Sick Riffs #120: Truthfully, it's hard to pin down Voyager's sound without going off on a descriptive tangent. The Aussie prog-metal outfit are adept at blending a vast array of influences into their music, and they do so to wondrous effect on their most recent full-length effort, Colours in the Sun.
Its opening track, Colours, encapsulates the group's out-there writing style well, employing harsh synths, odd time signatures and dizzying guitar lines to spectacular effect.
Guitarist Scott Kay joins us in today's episode of Sick Riffs to teach you how to play one of the track's riffs - and he's even included tab! This one's heavy on the bends, and therefore an excellent opportunity for you to practice your precision.
He plays a Mayones 7-string electric guitar fitted with Ernie Ball strings through a Line 6 Helix multi-effects unit.
"It's been difficult for us to not provide the entertainment from live shows that we're so used to providing," Kay says. "Hopefully with the online content we've been making, we can somewhat fill that space that live music can't currently fill.
"As a teacher, distant learning through the net has been good, but it's made very clear how much stronger connections are when they are in person. For all the cynicism about how the rise of the internet has made us less focused on the real world, I think this situation we find ourselves in ultimately shows that we still have the drive to be together, and to support each other."
Support Voyager
https://www.voyagerau.com/
https://www.facebook.com/voyageraustralia/
https://voyager.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/voyagerau/?hl=en
https://www.twitch.tv/voyagerau
https://www.youtube.com/user/voyageraustralia
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
Sick Riffs is a Guitar World video series designed to help guitarists affected by the coronavirus. Self-isolating players around the world have each filmed a lesson where they teach you one of their own guitar riffs, up close and personal. If you dig the lesson, we encourage you to buy music and merch from the artist or stream their music.
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month**
Join now for unlimited access
US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year
UK pricing £2.99 per month or £29.00 per year
Europe pricing €3.49 per month or €34.00 per year
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.
“Tell a musical story and develop it in a conversational way while carrying the song forward”: How to create memorable single-note themes in instrumental guitar music
He’s the fearless, Strat-wielding counterpart to icons like Pat Metheny, John Scofield and Allan Holdsworth – and Wayne Krantz forged a raw, rhythmic approach to fusion guitar