Play Like Yngwie Malmsteen: How to Master the "Sevens" Mechanic

In this instructional video, guitarist Troy Grady investigates one of the unusual asymmetrical groupings of Yngwie Malmsteen’s scale playing: a concept known as "sevens."

"Although Malmsteen is known for launching a wave of interest in three-note-per-string scale playing, he is ironically a pioneer of unorthodox note groupings that fit better with his unique combination of downward pickslanting and sweeping," Grady says.

"In this lesson, we examine Malmsteen’s ingenious use of groups of seven as a device for moving up the fretboard. The uneven distribution of notes in this pattern—three on one string, and four on another—makes string-switching super efficient, and a blazing Malmsteen classic is born.

For more about Grady's Masters in Mechanics series, visit troygrady.com.

Grady is also writing and producing lessons for GuitarWorld.com these days. Be sure to check out two installments of "Cracking the Code with Troy Grady"—Yngwie Malmsteen's Rotational Picking Mechanic and Eric Johnson's Pickslanting Pentatonics.