Three-time Emmy-winning composer Bear McCreary is merging guitars and orchestra on his new solo album, and he’s got help from Slash, Tim Henson, Guthrie Govan, and Steve Vai.

McCreary has scored some huge films, including Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Cloverfield Paradox, and Paws of Fury, and, having enlisted Serj Tankian for his 2024 hard rock record, The Singularity, he’s going bigger and bolder with its follow-up, The Singularity: Ekleipsis.

A concept record that picks up where its predecessor left off, it explores themes of disillusionment and perseverance in the face of struggle. Cool Kids, its lead single, pairs Guns N’ Roses stalwarts Slash and Duff McKagan with Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and his vocalist brother, Brendan McCreary.

“Cool Kids was born when Duff McKagan sent me a voice memo of a riff he was messing around with,” McCreary details. “My ears perked up instantly – his riff was undeniable! So Duff and I went into the studio the next week with my brother, vocalist Brendan McCreary, and Chad Smith to write the song together.

“When Slash got back into town, he added his signature screaming guitar parts, and there it was,” he adds. “It’s a song about all of us being proudly who we are, but I wouldn’t blame anybody for assuming the title was inspired by the fact that Brendan and I got to create this song with the coolest kids in rock and roll.”

Slash’s scorching blues rock licks are instantly recognizable, with a warm tone that plays off McCreary’s lush orchestrations for an effective double act.

Equally, Black Box, which has dropped simultaneously, hinges on grinding guitars straight out of the Duplantier playbook on a song with a heavy, anthemic edge.

Elsewhere on the tracklist, Steve Vai and Tim Henson double up on the track Blueshift, with Henson also tag teaming with Coheed & Cambria’s Claudio Sanchez on Sweet Misery.

Guthrie Govan (Alexandria), Gojira’s ESP artist Joe Duplantier (Black Box), and Alissa White-Gluz (Our Kingdom) – the latter of whom is fresh from launching her shred-laden new band, Blue Medusa, and joining DragonForce – also feature. It’s quite the lineup.

McCreary will take the album on the road, with dates in the UK and Europe in July and August, before hitting the US and Canada in September.

See Bear McCreary for more.

Karnivool fans have learned to be very, very patient. In the decade waiting for a new album they’ve had sporadic tours and a few tasters of new material from the stage, but only one bona fide single – All It Takes – five years ago.

If the follow-up to 2013’s Asymmetry ever surfaced, some thought, surely there’d be no way it could deliver on such long-gestated expectation. Well, it has and it does.

In Verses is a triumph from a band who does things their way, one that finds them exploring again with Forrester Savell, the producer-mixer-engineer who helped them break through with 2009’s modern classic Sound Awake.

In sonics and spirit, In Verses feels more like the successor to that album than the more abrasive Asymmetry. More emotional and melodic, leaning into the personal experiences of vocalist Ian Kenny, it’s full of lush guitar orchestrations and interplay from Drew Goddard and Mark “Hoss” Hosking.

It showcases their Tool-like ability to be both an inspirational musician’s prog band, and one with the majestic melodies for crossover appeal.

How does it feel to get the album out at last?

Hosking: It’s weird to reflect on it after such a long time. When you hole up in a studio – or a place or a city, for that matter – for a really long time, but you don't get to show anyone what you're working on, there's definitely a lot of pent-up frustration. So there’s excitement to finally get it out there.

A lot of bands shy away from road-testing material, but there are songs here that you’ve been playing live for years. Is that important?

Andrew Goddard: Part of it was to bring them into a better state. It really helps the songs. The other part was we just needed something new to play on the road!

In the past, songs like Goliath and Dead Man were road-tested a lot and were almost in their final form by the time we went in the studio. Aozora was road-tested quite a bit. We were playing that almost 10 years ago in a very prototypical form.

I think the songs that we got to road-test are better off. At the same time, some of the songs you don't get to road-test, and ones that come together very quickly towards the end, benefit from not overthinking – just letting it form quickly and having a bit of trust.

Bit and pieces of Remote Self Control were around for a long time, but it fell into its final form fairly quickly before pre-production, and then we hammered it into its final shape in pre-production. Opal was another one like that.

I remember doing a rig tour and I was like, “Oh my God, these are Soundgarden-level tunings!” Are there any new tunings for this one?

Goddard: I do mess around with my tunings a lot. There's some brand-new ones. Drone is EBDGAE, but all down a semitone. It’s an interesting shape, a different flavor. On this album there’s a lot more baritone, which sits in a related key a little bit below this and above the bass.

There’s all sorts of wacky things on there. Soundgarden was probably the band that got me into messing with guitar tunings and odd time signatures. They were a big influence to all of us, actually.

Does the idea in your head dictate the tuning, or do you mess around with different tunings to see what happens?

Goddard: It’s usually just messing around. But often it’ll come from getting an initial idea down, then grabbing another guitar and messing with the tuning to something that’ll work. It’s quite often open tunings. This time there’s even a bit of standard tuning and capos, which is quite fresh. When you don’t use standard tuning for years, it feels like an alternate tuning in itself!

You’ve got a few PRSs in your collection. Which is the oldest?

Goddard: It’s actually a Frankenstein. I found out from Winn Krozack from PRS, who was an in-house guy when we played Baltimore 15 years ago. He said the neck is from one guitar and the body is from another. It’s been everywhere with me. I bought it secondhand in the ’90s. It’s missing a couple of original things I probably won't be able to get anymore…

PRSs look really good bashed up.

Goddard: Yeah, the coloration of the neck; lots of sweating.

You mentioned the baritone. Was there any other new gear or secret weapons in the studio?

Goddard: This fella in the Goldfields brought down a pedal for me, and it was his secret weapon – he had it all gaffer taped-up so no-one could see what it was. But it was actually the Schaffer wireless replica that I think Angus Young and Eddie Van Halen used.

I don't know if it’s true, but the story goes that Angus wasn’t sure why it didn’t sound exactly the same when he was in the studio. They realized it was him using a lead and not going into his wireless that made it different. So he went into the wireless, and realized it had a gain stage that gave it this top-end, sort of crunchy tone. They put that preamp stage in a pedal.

We used that as a bit of a character to put a bit of a shine on certain sections – a bit more sustain. It’s got a limiter, so you can see the waveform is just squared off a little bit. It didn’t look pretty, but it sounds good!

You guys don’t really go into rock tropes but Reanimation has a guitar solo in it.

Goddard: That’s the one and only Guthrie Govan on that! He’s a weapon, that guy. I don’t consider myself much of a lead player, to be honest.

Hosking: I think we're both drummers at heart!

Goddard: I tried a few things and it just wasn’t sitting. We thought, “Maybe it just doesn’t need anything at all.” Guthrie was keen – he came back with that over a couple of nights. It was very last-minute and he really tortured himself over like 20-30 seconds of music. He really stretched himself. We’re very appreciative. There was a choir vocal in there, which we took out after Guthrie did his thing.

Is one of you going to have to figure that out live?

Goddard: We haven’t figured that out yet! He did ask, “Are you planning on replicating this live?” He said he’d done a guest guitar part for another band, and they had a little bit of trouble replicating it!

Hosking: He was probably kind to us in his arrangement. I think he was thinking, “Don’t be too flourishy,” just in case we sat there going, “What was that – how do we do that?”

Goddard: But it’s not going to sound anything like him when we do it. I’m not sure if we’ll do something of our own or try and replicate it, but it’ll definitely be different, because there’s only one Guthrie.

Salva is an incredible track. When did bagpipes enter the equation – and are they real bagpipes?

Goddard: Yes and no!

Hosking: They didn’t start out as real.

Goddard: Guthrie’s actually got something to do with that story as well. The idea of bagpipes was around. Jon Stockman [bassist] did this guitar part on the demo; this tinny, high sort of thing that triggered the idea. It has this Highlander-like vibe to it.

While we were recording there was an interview with Hans Zimmer where Rick Beato was talking about bagpipes on the Dune soundtrack. Zimmer said, “Actually, they're not real – that's Guthrie playing it on the guitar.” We went and saw Guthrie, because Forrester Savell had worked on The Aristocrats’ album too.

Just to get the idea of bagpipes I downloaded an IR for the Axe-Fx, and I got this rough, one-take of the drone the whole way through. Then I did this pentatonic thing – how a ‘non-piper’ like myself would think a bagpipe solo could go. The song’s in B, a semitone above what the bagpipes can do, so we thought, “We should try some real bagpipes, but we’re gonna have to pitch it down.”

Hosking: My cousin, Grant Scroggie, plays pipes in a Celtic band called Claymore. We sent him the parts, pitched down to B flat, and got him to blow over it. Having the actual bagpipe sounds added a flavor that we otherwise might not have got.

Goddard: Grant said, “That was the best bagpipe solo I’ve heard by a non-bagpiper!” When he sent it back he was like, “I reckon you should leave the fake bagpipes in there as well.”

Hosking: He was like, “If you don’t use this, let me know – I want to steal it for something else!”

You could potentially play the record all the way through live. Is that something you’d consider?

Goddard: We’ve done Themata and Sound Awake from start to finish. It would be a hell of a challenge, but, maybe that’s something we’d do. I’d love to have a real harpist like my friend Michelle, who played harp on Opal; and have bagpipes and strings. But that’s even more challenging. We’ll see.

Hosking: It’s nice when you hear an album from start to finish. I mean, it’s no Wizard of Oz soundtrack, but it’s weird when you’ve got a collection of individual songs that, when you do hear them in a particular order, kind of feels right. I think we’ve got it sitting pretty well on this one.

What song do you think is going to take the most woodshedding to perform live?

Goddard: I think Remote Self Control. [Drummer] Steve Judd’s got his work cut out on a few of those songs. Salva is going to be challenging, even though it’s only three chords. It’s the subtleties – the dynamics and getting a lot of the layers happening.

Hosking: And now one of us has to learn bagpipes!

• In Verses is out now.

Legendary Australian prog band Karnivool have just unleashed their fourth album, In Verses – their first record in a whopping 13 years.

And, as is fitting for an album that has been brewing for over a decade, it features its fair share of tasty riffs, solos, and soundscapes – including a special appearance from electric guitar virtuoso Guthrie Govan, the band's first ever guest soloist since their inception over two decades ago.

“We can't tell you who it is, can we? We'll have to kill you,” quips Mark Hosking, one half of the band's guitar duo, when asked about one of the album's standout tracks, Reanimation in an interview with Guitar World. “First time guest appearance... It's not really a secret.”

“That's the one and only Guthrie Govan on that,” continues fellow guitar wielder, Drew Goddard. “He's a weapon, that guy.”

As for why Govan jumped on the track, Goddard admits that, although he tried “a few things” in place of what would eventually become The Aristocrats guitarist's solo, they weren't quite working.

“We're throwing out the idea of, maybe, it doesn't need anything at all. There's also a sort of choir vocal that we had in there, which we ended up taking out after Guthrie did his thing.

“He was keen, and he came back with that over a couple of nights. It was very last-minute, so he really tortured himself – really stretched himself. We're very appreciative of him doing that.”

Turns out, Govan not only contributed a solo but also inspired the inclusion of bagpipes (of all instruments) on the album's final track, Salva.

“Guthrie's actually got something to do with that story as well” explains Goddard. “The idea of bagpipes was around. Jon [Stockman], the bass player, did this guitar part on the demo, which was this tinny sort of thing, that sort of sounded like that [bagpipes].

“But while we were recording, there was an interview with Hans Zimmer [that] Rick Beato was doing. He was talking about how someone complimented him on the bagpipes on the Dune soundtrack, and he said that, actually, they're not real. That's Guthrie playing it on the guitar.”

He continues, “We went and saw Guthrie during the process, because [record producer] Forrester [Savell] had worked on The Aristocrats album, too. To get the idea of bagpipes, we just downloaded an impulse response for the Axe-Fx and got this rough one take of the drone the whole way through.

“We did this pentatonic thing that a non-piper like myself would think a bagpipe solo could do. The song's in B, which is a semitone above what the bagpipes [can play], so we thought, 'Well, maybe we should try some real bagpipes.'”

Thankfully, the band had a bagpiper at hand – Hosking’s cousin, Grant Scroggie – and his input helped create an intriguing and eerie “guitar-pipes” effect.

Guitar World's interview with Karnivool's Drew Goddard and Mark Hosking will be published in the coming weeks.

In more Guthrie Govan news, The Aristocrats bassist Bryan Beller recently recalled the moment he met the virtuoso and formed a new kind of supergroup.

Best of 2025: Over the holiday season, GW is shining the spotlight on some of its biggest stories of the year.

Can a band form right after one impromptu jam? Well – The Aristocrats are proof that when you get three masters together, you might – accidentally – form a supergroup.

As the story goes, the power trio of Guthrie Govan, Bryan Beller, and Marco Minnemann brandished their weapons of choice – guitar, bass, and drums, respectively – at a NAMM Show jam back in 2011, and, well, the rest is history.

However, Beller insists that the hype around the band wouldn't have been what it was without Govan's involvement.

The virtuoso already had some pretty significant accomplishments to his name – including winning Guitarist magazine's “Guitarist of the Year” competition in 1993, a stint writing lessons for Guitar Techniques, touring with the British prog-rock band Asia, as well as releasing his own debut, Erotic Cakes, in 2006 – which made the prospect of him teaming up with Beller and Minnemann all the more exciting.

“We had done the [Mike] Keneally thing, he played on one of my albums, I played on his instructional DVD. And so we were floating around doing stuff,” Beller tells Scott's Bass Lessons, discussing his pre-Aristocrats work with Minnemann.

“It wasn't until we found Guthrie that, suddenly, it was like that explosion happened. And we're also fortunate that when we found Guthrie, he was one of those underground guys who didn't have a website [and] wasn't on social media.

“The rest of the world didn't know that the world's greatest guitarist was playing a weekend gig at this place in Chelmsford every week.”

He continues, “So when we formed the band, we had this initial push of publicity, because every guitar magazine in the world said, ‘Oh, Guthrie Govan's in a band now with these other guys. We can put them on the cover of our magazine.’”

Beller describes how that kind of organic publicity from guitar magazines around the globe served as “the initial rocket fuel for the band.” That, coupled with extensive touring and, as the bassist puts it, “doing it our own way – all independent, going straight to the fans, not dealing with a record company or anything like that.”

The Aristocrats put out their latest album, Duck, last year – and Govan opened up about his amp modeler “epiphany” that empowered him to ditch tube amps in favor of an all-digital approach.

Alex Hutchings may have recently made the news for being one of the guitar players whose work was stolen by Giacomo Turra, but the versatile electric guitar virtuoso has been carving out an illustrious career over the past two decades or so. He has ample teaching and performance experience around the globe, has written for the BBC in the UK, and even toured with a certain prog maestro.

“[The Steven Wilson] gig, obviously, Guthrie [Govan, from The Aristocrats] did it for a bunch of years... Even with that one, it was a consideration [to take the gig],” Hutchings tells Andertons Music.

“Well, because obviously Guthrie did it – there's that lovely kudos about his playing... so I'd have to keep the shop.”

And Hutchings doesn't shy away from peeling the layers back on such a high-profile gig.

“If I'm honest, by the end of it, which was 14 months, I struggled a bit,” he admits. “Because I wasn't able to be 100% myself playing, because I had to honor the gig, and it was my duty and role to do that, which I did.”

He continues, “I think Steve was happy at the time, but it was a different thing for me. And when I think about why I picked this thing up and to try to express myself, it was to do the very thing that I love to do.

“But the irony is, I might have to do something where I barely get to do that at all, but I'm doing it for a life experience, not so much the musical experience.”

Back in 2017, Wilson had spoken about how he found Hutchings – and the considerations that go into securing someone who properly fits the bill.

“I did a lot of auditions this time around. It's not just a case of finding the best guitar player on the planet. It's gotta be someone that's got the right chemistry to fit the band, that's gonna be convenient, reasonably local.

“I asked around and I've settled on a guy who is a fantastic guitar player, a guy called Alex Hutchings.

“Alex is relatively unknown outside of guitar circles. In that respect, he is much like Craig [Blundell, Wilson's drummer], he is someone who is very well known as a clinician, and somebody who demonstrated gear but has never really been part of a regular band before he joined my band.”

“Everyone that joins my band, I warn them, ‘Look, there are some people out there that are gonna be very critical and say, Not as good as Guthrie Govan, not as good as Dave Kilminster, not as good as Marco Minnemann, not as good as Gavin Harrison.’

“And I understand that some people genuinely feel that way, which is fine, but it's very hard to be that person in that situation. Being an exceptional musician as these guys are, and they're still having to endure that.”

Hutchings has recently joined forces with Jack Gardiner, Charles Berthoud, and a host of other players whose work was plagiarized by Turra to deliver their own instrumental diss track – and take back control of the narrative surrounding their stolen work.

Can a band form right after one impromptu jam? Well – The Aristocrats are proof that when you get three masters together, you might – accidentally – form a supergroup.

As the story goes, the power trio of Guthrie Govan, Bryan Beller, and Marco Minnemann brandished their weapons of choice – guitar, bass, and drums, respectively – at a NAMM Show jam back in 2011, and, well, the rest is history.

However, Beller insists that the hype around the band wouldn't have been what it was without Govan's involvement.

The virtuoso already had some pretty significant accomplishments to his name – including winning Guitarist magazine's “Guitarist of the Year” competition in 1993, a stint writing lessons for Guitar Techniques, touring with the British prog-rock band Asia, as well as releasing his own debut, Erotic Cakes, in 2006 – which made the prospect of him teaming up with Beller and Minnemann all the more exciting.

“We had done the [Mike] Keneally thing, he played on one of my albums, I played on his instructional DVD. And so we were floating around doing stuff,” Beller tells Scott's Bass Lessons, discussing his pre-Aristocrats work with Minnemann.

“It wasn't until we found Guthrie that, suddenly, it was like that explosion happened. And we're also fortunate that when we found Guthrie, he was one of those underground guys who didn't have a website [and] wasn't on social media.

“The rest of the world didn't know that the world's greatest guitarist was playing a weekend gig at this place in Chelmsford every week.”

He continues, “So when we formed the band, we had this initial push of publicity, because every guitar magazine in the world said, ‘Oh, Guthrie Govan's in a band now with these other guys. We can put them on the cover of our magazine.’”

Beller describes how that kind of organic publicity from guitar magazines around the globe served as “the initial rocket fuel for the band.” That, coupled with extensive touring and, as the bassist puts it, “doing it our own way – all independent, going straight to the fans, not dealing with a record company or anything like that.”

The Aristocrats put out their latest album, Duck, last year – and Govan opened up about his amp modeler “epiphany” that empowered him to ditch tube amps in favor of an all-digital approach.

The Aristocrats' Guthrie Govan has settled the tonewood debate once and for all. According to Govan, he went through the trouble of having two different models of his signature Charvel specifically because of the tonewood. 

“[They're] identical in every way apart from the choice of body wood. Trust me, all ye naysayers – it really does make a difference,” says Govan in an interview with Ultimate Guitar. 

He goes on to say that he has hosted guitar clinics where he had the opportunity to sample multiple guitars that were identical in every aspect except for the tonewood. 

“In each case, the entire audience in the room confirmed that they could hear the tonal difference – even the people who seemed doubtful prior to hearing the demo. Every piece of wood is different, but I think it's easy enough to pick out a general characteristic like the signature midrange ‘honk’ of mahogany.”

He continues, “To approach this from a different angle: if a guitar suffers from a 'dead spot' which can be heard acoustically, that same dead spot will be equally apparent when you plug the instrument into an amp. 

“I'm no scientist, so I wouldn't presume to explain *exactly* how this stuff works, but... Given that the strings are physically attached to the wood, surely the wood's natural resonant characteristics would be capable of accentuating or suppressing certain frequencies and harmonics within the strings' vibrational pattern.

“So... Wouldn't the pickups be reading the strings' vibrations after they have been colored by the wood's unique timbral imprint?”

Whether body wood affects electric guitar tone is a long-running debate in the guitar world, among players and builders alike. Paul Reed Smith, for example, has maintained they play a pivotal role in a guitar's sound, while Leo Fender believed the difference between woods is negligible.

Guthrie Govan has opened up about his decade-long deep dive into the world of digital modeling, revealing it first began when he was recruited to join Hans Zimmer’s ensemble.

Over the past few years, The Aristocrats electric guitar virtuoso has had a balanced relationship with amp modelers, having tread the line between using fully fledged digital rigs on stage and conventional tube amp-and-pedalboard ones in the studio.

As Govan explains in an interview with Guitar.com, his digital revolution all began when he joined Zimmer’s live band around 10 years ago – and now he’s become so convinced by the benefits of using an amp-less rig, he doesn’t see himself going back any time soon.

“My modelling ‘journey’ began about a decade ago when Hans’ live band came into being,” notes Govan. “In that situation, everyone with an electric instrument had to cope with not having a real amp on the stage because we were sharing the space with a choir and an orchestra.”

Sharing a stage with an expanded musical setup while playing Zimmer’s music wasn’t the only reason behind his switch, though. Playing a digital rig also meant he could utilize the same consistent tones everywhere he went – and continually expand his sound where necessary.

In that regard, he says, digital amp modelers are vastly superior to regular tube amps.

He continues, “I had an Aristocratic epiphany several tours ago, when I realised that an all-digital approach would enable me to dial in a more genre-appropriate tone for each song, rather than relying on a single amp to cover all of the sonic ground. 

“I think it’s unrealistic to expect any one amp to be able to ‘do it all’ – that approach will always lead to compromises, at least in a wilfully eclectic band like this one. 

“As a bonus, using a Fractal rig also means that I can have the same sound anywhere in the world – no more one-off exotic festival gigs where I have to use a broken-down rental Marshall!”

To Govan, the Fractal now feels like his “digital ‘home’”, and has given him scope to program some epic, Zimmer-appropriate sounds, such as “a pseudo-12-string, an approximation of a violin, a 16th note step sequenced filter” and “a variety of ultra-long reverbs”.

But while the modeling setup works well for Zimmer, Govan is still keen on recreating “the ‘real amp’ experience on stage with the Aristocrats” with the help of strategically positioned FRFR speakers, namely Laney’s LFR series.

“[They] come closer than anything else I’ve encountered in terms of replicating the feel of a traditional cabinet whilst retaining the ability to switch between different speaker models on a song-by-song basis,” he explains. ”Hopefully the audience also benefits from those Laney cabs.”

It’s not the first time Govan has sung the praises of digital guitar gear. Speaking to Total Guitar last year in the midst of his setup switch, the Charvel signature artist revealed digital modelers had forced him “to think in new ways”.

Kiko Loueiro has been keeping himself busy since leaving Megadeth last year, but his recent cameo appearance jamming live with Guthrie Govan didn't quite go to plan.  

It reads like something from a nightmare: you’ve been invited up on stage to jam with one of the best guitarists in the world, you play a big, soul-stirring bend... and then your guitar falls from its strap and slams on the floor. 

Luckily, the Brazilian shredder took the faux pas in his stride, and used it as an important lesson to all of his Instagram followers: “Things don’t always go as planned,” he says. “Smile and keep going. That’s my message.” 

Having been invited to jam with Guthrie Govan, Loueiro says he hurried on to the stage with his electric guitar, “only to realize the strap lock wasn’t properly attached.” 

You can see a look of shock – mixed with a dash of embarrassment – as his red Ibanez KIKO100 signature guitar falls, escapes his clutches and crunches onto the stage floor. He's then seen re-strapping the guitar before nonchalantly continuing with the jam, like a true professional.

While the video is a great advertisement for the value of strap locks, it also showcases his guitar's tuning stability, with its tuning seemingly untouched despite the impact.

“Despite the rush,” he adds, “the guitar is alive and well, better than ever.” That's good news indeed. It could have been a lot worse for that poor Ibanez.

Since stepping down from Megadeth, Loureiro teamed up with Plini and Neural DSP for a new song, Out of the Void.

He’s also recently listed his Megadeth gear on Reverb, offering a slice of thrash metal history to fans with dollars to spare. 

You could call Bryan Beller a workaholic, and he’d not only agree; he’d welcome the description. His work ethic and dedication to craft steadily elevated him to the upper echelon of bassists, and he’s remained there for years.

As Joe Satriani’s longtime bassist, he began 2024 on the three-week G3 tour with Satch, Steve Vai and Eric Johnson. That was followed by a five-show February run with bandmates Guthrie Govan and Marco Minnemann for Duck, The Aristocrats’ new album (their first in five years).

March began with Satriani on the Monsters of Rock Cruise, with days to spare before the two-month Satriani/Steve Vai tour, which has just started. The Aristocrats pick up again in July and August, and October promises a Dethklok festival date on Lamb Of God’s Headbanger’s Boat cruise.

Somewhere between gigs, road trips, flights, and the occasional opportunity for sleep, Beller caught up with Bass Player to talk about his whirlwind year.

What do you enjoy most about working with Joe Satriani and Guthrie Govan?

“It’s great working with both of them because, in addition to supporting two of the greatest guitarists in the world, I get to explore two completely different sides of my own artistry.

“With Joe, it may seem simpler on the surface. But it’s really not. His music goes deep, with many subtle aspects to explore and master – tone, attack, groove, when to step out and when to lay back, how to move the song forward emotionally — in order to make those supposedly straight ahead melodic rock songs sing.

“With Guthrie, it’s a mental and physical exercise as well as emotional. He thinks so quickly when he’s improvising that you really have to be sharp and ready to react and support his lightning-fast ideas.

“And compositionally, he’s always exploring the outer limits of the register of a bass, because he wants there to be as much harmonic content as possible in a trio arrangement. That means going high and low and everything in between.”

Do you see any similarities between the two? 

“Honestly, not that much! They’re really approaching music from two very different angles even though they’ve listened to a lot of the same stuff. Compositionally, they are very far apart, as Guthrie’s stuff is far more dense.

“The way they develop a solo, the go-to lead tone – both very different, and I could go on. One thing I’ll say they have in common is a very strong sense of rhythm and how to lay back and just groove.

“You wouldn’t think of this first, but both Joe and Guthrie play a mean, funky rhythm guitar on a song like Stevie Wonder’s Superstition. That counts for more than you think.”

On the G3 tour, Satriani often brings out guests for end-of-show jams. How much advance preparation does the band have? 

“Very, very little! They’re supposed to be spontaneous, and we want it to be as easy as possible for anyone brave enough to get onstage and trade with Joe. So we always do really simple tunes that most pros will know as a matter of course, and then we just go up there and see what happens. 

“For example, Sammy Hagar joined us in Scottsdale. Joe said, ‘You guys know Foxy Lady, right?’ There’s no rehearsal. It’s lovely chaos. And in the case with Sammy, we didn’t even know it was going to happen until the show was already underway!”

What does it take to transition from one gig to the next with so little down time?  

“It requires some sense of organization and advance planning on all fronts – gear logistics, having the material ready to go, and also knowing what you need in your personal pack to make sure you can do the quick turns.

“I did the G3 reunion tour for three weeks; then I had two days before traveling to start The Aristocrats’ tour, which was just two weeks; then I had five days before flying to Miami before starting the Monsters Of Rock tour with Joe Satriani; and then I’ll have nine days at home before starting a two-month run for the Satch/Vai co-headliner tour.

“You just have to think ahead and imagine what you need with you at all times, and have the bandwidth set aside to ensure the material is ready to go – even if, say, you haven’t slept properly in a while. Which happens!”

What is the role of the bass in each gig? 

“For any gig, it’s to support the song and support the band. As a bassist, you are the bridge between the rhythmic and harmonic elements. That means you serve the guitarist or keyboardist or vocalist and the drummer.

“For Joe, I’m acting as a bridge between Joe and Kenny Aronoff. For The Aristocrats, I’m acting as a bridge between Guthrie and Marco Minnemann. As different as Joe and Guthrie are, Kenny and Marco are even more different! Kenny is a heavy-hitting, old-school, American rock guy, and Marco is an extended-technique, cross-genre guy.

“Both are amazing in completely different ways, and they interact differently with the rest of the band, with each song, with everything. My job is to be the glue for the song and the band, to make everyone feel comfortable, and to make it groove, no matter what.”

You are loyal to Mike Lull basses and Gallien-Krueger amps as your signature sound. What makes this the right combination for you? That and a Fender with Satriani…

“After doing this for many years, I know what I want to hear and I know what I love to play on a live gig, and that’s a Mike Lull bass into a Gallien-Krueger rig. That’s where it all starts.

“I would play them even if endorsements didn’t exist – which is how it should be, I believe. Now, I do endorse each company’s gear and we have professional arrangements around it. I’m grateful for their support, and I do my best to shine a light on them whenever possible.

“For The Aristocrats, I can play whatever I want and so the choice is easy. For any sideman gig, I’ll start with Mike Lull and GK, and then ideally it works for everything. But sometimes an artist or a song just demands a certain specific flavor, and with Joe Satriani, some of his stuff calls out for a Fender Precision with a maple fingerboard, because that’s essentially his personal demo bass and it’s a total vibe.

“So I picked up a Fender Player Precision – I prefer the MIM model because the pickups are hotter and brighter than the American version – and it’s in the arsenal for the Joe gig, along with two other Mike Lulls.

“I love GK amps and cabs, but when you’re doing a fly date in India or Vietnam, you play what they have! A lot of times that’s Ampeg. Ampeg makes great gear that’s been proven on stages for decades — it’s just a different sound and vibe. And it’s basically everywhere. So I’ll make that work when needed. 

“Both Mike Lull and GK totally get the distinction between professional practicalities and personal preference and endorsements, and hopefully anyone else interested in the topic will get it as well.”

• The Aristocrats’ Duck is out now. The Satch/Vai tour is currently underway.

The Aristocrats have debuted their first new song in five years, Hey, Where’s MY Drink Package? 

Alongside the new single, the fusion three-piece supergroup – featuring world renowned electric guitar virtuoso Guthrie Govan, bass player Bryan Beller and drummer Marco Minnemann – have also announced a new concept album, DUCK.

While the title might seem somewhat enigmatic at first, it’s actually more on the nose – or rather, beak – than you might first think. 

“We’ve always been writing with a storytelling aspect in mind, and our live shows always include our stories behind the songs,” explains the band. 

“But the stories had mainly been about us. Then Marco came into the studio with a song about a duck, and we all looked at each other and said, ‘What if all of the stories for the songs on this album… happened to a duck? What’s that story about?’ And suddenly we had a concept album on our hands.”

Reportedly, from said inspiration, rose a backstory of an avian fugitive, on the run from Antartica to New York City in attempt to evade the penguin police. Which is not a sentence we would have predicted writing today (or any day for that matter), but then this is why it’s fun to cover The Aristocrats.

When it comes to the album’s first single, the band say they have chosen to debut a track penned by Minnerman first.

“It has all of the elements of an Aristocratic tune – it's fun, it's loud, it's tricky in a few spots, and it takes some unexpected turns into open space and improvisation,” says the band of Hey Where's MY Drink Package? 

“It's a good soundtrack to set the opening scene for the protagonist of our Duck story, who's trying to figure out how he got himself into such a mess, over a few stiff drinks.”

Whether you dig the duck inspiration or not, it’s definitely a treat on the guitar front, packed with dark, scuzzy rock tones and ’80s style shred leads, all periodically sliced through with clean arpeggios.

Is it the ideal soundtrack to a half-drunk fugitive duck’s barroom meditations? Well, we’ll leave you to decide that. Either way, we extend a warm welcome back to The Aristocrats.

DUCK is released on February 16, which gives you just over a month to channel Guthrie Govan’s top tips for soloing...

For more information on DUCK, head to The Aristocrats’ site.

We can argue all night and all day about who the greatest guitar player in the world is, but we can surely all agree that there is an elite group of play-anything players – the guitarist for whom nothing, no style or technique, seems out of reach.

Guthrie Govan is one. His work with the Aristocrats and with the Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer takes the electric guitar to the outer limits of its potential.

We asked him for some tips on how to approach lead guitar – not on X, Y or Z techniques, but advice players can use to build a sensibility on the instrument, to get better. This is what he told us…

Music is a language

“Everyone’s journey getting acquainted with the guitar is slightly different. Everyone eventually becomes the player they deserve to be based on how they chose to spend their time practicing. It’s what they chose to prioritise… that’s what informs the end result. Someone whose goal is to become an improviser might naturally gravitate towards a path like the one I’ve picked – which is based around wanting music to feel like talking. 

“Music is a language, so let’s try to make it feel like my first language. Part of my practice time would therefore be getting things I can hear in my head out onto the fingerboard. If that’s the goal you set yourself, then naturally you will spend time trying to get to that place, where you feel more fluid as an improviser and less scared to play something you haven’t prepared, practiced, or drilled before the audience shows up.”

Copy everything you hear

“For some people, it’s a psychological barrier that stops them from improvising. It’s the fear of playing something that might not work. But it’s a bit like how babies are born and know how to swim, then they forget and have to relearn. 

“I like to think when we’re born we all know how to improvise and then society suppresses some of that. Part of feeling good when you are improvising is being comfortable with the process and trusting yourself. 

“But there are other more mechanical things you can work on. I’m a big believer in copying everything you hear around you – from ringtones to movie themes and whatever is on the radio.”

Sing notes as you play

“Anything you hear is fair game and material you can use to work on your ear. Listen to everything that’s going on around you and try to replicate it on the instrument. 

“You can do that in two ways – one where you stay in a more positional scale box zone of the fingerboard, getting comfortable with the interval between each string, but also trying to play more vocally, moving up and down the neck on fewer strings. Those two approaches fit together and compliment each other nicely. There’s room for both of them. 

“The general idea is that if your ear gets really good at understanding what other people are playing and you get really good at replicating that, and then one day, when you invent a melody in your head that no-one in the world has heard yet, you can use that same copying skillset to get the music out of your head and into your amp. 

“I’m essentially preaching the ‘work on your ear’ approach, not at the expense of anything else. For a lot of players, it’s just a case of adding this into your existing routine. Even if you’re sat there doing scales and arpeggios, it’s good to get into the habit of singing every note as you play it. That way you’re able to predict what each note will sound like as it happens.”

Think bigger

“Nothing comes entirely out of the vacuum. If either of us were to improvise two notes, someone will have played that melody before. There are only so many intervals. Part of developing that language is thinking in bigger building blocks. 

“If you can recognise an arpeggio as one thing, maybe viewing it more like a word rather than four letters, that can really aid the flow of how you improvise. Too many small ideas can be overwhelming. A smaller quantity of more complex ideas is closer to speaking a language.”

Work on things you haven’t nailed yet

“There is a trap when you get too good at a lick and it becomes a comfort. Whenever you want to make yourself feel better, part of your subconscious will encourage you to play that thing you’ve played a million times before because you know it will sound well-executed. 

“The part about that that’s haunting is you realize deep down that you’re not really choosing to play that. It’s your hand choosing to play that. It’s not your soul. There’s an interesting thing about practicing and how we choose to divide our time. 

“If you sound really good when you’re practicing, that means you’re practicing things you can already do, which isn’t really benefiting you fully. Some of what you practice should sound shit, because then you know you are working on something that needs to be worked on. There’s a balance there.”

As one of his generation’s finest electric guitar virtuosos, Guthrie Govan has an elite approach to playing the instrument – one characterized by inexplicable speed, incomprehensible technicality and, most importantly, unwavering feel and musicality.

Therefore, when Govan offers his two cents on what players could be doing to improve as guitarists, we listen.

Fortunately for us mere mortals, that is the topic of conversation in Total Guitar's in-depth discussion on the art of improvisation with Govan that sees the Charvel signature artist bestow wisdom befitting his wizardly appearance.

Of course, before you can transcend the fretboard and start reaching Guthrie-level heights of sheer technical brilliance, there’s just the small order of practicing – and, as Govan explains, practicing should be painful for the ears.

In other words, if you don't sound “shit” when you’re going over your scales and attempting to learn new licks, you probably aren’t doing it right.

“There is a trap when you get too good at a lick and it becomes a comfort,” he explains. “Whenever you want to make yourself feel better, part of your subconscious will encourage you to play that thing you’ve played a million times before because you know it will sound well-executed. 

“The part about that that’s haunting is you realize deep down that you’re not really choosing to play that,” Govan goes on. “It’s your hand choosing to play that. It’s not your soul. There’s an interesting thing about practicing and how we choose to divide our time.”

With that in mind, Govan says, “If you sound really good when you’re practicing, that means you’re practicing things you can already do, which isn’t really benefiting you fully. 

“Some of what you practice should sound shit, because then you know you are working on something that needs to be worked on. There’s a balance there.”

In his Total Guitar interview, Govan also offers some advice on what you should be focusing on while practicing, but for those struggling specifically with improvisation, the Artisocrats leader imparted some potentially game-changing tips for overcoming such troubles.

“For some people, it’s a psychological barrier that stops them from improvising,” he notes. “It’s the fear of playing something that might not work. Part of feeling good when you are improvising is being comfortable with the process and trusting yourself.

“But there are other more mechanical things you can work on. I’m a big believer in copying everything you hear around you – from ringtones to movie themes and whatever is on the radio.”

Guthrie Govan has just played an arena tour with soundtrack composer extraordinaire Hans Zimmer. “I’ve had worse jobs,” he grins. 

Last month, he led his instrumental trio The Aristocrats for a UK tour that included some of their biggest headline shows to date, including a night at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London. 

We caught up with him in the weeks before the tour to discuss the set, his rig, and learn what accommodations he has made for the electric guitar super-fan wondering where the amp has gone in the wake of his digital revolution.

What are you most looking forward to on this run?

“There’s a new track from me we’ll be introducing called Sergeant Rockhopper. People might remember the cover of our Freeze live album, which had three lego Aristocrats being apprehended by a giant penguin in a police helmet. 

“I decided that character would surely be called Sergeant Rockhopper – rockhoppers, of course, being a type of penguin with the big comical yellow eyebrows. I had this picture of a penguin officer on patrol, charging around the Antarctic on his snowmobile and thought, ‘What would the soundtrack be to that?’”

You also performed a couple of new tracks on your recent Asian tour…

“We played Aristoclub, written by Bryan [Beller, bass] as his homage to '90s dance. Not a style we’re associated with, but we’re always looking for new genres to corrupt and defile in an affectionate way! Bryan’s demo was full of sequencers and keyboards. I was thrown for a minute and then realized it was a great opportunity for me to brush up on my Fractal programming. 

“I went down a rabbit hole to get that sequenced gated filter working in time for a band who don’t play to a click! And there’s another by Marco [Minnemann, drums] called Hey… Where’s My Drink Package? – which is polyrhythmic insanity. We all feel like we deserve a whiskey if we get to the end and magically stop at the same time!”

So it sounds like you will be touring amp-free once again, with the Fractal FM9 handling pretty much everything?

“That’s it, plus two expression pedals. It felt like going fully digital would force me to think in new ways. I still use my Victorys in the studio. I’ll have two of my signature Charvels, one in standard and the other in dropped D, going into the Fractal and coming out of one or two monitors. That’s something I’ve learned over the last year. 

“Sometimes we’ll play and the world’s biggest guitar fan will get there three hours early, standing right by my spot where the guitar amp should be but isn’t. Now I have a wedge behind me so I can feel air being moved and another for the audience. No one should lose out just because I’m having fun in my digital playground!”

A typical Aristocrats show tends to involve a lot of improvising. How much would be too much?

“That is something we’ve always strived to get right, that balance between writing songs with recognizable choruses versus extended stretches using ‘the force’. If we just did the jamming thing it would get old. But if we just wrote songs and played them the same every night, the audience would miss out on what makes this trio so fun – the natural chemistry we have. 

“We can be spontaneous and fearless because we trust each other. We like to go off the rails, get lost and explore new territory, but we’re also there to help each other if it gets too bewildering.”

• The Aristocrats With Primuz Chamber Orchestra is out now via Boing.

Guthrie Govan is surely one of the greatest living guitarists. A master of rhythm and lead across all genres – but, crucially, with an ear for melody that keeps all his contributions highly musical – the UK virtuoso can tackle absolutely any material that gets thrown his way… and, somehow, make it better.

Case in point is his late-Noughties collaboration with UK rapper Dizzee Rascal, then riding high on the success of monster single Bonkers. Govan was seemingly given free rein with his guitar parts throughout his time in the Rascal band, during which the curly-haired maestro played some of the UK’s biggest musical stages.

One of the highest-profile shows of his session stint took place at iconic London venue The Roundhouse for the BBC’s Electric Proms, a televised broadcast that played host to a particularly mind-blowing cover of Rage Against the Machine’s Bulls on Parade.

Footage shows Govan playing the alt-rock classic’s rhythm parts relatively straight, bar the occasional tasty harmonization of the track’s opening riff and wah-wah breakdown. But naturally it’s the guitar solo that plays host to his zaniest contributions, as he reimagines Tom Morello’s trademark toggle-switched DJ scratches in his own idiosyncratic image.

Whipping out a glass slide seemingly from thin air, Govan begins tapping on his Suhr’s pickups, emulating the original solo for all of a bar, before he ingeniously uses the slide to two-hand tap notes off the fretboard while his left hand delivers some blinding legato runs.

The overall effect of his slide-enabled vibrato on those tapped exclamation points is quite simply jaw-dropping, and it’s all rounded off with a descending flourish and one final lightning-fast left-hand run.

It’s worth noting that Tom Morello frequently experimented with slides to achieve a pitch-modulated DJ-style effect – clock the solo in RATM’s Fistful of Steel – but it never formed the basis for quite such a virtuosic display.

Dizzee Rascal’s full Electric Proms set showcases Guthrie’s staggering versatility, as he deploys everything from metal chugs to hyper-clean funk and country hoedowns, while the full-scale orchestra set the scene for the guitarist’s future session gigs alongside superstar composer Hans Zimmer.

“At any point in time you have a spectrum of notes to choose from, with the ultimate right note at one end and the ultimate wrong note at the other,” Govan told Total Guitar of his unique solo approach. “It’s all about what kind of note you want right now. It would be boring if every note you played felt right, without tension or release.

“It’s better to ask yourself at what point in this gradient is the note interesting enough, but not so ugly it will ruin what you’re trying to say. I like that idea of weaving around predictable and surprising notes, because it’s the balance between the two that makes a melody compelling.” 

Since being named Guitarist Of The Year by Guitarist magazine in 1993 and following a decade as a tutor for GT, Guthrie Govan’s reputation has grown to legendary status. In terms of technicality and sheer breadth of styles it’s easy to see why Guthrie commands so much respect.

Guthrie’s 2006 solo album Erotic Cakes is essential listening, with tracks like Waves, Fives and Wonderful Slippery Thing showing a fantastic balance of musicality, creativity and fretboard wizardry. 

More recently, Govan has teamed up with Marco Minnemann and Bryan Beller to form The Aristocrats; instrumental fusion and progressive rock at its best. Guthrie has recorded and performed with Steven Wilson, Dizzy Rascal, Asia, and Hans Zimmer, recently appearing on the Dune movie soundtrack.

This lesson begins with an intervallic melody that traverses the fretboard with slides and string skips. Although the notes are played at fairly moderate speed, the focus is on controlling open strings with muting. 

A distorted guitar sound is a beautiful thing, but becomes messy if those open strings are left to their own devices. With each fretted note, you should also use your remaining fingers and spare fretting hand flesh to lightly touch the other five strings, so preventing unwanted noise. We want only one note sounding at a time.

Example 2 is a multi-finger tapping pattern in 7/8 time. Guthrie often taps using second, third and fourth fingers of his picking hand to create melodic patterns not otherwise playable. Although the fourth finger is the weakest of the digits, with practice it will gain accuracy and become a useful ally. 

Once again, the enemy of clean articulation is the open string, so try doing as Guthrie does, and use your first finger as a mute, while focusing the fret work on your second, third and fourth fingers. 

Our third example is an Aristocratic type riff based around chromatics and rhythmic syncopation. The first part is played with palm-muted alternate picking in unison with the bass. Keep these notes even so you lock in with the band. The final bar uses country hybrid picking and hammer-ons but with palm-muting this should blend in seamlessly with the picked part of the riff.

Example 4 is a four-notes-per-string tapping lick based on an Fmaj7 arpeggio. The four notes of the arpeggio (E-F-A-C) are placed along each string from low to high. This shape can be moved to other strings and other octaves, much like a keyboardist can hop between octaves using the same fingering. The initial note of each string is performed as a hammer-on from nowhere.

Use your first finger to hammer on the desired note on the sixth string, then use the underside of this finger to lightly touch the other five strings so they remain silent. Once you can nail this initial note, the rest should follow; be sure to try this technique with other types of arpeggio too.

Good luck and, like Guthrie always does, have fun with the music!  

Our final example is a fast chromatic rock fusion style lick based around a G Dorian sound. The notes fly by quickly, so start slowly and get used to matching the pick strokes to the fingers and take note of things like string changes and how that relates to the picking direction. Once you have built up the speed, you can use this lick in other keys and as a starting point for your own ideas. 

Get the tone

Amp settings: Gain 7, Bass 6, Middle 7, Treble 7, Reverb 3

Guthrie began his career using Cornford guitar amps and these days he favours Victory (both brands having been designed by Martin Kidd). Since working with Hans Zimmer he also uses Fractal amp modelers. 

Go for a bridge humbucker tone, with plenty of gain but without losing the ‘core’ of the note – ideally find a nice balance of the two. Add some nice delay to round things off.

Example 1

Play this melodic arpeggio based lick as smoothly as possible while giving each note its full duration before moving on to the next. Use all four fingers to place the notes while only fretting one note at a time to avoid them ringing together, as well as muting the open strings throughout.

Example 2 

This lick moves between Gmaj7 and Gm7 arpeggios. Use your second, third and fourth picking-hand fingers to tap the notes, playing the tapped notes first. Notice that in bar 2, they all move down one fret for the Gm7. 

Finally add the fretting-hand notes with your second and fourth fingers while using the first finger as a string mute.

Example 3

Play this syncopated chromatic riff with alternate picking and keep your pick moving down and up consistently, even through the rests as this will maintain your timing and picking consistency. In bar 3, use hybrid picking, with a combination of legato on the sixth string and plucked double-stops on the middle two strings.

Example 4

This lick is based on a four-notes-per-string Fmaj7 arpeggio. Hammer on the E, F and A with your fretting-hand, then tap the C with the second finger of your picking hand. Maintain this fingering arrangement on the sixth, fourth and first strings as you jump between the three octaves.

Example 5

This lick is based in a G Dorian (1-2-b3-4-5-6-b7) but the framework of the scale is filled in with chromatic notes played in a 10- notes-per-beat phrasing with alternate picking. Notice that each downbeat begins with a down stroke which lands with the first finger. Use these notes to synchronise the hands when playing at high speed. 

Chances are, if you’ve ever been stood anywhere remotely near a discussion about the greatest guitar players on earth, you’ll have heard the name Guthrie Govan. 

Though he would never describe himself in that way, the English fusion wizard is widely regarded as not only one of the most technically sophisticated players to emerge since the likes of Shawn Lane and Allan Holdsworth, but also one of the most tasteful, with a sense of melodic phrasing that’s just as dynamically exquisite as Larry Carlton or even Jeff Beck himself. 

His 2006 solo debut Erotic Cakes raised the bar for instrumental guitar music, arguably becoming the most important solo album for shredders since Steve Vai’s game-changing Passion And Warfare masterpiece of 1990. 

Pushing six-string boundaries is something he continues to do in The Aristocrats, who have released a handful of highly acclaimed studio and live albums since forming just over a decade ago – including their latest collaboration with the Primuz Chamber Orchestra. 

That alone would be enough to make for a remarkably impressive resume, but the Chelmsford-born 50 year-old has plenty more in his list of achievements – from briefly joining progressive rockers Asia early on to eventually backing UK grime hero Dizzee Rascal, later recording and touring with progressive rock mastermind Steven Wilson and, in more recent years, performing in composer Hans Zimmer’s live band. 

Then there’s his work as a guitar instructor, which has included stints at various music colleges, articles and transcriptions for magazines and a host of breathtaking video lessons/performances for companies like Lick Library and JTC. It's fair to say his life would have been very different without those stringed blocks of wood we all know and love... 

“They tell me I was three years old when I started,” says Govan, talking to Total Guitar in between arena dates with Hans Zimmer and an ever-so-slightly more intimate session spot with Polish pianist Tomasz Bura at London’s Jazz Cafe. 

“Early on I was just trying to achieve this impossible feat that I saw my dad doing, which was getting through an Elvis song! It quickly became clear to me that the guitar is a typewriter, it’s a machine you use to make music.

“My instincts led me towards trying to copy anything I heard, rather than just guitar stuff. So anything from a TV theme to a Christmas carol at school was fair game. We all hear technical music in everyday life – you might turn on the TV and hear some virtuosic violin thing or a jazz piano or a bluegrass player burning on a banjo. I always felt if things like that were possible, why not try to do them? 

“That came full-circle when I was 13 and I fell in with the metal crowd at school,” continues Govan, who by this point had started to become “microscopic” about the various barriers he perceived in his own playing. “Suddenly over the course of a week, I knew who Steve Vai and Tony MacAlpine were. I realized people had already been taking the guitar to its limits and I started homing in on their styles.”

They probably had a big impact on the player who ended up writing the Erotic Cakes material.  

There was one track on the solo debut that had already been gaining traction within the guitar community – a piece called Wonderful Slippery Thing, which had won him the Guitarist Of The Year award in 1993. 

The song had been specifically composed for the UK competition and, in amongst its smorgasbord of sizzling fusion licks and earworm melodies, featured a Dmaj7 string-skipping/tapping run that became a big talking point in his career early on.

“I guess my 21 year-old brain was thinking about how many cool guitar things I could cram into three minutes without compromising the musicality,” remembers Govan. “I remember deciding to put that fast ultra legato lick in there and thinking, ‘Okay, I like the sound of all this stretchy tapping stuff and the bubbly texture that it creates!’ 

“I thought about how efficiently I could get that idea across. Maybe 1.3 seconds would be enough time – something extreme and startling but also in context, so it didn’t become the point of the piece.” 

Other tracks like Waves were indicative of a musician searching for new things that had never been done on guitar, snaking around the fretboard in ways few would ever dare.

“That song didn’t start with me saying, ‘Let’s write some callisthenic thing that will clean my neck for me!’” smiles Govan. “It was mainly me hearing a contour in my head thinking ‘This is clearly a synth melody, I wonder if it’s possible to make a guitar do that!’ It’s nice that people found something in that song. Some of them like to learn the melody, film themselves and put it onto Instagram. I’m flattered that it’s a party piece.” 

One defining element of Govan’s playing that’s pretty much encompassed all of his recordings to date is his extensive usage of chromaticism and outside scales – employing the so-called ‘wrong notes’ at the right time in order to create musical tension. When you speak to the guitarist about these more unexpected or challenging intervallic choices, you quickly get the impression it’s one of his favorite things about being creative.

“At any point in time you have a spectrum of notes to choose from, with the ultimate right note at one end and the ultimate wrong note at the other,” explains Govan. “It’s all about what kind of note you want right now. It would be boring if every note you played felt right, without tension or release.

“It’s better to ask yourself at what point in this gradient is the note interesting enough, but not so ugly it will ruin what you’re trying to say. I like that idea of weaving around predictable and surprising notes, because it’s the balance between the two that makes a melody compelling.” 

Ultimately, it’s all about your ear, he shrugs. If your ear works well enough, you should be able to replicate what you’re hearing in your head with no barriers in between. 

“I’m not consciously thinking on a note-by-note basis like, ‘I think I want something chromatic now and then I’ll resolve on a major third for beat one!’ But I guess processes are happening in the background in the same way that when we speak English we know where the verb goes. 

“We’re not choosing where to put the verb, we just know where because that’s how we learned. And that’s a pretty good summation of how I experience music. To me, it’s just another first language.” 

For anyone who has sat down and tried to learn or use a scale to no avail, such as the melodic minor – which, because of its minor third, major sixth and major seventh, can present some contextual challenges, and require more attention to phrasing – Govan can offer some words of wisdom. “You need to learn to enjoy the sound of a scale,” he stresses, “before you have any hope of using it effectively.”

“In the same way, you have to learn how to like whiskey, I don’t think many people enjoy their first taste! [laughs] Melodic minor can be like that, but if you listen to enough music where that tonality is featured prominently, you get a sense for it. The notes stop sounding weird. Developing that kind of sensibility comes from bonding with a scale and internalizing it.” 

When it comes to gear, Govan is mainly known for his Charvel signature guitars – the latest of which being this year’s dazzling MJ San Dimas SD24 CM – and collaborating with Victory on their V30 amp series, both of which more often than not combine to form the core of his sound.

From there he’ll design his pedalboard around whichever project he’s performing in: the Suhr Koko Boost, Providence Anadime Chorus, Dunlop Jerry Cantrell Wah and TC Electronic Flashback Delay are among the favorites that have stuck through the years.

But what about the lesser-known favourites in his gear collection, such as the Gibson ES-335 and PRS Custom 24 he’d been seen with before any signature models arrived, initially through Suhr before he moved over to Charvel in 2014... 

“That Cherry Red 335’s almost exactly the same age as me.” grins Govan. “I traced the serial number and it’s close to my birthday, so it clearly has to be a part of my life. I’m not sure if I would use it for a whole show anymore, like I did 15 years ago with [local fusion band] The Fellowship.

“There’s something incredibly musical about the way a 335 feeds back when you’re close to your amp. It’s easy to coax those singing notes that go on forever out of a guitar with that design, with none of the shrieking you get from a hollow guitar without the block in the centre. 

“What else have I got? There’s my 1963 SG Special. That was my first ‘good’ guitar and will never be going on the road. The headstock is so fragile-looking, I wouldn’t trust any airline with it. It has P-90s and does a cool version of that rootsy slide tone I search for from time to time. 

“I like my Vigier fretless for certain things. It came in handy for a couple of tracks on the road with Hans, as did my Strandberg eight-string. The other exciting new guitar is a Huber Orca 59, which I stumbled on somewhere in Texas a few years back. It’s my idea of how Les Pauls should sound. 

“Again, it’s not something I’d use for a whole gig. For situations like that it can only be the Charvel because it covers all bases, but this Huber has something special and does the whole Peter Green thing.” 

And as for the aforementioned Custom 24 seen in some of his very earliest videos, we are reassuringly told it’s been “sleeping somewhere in Nevada” while its owner has been keeping busy with a slew of projects crossing all genres and venue sizes. When they’ll next be reunited is anyone’s guess... 

“It’s safe, it’s fine and thinks of me often,” grins Govan. “It will stay there until the next time I find myself with enough luggage allowance to bring it home with me. I’m curious to see what it will feel like to play again because it’s been over a decade. I guess it’s vintage now so probably worth something!”

• The Aristocrats With Primuz Chamber Orchestra is out now via Boing.

With the Aristocrats breaking cover with their breathtaking new collaborative album with Wojtek Lemański and the Primuz Chamber Orchestra, what better time to grab guitarist Guthrie Govan for a quick chat to unpack the majesty of the guitar instrumental?

The form is front and centre in Govan’s mind right now. And, as he explains here, it might be an art form that’s conducted with an electric guitar in hand but its range far exceeds the niche appeal of a single-instrument concern. Indeed, it can do what the vocal track cannot – clearing language barriers in a single bound, reaching a wider audience in the process.

Here, he talks about his approach to instrumentals, and some of his favourite tracks.

What is it about guitar instrumentals that appeals to you?

“Well, a guitar was the only instrument available in the house where I grew up, so naturally I spent my formative musical years learning how to operate it, simply because it was there. 

“However hard I might try to think like a ‘musician’ rather than specifically as a ‘guitarist’, there can be no denying that the guitar will always serve as my main interface with the musical world in general, so I suppose it’s the voice I know best. Perhaps I naturally relate to guitar instrumentals in a more detailed or informed way, due to my familiarity with the range, timbre and capabilities of the instrument.”

What can an instrumental provide a listener that a vocal song can’t?

“In a sense, it can offer a more universal appeal – when there’s no lyrical content in a song, the language barrier ceases to be a problem! I have fond memories of having performed instrumental music in some unusually far-flung and exotic locations and one thing I’ve consistently taken away from such experiences, is that the challenge of connecting with people suddenly feels refreshingly effortless as soon as I’m on the stage.

“Having spent the day dismally failing to explain to someone that I’m trying to exchange currency, figure out how the launderette works, order food or whatever, it somehow comes as a huge relief to start playing music and instantly feel a much more direct line of communication.”

Any tendencies with instrumentals that you aim to embrace or avoid?

“Whenever I think of rules like that, I’m reminded of that old Stravinsky quote: ‘My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles.’ While I do understand the logic of trying to focus your creativity by using restrictions to minimise any unnecessary or distracting decision-making, I’ve never really been able to make that approach work for me. 

“In general, my entire writing process just seems to be a response to the basic question, ‘What would I personally like to hear right now that I haven’t heard anywhere before?’ So, anything goes, really. I just do my best to avoid regurgitating anything which has obviously been done already.”

Is a typical song structure – intro, verse, chorus, middle 8, outro, etc – always relevant for an instrumental?

“In terms of connecting with listeners, I think it can indeed be helpful to think in terms of a basic structure which will be familiar to them. Of course, any rule is worth breaking if you feel a genuine artistic justification for doing so.”

How useful is studying a vocalist’s approach for guitar melodies?

“I think that can be extremely useful, for (at least) two reasons. Firstly, thinking like a vocalist encourages you to incorporate breathing into your phrasing, and I sense that listeners always respond well when a melody has that human, singable quality. 

“Secondly, the mindset of trying to make your guitar ‘sing’ can often help to liberate you from the trap of allowing the fingerboard to dictate the melody for you. If you’re thinking too much like a guitar player, there’s sometimes a danger of writing something purely because it sits comfortably within a scale shape or because it resembles one of your favourite licks, rather than searching for notes which actually mean something to you. 

“In terms of your audience, the ‘serious guitar player’ contingent might well be analysing the way your fingers are moving and evaluating which trick they would like to borrow first (trust me on this one!) but anyone else, subconsciously or otherwise, will be listening at least partially on the assumption that your guitar is trying to sing something to them.”

Do you have favourite keys or tempos?

“Certain keys are undeniably more guitar-friendly than others – a low, open E string makes a gratifying noise indeed and of course it’s not really possible to replicate that effect in all 12 keys – but I try not to let any of that influence my writing too much. For better or for worse, I don’t have perfect pitch so I’m not sure if any particular key speaks to me any more than its immediate neighbours. As for tempo, that’s generally dictated by whatever mood I’m trying to convey at the time.”

Do you have any favourite modes?

“I really don’t have favourite tonalities: for me, making a new piece of music starts with the attempt to capture a certain mood, vibe, or emotion so I suppose the initial intention will determine many of the required note or chord choices. I’ve enjoyed a fairly diverse listening diet over the years so I feel equally open to both pretty and angular harmonic environments. I suppose I’ll just gravitate to one end of the spectrum or the other based on however I might be feeling at the time.”

What are your views on harmonising melodies on the guitar? 

“I don’t really have any particularly strong views on that. Sometimes it’s fun to harmonise a melody and it’s certainly a 'dependable second verse' kind of strategy if you’re trying to maintain the interest level throughout a whole song structure. 

“On the other hand, I often find myself playing live in relatively stripped-down settings (such as the trio format of The Aristocrats) so I’m probably a little wary of writing anything that might need a harmony part in order to sound good. 

“In The Aristocrats, I’m probably guilty of writing overly complex bass parts to cover all of the harmonic ground, rather than defaulting to a ‘twin guitar’ tactic which I might not be able to replicate live.”

What three guitar instrumentals would you consider iconic, or have inspired you? 

“For me, that’s actually two difficult questions rolled into one. An instrumental would need to move a lot of people before it could truly attain iconic status so I’m sure you would get a much clearer reading on that topic by conducting a readers’ poll instead of asking me. 

“In terms of instrumentals that have inspired me personally, there are far too many too choose from so here are three random choices, each of which moved me a lot and had an impact on the way I think about instrumental guitar music: Apache by The Shadows, Emotions Wound Us So by Larry Carlton, and Blue Powder by Steve Vai.

“Apache was probably the first instrumental piece I ever learned to play on the guitar (I suspect a few of your readers may well have a similar story to share!) so I somehow felt duty-bound to include it here. The Larry Carlton ballad comes from the live album Last Night and I just have vivid memories of being startled by how much dynamic range Larry was managing to utilise throughout the course of the track. Also, I think that song might single-handedly have kickstarted my addiction to volume pedals! 

“As for Blue Powder, that song was featured on a sound page vinyl giveaway in Guitar Player magazine and it was the first time I had heard Steve’s playing outside the context of Frank Zappa’s band, so it really was an ear-opener for a young, impressionable yours truly. Now that I come to think of it, it’s also a great example of a track breaking one of the rules we discussed earlier; there’s absolutely no semblance of a verse, chorus, bridge structure and yet there’s an undeniable logic to the way the track flows. 

“As an afterthought: those were simply the first three tracks that popped into my mind but it does feel weird that Jeff Beck didn’t make an appearance so, by way of an unrequested bonus round, I hereby nominate Goodbye Porkpie Hat, Where Were You and Nadia. Hopefully no explanations will be required!”

• The Aristocrats With Primuz Chamber Orchestra  is out now via Boing!

Charvel has been owned by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation since 2002 and it’s been a good fit, sitting between the more-rock aimed Jackson line and the modern fringes of Fender, such as the Ultra range. 

In fact, if you simply consider Charvel to be the ‘modern’ Fender, you’re just about there. Another way to view the brand, particularly this latest Guthrie Govan signature guitar, is a souped-up and pimped version of what once may have been a Stratocaster. 

Whichever way you view it, the GG is built for pro-level use and, as Guthrie himself tells us, despite having another pair of US signatures, this more affordable Japanese-made model is actually his No 1 currently. If it’s good enough for Guthrie...

The guitar centres around a standard Fender scale length, but it has a 24-fret neck that sits on a lightly chamfered heel with a palm scoop on the back underneath the treble cutaway. 

As with numerous Charvels instruments, including the US GG signatures, the neck is caramelized (aka roasted) maple, rift-sawn, with dual carbon graphite rods either side of the two-way truss rod with its spoke wheel adjuster at the base of the neck. Frets are stainless steel and they’re big. 

There are numerous subtle changes compared with the existing USA models, too: the nut, for example, is Tusq XL (not bone), the locking tuners are by Gotoh, not Sperzel, but still retain staggered height posts, and the fingerboard inlays are simple ‘crème’ dots. 

As ever, the side dots are those glow-in-the-dark Luminlay types; the same fluorescent material is used around the base of the control knobs to highlight the numbers.

The major change here, however, is not only the sunburst finish to the face but also that the body material is basswood topped with what Charvel calls an ash ‘top’. 

On removing the neck, though, you can see in the cleanly-cut pocket that it’s just a thin veneer – a visual effect, let’s say – and the top face is also perfectly flat, unlike the current trend for more open-pore style finishes, especially those over ash. 

The edges are less radiused than you’d find on a vintage Stratocaster, the forearm and rib-cage contour less dished. But with a weight of 3.65kg (8.03lb) it feels perfect – purposeful, and certainly not feather-light.

Called a Charvel ‘locking tremolo bridge’, which we’d call a Floyd Rose without the fine tuners, the all-steel vibrato with its brass block is recessed into the body so the face of the baseplate is level with the face of the body. It’s back-routed, too, although it gives a wide range from just about five semitones up on the G string down to pretty much slack. 

As we mentioned, the nut is standard style, not locking, yet the return to pitch is superb, particularly with that range. Irrespective of its vibrato, it’s a very stable guitar, tuning-wise.

The pickups and circuit are, according to Guthrie, the same as his other signatures, but these pickups are Korean-made to the same specs as the USA pickups, and the bridge humbucker, while still direct-mounted, has some foam underneath to allow limited height adjustment. 

The circuit is simple in action: master volume and master tone with a five-way level switch that offers bridge humbucker in position 1; bridge inner single coil and middle single coil in position 2; bridge outer single coil and neck outer single coil in position 3; middle single coil and neck outer single coil in position 4; and, finally, the neck humbucker in position 5.

A small-tipped mini-toggle switch provides a simulated single-coil voice for either solo humbucker, too, and, by design, all selections are hum-cancelling. 

As with the previous signatures, the output jack plate is in the dished style of the Stratocaster, but it’s placed on the treble side of the bottom strap button so you can easily thread your lead through your strap for some extra onstage security.

Feel & Sounds

Despite those extra frets the GG obviously feels very familiar, both strapped on and seated. The neck is classed as having a ‘speed’ profile, which equates to its pretty flat 305mm to 406mm (12- to 16-inch) compound radius and what feels like a shallow C profile. 

It’s very modern Charvel in style with similar depth (20mm at the 1st fret and 21.2mm at the 12th) to other models we’ve previously reviewed. Those frets are big (approximately 2.77mm wide by 1.45mm high) with plenty of height, but the work is very good and that includes quite heavily rolled edges. In terms of setup, things are set pretty low, too (approximately 1.3mm on both treble and bass sides at the 12th fret), with minimal relief.

Overall, straight out of the box, the playability is superb and, as we said, tuning-wise it’s very stable. Once again we rarely touched the tuners during our sound test, which went on for a considerable time.

As we found when we looked at the previous GG signature, the sounds we hear and explore here are very diverse, and yet outside of the solo humbuckers every other sound is a combination of single coils: there’s a little honk to the funk in positions 2 and 4, while in position 3 we welcome a Telecaster-style mix. 

The solo pickup single-coil simulations are seamless and really balanced with those mixes, with less volume drop than you might experience when faced with a standard coil-split. But if you want an altogether different voice then the full-coil humbuckers are there to provide it: the bridge has a snarly, punchy midrange clout, and the neck is thick but well balanced, a gear or two above hot vintage. 

But the tricks don’t stop there because with such a well-voiced treble bleed circuit on the volume control, pulling it back tames some of the bluster without dulling the attack. Certainly, if you drive this guitar with those controls full-up then it’s cool, but you’re missing a lot – especially when you’re working with your pedalboard.

Verdict

It’s all right for big league guitar players to take out 10 or more guitars – they have roadies and techs to lug them around, restring and maintain them. 

Yet here is the antithesis of that: a perfectly aimed working tool that covers vast amounts of ground and could just as easily be used for your jazz sit-in gig as it could be on your arena rock tour. A decent gigbag and some spare strings and you’re good to go, wherever your music takes you.

There are some seriously big sounds here contrasted by quite shimmery single-coil voices, and everything is hum-cancelling by design, so that’s something else you don’t have to worry about. For the performing musician or studying musician who doesn’t want to limit the sounds they can produce from the one guitar, it’s hard to fault.

Specs

• PRICE: $2,799 / £2,449 (inc case)
• ORIGIN: Japan
• TYPE: Offset double-cutaway San Dimas-shaped solidbody electric
• BODY: Basswood with ash veneer facing
• NECK: Caramelized flame maple with graphite reinforcement, bolt-on
• SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5-inch)
• NUT: Graph Tech Tusq XL/43.1mm 
• FINGERBOARD: Caramelized flame maple, Crème Dot inlays,305-406mm(12-16”) compound radius, Luminlay side dots
• FRETS: 24, Jumbo stainless steel
• HARDWARE: Recessed Charvel locking vibrato, Gotoh rear-locking tuners
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 50.5mm 
• ELECTRICS: Charvel Custom humbuckers (bridge and neck); Custom single coil (middle), 5-position lever pickup selector switch, master volume and tone (w/ knurled dome-style Luminlay numbered knobs), 2-position ‘single coil’ mini- switch (bridge and neck pickups only)
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.65/8.03
• OPTIONS: None
• RANGE OPTIONS: There are 2 USA GG signatures (both £3,699), the USA Signature HSH Caramelized Ash and the USA Signature HSH Flame Maple. Other MJ Charvels are the HSS Rick Graham Signature MJ DK24 2PT CM (£2,549) and the HSH MJ DK24 HSH 2PT E Mahogany with Figured Walnut (£2,299) 
• LEFT-HANDERS: No
• FINISHES: Three-Tone Sunburst – satin body and neck, sunburst color to top only, back and body sides are black
• CONTACT: Charvel

The worlds of guitar-based noise and classical music have collided many times over the years, from Metallica’s S&M collaboration with the San Francisco Orchestra and conductor Michael Kamen in 1999 to Kiss recruiting the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2003 for Kiss Alive IV and, more recently, Opeth teaming up with the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra in 2015.

All of these recordings were able to demonstrate how new layers of classical sophistication could further embellish the fiery fretwork fans were already familiar with, yielding some truly staggering results. For The Aristocrats’ latest live release with the Primuz Chamber Orchestra, however, it all ended up happening under more unusual and extraordinary circumstances...

“It’s slightly aside from the other rock band plus orchestra projects I can think of,” explains guitarist Guthrie Govan, who formed the genre-hopping instrumental trio with bassist Bryan Beller and drummer Marco Minnemann in 2011, and recently launched his new Charvel MJ San Dimas SD24 CM.

“Normally, the recipe would be you’re a rock band and want to do something a bit more bombastic and expensive-sounding, so you look for an orchestra to play live with. But this is an example of the orchestra finding us!”

The group had been made aware of an arrangement of their song Culture Clash by Wojciech Lemański thanks to a live performance by the Primuz Chamber Orchestra that had been filmed and uploaded onto YouTube back in 2020. The footage made them start to wonder what a collaboration across tracks from their four studio albums would sound like. And so the seed was planted…

“We were thinking, ‘Wow, of all the bands they could have chosen to zoom in on, they somehow found us!’” continues Govan, speaking in between a run of arena dates with Hans Zimmer’s group and more intimate appearances with virtuoso pianist Tomasz Bura and his own Chelmsford jam band, The Fellowship.

“It’s a completely different field of musical endeavor and yet there they were listening to one of our songs, deciding it warranted a full arrangement to be performed live. Clearly it was meant to be… because this is no normal orchestra; they’re obviously just as weird as we are!

“We also liked the fact they were a really young and fiery, playing like they meant it rather than just decoding the pages in front of them,” he continues. “There was a passion in how they played. The arranger is insane, in all of the best possible ways. Some of the ideas he brought to this project were very out there and very much fit in with our whole musical worldview. It was a fortuitous meeting of minds!”

We have to say, the guitar player in the footage – Jacek Królik – did an incredible job in keeping up with your devilish runs.

“Yes, he’s great. I actually discovered him many years ago when we were gigging in Poland. We were having lunch in one of these traditional Polish roadside restaurant places and they were playing suitably traditional music. And this crazy pop fusion came on, I think it was a band called Brathanki – this really fun pop but everyone could really play. They had weird time signatures and crazy changes and stuff like that. I later discovered it was the same guitar player, so that’s another strange link behind the scenes!”

How did you go about choosing the right Aristocrats tracks to collaborate on – were there any obvious choices and others that were perhaps less so?

“Well, we’ve been a democracy from the very start with this band. So we decided to be an even bigger democracy, each making our own list of songs we’d like to hear with strings and also inviting Wojciech to come up with his own bucket list of songs that he’d like to arrange. 

“A lot of it overlapped, some of it didn’t. So we just looked at the Venn diagram and saw about 15 tunes in the middle that we all agreed would work well as this band-plus-strings combo. Then we ping-ponged a lot of video arrangements – once we heard some of the ideas, we had a little more to work with. Rather than just choosing the song we thought we wanted to hear with strings, we choose the songs that illustrated this combination working well.”

As a collection of pre-existing songs, it flows very well...

“I guess the other thing we bore in mind was how to sustain interest across a whole album to avoid listeners getting to track four or five and thinking, ‘OK, I get it, cute gimmick, what else have you got?’

“We wanted to cover a broad spectrum of flavors. Hopefully we achieved that, every one of the songs bringing out a different side of the orchestra. I’m too biased to know how this album will sound to the rest of the world, but I love it. The experiment worked better than we deserved!”

Was there any temptation to do this as a live release, as was the case with S&M and Kiss Symphony?

“Obviously there was a lockdown going on. It’s not like two American citizens and one UK citizen could fly over to Poland to jam with this orchestra.

“We thought if we stuck with the studio performances, not only are they the versions our fans are most familiar with, there’s a lot of stuff we played on the originals that was totally spontaneous and a product of us interacting and trying to throw ideas and surprise each other.

“But when you send a recording like that to Wojciech or any arranger like that, they have the option of taking those improvised parts and treating them as if they were completely composed.”

Which ones do you mean, exactly?

“The end of Last Orders springs to mind as a good example. We’re just a band in a room going for it and having fun, because we assume the song is going to fade out and what we played could only have happened once.

“But then Wojciech gets his hands on it and thinks, ‘Oh, that’s a triplet displacement there which will sound great with all the strings joining in!’ And suddenly it becomes this composed thing, even though it wasn’t when we first played it. I love that meeting of real-time and slow, deliberate composition coming together.”

Stupid 7 feels like one of the most radical departures from the original version...

“It ended up being one of the orchestra’s favorite tracks because that arrangement is preposterously unplayable with crazy time signatures, manic tempos and a bunch of impossible notes. They really threw themselves into it, and I know for a fact they were proud of the fact they survived that session! 

“Also, bonus points for the end where we made a special request. The last chords in the song are deliberately ugly and horrific so we said, ‘We know you’re all classically trained, but could we persuade you to play them out of tune to make them even more disgusting?’ And they were completely into the idea, so that’s what you hear!”

The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde has a new extended intro. It’s become a fan favorite since the original release – mainly because it’s incredibly musical, but also perhaps because it’s on the easier side of The Aristocrats’ catalog...

“I’ve met a fair number of people who have singled that song out and many of them have used the word ‘cinematic’, which is a reasonable summary of its vibe. Bryan wrote that song and it was him trying to conjure up the soundtrack to a very vivid chapter in his life. All the way through the compositional process, he was trying to tell this story.

“It’s cool how it all came across. I know people might look at the lineup of this band and assume our mission statement is to play confusing and impossible music at all times. But actually we prioritize things and try to tell a story that means something with each song. If we get to be naughty and play preposterous things over the top, so be it. But we do care about the compositional side of it all.”

Jack’s Back is another one that lent itself well to the orchestral treatment, with plenty of big gaps in the opening motif for mischievous film score melodies...

“It’s always wrong to pick a favorite child, but I do have a special soft spot for that one. I remember writing it. I’d just come back home after a long spell on the road with Hans Zimmer.

“Every night I was hearing an enormous rock band and an enormous orchestra. Then I got home and realized I had to write some Aristocrats songs. It can be really challenging changing your sense of scale, going from all the musicians in the world to just three musicians who need to be able to replicate everything live.

“I remember trying to condense all the ideas for that song into something that could be performed by three humans. Sending that to Wojciech and hearing him flesh it out and fill in the gaps, without him knowing what I’d initially imagined, was really special. Because there’s a lot of stuff I was thinking and he guessed it and put it in there.

“Then he took the ball and ran further with it, adding lots of other stuff in the same spirit that I'd never have been able to come up with. So I’m really happy with how it turned out.”

Speaking of Hans Zimmer, were there any new challenges on this latest tour? 

“In terms of the setlist, it was a whole new set. I seem to have more to do than I did on previous tours, and of course I welcome that.

“The main challenge was the Covid thing. The people who’d organized and invested in the tour said we all have to stay in a bubble. And it was a bigger bubble than most bands would muster, because there were so many crew members, the orchestra, all the people in the band and more.

“It was essentially a spaceship and we all had to stay on the spaceship in a desperate bid not to get sick. And of course some people did get sick, anyway.

“Every night of the tour there was this grim specter hovering over us, making us wonder how long it would be until we were shut down, how long could we maintain this streak of luck.

“Miraculously, we made it the whole way through the tour. Quite a few people caught the plague, but nobody caught it horrifically badly. Every time someone did get infected, they had to quarantine and other people in the band would have to try and cover for them.

“It was a pretty intense experience, so you can imagine the sense of triumph at the end was all the greater because not only had we come back from the grim silence of the preceding couple of years, but we’d also prevailed over something.”

Is the Strandberg eight-string still in the set?

“Yes, it’s still being used. Any time The Dark Knight stuff is involved, I feel like I have to be playing a black guitar with eight strings.

“Hans loves it. The first time he found out an eight-string even existed was when I turned up to rehearsals for the first tour. As soon as he knew that was possible, he had to go one better. So the next time I saw him, he’d bought a nine-string guitar.

“He’s very much a ‘Wagner with electricity’ kind of guy… more is definitely more in Hans Zimmer’s vision of how things should be!”

• The Aristocrats With Primuz Chamber Orchestra is out now.

After it was released on May 27, Tom Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick had cinema-goers raving, but six-string-savvy film buffs were also wondering who was smashing those sweet electric guitar licks.

That player, as revealed by Film Music Reporter, is Lexii Lynn Frazier, who joined the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack team alongside Harold Faltermeyer, Lorne Balfe, Hans Zimmer, Chad Smith, Guthrie Govan and more high-profile names.

A prolific session player with a number of endorsements and artist collaborations under her belt, Frazier had the unenviable task of recreating and reimagining Top Gun’s goosebump-inducing, none-more-’80s lead lines, which were originally performed by Steve Stevens.

Frazier did so from the comfort of her own home – all of her guitar parts were recorded virtually in 2020 at the height of the Covid-induced lockdown.

“Last night I went to see Top Gun: Maverick for the first time and hear the guitar I remote recorded in my bedroom back in 2020 during the height of the pandemic,” Frazier wrote on Instagram. “I can’t express how grateful I am for this opportunity.

Frazier’s guitar contributions can be heard all over the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack, most notably in the nostalgia-inducing lead lines of Main Titles (You’ve Been Called Back to Top Gun), which are revisited and extended for the reprised finale, Top Gun Anthem.

Speaking to Guitar Girl Mag in 2020, Frazier revealed she first picked up guitar when she was 12 years old after seeing Eddie Van Halen play Little Guitars. At 14, she was endorsed by PRS, and a year later was on the road touring the US with various bands.

Frazier was signed to SYCO/Sony when she turned 16, though was diagnosed with a rare life-threatening blood disorder called Severe Aplastic Anemia when she was 18. Her diagnosis meant she was forced to put her career on hold for a year to focus on her health.

Since returning to action, Frazier has racked up appearances on The Late Late Show with James Corden, The MTV TV & Movie Awards, Jimmy Kimmel! and more.

“It’s so insane to see my name amongst such incredible musicians and to hear/see it all finally come together,” she continued in her Instagram post. “Thank you so so much Lorne Balfe, Hans Zimmer and Peter [Rotter] and Queenie [Li], and congrats to everyone who worked on this incredible film. I know this is just the beginning.”

Unsurprisingly, the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack has been hotly received. According to Billboard, it shot straight into the Top 10 of its Top Album Sales and Soundtrack charts. As such, it looks like an Oscar nod might possibly be on the cards.

The Cruise-lead action film hasn't done too bad, either: it broke the $100 million mark on its opening weekend, making it the highest-opening non-superhero movie release since the pandemic began.

Joining Frazier on the soundtrack credits list was a wealth of other industry regulars, including Lady Gaga, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith – who was credited as a featured musician – and Guthrie Govan, who was listed as a score consultant.

Govan is no stranger to the world of film music, having teamed up with Oscar-winner Zimmer to play guitar on various films such as Dune, Army of Thieves and X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

Head over to Lexii Lynn's Instagram to follow her musical exploits.

The Aristocrats – the revered rock fusion power trio headed up by electric guitar wizard Guthrie Govan – have announced they will be teaming up with Poland’s Primuz Chamber Orchestra for a new album, which arrives June 3.

Appropriately titled The Aristocrats with Primuz Chamber Orchestra, the nine-track effort will be the trio’s first studio LP since 2019’s You Know What…?, and aims to deliver souped-up reinventions of songs from the band’s existing repertoire.

It promises to be one of, if not the most left-field addition to The Aristocrats' discography yet, and one that sees the group – which comprises Govan, bassist Bryan Beller and drummer Marco Minnemann – double down on their boundary-bending tendencies.

To usher in the news, the trio has dropped the effort’s spellbinding, cinematic lead single, The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde – a revamped rendition of the track of the same name from You Know What…?

Like the original, it’s dizzying lead lines and energetic soloing aplenty, though Govan finds his blinding fretboard explorations propped up by lashings of operatic strings, pizzicato-heavy passages and ominous violin thuds that amalgamate to form a symphonic wall of sound.

It’s certainly The Ballad like you’ve never heard it before, though at its core it's driven by Govan’s guitar work – a notion that’s perhaps most strongly evidenced by his extended guitar solo section at the 5:30 mark.

According to the band, the project was first conceived when they happened upon a video of the Primuz Chamber Orchestra performing one of their songs on YouTube, which had been arranged by composer Wojtek Lemański.

They recalled, “Their flawless execution of a highly challenging arrangement, which was startlingly inventive and yet remained entirely faithful to the spirit of the original composition, inspired us to reach out and propose a collaboration.”

As such, the partnership began, and the album developed over the course of 2021. With the help of engineer Forrester Savell, Lemański worked to transform and reinvent nine Aristocrat tracks.

The band added, “This approach enabled Wojtek to create orchestrations which treated many of the spontaneous, improvised elements from our original ‘band in a room’ takes as if they had been part of the actual compositions.

“We’re truly proud of the way this project turned out,” they continued, “and we’re profoundly grateful that serendipity somehow brought us all together for this collaboration.”

As well as The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde, the album will feature fresh takes on Stupid 7 from 2015’s Tres Caballeros, Culture Clash from the 2013 album of the same name and Last Orders from 2019’s You Know What…?

The full tracklist can be found below.

1. Culture Clash
2. Stupid 7
3. The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde
4. Dance Of The Aristocrats
5. Through The Flower
6. All Said And Done
7. Jack’s Back
8. Ohhhh Noooo
9. Last Orders

Accompanying the news is the announcement that The Aristocrats will be embarking on their first tour in two years shortly before the release of the album. Titled the Defrost tour, the 10-week, 50-date stint around North America will commence on July 1 in San Pedro, and conclude on September 9 in San Francisco.

For more, head over to The Aristocrat’s website.

• The Aristocrats with Primuz Chamber Orchestra is available to preorder now ahead of its release on June 3.

Legato is a ‘must have’ technique when developing your skills as a guitarist. It’s a way to play smooth, fluid lines, as opposed to the more regimented and percussive sound of alternate picking. 

Legato is performed with hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides played with the fretting hand. It can produce long, flowing runs, often associated with instruments such as saxophone. It’s not uncommon to hear jazz and fusion guitarists using legato to mimic their wind instrument brethren, while rock guitarists use it to execute smooth runs over extended positions at high speed.

The technique has evolved greatly over the past 60 years, with guitarists forever exploring and pushing boundaries. The 1970s saw huge changes in guitar post Hendrix and Clapton. Jimmy Page, Paul Kossoff and others had been employing legato in fairly basic form, using blues-based Pentatonic ideas, but in 1978, rock guitar was reinvented overnight, with the release of Van Halen 1.

Eddie Van Halen applied legato to rock guitar in a way that had not been seen before. Eddie discovered that by using tapping he could play three-notes-per-string licks and ‘movable shapes’ to create all manner of tonalities. 

He could produce wide Pentatonic licks and arpeggios, or play Clapton-inspired lead lines, adding extra notes with his tapping finger. This album laid the foundations for even more technically impressive playing. 

Through the late-'70s and into the '80s, Eddie’s impact was the catalyst for huge developments in rock. It was the dawn of ‘shred’. Steve Vai and Joe Satriani sounded ‘schooled’ and refined.

They employed legato as away of traversing the neck through all the positions of the scale system, enabling them to play incredibly fast over standard and modal progressions. Paul Gilbert’s string-skipping with legato produced unorthodox sounding licks, and was a more manageable way of sequencing arpeggios.

But perhaps the Daddy of legato is Allan Holdsworth. Holdsworth played almost exclusively this way, executing wide stretches, arpeggios, and endless fluid lines at impossible speed. His approach to playing ‘outside’ had a huge impact on Van Halen; check out Eddie’s solo on Drop Dead Legs. Other notable legato players from this era include Richie Kotzen, Reb Beach and Nuno Bettencourt.

During the 1990s, guitarists pushed legato technique to even higher levels. Rusty Cooley and Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal applied wide stretches and string skipping to Pentatonic licks, producing terrifyingly fast lines, while Thal and Brett Garsed developed four-notes-per-string techniques for even greater speed.

Garsed used a hybrid picking approach that enablid him to emphasise rhythmic subdivisions; legato players typically played across the beat, whereas Brett’s rhythmic emphasis aligned more with alternate picking. Dream Theater’s John Petrucci popularised legato sequences embellished with tapping and sliding.

Into the 2000s and we have players like Guthrie Govan. Guthrie is a master of all techniques, and can play a multitude of styles to an extraordinary level. His lines are extremely precise, often embellished with chromatic passing notes, or wide stretched string skips with tapping. Other noughties stand-outs include SlipKnot’s Jim Root and Mattias Al Eklundh.

Today, YouTube has become a huge resource for guitarists, and a great vehicle for showcasing players. Tom Quayle is one of the most popular guitarists within the online guitar community. 

He has developed new approaches and uses legato to perform sequences within his runs. He tunes his guitar in 4ths, which enables him to ascend and descend scales without having to change position. 

It’s a great example of how Tom has refined his style around the legato approach, and he is one of many players who are constantly pushing the boundaries of this and many other guitar techniques. Some other great modern players you might like to check out in this field include Nick Johnston, Danielle Gottardo and the incredible Max Ostro. 

Technique focus: Legato technique

To maintain a fluid technique it’s important to stay relaxed. There are two main moves you will need for legato: a hammer-on, where you sound a note by hammering the finger onto the string, and the pull-off, where you pull the finger away from the string. 

This is a little harder to achieve, although we also see the even trickier ‘hammer-on from nowhere’, where you sound the first note of a run when changing strings without picking. Keep your fingers no more than a few millimetres from the strings for a more economical technique. 

Basic finger exercises will help with stamina, but also work on different combinations of fretting-hand fingers, as this will help to develop independence. It’s also important to practise things like three-notes-per-string whole-tone stretches, as well as even wider ones, like stacked tone-and-a-half exercises. The three-notes-per-string scale system lends itself well to legato playing, enabling you to cross the strings with consistent three-finger patterns.

Work on an even and constant dynamic level, too, as you don’t want drops in volume depending on what finger is making contact with the string, or differences in dynamic level between hammer-ons and pull-offs.

I would also suggest levelling the dynamics between the first picked note and any upcoming hammer-ons or pull-offs – try picking slightly softer so the first picked note doesn’t jump out. Sometimes when descending a run of pull-offs, don’t pick at all, but sound the first note on each string with a hammer-on. This results in a very smooth and slippery legato style. 

Get the tone

Amp settings: Gain 8, Bass 6, Middle 7, Treble 5, Reverb 3

Almost all the guitarists referenced in this article use high-gain rock tones, although each will have his own nuances, be it guitar or amp type used, which effects and so on. 

Go for a good generic rock sound, whether using single-coils or humbuckers. Neck pickup will sound smoother, and try a fairly soft-toned drive pedal. Overdrive or distortion is a great aid to legato so use the above settings as a starting point and add reverb/delay to taste.

Example 1. 1970s Legato

Our first track has its feet firmly planted in 70s hard rock and metal. The clear inspiration for this track was game-changing early Van Halen.

[Bars 1-4] We kick off with some typical EVH-inspired licks. The first utilises the whammy bar, scooping into the notes as we initially hammer on. Bars 3-4 include a typical Eddie-style Pentatonic phrase showing his Clapton influence. Look out for the ‘hammer-on from nowhere’ at the 14th fret, third string.

[Bars 5-8] These licks are inspired by Dave Murray. This section includes fast trills, as well as a descending figure that includes hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides.

[Bars 9-12] More Van Halen inspired licks, similar to those heard in that most famous piece! The first lick uses odd note groupings, and includes the open second string. We conclude with a typical three-notes-per-string figure.

[Bars 13-16] These licks are in the style of Patto’s Ollie Halsall, who was an influence on both Alvin Lee and Allan Holdsworth. This lick includes some arpeggios that climb chromatically adding an outside tonality to the solo. We conclude this section with some wide-stretch string-skipping phrases. 

[Bars 17-20] Even more Van Halen goodness, kicking off with an example of Eddie’s wide stretch shapes that he often employed in his solos. We conclude with his signature ‘Falling down the stairs and landing on your feet’ approach with a shape that’s consistent across the neck.

[Bars 21-23] We conclude our first solo with more Van Halen licks, kicking off with a much used idea that builds intensity as it climbs the top two strings using typical three-notes-per-string fingerings.

Example 2. 1980s Legato

This example is a solo inspired by the shred guitarists of the 80s. The inspiration for this backing track was Extreme, Mr Big and Zakk Wylde.

[Bars 1-5] We kick off with a Joe Satriani inspired legato phrase, similar to ideas heard on Flying In A Blue Dream. Notice how the lick includes held notes followed by fast flurries and position shifts. This lick is very demanding as you only pick once at the very beginning of the phrase.

[Bars 6-9] These bars include a position shifting lick inspired by both Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. Pay attention to the position shifts performed with slides. This lick is based around the F# Aeolian mode, the sixth mode of the A Major scale.

[Bars 10-13] And Paul Gilbert has joined the solo! We continue with some signature position shifting legato patterns on the top two strings. Notice how this lick is rhythmically organised, and great for the timing and synchronisation. 

[Bars 14-17] This Paul Gilbert-style Pentatonic string skipping lick is very demanding, so take care when jumping strings. When performed accurately it will produce a wide intervallic sound. We conclude this section with a Richie Kotzen inspired wide stretch Blues scale lick. This lick is embellished with tapped notes for added Richie style intensity. 

[Bars 18-22] Now here’s a string skipping and tapping arpeggio figure in the style of Nuno Bettencourt, which follows the accompanying chords. Again take care when crossing the strings, and make sure you sound the strings with fretting-hand hammer-ons. We conclude these bars with a classic stretching Pentatonic/Blues scale lick in the style of the great Zakk Wylde.

[Bars 22-25] A great example of how Paul Gilbert uses legato to perform smooth and clean arpeggios with the fretting hand. We end with an ‘outside’ shape-based lick inspired by Allan Holdsworth and Shawn Lane. Take care with this figure as it includes stacked Minor 3rds, so good fretting-hand positioning is vital.

Example 3. 1990s Legato

For this '90s-inspired track inspiration was sourced from Dream Theater and 90s Shrapnel Records instrumental rock and fusion players. This track differs from the others as it features key changes, modulating between E Dorian and E Lydian.

[Bars 1-3] We introduce our solo with a lick inspired by Rusty Cooley, Derek Taylor, Ron Thal and Darren Householder. It features wide stretch E Minor Pentatonic fingerings that also include string skipping. We also shift position maintaining three-notes-per-string patterns. The lick also include tapping embellishment. Take care with this one as it’s very demanding.

[Bars 4-8] Here’s our first modulation, shifting to E Lydian, so remember, your scale shapes have changed from the first section. This section is pure John Petrucci, with a four-notes-per-string fretting-hand pattern with an additional tapped note. Yes, five-notes-per-string! This lick produces fast, smooth flurries. 

[Bars 9-12] Some Ron Thal inspired licks now, starting with a multi-finger string-skipped tapped arpeggio figure. We are back to E Dorian, and for this lick I suggest tapping with the second and third fingers of your picking hand. Again take care when skipping strings. We conclude with a fast five-note depending chromatic scale lick, that implements tapping.

[Bars 13 -16] And back to E Lydian. This lick is inspired by Brett Garsed, although it doesn’t include hybrid picking, but feel free to experiment! The idea of this lick is to include chromatic embellishment as well as four-notes-per-string fingerings to create a smooth, fluid sound.

[Bars 17-21] We conclude our solo with a melodic legato and tapping figure inspired by Meshuaggah’s Fredrik Thordendal. Yet more key changes, starting in A Lydian, before modulating to C Lydian, D Mixolydian, and resolving to E Major.

Example 4. 2000s Legato

For this 2000’s style track, Richie Kotzen was a primary influence, as well as Guthrie Govan’s playing on his Erotic Cakes album. This track is based around A Aeolian, mode six of C Major, with the final section gravitating towards A Dorian, mode two of G Major.

[Bars 1-3] Things kick off with a classic Guthrie Govan style melody that demonstrates his creative use of legato. This lick implements wide stretches, slides and positions shifts creating a wonderfully slippery sound!

[Bars 4-6] See how Guthrie embellishes runs with chromatic passing notes, often using his first, second and third fingers. The lick concludes with a bendy lick with positional slides into our next phrase, which starts at the end of bar 6.

[Bars 7-8] Here’s a monstrous Guthrie lick, using four-notes-per-string fingerings, chromatic passing tones and tapping. This lick ascends the first string and once again results in a very fluid sound. Take care with the separation of the notes with the fretting hand, as well as those position shifts.

[Bars 9-12] Jim Root’s style of legato is more traditional, using three-notes-per-string patterns, and repeating figures. This lick also includes the E Harmonic Minor scale as well as some Diminished phrasing.

[Bars 13 -16] More Guthrie goodness, his use of wide stretch patterns embellished with legato performing smooth, clean arpeggios. Take care with the final three-octave Em7 arpeggio which makes use of string skipping. You will have to execute the first note of each group with a fretting hand hammer-on.

[Bars 17- 20] Swedish guitarist Mattias AI Eklundh inspired this section, which starts with some dissonance produced by a harmonic and a fretted note a semitone apart. Then we have an unusual sounding lick that uses legato, while gently touching the harmonic at the 12th fret with your picking hand’s second finger.

We carry on with fast positional shifting legato lines performed with the picking-hand fingers for a slightly softer tone. We conclude with fast legato flurries, which require care as you only strike the first note – so stay relaxed.

Example 5. Present Day Legato

A modern melodic ballad style in the key of E Major, and its diatonic modes.

[Bars 1-5] We start with some Tom Quayle-style lines. Again I have not used hybrid picking for this section, but do so if you prefer. After setting the tone with some melodic licks, bar 5 introduces a fast legato sequence that crosses all six strings. Each grouping of notes is performed on a specific beat.

[Bars 7-9] This lick nods to Marco Sfogli, with a 32nd-note descending figure with string skipping. Take care here, and build the speed up gradually. 

[Bars 10-13] We begin with an ascending maj7th arpeggio that concludes with some two-handed tapping, then conclude with an ascending F#m7 arpeggio employing multi-fingered tapping. This arpeggio relies on a strong fretting hand to sound the notes when crossing strings, tapping the additional notes with the picking hand’s first and third fingers. 

[Bars 14-19] For this Tom Quayle style idea I have included a slightly slower lick to demonstrate how Tom uses different fretting finger combinations when building runs. This is great practice for finger independence and accuracy. We conclude with a figure that adds chromatic passing notes to a B Mixolydian line.

[Bars 19-22] Another idea inspired by Marco Sfogli, with a very angular sounding wide stretch pattern. The tricky thing here is the stretch, so take care with the position of your fretting hand.

[Bars 23-25] We end the lesson with another Tom Quayle type pattern. This would benefit from Tom’s ‘4ths’ tuning, but I wanted to include a pattern that stayed in one position of the neck. Again, look out for the string skipping!

Guthrie Govan has expanded his lineup of Charvel signature guitars with the new, Japanese-made MJ San Dimas SD24 CM.

The MJ San Dimas SD24 CM joins Govan's pair of American-made Charvel signatures, and features a basswood body with an ash top and a specially contoured heel for easier access to the upper reaches of the caramelized maple fretboard, which boasts a 12”-16” compound radius and 24 jumbo stainless-steel frets with crème dot inlays.

The MJ San Dimas SD24 CM – which you can see the bearded virtuoso take for a spin below – also boasts a licensed Strat headstock.

Sounds on the new Govan signature come by way of a trio of custom Charvel pickups – humbuckers in the neck and bridge, and a single-coil in the middle. Those humbuckers, however, can be adjusted to sound more single-coil-esque via an extra two-way mini-toggle switch.

Elsewhere, the control set is more standard, with individual volume and tone knobs sat near a five-position blade pickup switch.

A Charvel locking trem with a pop-in arm and brass block also comes aboard, in addition to Gotoh die-cast locking tuners and a Graph Tech TUSQ XL nut. All hardware is nicely finished in chrome.

“I have been playing guitar since I was three years old, so having my own signature model feels like an honor which comes with a certain responsibility,” Govan said of the guitar. 

“If you are going to have your name on the back of an instrument’s headstock, that’s you personally vouching for the quality and usability of that instrument, which is not something to be taken lightly. With my signature Charvel guitar, I feel completely confident to play it anywhere in the world and at any type of gig.”

The Charvel Guthrie Govan signature MJ San Dimas SD24 CM is available now – in a beautiful Three-Tone Sunburst finish – for $2,799.

For more info on the guitar, head on over to Charvel.

Just a few weeks following his announcement of a massive, 54-date 2022 US tour, Steve Vai has revealed the lineup for the latest edition of his popular, multi-day Vai Academy. 

Vai Academy 6.0, as it's being called, will feature electric guitar greats Nuno Bettencourt, Guthrie Govan, Larry Mitchell and Yvette Young, acoustic guitar maestros Tommy Emmanuel and Joe Robinson, and bass guitar wizard Billy Sheehan.

Titled “Finding Your Note,” this edition of the Vai Academy will allow attendees to jam with Vai and his band, attend master classes taught by Vai and attend nightly concerts featuring the virtuoso and other instructors.

There will also be a master class and matinee concert by Tommy Emmanuel, a signing and photo session with Vai, and team breakout workshops and master classes with Bettencourt, Govan, Mitchell, Robinson, Sheehan, and Young. 

It will take place August 4-8, 2022 in Las Vegas at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa.

“Anybody that expresses themself on an instrument has a choice of learning what they hear and trying to reproduce it, or listening deeply to their unique musical creativity voice – their 'note,'" Vai said in a statement. 

"At Vai Academy 6.0, we will be looking into both of these kinds of expressions, but giving great emphasis on 'finding your note.'" 

Those interested can register for Vai Academy 6.0 at the academy's website or via Dreamcatcher Events.

For a lot of us, trying to learn the mind-melting fretboard acrobatics of the guitar world’s most technically advanced electric guitar players is nigh-on impossible. Be it Polyphia’s G.O.A.T., Guthrie Govan’s Fives or Petrucci’s Under A Glass Moon, try as we might, some songs are simply best left unlearned, for the sake of our own sanity.

For the fearless Charles Berthoud, however, it’s just another day in the office. In fact, he’s even gone one step further, for this plucky player hasn’t just learned said fretboard acrobatics – he’s learned them all on the bass guitar.

Berthoud, one of YouTube’s most preeminent bass players, has racked up over 700k subscribers on the social media platform, and made a name for himself by flexing his staggering four-, five-, and six-string skills.

His latest video continues his solid track record of bamboozling his viewers, and has one-upped himself with a video that sees him take on – and execute flawlessly – all three solos mentioned above.

Armed with his de-tuner-equipped four-string, Berthoud throws himself in the deep end and tackles Petrucci’s lead from Under A Glass Moon head on. “This is some ridiculous stuff,” he quips, before making the solo look far too easy thanks to his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it right-hand technique.

After an immaculate, six-string-equipped rendition of G.O.A.T.’s main riff, which has perplexed players since the day it came out, Berthoud turns his attention to Guthrie Govan’s Fives – a solo that he labels with the disclaimer, “This might be the hardest solo I’ve ever attempted.”

Nevertheless, Berthoud doesn’t even seem to break a sweat and, thanks to “10,000 hours of practice of the past four days”, once again makes light work of the two-hand-tapping exchanges and staggering scale runs.

“This is one of the most insane guitar solos I’ve ever seen,” he comments. “He’s so technical and fast but still plays really passionately, which is a great combination.” 

During some post-solo reflection, the YouTuber adds, “I think Govan might’ve been the most difficult one, but that Petrucci solo was right up there as well.” 

Words truly fail to describe Berthoud’s bass-playing powers. Insane. Ridiculous. Stupendous. Spectacular. Take your pick, they all apply.

What was the first serious guitar that you bought with your own money?

“I’m going to have to say an Ibanez JEM, I think. I had the precursor to that in the form of an Ibanez RG550, which was none more black, but I don’t know if that quite qualifies as my first serious guitar because I bought it wishing it were a JEM. So when I actually got a JEM, that felt like a momentous occasion… for about a year and then I thought, ‘I’m going to have to sell this because it looks like somebody else’s guitar.’ I sold that guitar not long after acquiring it in the hope of shedding any unnecessary Steve Vai connotation and ended up buying a more grown-up looking Paul Reed Smith.”

What was the last guitar you bought and why?

“The last guitar I bought was a Nik Huber Orca 59. On the last Aristocrats studio album there’s a song called The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde and from the moment I heard the demo I knew instantly that the way I need to approach this song is to put on my '70s rock god hat. I need to be a guy with a Les Paul and I want it to sound like the Les Paul is around my knees and it’s going into a Marshall that’s far too loud. I had this character in my mind and so if I could somehow channel that character it seemed to me that I would be able to play the song in the spirit in which it was written.

“For the album [You Know What…?, 2019] I borrowed a Les Paul that was in the studio and which turned out to be the property of Kenny Loggins, of all people. Then we went on tour and everywhere we stopped I would go to a guitar shop, looking for Les Pauls, and finally we came to a place called The Guitar Sanctuary, which is an aptly named emporium indeed, in McKinney, a city near Dallas in Texas.

“Every time The Aristocrats go to McKinney at least one of us buys a guitar there. I asked them, ‘What have you got that’s kind of a Les Paul?’ I tried everything in the shop and this Huber just jumped out at me. There were lots of things that sounded like a Les Paul, but this thing sounded specifically like the Les Paul in my head. It had that Gary Moore, Peter Green thing. It practically sold itself.”

What’s the most incredible find or bargain you’ve had while buying gear?

“I once bought a guitar because it had the same birthday as me. How’s that? I have a Gibson ES-335, very red, very secondhand, but whoever had it before me obviously took care of it as well. It’s the right kind of worn – use, not abuse. I remember finding it in a shop and googling the serial number and discovering it was made in either very late 1971 or very early 1972. I thought, ‘Cool, we could have gone to school together! This is meant to be…’ It is a nice 335, but at least 50 per cent of my motivation for buying it was that it’s the same age as me. I take that as some kind of significant portent.”

What’s the strongest case of buyer’s remorse that you’ve ever had after buying gear?

“I guess the closest I could come to that would be the following. Taking a year off between school and going to university, I spent it working in Essex Police Headquarters and saving every penny. My goal was to treat myself to a little home recording setup so I’ll collect what should be a year’s beer money and see what I can do at the end of it. 

“I remember ordering a Fostex R8 and a Studiomaster mixing desk, a Yamaha power amp and two Tannoy monitors. All this stuff came in the post and I remember setting it up and trying to get it to work, trying to understand how a mixer operated, what buses were, and discovering things were muted when they shouldn’t have been. I really had no idea what I was doing. It took me quite a long time before I was able to record a signal onto a reel-to-reel machine. All the way through that process I was feeling these dark moments of thinking, ‘Have I just wasted a year’s worth of money on something that I’m not qualified to use?’”

Have you ever sold a guitar that you now intensely regret letting go?

“Not really. I used to be more soppy and sentimental about every single guitar I bought and possibly the thing that changed is going on tour a lot. I guess the realities of touring, particularly with bigger bands where your gear spends 22 hours a day in somebody else’s custody, maybe that’s partly what brainwashed me into this new mindset of letting go a little bit more and treating guitars more like a tool rather than something with real emotional weight.”

What’s your best tip for buying guitars?

“The best way to prepare for buying a guitar is to take the guitar you already have and make sure you have explored every sound you can get out of it. By messing with the knobs, by seeing how it behaves with different amp settings, how it reacts when you hold the pick differently; how many things can you do electronically or with your playing technique? 

“Make sure you’ve explored the whole range of your guitar and not only will you have become a better player having gone through that process, but also you’ve become a more informed buyer. Hopefully the thing that inspired you to go to the music shop was this sound you hear in your head and you’ve tried every permutation of playing techniques and different control settings and the guitar you have doesn’t do that sound. That’s why you’re going shopping.”

When was the last time you stopped to stare in a guitar shop window (or browse online) and what were you looking at?

“The online gazing I’ve been doing recently has been more looking for something that has the topology of the fretboard but acts as a MIDI controller. I would like to find the perfect fretboard-shaped MIDI interface, rather than lusting after an old Strat or something like that. I’m in that fortunate place where I’m pretty happy with the guitars I have. If someone told me that for the next five years you can’t buy any more guitars, I could be at peace with that.”

If forced to make a choice would you rather buy a really good guitar and a cheap amp or a cheap guitar and a top-notch amp? 

“I would go for the expensive guitar because I think the amount of bonding you do over time with a guitar is somehow deeper than the bonding you do with an amp. It’s a more tactile thing, it affects your playing technique, it affects the kind of things you want to play… I can imagine having a nice guitar and a bad amp and thinking, ‘Well, I can upgrade the amp one day,’ but playing a dog through a Dumble would not be that satisfying because the Dumble would just magnify the dogness.”

If you could only use humbuckers or single coils for the rest of your career, which would you choose and why?

“I’d go humbuckers, I think. As I came out of my dark metal phase of playing I realised you can actually get a decent clean tone with a humbucker as long as it’s not monstrously overwound and isn’t putting out 40 volts. A lower output, more sensitive humbucker can be decent clean – maybe more convincingly than the bridge pickup of a Strat will ever be able to do that thick overdriven thing that I need for my job. Oh, and I’ve just remembered that you can tap humbuckers and split the coils!”

Guthrie's go-to rig

“The last stage rig I used was two of my signature Charvel guitars: an ash-bodied one tuned down to D and a basswood one with a maple top not tuned down to D. That would run through a Fractal FX8, and then I do the four-cable method thing with that.

“The amp of choice would be a Victory V30 MkII. The core of my live rig with The Aristocrats is there’s a volume pedal in there all the time just before the input of the amp – and it doubles as a bit of a noise gate and it also enables me to approximate messing about with the volume knob on the guitar but without my picking hand ever leaving the string. There’s a wah always in the chain and the expression pedal is set so that as soon as you start moving it the wah engages.

“Other than that, a little bit of reverb and delay, a little bit of chorus sometimes, and the closest thing to an interesting effect I was using on the last tour would be the Fractal Ring Modulator. I was an early adopter of ring modulators; as soon as I discovered that the ring modulator was a thing I had to buy one and I treated myself to the Moogerfooger. But what’s different about the Fractal one is it has pitch tracking and so if you turn that on and then mess around with the ratio control you can get something that’s like a pitch shifter.”

• The Aristocrats' new live album, FREEZE! Live In Europe 2020, is available now.

In this day and age, the internet has become a launch pad for many aspiring guitarists who seek to share their chops online with other like-minded individuals.

Despite the mammoth popularity surrounding the practice, Guthrie Govan has revealed he has no intention of becoming a part of the “online guitarist” craze.

The fusion virtuoso made the remarks during a conversation with Guitar Magazine while promoting his band The Aristocrats' latest live album, Freeze!

When quizzed about the contrast between his live and online presence, Govan – who has fairly limited interaction with social media – responded, “I acknowledge the apparent paradox lurking in there, but I think a person’s comfort level is informed a much by environment as by personality type.

“I’ve met people who seem totally at ease in large social gatherings but would be horrified by the prospect of hopping up on stage at a blues jam,” he continued. “Perhaps I’m just wired with the reverse polarity.

“I genuinely feel more comfortable when I’m playing. Also, when I’m on stage, I somehow feel more like a conduit for something, so I suppose I’m perceiving that ‘something’, rather than myself, as the real center of attention.”

On the frenzy surrounding YouTube and Instagram as platforms for guitarists to show off their skills, Govan acknowledged the role both play in increasing a player’s exposure, though admitted “it’s all pretty far removed from what originally attracted me to the idea of becoming a professional musician”.

“I salute anyone who has embraced that model and made it work for them but for me, personally, a huge part of the ‘being a guitarist’ experience is the element of playing with, and for, other people,” he added.

“Whilst I do of course understand the concept of moving with the times, I just can’t get excited about the prospect of making guitar-centric videos of myself for a living.

“Faced with any choice between making my musical activities either more enjoyable or more profitable, I’ve always been more likely to gravitate towards the former.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the prolific performer discussed his various music-related lockdown activities, which included fine-tuning his technique, experimenting with his string gauge and collaborating with Hans Zimmer on film scores.

“I’ve just been taking the opportunity to reassess various little details in the way I play,” Govan reflected. “In the quest for a tone which actually sounds half-decent at 'quarantine' volume levels, I tried switching my string gauges up to 11-50.

“This doubtless sounds like an insignificantly tiny change but somehow it made me ‘zoom in’ on a few aspects of my technique, so I think overall my playing is a little cleaner now and, as a huge bonus, my slide tone sounds much more believable!” 

A new instrumental album – featuring electric guitar virtuosos like Guthrie Govan, Bumblefoot and Jack Gardiner – is set to be released later this month.

The album in question is observables, the debut full-length from ANYWHEREDOOR, a project helmed by agent and manager Kris Claerhout. 

Faced with unexpected downtime last year due to the COVID-19 lockdown, Claerhout began working on some new, electronic-flavored tracks. Claerhout sent one to his friend, Per Nilsson, who not only added some guitar, but suggested Claerhout contact some of his other guitar hero pals to add parts to the other tracks he had been working on.

Before long, Claerhout had rounded up the likes of Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Guthrie Govan, Jack Gardiner, Jen Majura, Mattias Eklundh and more to appear on the album. Not a bad guest list at all! 

Set for a July 30 release, observables was produced by Claerhout himself. You can check out a preview of the album above, and its cover art and track list below.

To preorder the album, head this way.

ANYWHEREDOOR – observables:

1. Groove Mustard – (feat. Mattias Eklundh)
2. TechTrip – (feat. Per Nilsson)
3. Internal Deflection – (feat. Bumblefoot)
4. Too Phart Gone – (feat. Guthrie Govan)
5. Badger Musk – (feat. Jack Gardiner)
6. This Is Not Funk – (feat. Mika Tyyska)
7. Quackemole – (feat. Jen Majura)
8. Panzerball – (feat. Max Ostro)
9. Tonal Wreck – (feat. Kris Xen)
10. Anywhere Door – (feat. Jake Willson)

As brands from all corners of the guitar world gear up for the hectic Summer NAMM period, Charvel has been quick off the mark with the announcement of two stellar-looking signature guitars for fusion virtuosos Guthrie Govan and Rick Graham.

Known for their fierce blends of… well, everything, Govan and Graham have each designed signature models that aim to keep up with their expansive playing styles through robust and impressive spec sheets, decorated with premium tonewoods and pickup choices.

While it’s Graham’s first-ever signature six-string from the South California-based brand, Govan already has a number of Charvels under his belt, with his latest iteration introducing a slew of intriguing material updates and functional appointments.

Enough teasing. Read on for an in-depth look at the standout signatures from Charvel for 2021.

Charvel Rick Graham Signature MJ DK24 2PT CM

UK-based guitar wizard Rick Graham, celebrated solo performer and online educator revered for his masterful approach to playing that sees him employ techniques and sounds from a number of styles, has been treated to his first-ever signature for 2021 by Charvel. 

Arriving in a Celeste finish, the MJ DK24 2PT CM boasts a basswood Dinky body, which has been crafted with a scalloped lower back and contoured heel for greater upper-fret access. A bolt-on caramelized maple neck and fretboard, complete with a 12”-16” compound radius and 24 jumbo stainless steel frets, also makes the cut.

Elsewhere, the fusion maestro has opted for a Gotoh Custom 510 recessed tremolo bridge, Gotoh die-cast locking tuners and a Fender Stratocaster-style headstock.

As for the electronics, Graham’s guitar features an HSS-configured set of specially voiced Custom Rick Graham Bare Knuckle pickups, said to be suitable for everything from delicate clean tones to high-gain mayhem – a fitting addition for Graham, given his oh-so eclectic musical repertoire.

A bridge humbucker, fitted with split-coil functionality, lines up alongside two single-coils, all of which are controlled by a five-way blade switch, master volume and master tone knob. An unusual rear-positioned output jack completes the spec sheet.

Rick Graham’s signature Charvel will be available for $2,699 when it is released in September 2021.

Charvel Guthrie Govan Signature MJ San Dimas SD24 CM

For 2021, Charvel has launched a made-in-Japan Guthrie Govan signature, which sports an elegant Three-Tone Sunburst finish. The MJ San Dimas SD24 CM swaps out Govan’s previously preferred caramelized ash for a basswood body, which makes use of an ash top.

Lining up alongside the body is a bolt-on maple graphite-reinforced neck and 12”-16” compound radius caramelized maple fretboard, which is adorned with 24 jumbo stainless steel frets. Other appointments include a specially contoured neck heel for quick transitions, Charvel locking tremolo bridge with pop-in tremolo arm and brass block, and Gotoh die-cast locking tuners. 

Under the hood, three custom-wound Charvel pickups are arranged into an HSH configuration, dictated by a five-way pickup selector switch and an additional two-way mini-toggle responsible for accessing genuine single-coil tones for greater sonic versatility.

Two master controls for volume and tone also feature, complete with eloquent numbered dome controls, which look right at home against the flash finish.

Guthrie Govan’s latest signature will be available in October 2021 for $2,599.

For more information, head over to Charvel.

Remember the days before live concerts were put on hold? For a trip back in time –all the way to early 2020 – check out the Aristocrats’ new live record, Freeze!, which captures the instrumental rock-fusion power trio of electric guitar whiz Guthrie Govan, bassist Bryan Beller and drummer Marco Minnemann onstage in Spain just before the world went into lockdown.

“Freeze! documents a particularly memorable period for the band so I think it’s really fortunate that we were able to capture this musical ‘snapshot’,” Govan said.

“After months of relentless gigging, the material from our latest studio recording had started to feel really natural for us and yet… somehow, there was still an unmistakable element of excitement and musical risk-taking on stage every night when we played those songs.”

The new effort leans heavily on debut live-recorded renditions of material from the supergroup’s 2019 studio effort, You Know What…?, as well as features an epic version of Get It Like That, with a Minnemann drum solo dedicated to Rush’s Neil Peart, who passed away while the band was on tour.

Said Minnemann about the record, “I have to admit that I at first was reluctant listening to the recordings, almost fearful about how many mistakes I would find.

“However, with a little bit of distance and fresh ears, I was actually more than pleased finding out that this ‘hand-picked’ selection of Aristocratic tunes I believe showcases the band as a very well-toured, oiled and locked machine, with not only love and attention to detail, but also playfulness and fun. Furthermore, Neil Peart sadly passed away during our European leg… I played my heart out for him every single night."

Added Beller, “We were greased up and ready to go, every night. But we had no way of knowing as we plowed through Spain that these would be some of the last shows we’d play for a while. So it’s special on several levels for us to be able to share this frozen moment in time, which is what a live album truly is.

“It’s a statement of what we were bringing to stages every night in the heat of a world tour; it’s something for our fans who may not have caught this tour to experience and hopefully enjoy at home; and, ideally, it’s also something to keep the flame burning for when we can get back out there and let loose onstage once again. Because that’s what we do best.”

Freeze! Live In Europe 2020 is out May 7 and is available for preorder now.

You'd be hard pressed to find a guitarist who uses the electric guitar in the way Guthrie Govan does, especially when he loves making his listeners laugh as much as he enjoys blowing their minds.

From sneaking the Mission Impossible theme into a jazz piece, to playing call and response with a seagull in a park, a new compilation on YouTube proves that Guthrie Govan is more than just a demi-god of guitar - he's a strong contender for the funniest guitarist on the planet.

The four-minute video below is packed with 20 times Guthrie put his case forward as the king of comedy of the guitar world.

As well as featuring a dizzying display of his crazy techniques, the compilation sees Guthrie at the peak of his comedic powers.

A particular highlight is Guthrie's response to being rudely interrupted by a squawking bird during an outdoor gig. In a show of his quick wit, Guthrie instinctively uses his guitar to execute a flawlessly-improvised impression.

Knowing Guthrie, he's probably fluent in bird on the guitar and politely asked the noisy spectator to be quiet. His follow up guitar squawk could well have been a well-mannered "thank you".

The pièce de résistance of Guthrie's humor, however, has to be his ability to seamlessly integrate well-known melodies into his hectic fusion performances. In the video, we are treated to multiple examples of when Guthrie said "to hell with it" and chucked in a melody or two purely for comedic purposes.

For instance, the first clip sees Guthrie throwing caution to the wind and riffing Smoke on the Water. Later on, we are treated to a double-time performance of Careless Whisper.  A tap rendition of The Simpsons theme song makes it as an honorable mention, too.

Of course, it's not the first time Govan has wowed us with humor – there was also that time he played an incredible one-handed solo while drinking a glass of water.

No matter how romantic the origin story behind our favorite guitar players, people don’t just pick up the guitar for the first time and run through 16th Century Greensleeves, Scuttle Buttin’ then Eruption to close things out. No. 

It doesn’t matter whom you sell your soul to, whether you start on the acoustic or electric guitar, it takes time to get good. More often than not, it takes a teacher’s guidance too. With a mind to the Guitar Teacher of the Year category in our Guitarist of the Year 2020 competition, and in a mood that could only be described as being hot for teacher, we’d like to give an apple to some of pioneers and trailblazers of guitar instruction.

We have cut this down to 15 guitar teachers who are not only teaching us to play but making us think about the instrument anew.

There will be omissions. That is the nature of a list. There will be some surprise inclusions. We’ll look at the teachers of yore, those whose instructional books taught our heroes, and who laid the foundations.

But we’ll also look at those who continue to push the boundaries as players in their own right and are sharing that knowledge in real-time, and those who have used the internet’s reach to spread knowledge and offer a digitally enriched platform for today’s player to learn on.

There have never been more educational resources available to guitarists. That invites a new discipline, a rigor in curating your learning. With that in mind, our first pick is straight out the old-school and started teaching long before we had the color TV let alone the internet… Heck! Before we had the Telecaster.

1. Mel Bay

It is only right that we should start with one of the OG founding fathers of popularized guitar instruction – and indeed of banjo, harmonica and more. Mel Bay’s name is so embedded in our consciousness as the publishing brand that it transcends Melbourne E. Bay, the man. 

Born in Bunker, Missouri, in 1913, Bay was a self-taught guitarist who made his bones playing various gigs across the Ozark region. He moved to St. Louis and after falling on hard times he ended up teaching up to 100 students a week. By 1947, he started writing lessons. 

The Mel Bay Modern Guitar Method series might seem antiquated these days in its choice to use standard notation to encourage sight-reading, but, like eating your vegetables when you're young, it’ll make you grow up big and strong… 

Selling over 20 million copies, it could lay claim to being the most-influential series of guitar instructional books ever. Mel Bay’s Guitar Chords remains an invaluable resource for players of all abilities.

2. Joe Satriani

Even before you start talking pedagogies and knowledge, curriculum and delivery, you can tell a lot about a teacher from the quality of their students, and no one has a more celebrated alumni body than Joe Satriani. 

Alex Skolnick, Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett, Larry LaLonde, Charlie Hunter, Counting Crows’ David Bryson! The range of guitar talent weened on Satch’s wisdom speaks for itself.

With or without the guitar, Satch is an excellent communicator. As in his own compositions, he is a master in breaking down music theory and expressing it in something that’s digestible, human and ultimately musical. 

His teaching started when he was at Five Towns College, in New York, with Vai an early pupil, but he was soon inundated after moving out west to Berkley, California. Check out Satch’s Guitar World lesson above – it’ll help you approach melody differently when building solos.

3. Michael Angelo Batio

Where do you start with Michael Angelo Batio? The pioneer of double-neck shred is one of the world’s most incendiary players, but that’s not enough. No, the Notorious MAB has made it his mission in life to lift thousands of players onto the shred pantheon. 

A Guitar World columnist, whose Learn Shred Guitar lessons series was published in conjunction with GW, his curriculum covers all the essentials you need to make your fingerboard feel the burn – sweep picking, flat-picking, rock/classical fusion, soloing over odd time signatures and, of course – the bread and butter of technical proficiency – ruthlessly efficient picking techniques.

4. Paul Gilbert

Like Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert is someone who inspires players to play just by talking about the instrument. That’s what the best teachers do – they communicate. 

Of course, his discography with Racer X, Mr. Big and as a solo artist bears testimony to his chops and the playbook that’s behind them, and a philosophy that takes his schooling from the Guitar Institute of Technology and applies it to life lessons learned from absorbing the pyrotechnic rock theater of Eddie Van Halen, the classicism of Page, the melodic playfulness of the Beatles and a lot more besides. 

Kudos if you own a GW/Paul Gilbert Shred Alert DVD. It’s out of print now but you can find Paul Gilbert’s lessons on the Artistworks platform. Right now, sign up, get new video lessons, share your own progress on video and receive feedback and lesson videos to take your playing to the next level. Just don’t disappoint him with wet sandwich vibrato.

5. Tomo Fujita

Learning guitar can be an unforgiving experience at times. When we first start out it’s intimidating, with a little finger pain on top, then, as we progress, we periodically hit some speed bumps and fall into a rut. Few teachers are better at getting you back on track than Berklee professor Tomo Fujita. 

He has the uncanny knack of presenting simple steps that deliver immeasurable improvements on your playing. No detail is spared. He’s a stickler for the importance of phrasing, muting and dynamics, and how paying attention to the small things – sometimes obviously so in hindsight – delivers big results. 

He has over three decades of experience, taught John Mayer, has a similarly great ear for sweet clean tones, and has some of the best funk chops you’ll hear. His YouTube channel, TomoFujitaMusic, is an invaluable resource for guitar players, no matter their expertise. Even if you just want to learn a nice chord progression.

6. Justin Sandercoe

Testimonials from the likes of Mark Knopfler, Steve Vai, Brian May and Tommy Emmanuel speak to the quality of teaching Justin Sandercoe offers – and his platform, JustinGuitar, is free to join, with a cornucopia of learning materials and lessons provided free of charge. 

But once you have spent some time working through his lessons – you can mark them complete and move on – you might want to enroll in some of his more in-depth digital programs.

There are lessons covering subjects from the the major scale, to music theory, solo blues guitar and more. You can go as deep as you want, but for a beginner or intermediate player who's looking to put some theory together with some song knowledge and develop their chops, Sandercoe is one of the best around – 1.28 million subscribers on YouTube can’t be wrong.

7. Burt Weedon

Those raised on the digital immediacy of YouTube and its smorgasbord of educational canapés are really following a path that was set by Burt Weedon way back in the late '50s. 

Weedon’s Play In A Day instructional book taught a whole generation of guitarists how to play. Legends such as Brian May, John Lennon, George Harrison and Eric Clapton referenced Play In A Day as a source text. 

It's still in print and on DVD if you’re willing to hunt it out. Techniques have evolved, so too playing styles, but the fundamentals remain unchanged, and it's a credible argument to say that no one has done more to popularize guitar playing than Weedon. He was a great player, too.

8. Jennifer Batten

Michael Jackson and Jeff Beck's former shredder-in-chief can be found on the TrueFire platform, where she has released three courses. Her Rock Sauce courses – one for rhythm, one for lead – will give you a working knowledge of her incendiary style, with 50 Ultra Intervallic Guitar Licks You Must Know a veritable masterclass in the sort of melodic patterns and scalar approaches that will prime you for improvisation. 

Any player of intermediate to advanced skill will know that feeling where their proficiency becomes a crutch and it’s time to bust out of the comfort zone. Batten’s the sort of player and teacher to do that. 

Now, get yourself a Gravity Pick and check out this masterclass in building strength and stamina, while finding new ways of phrasing familiar patterns.

9. Greg Koch

The Gristleman is one of the most prodigiously gifted players of his generation, playing a kinetic hybrid style of country, blues, rock ’n’ roll and jazz… It’s one hot jam. 

He’s also a prolific teacher. If you're an intermediate or advanced player, it might well be worth spending a hundred bucks for an hour-long Skype lesson to crib some licks from him and workshop your technique. 

But if your budget is more modest, Koch has written and produced a wide variety of instructional books and DVDs with Hal Leonard, that not only unpack his style in granular detail but cover blues, rhythm guitar, country and players such as Stevie Ray Vaughan. He’s an affable host, a killer player, and knows how to put a fun lesson together.

• Diversify your playing with Greg Koch's red-hot hybrid-picking lesson

10. Guthrie Govan

You might recognize Guitar World's erstwhile Professor Shred from Hans Zimmer’s blockbuster world tours and movie soundtracks, the Fellowship, Asia, the Aristocrats or his expansive adventures with Steven Wilson. 

But there’s a good chance you already know his name and his style on the strength of his teaching alone. He's a relentless educator of guitarists with an encyclopedic knowledge of theory and a near supernatural talent for playing and teaching in any style imaginable. 

His two-volume Creative Guitar book series makes an excellent showcase for his ideas for guitar playing; indeed, his lessons are very much geared towards equipping you to chase your own musical rainbow – which is where a sound knowledge of theory and technique can take you.

11. Wolf Marshall

The Tolstoy of transcription, Wolf Marshall was a super prolific figure in guitar culture from the late '80s onwards, with his Signature Licks series unpacking the styles of Robby Krieger, Steve Vai, Eric Clapton and more. 

Indeed, any of the high-profile guitar heroes of the day were put under the microscope, digested and presented in a way that could let those learning the instrument borrow from the masters. 

The Wolf Marshall Guitar Method was a leader in its field, offering a comprehensive syllabus for guitarists. These days, Marshall’s syllabus is more jazz-orientated, and you can find his lessons on TrueFire.

12. Sarah Longfield

Sarah Longfield is a polymath phenom whose trailblazing, extended-range style typifies the frontier spirit in today’s experimental metal. It has also helped change the design of the extended-range guitar, with her signature Strandberg models tailor-made for some of the – quite frankly – crazy stuff that is going on with her lessons. 

Enlisting to her master course on JamPlay is to prepare to take that seven- or eight-string of yours out of the chug zone and into some celestial territory where next-gen techniques such as "paradiddle tapping” and “advanced tapped arpeggios” will change not just how you play but perhaps what you think of the instrument itself. 

We mentioned she was a polymath, and this is writ-large in her playing and teaching, with a style borne out of her training on drums and piano.

13. Yvette Young

Another new-school polymath guitarist with a penchant for Strandberg’s Boden seven-string and hybrid tapping, Yvette Young teaches a style that resists easy categorization. 

Mastering it might considerably rewire your chops and technique. If that sounds complicated, it nonetheless makes perfect sense when you hear it in the context of her band, Covet. The melody and the purpose is always foregrounded, and that’s one the key takeaways from her JamPlay course. 

Young teaches us how to write in odd meters and incorporate both hands in playing riffs, and also takes you inside the approaches she uses on Covet songs such as Shibuya. 

As you can see from her Guitar World lesson above, her rhythm style shows her right hand assuming fingerboard positions that might be alien at first, but are a key part of what is ultimately a wholly practical approach to defying the limitations placed on us by the instrument.

14. Tommy Emmanuel

Who could be better at teaching fingerstyle guitar than the best fingerstyle player in the world? Tommy Emmanuel is just incredible, and he covers some ground. There’s country, bluegrass, folk, jazz and more, but it just sounds like Emmanuel. 

He cites Chet Atkins as a key influence. “Growing up listening to Chet Atkins taught me to find the melody and stick with the melody,” he told Guitar World last year, and that is, in essence, akin to his playing and teaching philosophy. All the technique is focused on expressing nuance of musical information in a part. 

His teaching is borne of practical wisdom, breaking fingerstyle and Travis picking down into manageable exercises that, in sum, demystify the process and choice cuts from his discography. His lessons are available on the TrueFire platform.

15. Andy Aledort

Okay, so maybe we are a little biased in picking long-time Guitar World contributor Andy Aledort in this list but, come on, his services to guitar tuition, particularly in the field of blues-rock, are unparalleled. 

He has sold over a million instructional DVDs, written over 200 books on guitar instruction – taking a deep dive into the styles of Albert King, Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan – plus a number of tab books that are bona fide bookshelf essentials, such as Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction and The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Axis: Bold as Love. 

To get some some Aledort Jedi fretboard knowledge in your life right now, well, just point that browser to his current series of lessons on GW – which right now sees him exploring the major hexatonic scale. Alternatively, look him up on TrueFire or go direct to his site.

By all accounts, Guthrie Govan has enjoyed the kind of career most guitarists only dream about. Just 47 years old, the British-born virtuoso has either recorded or performed with a diverse group of artists that includes progressive rock icons (Steven Wilson, Asia), electronic dance hotshots (the Young Punx), hip-hop/grime pioneers (Dizzee Rascal) and Oscar-winning film composers (Hans Zimmer). 

At the same time, he’s released a solo album (2006’s Erotic Cakes) and has established himself as one of the most sought-after gurus of guitar masterclasses, holding forth for budding shredders across the globe.

One might assume Govan has followed some sort of grand plan that he mapped out years ago, but the guitarist admits he’s benefited mostly from lucky strokes of serendipity. 

“I’m not particularly business-minded,” he says, “so I’ve always tried to remain open to any random opportunities that might present themselves. I tend to make my decisions about any new venture based largely on how much the music excites me and the extent to which I feel I might have something valid to ‘bring to the table’.”

He cites his ongoing participation in the instrumental supergroup the Aristocrats (which includes two other highly sought-after session aces, bass maven Bryan Beller and drumming whiz Marco Minnemann) as one such example. 

Originally, the trio were brought together to perform a brief one-off set at the 2010 NAMM Show, but no sooner had the three started jamming, Govan realized they were destined for bigger things.

“Our decision to take things further and become a long-term, proper band was based entirely on our mutual recognition of the chemistry between the three of us, which became apparent during that first set,” he recalls. “We basically walked off stage and immediately resolved to record an album, which we did about three months later.”

The Aristocrats’ self-titled debut album was full of the kind of face-melting chops one might expect from guys of their caliber; on songs that mixed metal, jazz swing and blues, the trio tapped, shredded and grooved at maximum overdrive. 

But beyond their dizzying technical skills, the band also displayed a keen sense of comedic self-awareness, bestowing their hyperkinetic send-up of blues clichés with the title Blues Fuckers.

Laying to waste the notion that the band is any kind of stodgy, ultra-serious prog outfit, Guthrie says, “I concede that we can all operate our instruments with a certain degree of proficiency, but what we’re really hoping to achieve with the Aristocrats is to communicate how much fun we have when we make music together. We want to make other people feel better, not worse.”

While continuing their careers as in-demand sidemen, the Aristocrats have issued two more highly adventurous (and ridiculously entertaining) albums, 2013’s Culture Clash and 2015’s Tres Caballeros, and now comes a fourth, You Know What...? 

In terms of quirkiness, it’s mad as a hatter. If the psycho-funk romp D Grade Fuck Movie Jam doesn’t throw you for a loop, then the jazz-tinged, odd-time wonder Spanish Eddie will leave you utterly breathless. 

Metal doesn’t get much heavier than the behemoth ode to dinosaurs, Terrible Lizard, and when it comes to sheer epic scale, the eight-and-a-half-minute multi-mood gem Last Orders could be called the Lawrence of Arabia of instrumental rock.

"Licks-wise, there’s not a fleet-fingered run or an unhinged noise that Govan doesn’t manage to cover on You Know What...? Indeed, he could pack a week’s worth of his clinics detailing his outlandish musicianship contained on the new album.

"But as he points out, his goal wasn’t to simply write vehicles for guitar tricks, as he calls them. “I’m particularly interested in two aspects of writing for this band, and they’re kind of polar opposites,” he says.

“On the one hand, I always try to incorporate a loose open section where we can channel the more ‘live’ side of what we do as a trio. On the other hand, the more composed sections of my Aristocrats tunes tend to be very composed.

"Elaborating further," he explains, “I always find myself spending an unusual amount of time honing basslines in an attempt to convey as much harmonic interest as I can within the limitations of the trio format. Somehow this helps me to remind myself that I should try to write ‘music’ for this band rather than ‘guitar music.’”

When you guys reconvene to make a record, are you surprised at anything new they’re playing - and are they blown away by something you’ve come up with?

"We probably surprise each other the most in the way we write for the band. We’ve played hundreds of shows together, so we have a good understanding of one another’s musical voices. But I think each of us still managed to come up with new material for this album that the others weren’t expecting."

The three of you are very active outside of the band. How important is that to keeping the Aristocrats fresh?

"I think it’s a very healthy thing that we all have other musical outlets. Playing a wide variety of music with different people can be a great source of inspiration, and that almost certainly has direct benefits on our trio’s quest to keep things fresh. 

"I vividly remember reconvening with Marco and Bryan after my first tour with Hans Zimmer’s live band. After several months of playing predominantly orchestral music with almost 70 musicians on the stage, I came back to the Aristocrats with a different perspective on the pros and cons of a raw power-trio format."

Each of you wrote and produced three songs for the album. Do you start with more and whittle them down?

"When we were preparing our first album, I quickly discovered how prolific Marco is as a writer; I lost count of all the potential ideas he sent over! Bryan and I tend to operate at a different pace compositionally, so he and I have always tried to focus on just three songs per album, doing our best to make sure they’ll want final-cut status if we try hard enough."

Do you guys have a vote in one another’s material?

"Veto power absolutely exists. The collective philosophy is that we shouldn’t need to play any piece of music if one or more of us simply isn’t feeling it. Having said that, veto power has yet to be used, so it’s still a purely theoretical construct at this stage in the band’s story."

Were there particular areas of composition or genres you wanted to explore?

"I guess so, but more subconsciously than deliberately. I have no idea why I wanted to write something like Spanish Eddie, other than harboring a vague desire to hear something that infused a progressive approach with Spanish flavorings - and not being aware of any existing piece of music that combined those elements in quite that way."

Did you set out to write Terrible Lizard about dinosaurs, or did the title come about once you listened to it?

"Oh, the dinosaur concept was fully formed right from the start, and the main riff was very deliberately constructed in the hope of evoking the thunderous footsteps of some giant lizard. 

"I’ve been fascinated by dinosaurs since infancy. What kid doesn’t like dinosaurs? Actually, I’m puzzled it took me so long to get around to paying tribute to them in musical form."

The song has some of the best distortion sounds I’ve ever heard. What are you using to get such awesome crunch?

"Why, thank you! That tone was basically my ash-bodied Charvel and a Victory V30 head with just a hint of extra filth courtesy of an Xotic EP Booster."

Is the 'squawking' section a tip of the hat to Steve Vai?

"Not deliberately, but part of the fun of electric guitar for me lies in exploring all the different sounds that can be coaxed out of it. It goes without saying that Steve Vai has played a very significant role in expanding the dictionary of usable guitar noises, and his playing was a huge influence in my formative years. Some of those elements have naturally been absorbed into my musical DNA."

Spanish Eddie is sustained beauty. The mid-section is so delicate and light. Did you have to be in a certain mood to cut it?

"It’s interesting that you singled out that spot, as finding the right vibe for the middle section did indeed take a little while. Our natural inclination at first was for the jam to build slowly but surely toward some kind of frenzied fusion climax. 

"While we had a lot of fun recording various more manic versions of that section, I somehow felt that the overall arc of the song required something gentle at that point to enhance the surprise factor in the section that comes next."

In that midsection, you’re doing some gorgeous jazz soloing. Any influences you can reference there?

"That soloing came from a slightly strange place. I suppose I did want to channel a little bit of George Benson, not that I profess to be any kind of authority in that style. 

"But I was also very conscious of playing a bolt-on guitar with .010 gauge strings, so occasionally you hear some slightly inappropriate 'blues guy' bends and vibrato creeping in."

It blasts into a tricky metal section. How are you playing that furious riff?

"For me, the fun part of that song is the way the underlying pulse shifts from 6/8 to 3/4; the metal section culminates in a reprise of the opening guitar motif, but it somehow sounds different because of the rhythmic implications of Marco reinforcing the 3/4 feel.

"I’ve found it interesting to note that quite a few people assumed that guitar pattern involves some kind of tapping, but it’s all played conventionally in drop-D tuning, alternating open strings with hammer-ons."

Mood-wise, Last Orders is pretty vast. Did you have pieces for separate songs, or did you always see it as one piece?

"I struggled for a while with that one. The main melody came to me fully formed and it wouldn’t go away, so I felt a sense of obligation to turn it into a full song. 

"It took me a while to figure out where else it should go after the main theme; I guess my final decision was a slightly odd one, but somehow I found it to have the right blend of satisfying and unexpected."

The wildcat solo in the middle is a scorcher. What amp/guitar settings were you using?

"The solo tone was created using the same basic ingredients as Terrible Lizard but also using the mini-switch on the Charvel to coax an approximation of a single tone from the bridge humbucker. 

"Then I tweaked the EQ on the amp to bring back some midrange thickness. There’s an atypical amount of delay and reverb on there, too - I just wanted that tone to be wetter than usual, possibly in the hope of making it sit more elegantly in the middle of all the clean tone stuff."

When We All Come Together is one of Marco’s tunes. It’s very American sounding, with fast country and chicken pickin’. Where does that come from in your bag of influences?

"My early years were largely shaped by the contents of my parents’ record collections, and for whatever reason the whole 'hot country' genre was somewhat under-represented.

"So I think much of my initial awareness of that style of playing came from background music on TV commercials and movies rather than from seeking out any particular artist for study purposes. 

"Later on, I discovered James Burton and Albert Lee, and later still I stumbled upon Danny Gatton and Jerry Donahue. I was very excited by both of those players, as they each seemed to have a refreshingly unique approach to the science of Telecaster playing."

Your 'twang' sounds very authentic on that song. What kind of amp settings and effects were you using for it?

"Amp-wise, that was just the clean channel of the Victory V30 head. The real secret weapon in that song was a bizarre instrument that I found lying around in the studio - I believe it was called a BilT Corvaire. 

"To me, this guitar looked like a thoroughly eccentric mashup of elements from various unrelated classic designs: a Jazzmaster vibrato unit, f-holes that ran through the entire thickness of the body, and so on. But it sounded just perfect for that track."

What were your main guitars you used for the album? I assume you used your signature Charvel…

"Mainly I used the ash-bodied Charvel. I flew over to sunny California for the sessions carrying just one guitar and one head, so that instrument was my workhorse for most of the recording.

"Having said that, the studio had a fine collection of other instruments, and we were invited to check everything out and use anything that intrigued us. I used a '60s Jazzmaster for Spiritus Cactus, a '70s Les Paul for The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde and I used virtually every instrument in the studio for When We All Come Together."

What about effects and amps?

"The go-to amp was my Victory V30 head, but I did try something new for the clean parts of tracks like Spanish Eddie and Last Orders in the form of a Vox AC30 that seemed to pair up very nicely with the single-coil settings on my Charvel."

"Oh, and I also used a small Carr combo for All Said and Done, though, alas, I honestly can’t remember the model name. In terms of effects, I brought my Xotic wah and EP booster, a Providence Anadime Chorus, an Eventide H9 - mostly for the synth algorithms, as heard on Burial at Sea - and a volume pedal. 

"I also borrowed the in-house Univibe for D-Grade. But apart from that, the sessions weren’t particularly effects-heavy."

Have you ever gone up a blind alley trying to learn something on the guitar, or do you think anything you can learn has merit?

"I believe the latter. I don’t see how it’s possible to have too much technique or knowledge. I’m a big believer in knowing why you want to learn something, and I suspect that allotting practice time on that basis can help to solve many players’ blind alley problems. 

"For me, the desire to learn something new on or about the instrument typically comes from hearing something I like but don’t entirely understand, and then saying to myself, 'I can imagine how I would actually use that if only I could learn how to do it...'

"That’s somewhat different from saying, 'I need to learn how to do that because the fact that other people know how to do it somehow makes me feel inadequate.'"

Aristocrats bassist Bryan Beller has announced a new solo album, Scenes from the Flood. The effort, “a sweeping, epic-scale modern progressive double concept album,” features an all-star cast of guest guitarists, including Beller’s Aristocrats band mate Guthrie Govan, John Petrucci, Joe Satriani, Mike Dawes, Mike Keneally and more.

Other musicians appearing on the record include drummers Gene Hoglan (Testament, Death) and Joe Travers (Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson). Beller performs bass, keyboards, guitars and lead vocals.

Said Beller about the inspiration behind Scenes from the Flood, “The Wall was the very first album I ever owned. It was a gift from my grandparents for my ninth birthday. I completely absorbed the story, the visuals, the long form double-vinyl structure, and the repeating themes that defined it as a concept album. Ever since, my favorite albums always felt like they were telling a story.

“So when I realized I had that much music in my head, and something to say along with it, I got over my initial fear of tackling something so conceptually audacious, and finally just said, yeah, I’m actually doing this.”

Scenes from the Flood is available in 2-CD (with two 20-page deluxe booklets) and 2-LP vinyl (with one full-size 24-page deluxe booklet) formats, as well as high-res and standard digital version.

For more information or to purchase, head here.

This month I’d like to demonstrate the technique I use to perform the two-handed-tapping riff that occurs during the bridge/chorus section of the song “Sevens,” from my Erotic Cakes album.

Before getting to the “Sevens” lick, I’m going to break down the technique involved so that you will be able to apply this idea to creating riffs of your own. The genesis of the lick was in trying to find a new way to play a major-seven arpeggio. I started out by breaking it down into two notes per string, as shown in FIGURE 1a.

Using the index finger and pinkie only, I descend from the major seventh of Eb, D, at the 22nd fret of the high E string, to a low Eb on the sixth string’s 11th fret. I then took this idea and performed it with fretboard tapping, as shown in FIGURE 1b. Now, the higher note in each pair is sounded with a pick-hand fretboard tap, and the lower note is sounded with a fret-hand “hammer-on from nowhere.” Be sure to tap hard onto each note so that it will sound clearly, and try to not allow any of the notes to ring into each other.

The next step was to break up the descending pattern and play it non-sequentially. What I arrived at was FIGURE 2. Here, I sound consecutive single notes on the high E and B strings, both sounded with fretboard taps, followed by the lower associated notes on the top two strings, sounded with fret-hand hammer-ons. The fret hand mirrors this approach by also using the pinkie and middle fingers. Start by playing this pattern slowly and then increase the speed.

Now let’s take this same approach and apply it to the four-note groups on the lower pairs of strings, starting with the B and G strings, as shown in FIGURE 3. I use the same technique here but switch to the ring and middle fingers for both the pick-hand taps and the fret-hand hammer-ons.

In FIGURE 4, I’ve moved the idea down one more pair of strings to the G and D. Here, I tap with the middle and ring fingers of the pick hand but use my frethand pinkie and middle finger to fret the other notes.

FIGURE 5 then runs the three patterns together. You can take this idea further by continuing onto the two bottom pairs of strings, as demonstrated in FIGURES 6a and 6b. Now that you’ve got the idea, try some different arpeggios: FIGURE 7 outlines Ebm7, and FIGURE 8 begins with Ebsus4 and then moves through Ebmaj7 and Ebm7.

Finally, the “Sevens” lick, appropriately played in a meter of 7/4, is shown in FIGURE 9. Using the same technique, I move through the different pairs of strings in a specific alternating pattern.

Back in April, the Aristocrats—guitarist Guthrie Govan, bassist Bryan Beller and drummer Marco Minnemann—announced their fourth studio album, You Know What…?, set for release on June 28.

Now, the band has shared a preview of the DVD they filmed while recording You Know What…? at Brotheryn Studios in Ojai, California. The bonus DVD, filmed and edited by Jon Luini and Arthur Rosato, will be available as part of the deluxe CD edition. It also includes an exclusive interview with the band along with lots of really cool studio footage.

You can check out the preview above.

Additionally, the deluxe CD edition of You Know What…? includes a 12-page booklet featuring “crazy” illustrations by album artist Hajo Muller.

You Know What…? is available for pre-order now in both Deluxe and Standard CD formats. For more information or to purchase, head here.

Additionally, the Aristocrats have announced a North American tour in support of You Know What…?, which includes a co-headlining date with John 5 on September 1 at 1720 in Los Angeles. You can check out the full itinerary below.

John 5 and the Creatures and the Aristocrats, featuring Guthrie Govan, have announced a one-night-only co-headlining show at 1720 in Los Angeles on Sunday, September 1. The show will be the first John 5 performance following the July 31 release of his new album, Invasion.

"John 5 and the Aristocrats—It doesn't get much better than that," John 5 said in a statement. "It's one show only and you're not going to want to miss it. It's going to be a very exciting night, and definitely one to remember."

Said the Aristocrats, "We always say that anything can happen onstage at an Aristocrats show—and that goes double for a John 5/Aristocrats double bill! We're psyched because the Aristocrats and John 5 are obviously coming at the instrumental rock thing from just completely different angles, and neither one of us is playing it straight down the middle. Should be a fun night for anyone in L.A. who likes their music loud and bent."

Tickets for the show are available here. Special VIP Packages will also be available for John 5 through the guitarist’s webstore.

Guitarist Guthrie Govan is known worldwide for his electric guitar prowess. But here’s a very cool video of the song “Taken Dreams” from his GPS release Two Seasons: Live in Japan.

Govan, who really lays it down on acoustic guitar, is joined by John Payne, who adds some supportive guitar work and powerful vocals.

Govan is known for his work with the Aristocrats, Asia (2001–2006), Docker's Guild, GPS, the Young Punx and the Fellowship as well as Erotic Cakes (a vehicle for his own music). He was the 1993 winner of Guitarist magazine's "Guitarist of the Year" competition.

Above, watch Govan and Payne perform “Taken Dreams.” If you want to see some really bitchin’ playing by Govan, skip ahead to 3:48.

In this column, I’d like to show you the complex fretboard-tapping section from a song of mine called “Bad Asteroid.”

It’s from my self-titled album with the Aristocrats, which includes bassist Brian Beller and drummer Marco Minneman. “Bad Asteroid” is a song that’s been bubbling away in my collection of unused tunes for about 18 or 19 years, and this new album gave me a good excuse to finally record it properly.

It’s good material for this column because, in addition to requiring wacky and unusual tapping procedures, it features some nice harmonic interest in the chord progression over which the riff is played—what I like to describe as the “budget Steely Dan” chords. Without them, the riff just sounds weird. The chords are essential in providing a context to the tapped melodic idea.

FIGURE 1 illustrates the chord progression over which I play the tapped riff, which is essentially four bars long and followed by a fifth bar that resolves to Em9sus4. I begin in bar 1 with C/Bb, followed by A/B. Bar 2 consists of C9 to Fmaj7. Bar 3 sits on a chord that could be named a variety of things, but let’s call it Eadd2/G#, which is followed by a bar of Bbmaj7#11—that “Lydian mode” sound—and the resolution to Em9sus4.

All of the chords, with the exception of the last, are performed fingerstyle, wherein I either pluck all the strings at once or subtly pick out individual notes of the chords, such as moving from the bass note to the higher strings, or vice versa. I also like to apply a little whammy-bar vibrato whenever a chord sustains. Equally important is the feel, which is a slow-ish swing. As a result, what are written as 16th-note rhythmic subdivisions are played as eighth-note/16th-note triplets.

Now let’s look at the tapped figure, illustrated in FIGURE 2. Throughout this pattern, I alternate between fret-hand and pick-hand tapped notes. Except for a couple of spots, I constantly switch from one hand to the other. For tapping, I generally use the middle finger and pinkie of my pick hand; in this section, I hold the pick in the crook of my pick-hand index finger, so that finger is unavailable for tapping. The rhythm is also essential to this riff. I’m superimposing an eighth-note triplet rhythm on each beat, then splitting each eighth note into two 16ths.

This is the best way to look at the lick, because it progresses in two-note pairs, and representing it this way makes it easier to conceptualize. The other thing to keep in mind is that the two hands sort of mirror each other in their intervallic movement throughout. Slow practice will be mandatory to get a firm handle on this one. Although I wrote it, even I can’t play it unless I start from the beginning each time.

Check out the Aristocrats online at the-aristocrats-band.com. See you on the road!

This month I’d like to talk about the technique I use to perform the fast arpeggiated phrases on the song “A Wonderful Slippery Thing,” from my Erotic Cakes album.

For these licks, I employ fretboard tapping in conjunction with string skipping to achieve a very smooth and even sound throughout.

I know many guitarists prefer to use sweep picking when playing arpeggios, but to me, the sound of dragging the pick up and down across the strings is a little too abrasive and percussive.

In this month’s column, I’d like to demonstrate my basic approach to performing these types of arpeggios, which involves a combination of fretboard tapping and string skipping. My love for the sound of the saxophone inspired me to pursue this approach.

When sax players play fast arpeggios, they sound very fluid, liquid and bubbly. I devised a system that works for me, and the idea is to apply the concept in a variety of different ways.

The first question I ask myself is, “How many notes do I want to play in this arpeggio?” I then play each note once on one string before moving this specific note series to a different string.

For example, starting with a basic minor triad, which consists of three notes, I’ll play three notes on a given string and then move those same three notes to another string, as demonstrated in FIGURE 1. Here I’m playing the notes of a B minor triad—B, D and F#—on the sixth string, sounding the highest note with a fretboard tap. I then move these three notes over to the D string, execute them in the exact same way, and then repeat the process on the high E string.

You’ll notice that the “shape” on each string is identical, and I think this is not unlike the way pianists play arpeggios, in that they repeat the same fingering “shape” as they move to higher octaves. Just listen to the insane multioctave arpeggios that Art Tatum plays—I think there must be some logic like that going on.

If you are not used to playing in this way, the big challenge is hammering with the index finger to start each phrase on each string. Begin with just the first three notes on the sixth string, making sure they sound clear, with no extraneous noises. Then hop over two strings and up two frets, to the D string, and the shape is exactly the same. Strive to make these transitions seamless.

Now let’s play each three-note arpeggio in a repeated sequence, moving from low to high strings, back and forth, as shown in FIGURE 2. If I want a more complex arpeggio, I can add one note, the flat seventh, as I do in FIGURE 3.

If we transpose the idea to a major triad, we get FIGURE 4. To build up your technique, I suggest practicing each phrase on each string repeatedly, as shown in FIGURES 5a and 5b.

The Aristocrats—guitarist Guthrie Govan, bassist Bryan Beller and drummer Marco Minnemann—have announced an extensive North American tour, kicking off June 18 with their four-day Aristocamp in Big Indian, New York. The dates will feature support from the Travis Larson Band. 

The upcoming North American tour is in support of the Aristocrats’ forthcoming fourth studio album, You Know What…?, set for release on June 28. All dates for “Phase 1” can be seen below and tickets are on sale now. “Phase 2” dates will be announced in the coming weeks. 

For more information or to purchase tickets, head over to The-Aristocrats-Band.com.

Fretboard tapping has earned a bad name in certain sectors of the guitar community. Some players dismiss it as a technique suitable only for perpetrating the worst possible kind of overblown, unmusical histrionics, preferably played through a wall of amps that “go to 11.”

If you feel that way, then you probably haven’t even managed to read this far. But for those of you who are still undecided about tapping, I would urge you to view the technique simply as an easy way to play notes you could never reach otherwise.

If you think of your tapping fingers as extensions of your fretting hand, you’ll find it easier to imagine how this technique can benefit virtually any style of playing.

Track Record

In the world of rock, Van Halen’s self-titled 1978 debut album heralded a tapping craze that soon caught on like wildfire. In the years following the album’s release, gifted guitarists such as Randy Rhoads, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai used the technique in their own landmark recordings. If you want to hear tapping taken to new heights of invention, check out Freak Kitchen by Mattias Eklundh and Normal by Ron Thal (a.k.a. Bumblefoot).

Tone

For tapping, many players opt to use their guitar’s bright-sounding bridge pickup and a heavily distorted, or at least overdriven, tone, which serves to compresses the dynamic (volume) range of the electric guitar’s signal, amplifying the quieter notes and increasing sustain, although players like Stanley Jordan manage to tap with a very clean, neck-pickup sound. When tapping with a clean tone, you’ll find that a compressor can even out dynamics and add sustain.

Technique

Most tapping is performed on one string at a time using either the middle or index finger of the picking hand, depending on if, and how, you’re holding a pick. Some players will momentarily tuck the pick into their palm or cradle it in the crook of one of their knuckles when they go to tap and maneuver it back into its normal position (typically between the thumb and index finger) when they go to pick again.

This magician-like sleight-of-hand can take a bit of practice to attain, and for this reason many players prefer to just keep the pick in its normal place and tap with the closest available finger, typically the middle. Experiment and use whichever technique works best for you. Eddie Van Halen holds his pick between his thumb and middle finger and taps with his index finger, and Rhoads tapped with the edge of his pick, which produces a very distinct articulation. (Listen closely to Rhoads’ classic solos in Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” and “Flying High Again” to hear the subtle difference in his tapping attack.)

Your speed and proficiency will increase if you minimize your movements and keep all relevant fingertips close to the strings when not in use so that they never have far to go at any given time. Depending on whether or not you’re holding a pick when tapping, you may find that resting, or “anchoring,” the thumb or heel of your tapping hand to the top side of the fretboard helps stabilize and steady the hand and increase the accuracy of your tapping movements.

The easiest way to train the fingers of your tapping hand is to learn from the way you perform hammer-ons and pull-offs with the more experienced fingers of your fretting hand. The following principles hold true for both hands:

• If you’re hammering a note, the force of your hammering motion will dictate its volume. The harder you hammer/tap, the louder the note.
• If you’re pulling off to a note, its volume is a function of how far you flick the string sideways (either toward the floor or ceiling) with the finger responsible for fretting the preceding note. This sideways flicking, or pulling, motion actually serves to pluck the string again and is what keeps it vibrating. If you were to just lift the finger directly off the string, the following note would be weak and barely audible. (Note that when tapping with a pick, the “pulled-off” note tends to be louder than normal due to the pick’s hard surface striking the string.)

Muting

Distortion amplifies the sympathetic vibrations of unfretted strings. When tapping, you should make a concerted effort to dampen any idle strings with various parts of both hands, something that requires a bit of practice and experimentation to figure out and master. To that end, many players will place a piece of foam or fabric against the strings in front of the nut. In addition, a cheap elastic-core hair tie stretched over the headstock and positioned over the fretboard is convenient for damping the open strings.

If you’re new to tapping, allow your fingertips time to toughen up and develop the necessary calluses. Hopefully, the rest will become clear as we go. We have a lot of licks to look at in this lesson, ranging from classic hard rock and metal lines to sequencer-like patterns and bluesy runs to jazzy arpeggios, so let’s dive in.

This is arguably the most versatile approach to tapping. A lick like this could sit comfortably in any rock, metal, blues, country or fusion context without necessarily invoking visions of Eighties-era spandex fashion statements. The recorded performance of this example on this month’s CD-ROM may sound reminiscent of Eddie Van Halen’s tone, but players of diversely different styles, ranging from Billy Gibbons, Brian May and Larry Carlton, have all dabbled in this approach.

There’s a strong argument here for using the middle finger of your pick hand to tap. By doing so, you can retain the pick in its conventional position and easily revert to picking at a moment’s notice. You can improve your accuracy if you anchor the heel of your tapping hand to the wound strings. This will also help mute unwanted string vibration while it allows you to keep a grip on the pick.
One tricky aspect of tapping a bent note like this is that the string moves closer to its neighbor (in this case, the D string), so you have to be extra careful to ensure that your tapping finger only makes contact with the G string. Try to bend the G string with your fret-hand ring finger while you simultaneously push the D string up slightly with the tip of that hand’s middle finger. This can help create more clearance between the two strings and provide a little more margin for error.

The following five examples serve as a great tapping primer, and there’s no other way to play arpeggio ideas like these with the same level of fluidity.

FIGURE 2 presents a classic Van Halen–style single-string triad tapping lick. This is the famous “Eruption” triad. To make this sound effective, the tapping finger must execute a strong pull-off as it leaves the ninth fret, thus ensuring that the Cs at the second fret rings out as prominently as its predecessor. You should also attempt to preserve a strict triplet rhythm, with every note equal in duration and volume.

Incidentally, there’s no single “right” way to execute a pull-off with the tapping finger. Some players prefer to flick the string upward, while others find it easier to flick it downward. Experiment with both approaches to find out which integrates more easily with the natural angle of your tapping hand and allows you to dampen the idle strings more effectively.

FIGURE 3 is a variation on the previous figure. Here, the order of two notes played by the fretting hand is reversed. It’s important that you become familiar with both approaches so that you can move on to ideas like the one shown in FIGURE 4, where the arpeggio goes all the way down and back up again, enabling you to move away from the ubiquitous triplet rhythm and phrase licks in even 16th notes.

Here’s another twist, reminiscent of Van Halen’s tapping licks in “Spanish Fly” and “Hot for Teacher” and Satriani’s “Satch Boogie.” In this lick, the first finger of your fretting hand has to pull off to the open A string, preferably without disturbing the D string in the process. As ever, careful attention to damping and accurate timing of each note are the keys to making this lick flow clearly. To sound the very first note, pluck the open A string with your tapping finger. Once you’ve gotten the string moving, all the subsequent open A notes are pulled-off to with the fretting hand.

FIGURE 6 demonstrates how you can outline a chord progression with triad inversions. Notice how the lick lets you arpeggiate four different chords without moving either hand far from its starting point. This is done by analyzing the component notes of each chord and placing them so that they all fit into roughly the same area of the fretboard.

The tapping sequence is similar to that found in FIGURE 5, but since we’re tapping the highest note twice, the sequence is now six notes long. Players such as Rhoads and Nuno Bettencourt have used this variation to great effect.

This next example isn’t reminiscent of any rock players and is intended to show how you can use tapping to create something a little bit different. If you start by looking purely at the B-string notes, you’ll see that the tapped notes outline a rhythm known in Latin music as the 3:2 clave: if you’re a fan of the bossa nova style, you’ll have heard this rhythm before. In this example, the fretting hand essentially does whatever is needed to fill in the gaps between the all-important tapped notes.

Once you’re familiar with the phrasing pattern, include the notes on the high E string, which adds a harmony to the B-string notes. Try tapping with either your index and middle fingers or the middle and ring (on the B and high E strings, respectively). The trickiest part here is arching your fret-hand fingers sufficiently so that the open E string is not muted by the underside of your index finger. Try to think like a classical player, keeping the thumb of your fretting hand based around the middle of the back of the neck.

FIGURE 8 demonstrates how you can use tapping in conjunction with finger slides to cover a lot of the fretboard in a short amount of time and achieve a smooth legato effect. The note choice here is derived from the A Aeolian mode (A B C D E F G), but you can design similar licks using the notes of any seven-note scale.

At slow speed, it can be tricky to squeeze seven evenly spaced notes into each beat—most of the popular music we hear tends to divide the beat into twos, threes or multiples thereof, so a grouping of seven might sound a little unfamiliar—but you’ll find that this becomes less of a problem at faster tempos. Simply aim to nail each new beat with a tapped note, and you’ll find that the notes in between will tend to distribute themselves evenly as you speed things up.

Here’s an interesting twist on the single-string scalar tapping approach. The first 10 notes look normal enough, but by the 11th you see that the fretting hand has leapt past the tapped note, to the 12th fret to perform a fret-hand tap, also known as a “hammer-on from nowhere.” The tapped note needs to be held at the 10th fret as the fretting hand quickly zooms up to the 12th fret, and you’ll need to be careful to ensure that the two hands don’t collide.

This lick won’t be for everyone, and it’s not particularly easy. On the other hand, it’s a useful approach whenever you’re trying to work out a fingering for something and it feels like you simply don’t have enough strings. This bypassing technique also has a certain flamboyant visual appeal, so it should come as no surprise to learn that Steve Vai was employing it as far back as the early Eighties.

This example is inspired by Bumblefoot. The important part here is the first half of bar 1; the lazy approach would be to play two evenly spaced groups of five, but you get a wholly different effect if you prolong the two D notes (at the 10th and 22nd frets) and squeeze all the other notes into a shorter space of time. If you’re having trouble with the seven-fret stretch here, you could instead play 13-15-16-17 on the first string instead of 13-15-17-20. It doesn’t sound quite as cool to me, but it’s still a great lick.

Regarding the rhythmic phrasing of this lick, in FIGURE 8 we saw how an odd number of notes tends to be distributed evenly throughout a beat as you increase speed. Sometimes, however, it can be fun to resist that tendency and preserve a more distinct rhythmic contour, as we do here. The ear can still identify distinctions between the rhythmic values of the notes even when they are played at ridiculously high speeds.

Here’s something a little more conventional. The idea is to play a blues lick with the fretting hand while highlighting certain notes by tapping them an octave higher. This is somewhat reminiscent of Nuno Bettencourt’s or Mattias Eklundh’s soloing styles.
The most challenging aspect of this lick is that you have to clearly and loudly hammer the first note on each new string with your fret-hand’s index or middle finger. This may feel a little weird at first, given that the index finger spends the bulk of its time acting more like a fleshy capo rather than as an independent hammering digit, so focus on executing the first-finger hammer-ons as cleanly as possible. This will be time well spent, as some of the subsequent licks will require much the same skill.

With regard to the final bent note: your tapping finger’s only role here is to hammer the note and then keep the string pushed down onto the fret while the fret-hand middle finger bends the string. As indicated, hammer the last note in the bar 1 with your middle finger, but once the tapped note has been initiated, there’s no harm in enlisting the fret hand’s ring finger to assist with the bend. As always, do whatever it takes to perform the job with the least amount of effort, pain and intonation issues.

Now for some more Van Halen–style fun. This lick is loosely modeled on a famous lick from “Hot for Teacher,” and it’s based on the A blues scale (A C D Ef E G). As with FIGURE 5, there’s a strong argument in favor of plucking the first note of the lick with your tapping finger. After that, each new string is greeted by a hammer-on, courtesy of the fret-hand’s ring finger. Hopefully you’ll find this easier than the first-finger hammering required in the previous example.

FIGURE 13 illustrates a scalar fingering approach favored by players like Greg Howe (who is featured in this month’s Betcha Can’t Play This, page 32). The fingering doesn’t incorporate any particularly wide intervals, and you could feasibly play the whole of the first two bars using strict left-hand legato, but by using the tapping hand to share some of the work you should be able to get more volume out of the lick while sparing your fretting hand from undue fatigue.

Here’s the downside: the tapped notes often fall in unusual places within the bar (rather than, say, on the downbeats), so this approach may feel a bit unnatural at first. Having said that, Howe’s exemplary playing is ample testimony to what can be done with this approach if you devote some time to it.

Here’s another scalar tapping concept. Most players would simply hammer the first note on each string with the first finger of the fretting hand, but the approach suggested in the tab here is based on the way Reb Beach (of Winger, Dokken, Night Ranger and now Whitesnake) would do it. Reb taps with his middle finger, so for ascending sequences he’ll use the ring finger of his tapping hand to pluck the first note on each new string. This may feel odd at first, but it undeniably gives you more volume and definition, particularly if you prefer not to use a lot of distortion.

If you go to any guitar show or music fair and head toward the “pointy guitar” booths, you’ll hear a veritable army of players churning out the following lick furiously and repeatedly. It’s a simple example of a “sweep-and-tap” arpeggio, which can be viewed in three sections.

Section 1 (the first five notes) involves dragging the pick downward across the strings in a single stroke to outline the first five notes of this C major arpeggio. Ideally, each fret-hand fingertip should relax slightly at the end of its designated note to ensure that only one note is ringing at a time. By moving the whole picking hand downward as you sweep, you should be able to utilize your palm for a bit of extra string damping. High-gain settings are pretty much de rigueur for this kind of lick, so you can never be too careful when it comes to muting unplayed strings with both hands.

Section 2 (beginning with the sixth note) requires that you hammer the G at the 15th fret while bringing your tapping finger into position. The first three notes of beat two should then remind you very much of what we did back in FIGURE 3.

Section 3 involves the last three notes of beat two. You could either sweep these notes with a single upstroke of the pick, or do what most players prefer and use fret-hand hammer-ons while repositioning the picking hand for the next big downstroke sweep on beat three.

Note that most of this lick involves techniques other than tapping, yet that one tapped high C note makes all the difference, adding a pleasingly soft quality to the top half of the arpeggio and contrasting nicely with the more percussive sound of sweep picking.

FIGURE 16 is an example of another approach to playing arpeggios, this one incorporating more taps, plenty of fret-hand hammer-ons and no sweeping whatsoever, resulting in a more fluid sound. Check out shredders like Scott Mishoe to hear this approach in action.
This example marks the first instance in which we’ve encountered a slid tapped note. You’ll find the key here is to slide with authority and to ensure the fingertip is constantly pushing on the string. Otherwise you run the risk of losing the note, particularly as you slide back downward. However, don’t press the tapping finger against the string any harder than is necessary, as doing so will create excessive friction that will slow you down and actually make the tap-and-slide more difficult than need be.

Here’s the same concept applied to a blues scale. Note that this and the preceding pattern are symmetrical, essentially featuring the same shape on each subsequent pair of strings.

This run starts out as a signature Paul Gilbert string-skipping lick, then moves into tapping territory. Musically, all the notes (apart from that pesky C in bar 2) are from a Gm7 arpeggio (G Bf D F), but the overall effect is closer to that of a warp-speed G minor pentatonic (G Bf C D F) blues lick. The slides toward the end of bar 1 span four frets, so they’re a little trickier than the single-fret slide in FIGURE 16, but the principle is the same.

Here’s another arpeggio-playing approach that incorporates string skipping and tapping. Michael Romeo of Symphony X is rather partial to this approach.

If you’re not averse to a bit of fret-hand stretching, FIGURE 20 offers a versatile approach to playing major seven arpeggios. It has the same symmetrical qualities as FIGURES 16 and 17 and incorporates string skipping by cramming each octave’s worth of Cmaj7 arpeggio notes (C E G B) onto a single string.

Sometimes active young guitarists get thirsty. Sometimes they even reach for a drink of water (or who knows what else) right in the middle of a song.

Guthrie Govan did exactly that during a 2017 gig in Tokyo. But, as the above video will attest, he didn't feel the need to stop shredding just because he was quenching his thirst for a good 40 seconds (give or take).

Even when he's playing a one-handed solo, Govan is truly a "humbler," much like the late, great Danny Gatton. Check it out! I feel thirsty now.

The Aristocrats have announced the first ever "Aristocamp."

A three-day music camp for guitarists, bassists, drummers and fans, the Aristocamp will take place from June 18-June 21 in upstate New York. The camp will also feature the world premiere of new material currently being recorded by the band.

“We’ve each been involved in music camps in the past and the highlight has always been interacting with the passionate musicians and music fans in attendance," the band said in a statement. "Between us we have a lifetime of performing, touring and recording experience to pass on and this is the perfect environment to do that. Also, this time we'll have the additional luxury of being able to zoom in on how we create our own music, and what happens when we interact as a band and play it live. We might even say it's ok to break the rules now and then."

Musicians and music fans of all ages and abilities are welcome at the camp, which will feature a wide variety of workshops, jams, Q&As and instrument-specific breakout sessions. Legendary jazz-rock drummer Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa, Allan Holdsworth), guitarist Francis Dunnery (Robert Plant, Carlos Santana) and bassist Michael Manring (Alex Skolnick) will join the band as guest instructors. 

The event will be organized by Music Masters Camps, and will be held at the Full Moon Resort, located a half hour west of Woodstock, NY.

Tickets and more info can be found at aristocamp.com.

I am often asked how I incorporate chromatic notes into my solos and how I approach playing “outside” the given key center of a song.

If you have ever used the blues scale, then you have already employed chromatic notes in some of the most musical ways possible.

FIGURE 1 shows the A minor pentatonic scale. To get the A blues scale, we simply add Eb, the flatted fifth (f5), as shown in FIGURE 2.

Now, that Eb can sound like the worst note in the world—if you land on it and stop, you’ll be hurting people—but most of us use it as a passing tone, as I do in four spots in FIGURE 3: in the key of A, at the end of bar 1, I slide from Eb up to E, the fifth, which is a nice solid chord tone, and in bar 2, I move from beat one to beat two by sliding down from Eb to D, the fourth.

I use the same concept into beat four and on beat one of the next bar. Here, I use the b5 as an ornament to add “funkiness” to the lines. If you can employ this concept successfully, in theory you know everything you need to know in order to use any one of the 12 notes as a passing tone at any point—as long as you use it responsibly. The safest approach is to follow every jarring, passing note with a “good” note that sits close by melodically.

Moving into a chord tone immediately justifies the jarring note you played right before it. It’s also important that the “good” notes land rhythmically on the more important parts of the beat or groove.

Let’s go back to A minor pentatonic and simply fill in the gaps between the scale tones with most of the available passing tones, as I do in FIGURES 4 and 5. You can also go back to basics and start with chord tones only. FIGURE 6a shows the triadic chord tones for C major: C, G and E, played through three octaves.

FIGURE 6b shows how to add the chromatic “approach note,” or “lower neighbor,” one half step below each chord tone. FIGURE 7 illustrates a typical way to use this concept in a swinging, bluesy line. This approach can be heard in well-known songs like “Politician” by Cream, and Henry Mancini’s “The Pink Panther.”

When people talk about playing “outside,” it’s often just a broader approach to creating lines. Instead of a “wrong” note followed by a “right” note, it’s often the wrong key followed by the right key. In FIGURE 8, I play a long line based around B minor, using as many passing tones as possible but ending up squarely back in B minor.

If you can “get lost” without traveling too far away and then land on your feet, you’ve done a successful job at weaving chromaticism into a solo phrase. The key is to keep your ears wide open and don’t be afraid to explore uncharted musical waters.

Last week, John Petrucci—along with an impressive roster of fellow axmen—invited guitarists from around the country to Glen Cove, NY for his Guitar Universe event.

Petrucci was joined by Al Di Meola, Guthrie Govan, Tosin Abasi, Tony MacAlpine, Rusty Cooley, Andy James, Jason Richardson and Jon Finn for this four day and night summer shred intensive, with plenty of clinics, classes and up-close interactions  with attendees. 

A guitar instruction camp like no other, John Petrucci’s Guitar Universe is tailored to players and music lovers of all ages, levels, interests and tastes. The environment is non-competitive and is strictly about immersing oneself in the joys of music and the lovely surroundings.

Check out some exclusive footage from the event below.

Guitar master Guthrie Govan recently confirmed that he recorded mind-boggling (our words, not his) guitar solos for two Steven Wilson tracks—"Regret #9" and "Drive Home"—in only one take. And we have the YouTube video to prove it.

"I'm pretty sure ['Regret #9'] was indeed done in one take," Govan told Metal Wani. "In fact, I vaguely recall seeing a YouTube video which documents that very moment [watch it below]. But from my perspective, I don't think there’s anything particularly remarkable about that. It's just the way the whole 'epic guitar solo' assignment always seems to pan out whenever I'm working with Steven. My solo on 'Drive Home' was done in much the same way.

"'Drive Home' and 'Regret #9' feature pretty long solo sections, and whenever I'm confronted with such a ambitiously proportioned blank canvas, it's generally easier to maintain continuity and 'tell a story' within the context of one uninterrupted take. I'm sure I could have recorded a more 'perfect'-sounding solo by piecing something together in the studio, one lick at a time, but with that approach you always seem to sacrifice something in terms of the overall flow.

"I think the 'stream of consciousness' type of solo really needs to be improvised in one take, in real time, otherwise the finished product will somehow lack a coherent 'narrative arc'."

You can check out both songs below; you also can see Govan record the "Regret #9" solo in one take above. "Drive Home" is from Wilson's The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories), which was released in 2013. "Regret #9" is from 2015's Hand. Cannot. Erase.

Dreamcatcher Events, Guitar World and Guitar Player magazines are proud to present John Petrucci’s Guitar Universe 2.0. In the clip above, watch Petrucci—along with Tosin Abasi, Guthrie Govan, Tony MacAlpine and Al Di Meola—discuss the upcoming four day summer shred intensive.

Taking place August 6 - 10, 2018 at Glen Cove Mansion in Glen Cove, NY, the event will feature the guitarists above—in addition to Rusty Cooley, Andy James, Jason Richardson and Jon Finn—leading one-of-a-kind clinics and workshops. A guitar instruction camp like no other, John Petrucci’s Guitar Universe 2.0 is tailored to players and music-lovers of all ages, levels, interests and tastes.

“We’re going to cover as much as we can in order to make you a better guitarist,” Petrucci says. “We’ll be talking about tone, riffs, gear and developing your chops. I know how to connect with guitarists in this type of atmosphere. I’ve done clinics, master classes and workshops. I know how to get the message across. But I’ve never had such a great forum as this camp. For four days and four nights, campers will benefit from so much great instruction. The great thing is that it’s not a one-off. I went to clinics as a kid and after a few hours, it was over. This camp covers so many musical bases.”

Whether you're a master player, beginner, or just an enthusiastic fan, this four day program offers activities and workshops that will benefit you. The environment is non-competitive and is strictly about immersing oneself in the joys of music and the lovely surroundings.

Want to join Petrucci and co. this August? Register or find out more at johnpetruccisguitaruniverse.com.

Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Guthrie Govan recently completed the European run of their G3 tour. The trek made its way through Italy and Germany and featured support from Mike Keneally on guitar, keyboards and vocals as well as Govan’s band, the Aristocrats: bassist Bryan Beller and drummer Marco Minnemann.

Fan-filmed videos from the tour show the group playing the Police’s “Message in a Bottle,” Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing,” Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,” as well as some of the players’ solo spots.

“Message in a Bottle”

“Little Wing”

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Rockin’ in the Free World”

The Aristocrats

Steve Vai: “Bad Horsie” and “Racing the World”

Steve Vai “Gravity Storm”

Steve Vai “For the Love of God”

Joe Satriani