this very important when I'm composing
my songs or practising. When the main melody appears, there's always a specific part that is repeated
in the background but changing the rhythm of the chords. I think this gives a different feeling to
the song, takes it somewhere else and brings more dynamics to the music. It's worth mentioning that it's
necessary to pay close attention to the tapping rhythm when you´re playing the chorus.

I hope you find this useful and I'm sure new ideas will come to your mind while you practise this lesson!

No more to say. I hope you like it and rock on!

ENJOY AND PLAY EVERY DAY!!


Tuning:
guitar tuned one step down
from 6th string to 1st these are the notes:
D G C F A D
It´s a lower tuning, for heavier sounds, special for this kind of music with heavy riffs.


Key:
E minor

Chords:
E minor
F maj7
A 9
F#5
G5
F#5

In the mix:
creating a melody
riffing
writing a song
pícking
legato
tapping
2 finger tapping
string skipping + tapping
bends
vibrato

Scales:

E minor scale

E pentatonic minor scale

F lydian scale

A minor apreggio

F#minor 7 arpeggio

F diminished arpeggio