The last months have been an awesome and exciting period in my life, because I have organized the first Jonas Tamas Guitar Competition in Hungary. The guitar competition has turned out to be a great success, with 191 entries, which makes it by far the most popular guitar competition ever held in Hungary! We've had lots of press, including radio interviews, and the competition homepage has got tens of thousands of hits. The most popular Hungarian morning show with 1 million daily listeners has announced the competition as well.
The competition has had a world-class judge panel, including Brett Garsed, Mattias IA Eklundh, Troy Stetina and Andrew Farnham.
You can watch Brett Garsed, Mattias IA Eklundh, Troy Stetina and Andrew Farnham talking about the Jonas Tamas Guitar Competition and about their favorite entries:
You can see a photo of the Award Ceremony here, with yours truly standing before the mic at the left hand side. It's been a great fun being the host of the show!
Now, back to business:) I have tabbed out an amazing Andy Timmons-solo from Kip Winger's song 'A Kiss of Life', and I want to share the TAB with you:
The guitar solo starts at 2:42 in the video below:
The full TAB of the solo is here:
The TAB notes are in Hungarian, because I have created this lesson for a Hungarian guitar column. However, the TAB can be perfectly understood without these notes, so I wish you good luck for this amazing solo of Andy Timmons!
Now, let’s take a look at the main solo theme over this riff. As you will see in the TAB, the theme is played by two guitars, harmonized in thirds. I have tabbed out both guitar tracks for you. In the first 2 bars, there aren’t any chromatic notes in the solo theme, so you can concentrate on the technical aspects. This theme is pretty fast, and it has some tricky spots in there: the picking pattern changes from sweep to alternate picking, and there are several position shifts for the left hand to, so you may want to start practicing really slowly and you should only increase the tempo, when you were able to play it perfectly on the slower tempo.
Bar 3 of the theme contains the same chromatic C note as the accompanying riff mentioned above. It serves the same purpose: by using a chromatic passing tone you create a bit of a tension, and it is resolved by the following note, which is in our case a C#. In the second half of this bar, the C#-C-C# line occurs again, this time an octave higher. The second harmony guitar plays an A#-A-A# line here, being a third lower than C#-C-C#.
In the last bar I have tabbed only the long closing notes of the two solo guitars. In the mp3 you can hear some monster combined tapping-sliding-arpeggio-legato licks every four bar, which are always different throughout the song. You can listen to the main theme and you can hear two versions of those licks by clicking here:
Welcome again! In this blog we keep on examining various ideas which will help you to develop your unique playing style. There are several ways to break out the box if you want to sound differently.
In one of my previous posts I have introduced you the lydian dominant scale, which is the fourth mode of the melodic minor scale. By using some more unusual scales you can definitely reach your goal of creating innovative and fresh-sounding music, so be sure to check that lesson out if you haven’t read it already. But there is another way to find interesting melodies and riffs, and in this lesson I want to talk extensively about it: the way of Creating Clever & Catchy Chromatic Chops. (And despite of the lot of C-s in the title of my lesson, this can be used in any key!)
So, what comes into your mind when you hear the term ‘chromatic notes’? Many players, especially in the beginner and intermediate phase, tend to shy away from the conscious use of chromatic notes. If you are a rock/metal guitarist, then you may have chosen not to use chromatic notes because you associate it with jazz music and you don’t want to sound like Chick Corea on a rainy Monday morning. Or you may have met with lots of chromatic picking exercises as a beginner, and you are fed up with them because they sound vague and unmusical, and they even pop up in your worst nightmares along with Freddie Krueger knocking on your front door.
If you see yourself belonging to either of the above group of players, then I can assure you: chromatic notes can be really cool, trendy and metal! Chromatic notes can be your friend. Chromatic notes can do everything for you except opening a can of beer. (But maybe they can do even that, just be sure to place your amp REALLY close to the can!)
Let’s start our journey to Chromatic City, which is located closer to Metalville than you have ever thought. I show you the main chromatic riff as well as the main theme of my song Golden Sun, from my 2009 debut instrumental guitar album „Sharp Guitars From a Flat Planet”. This song is a neoclassical piece. Although I don’t often write neoclassical music (because I’m dwelling rather in the genres of metal, modern rock and progressive metal), this song has been my way of paying tribute to some of my inspirations like Yngwie Malmsteen, Vinnie Moore and Tony MacAlpine. This song has been also featured in the new shred talents compilation CD “Shredding Across The World Vol.3” released by Shredguy Records, you can listen to the clips on Amazon, iTunes, and Guitar9.com.
As you can see in the tablature, the main riff of the song is in the key of G# minor. This key contains the notes G# A# B C# D# E and F#. The riff starts with the root note, then jumps up to the fifth, back to the root, then up to the fourth - so it seems to be a rather straightforward tune so far. And this conventional start is really useful - that way you can lay down the foundations of the song and invite the listener to come a bit more inside - “Relax mate, it is just a cool riff with fifths, no need to worry!" The listener breaks into a huge grin and walks inside - and then, the saber-toothed tiger jumps on him! Of course, it doesn’t have to be a real saber-toothed tiger, but after a conventional start, you can sweep the listener off his feet with a dose of chromatic passing tones. So it is wise to begin your tunes with some important notes of the key.
The first chromatic note (i.e. a note which is not contained by the key of G# minor) is the note A on the 5th fret of the low E string. In the accompanying mp3 you will hear how well this short chromatic note leads downwards to the root (4th fret). Note also, that this chromatic moment occurred on an unaccented beat. Right before “half-time” of the first bar, a similar chromatic idea appears, but this time it is a longer descending line, containing the notes A#-A-G#, and again, the line is leading to the root note (frets 6-5-4). In the second half of the first bar, I have played a similar pattern, with a little twist at the end of the bar (the chromatic line is now ascending here).
In the second bar, the harmony changes to an Emaj7 chord, and therefore I'm playing E notes (open low E string) instead of the G# notes. It is worth noting, how the rhythmic structure and all the other notes have remained the same here, ensuring the continuity of the riff. However, these notes are representing a different degree of the chord now. For example, the D# note (fret 6 on the A string, third note of bar 2), which had been the fifth of the G# minor chord in the first bar, is now the major seventh of the Emaj7 chord. At the end of the 2nd bar, there is a tricky ending, using the notes C, G# and C. Here, the note C (which is in fact a B# here when applying the rules of music theory strictly) is a chromatic passing tone as well, leading perfectly to the C# in the 3rd bar.
Bar 3 starts with an accompanying C# minor chord (that’s why the chromatic line C-C# has been a good choice here), changing to a G diminished seventh chord in the second half of the bar. To emphasize the harmony change, a whole series of chromatic notes are played (0-1-2-3) in the middle of the bar, leading to the root of the G diminished seventh chord.
Bar 4 has another surprise for you. It begins with the same pattern as in the opening bar, but it breaks the pattern around half-time with two power chords (both played on the upbeat). The power chords are an A5 and a G5 (neither of A and G are present in our key of G# minor), and they are representing the end of the whole 4-bar figure. So here, I have created a “sandwich” of notes, with the A5 and G5 being the bread and the G# note (which will come right next as the 4-bar figure keeps repeating) being the meat. It is really simple: if you know your important note (in our case the G#) then first play the both the notes below and above a half step of the important note, and then play the important note itself. This is a really cool way to use chromatic notes - your riff will sound more unpredictable and at the same time this trick clears the ground for the important note, using the tension-resolution principle.
In the bars 5-8 I have repeated the above four-bar figure, with one significant difference. If you look at the second half of bar 8, you’ll find tons of chromatic notes (0-1-2-3-4 on both low strings). After the more subtle usage of chromatic notes in the main riff, this kind of “in-your-face” chromaticism creates a great contrast, and it is perfect for closing the repeated riff, preparing a new riff or even a key change. I uploaded the riff on Soundcloud, and you can listen to it by clicking here:
Watch this great player, Jon Gomm playing his song Passionflower. It is pure creativity, inspiration, passion and outside-the-box thinking.
You can witness a piece of art, right at its birth. It is the moment that we artists always strive for. Jon was brave enough to pursue his dreams, and abandon the conventional ways. He has preferred his OWN path.
Don't forget: you can reach your goals too - you can also create your own way and live a life beyond your wildest dreams.
Today we're going to see a great way of using rhythms to create interesting guitar solos. I call this method "Hidden rhythmic motives", because I'd repeat a rhythmic motif several times, but in a slightly indirect way.
As you can hear in the sound clip below (which is from one of my songs called Mosquito Bite), in the first 3 bars, the last 4 notes of each bar have an identical rhythm (a quarter note and three eighth notes). However, the first few notes are different in each bar, so the recurring rhythmic motives are used in a more subtle way, it is not an obvious repetition, which can sometimes sound too direct.
In the 4th bar, there is a playful little combined arpeggio (sweep and tap and slide). I've used it here because it is almost always a good idea to play something totally fresh after 3 repetitions of the hidden motives. See you next time!
Today I will show you a segment from my song „Locrian Locusts” from my 2009 debut instrumental guitar album „Sharp Guitars From a Flat Planet”. As you can guess from its title, this song utilizes some arcane scales and modes, like the locrian nat.6 scale, which is derived from the harmonic minor scale. I’ll be happy to introduce you to this really exotic-sounding scale in a future lesson, but for now, however, let’s delve into the middle solo part of this song, in which I’ve used the lydian dominant scale.
Here you can listen to the segment from the song:
Lydian dominant is the fourth mode of the melodic minor scale. If you take, for instance, the B melodic minor scale, containing the notes B C# D E F# G# and A#, and play these notes over an E drone or an E major triad, then you’ll start recognizing the special flavor of lydian dominant. If you reorganize the above notes, then you get this sequence, starting from E: E F# G# A# B C# D. As you can see, the lydian dominant scale is somewhat similar to the E major scale (notes in common: E F# G# B and C#), but it has a raised fourth (A#) and a lowered seventh (D).
If you are familiar with the modes of the major scale, then you’ll immediately observe an interesting phenomenon: E lydian has a raised fourth compared to the E major scale, while E mixolydian has a lowered seventh. So we can safely bet that if at some point an E lydian and an E mixolydian scale would fall in love with each other, then their child would be an E lydian dominant! The E lydian dominant integrates in itself the qualities of a lydian and a mixolydian, thus creating a really interesting and distinctive feel. You can use this scale to spice up your mixolydian blues chops, or to add a more unusual vibe to your lydian tunes. Or, you can go along the eccentric ‘Jonas Tamas way’ of your humble instrumental guitar guide, and use this mode in a progressive metal setting.
So back to the middle solo part of „Locrian Locusts”! As you can see on the TAB, this segment alternates between 7/8 and 4/4. In the riff, I’ve used tritone and major third intervals on the A and low E strings, descending with a bizarre pattern: in bar 1, there are four E notes after each of the tritone and major third intervals, but in the last part of the bar, the number of the E notes has been halved from four to two. In bar 2, the ‘halving’ approach continues, but with only two E notes between the tritones and major thirds and with one E note in the last part of the bar. Weird, huh? But sounds cool! Note that each interval uses at least one important degree from the lydian dominant: the first E-A# interval contains the root and the raised fourth, the second D-A# interval contains the lowered seventh and the raised fourth, the third D-G# interval contains the lowered seventh and the major third, and so on. At the end of bar 2, there is an outside note (B#), to be able to go on with the intervallic pattern, and at the end of bar 4, there is a cheerful chromatic ending with some sliding fifths.
Now, let’s move on to the main solo that I’ve played over the above riff. I’ve arranged the solo in two guitar tracks, harmonized in sixths. Harmonizing in sixths is a really cool way to create great harmonies, because each sixth interval is an inversion of a third (which of course would be our first choice for harmonizing). So playing in sixths sounds really pleasant, but it has a more interesting sound than playing in thirds.
The approach of the solo was similar to the way I’ve composed the accompanying riff: my goal was to emphasize the important scale tones of the E lydian dominant throughout the solo. In fact, the first 4 notes of the higher guitar track contain the 4 most important degrees, in the order of appearance: the lowered seventh, the root, the major third, and the raised fourth.
You can use alternate picking for the most part of the solo, combined with some sweep picking in bars 2 and 4. Note the string-skipping part between the last two notes of the first bar and the beginning two notes of the second bar. At the end of the third bar, the string skipping movement is a bit trickier though. The last note of bar 3 must be fretted by your pinky on the G string (fret 16), and the next note must be grabbed by your index finger on the high E string (fret 16 again), so you have to shift positions with your left hand. If necessary, practice this part separately with the metronome, and try to move your left hand pretty fast and accurately. You should only increase the tempo of the metronome when you have mastered this difficult hand movement at the previous BPM.
Here is the segment again, click on the Play button:
Enjoy, and keep discovering the musical opportunities which lurk in the lydiant dominant mode! See ya next time, keep on rockin’!
Hi and welcome to the very first post of Instrumental Rock Guitar! I feel honored to be able to share with you my experience, my thoughts and my methods. First of all, let me tell a few words about me as a musician. My name is Jonas Tamas, I live in Budapest, Hungary. I play instrumental rock guitar - as you might have guessed from the blog title. I am a professional musician, and I'm proud to be signed to the label of Steve Vai. You can see my artist profile at Steve Vai's label Favored Nations/Digital Nations here: http://digital-nations.com/artists/dn-artists/jonas-tamas/
To date, I have released two instrumental guitar albums, and have appeared on numerous other albums in the genres of rock, progressive rock, and metal. I had the good fortune to appear on CDs together with Brett Garsed, Troy Stetina, Andy James, Marco Minnemann, Mattias IA Eklundh (Freak Kitchen), Marcel Coenen (Sun Caged), Mats Haugen (Circus Maximus), Thorsten Koehne (Eden’s Curse), Alberto Rigoni, Sergey Boykov, Mischa Mang, Gianluca Ferro, Phi Yaan-Zek, Joel Hoekstra (Night Ranger, Trans-Siberian Orchestra), Tore Moren (Jorn Lande), Alex Ehrsam, Chris Lasegue (Jag Panzer), Tracy G (Dio), Rob Johnson (Magnitude 9) and Ray Luzier (Korn).
You can listen to my songs on my official homepage http://jonastamas.com, as well as on my official Facebook page http://facebook.com/jonastamas. If you like guitarists like John Petrucci, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, Vinnie Moore, Andy Timmons and Marco Sfogli then chances are (to be honest, I'm pretty much sure!) that you will dig my music as well.
So what is this blog about? What are you going to read here? This blog is about the many aspects of guitar playing. Let's see just a few of the topics I'm planning to cover:
- I'm going to show you many of my best licks, my favorite guitar exercises
- I want to speak extensively about constructing melodies, themes, riffs, solos, motives
- You will find guitar-oriented examples, lessons, tablatures, recommendations and videos – prepared and sorted in a way that you can use this blog as your weekly guitar practicing guide
- One of the particular goals of my blog is to speak about the mental and even spiritual aspects of improvement – not just as a guitarist, but as human beings in general: how can we motivate ourselves, how can we handle the problems, how can we give more to other people, how can we get the support of others, how can we direct our thoughts to be able to reach the success we want.
- Creativity is one of the most important capabilities to have as an artist. I regularly take excursions to other musical styles (classical, jazz, fusion) and to other art forms (writing, graphics, photography, comedy), and I'm going to show you my ideas, experiments, jokes, stories, pictures – you name it.
- Most importantly, I'm going to have a lot of questions to you, and I am really curious to hear your own thoughts, views and personal experiences about music & life. I strongly believe in the power of thinking together, enjoying the fresh and different point of view of people, sharing, supporting each other, and thus making the world to a better place with full of rock n roll!
In this first post, I'd like to share with you a few more things about my first years of playing the guitar, so that you can see where I come from as a guitarist.
I was 14 years old when I have decided to play guitar. At first, it was just about fun, I have learned the most common chords and some basic picking and strumming patterns on a cheap acoustic guitar. In fact, I didn’t practice that hard in the first couple of years. However, things got a lot more serious after I have bought my first electric guitar. At that point I was almost 17 years old, and I have started to realize that playing the guitar could be my huge passion for life.
In the next year I have been introduced to the intense playing of Yngwie Malmsteen, and I think this was the real turning point. I have started practicing really hard, often playing 8-9 or even 10 hours a day. I have acquired the tablatures of the early Yngwie albums, and practiced his songs. I didn’t do much improvisation back then, just learning songs and practicing the fast runs, arpeggios and scales.
I’m completely self-taught. I’m sure that I could have improved my skills much faster if I had taken formal lessons. At that time, YouTube didn’t exist, and there weren’t thousands of guitar players showing the licks and tricks online, so I had to figure out everything by ear and experiment a lot. But it’s been a hell of a lot of fun anyway, and I’m really proud that I have gotten so far without all the resources available now.
Now, the internet gives loads of resources, material, and information on any topic, including of course guitar playing. It can be an overwhelming feeling to see the vast amount of information pouring onto us. You can easily feel lost – "how on Earth should I know where to go, and what exact steps to take?" I hope this blog will help you to organize the valuable information and to create YOUR own path to your goals – no matter if you want to be a pro guitar player or just want to have fun and play the guitar as a hobby. This blog is for YOU.
In this first post I'll show you a really cool string-skipping arpeggio idea from Eden's Curse guitarist Thorsten Koehne. Thorsten is an amazing and unique guitarist, it's worth checking out his stuff at ThorstenKoehne.com. You can listen to the lick below and I have tabbed out the whole sequence for you.
My question to you for today is about modes. Watch the video below. This song has some key changes. It has four different keys for the different sections of the song. What are these four keys and what modes they represent? Write your answer as a comment below this post. If you are the first to give a correct answer, then you'll get a digital surprise package from me.
So that wraps up my introductory first post on Instrumental Rock Guitar. Stay tuned, it will be a hell of a lot of fun creating this blog together with you. I count on you, see ya soon!
