These videos are bonus content related to the October 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
In last month’s column, I discussed a variety of phrasing techniques that can be applied effectively while creating improvised solos—for instance, starting each phrase from a specific chord tone, such as the root, third or fifth of the “tonic,” or “home key.”
We used as our rhythm track a chord progression along the lines of the classic Allman Brothers Band song “Melissa,” with the improvised solos based on both the E major pentatonic (E Fs Gs B Cs) and E major hexatonic (E Fs Gs A B Cs) scales. This month, I’d like to expand upon our exploration of phrasing approaches and use the A minor pentatonic (A C D E G) and A blues scales (A C D Ef E G) as played over a rhythm part along the lines of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Cold Shot” (Couldn’t Stand the Weather).
The following content is related to the November 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
One of the most often-requested topics my students have asked me to cover over the years is the use of two-note figures, such as thirds and sixths, while soloing or playing rhythm.
These note pairings, commonly referred to as double-stops, allow a guitarist to play harmonized melodies up and down the fretboard very easily, which of course can be explored either within the context of a solo or when supplying a rhythm accompaniment behind a melody.
In this edition of In Deep, we will focus primarily on the use of thirds but will also look at fourths and fifths.
These videos are bonus content related to the December 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
Last month we delved into the subject of two-note harmonies, often referred to on the guitar as double-stops, for use in building solos and harmonized melodic ideas, and we looked at the use of thirds within the C Dorian mode (C D Eb F G A Bb). This month, I’d like to continue our investigation of two-note harmonies, using thirds, fourths and fifths.
Strumming double-stops on adjacent strings facilitates the performance of harmonized melodies up and down the fretboard in a way that easily enables one to incorporate harmonized lines into solos or rhythm parts. The technique also offers guitarists an excellent way to emulate harmonized horn or vocal lines.
This month’s examples are based on the A Dorian mode (A B C D E F# G), which is a great mode to investigate because it can be found at the heart of the melodies and improvised lines in so many classic rock songs, such as the Allman Brothers Band’s “Whipping Post” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” Santana’s “Oye Como Va,” and many others.
These videos are bonus content related to the Holiday 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
Over the past two In Deep columns, we’ve looked at the use of double-stops—or two-note harmony formed by two notes played simultaneously—as applied to rhythm and lead guitar playing.
We’ve covered how to form and utilize thirds, fourths and fifths in the previous columns, so this month we’ll focus on the use of sixths as applied to rhythm guitar ideas and harmonized soloing phrases.
Last month, we brought the Dorian mode into the picture, as it’s the scale that forms the basis for the soloing and rhythm guitar parts of many standard rock tunes, such as the Allman Brothers Band’s “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” and “Whipping Post,” Santana’s “Evil Ways” and “Oye Como Va,” the Doors’ “Light My Fire” and many others.
The latest in Andy Aledort's In Deep instructional DVD series, In Deep with the Major Modes includes more than 100 minutes of instruction! It's available now at the Guitar World Online Store!
In this DVD, you'll learn:
• Ionian, Lydian and Mixolydian modes. • Essential fingering patterns and keys. • How to create licks from scale patterns. • Major pentatonic and hexatonic scales. • Blues soloing using thirds and sixths • Hybrid-dominant scales
... and much more!
Your instructor is Andy Aledort, a longtime contributor to Guitar World magazine and the author and producer of hundreds of artist transcriptions, books and instructional DVDs. He has influenced and inspired guitarists around the world for many years.
During his tenure at Guitar World, Aledort has written lesson features on players such as Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Dimebag Darrell and Yngwie Malmsteen, among others.
He also has created many of Guitar World's best-selling instructional DVDs, including Play Rock Guitar, How to Play Hard Rock and Heavy Metal and How to Play the Jimi Hendrix Experience's Axis: Bold As Love, which can be found at the Guitar World Online Store.
As a guitarist, Andy has worked live and in the studio with Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell and the Band of Gypsys rhythm section of bassist Billy Cox and drummer Buddy Miles. Aledort has been a member of original Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts' band, Great Southern, and performed with Buddy Guy, Double Trouble, Paul Rodgers and many other legends. His solo blues-rock album, Live at North Star 2009, is available on Steve Vai's Digital Nations label.
These videos are bonus content related to the January 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
Be sure to check out my brand-new website, andyaledort.com, which has all of the latest gig info, gear, lesson (private and Skype), session availability and more!
There may be no more an enduring sound that has spanned the long, diverse history of popular music than the blues shuffle.
Born from the boogie-woogie sounds of jazz piano in the very early 20th century, the swinging shuffle groove is built from an insistent and repetitive forward-leaning rhythm that is generally written in 12/8 meter—wherein four consecutive beats are each subdivided into three evenly spaced eighth notes—and comprises a repeating quarter-note/eighth-note rhythm that sounds like “da—da, da—da, da—da, da—da.”
In this edition of In Deep, we’ll unravel the guitar artistry of three masters of the blues shuffle: Chicago’s Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters, and Texas’ Lightnin’ Hopkins.
These videos are bonus content related to the February 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
Be sure to check out my brand-new website, andyaledort.com, which has all of the latest gig info, gear, lesson (private and Skype), session availability and more!
Last month, we began delving into the broad and stylistically diverse musical world of the blues shuffle, dissecting the playing styles of blues guitar greats such as Chicago’s Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters and Texas’ Lightnin’ Hopkins.
This month, we will expand our study of the blues shuffle to the more intricate improvisational styles of four additional masters of the blues shuffle idiom, all of whom share roots in the Lone-Star State: T-Bone Walker, Freddie King, Jimmie Vaughan and Johnny Winter.
Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker (1910–1975) was one of the very first electric blues guitarists and remains one of the most influential of all time. He was a major inspiration to players like B.B. King (T-Bone is the reason B.B. picked up the guitar in the first place), Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter, Dickey Betts, Stevie Ray Vaughan and many others guitarists through the generations.
His effortless style combines elements of swinging jazz, R&B and blues, and all of his solos display dazzling technique and great musical creativity and complexity.
This video is bonus content related to the March 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
Even casual fans of jazz and blues guitar are likely to be familiar with the names T-Bone Walker, Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt, all towering figures of blues and jazz who are rightfully revered as three of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time.
But far fewer are aware of the incredible playing of Lonnie Johnson, a truly brilliant guitarist and violinist (he also studied piano and mandolin, among other instruments) who was performing and recording well before any of the other three.
This month’s edition of In Deep is dedicated to an exploration of the soloing brilliance of Lonnie Johnson.
Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson (February 8, 1899–June 16, 1970) was born in New Orleans and relocated to St. Louis in 1921.
Forrest Richard “Dickey” Betts, founding member of the legendary Allman Brothers Band, successful solo artist and leader of his own ensemble, Great Southern, possesses one of the most distinct and influential guitar styles in the history of rock.
Combining elements of blues, rock, jazz, country, folk, bluegrass and world music, Dickey Betts forged his signature sound while laying the groundwork—along with Grateful Dead guitarist/leader Jerry Garcia—for the unique, progressive and forever mysterious genre known as “jam band” music.
In this edition of In Deep, we’ll take a look at a few of the scales Dickey relies on most when weaving his classic solos and melodic patterns.
One of the scales closely associated with the Dickey Betts sound is major pentatonic, the five-tone scale built from the first, second, third, fifth and sixth major scale degrees. FIGURE 1 illustrates G major pentatonic (G A B D E) as played in “open” position, using open strings. This pattern is used very often for soloing in bluegrass and country music, and Dickey learned about its use in this context as a young child, playing acoustic “string music” with his father and uncles.
A common technique when soloing with this scale is to use the minor, or “flatted,” third as a passing tone between the second and the major third. In the key of G, the minor third is Bf and the major third is B. FIGURE 2 presents a Betts-like bluegrass-style three-bar solo that features the use of the flatted-third passing tone as well as many hammer-ons, pull-offs and finger slides, used to yield a smooth, legato sound.
As is the case when studying any scale, it is essential to plot it out on every area of the fretboard and memorize it. FIGURE 3 illustrates G major pentatonic as played in second/third position, with a quick shift up to fifth position and then back to third position on the high E string. This pattern encompasses only fretted notes, so it is easily moved to other positions and keys up and down the fretboard.
One of the signature elements in Dickey’s soloing style is his use of small melodic “cells” that progress in either an ascending or descending manner throughout a phrase. FIGURE 4 shows a solo pattern based on the previously shown scale position of G major pentatonic and built from steadily descending 16th-note melodic cells on each beat. As you play through the figure, notice the subtle differences in the melodic shape of each four-note group as it falls on each successive beat. Classic examples of Betts utilizing this specific technique can be heard on perennial Allman Brothers favorites like “Jessica,” “Melissa” and “Ramblin’ Man.”
The major pentatonic scale lends itself well to performance over large spans of the fretboard, especially when incorporating hammer-ons and slides in order to shift quickly from one position to another. FIGURE 5 illustrates G major pentatonic in an extended pattern that starts in third position and ends in 12th. Play this pattern up and down utilizing the hammer-ons, pull-offs and legato finger slides as shown.
In FIGURE 6, I use this extended pattern to weave another three-bar solo-type phrase that moves smoothly from position to position. When forming the four-note melodic cells, one phrase can be connected to the next using a great variety of choices. At the end of bar 2 into bar 3, I decided to repeat the G root note on the downbeat of beat one in bar 3 to begin the subsequent phrase.
As alluded to in FIGURE 2, passing tones are very useful when building solo phrases from the major pentatonic scale. Along with using the minor third as a passing tone into the major third, the minor, or “flatted,” sixth works great as a connecting note between the fifth and major sixth. In FIGURE 7, I use both of these passing tones in different octaves in order to shape a more interesting melodic line. At the end of the phrase, on beat three of bar 2, I use an oblique bend—a bent note on one string coupled with an unbent note on a different string—to wrap up the phrase.
The sound of oblique bends is one closely associated with the pedal-steel guitar, and Dickey often mimics the pedal-steel sound by incorporating alternating oblique bends in his solo phrases. In FIGURE 8, an A note on the B string’s 10th fret is bent up one whole step, to B, and held while a series of alternating notes are played against it on the high E string. It will take practice to hold this bend firmly and in tune while switching between the different notes on the high E, and I suggest using the middle finger for the bend and the other three fingers for the notes fretted on the high E string.
Another scale that Betts uses to great effect is the six-note major hexatonic, which is nearly identical to the major pentatonic, the difference being that it additionally includes the perfect fourth (in the key of G, that would be C). As depicted in FIGURE 9, G major hexatonic is built from the notes G A B C D E. The major hexatonic can be used very effectively when harmonizing a major pentatonic line. FIGURE 10a illustrates a classic Betts-style major pentatonic melody, and FIGURE 10b harmonizes this melody a third higher, using notes from the G major hexatonic scale (G A B C D E).
Dickey’s best-known use of major hexatonic is most likely within his song, “Blue Sky,” and FIGURES 11a and 11b offer a G major hexatonic melody and a lower harmony line, thirds apart, the latter being based on G major pentatonic.
This video is bonus content related to the April 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at our online store.
Be sure to check out my brand-new website, andyaledort.com, which has all of the latest gig info, gear, lesson (private and Skype), session availability and more!
Open tunings have been exploited for use with slide guitar since the earliest days of Delta blues.
The most commonly used open tunings for slide are E, D, G and A. There are, of course, others that are utilized, with many distinctive variations, depending on the musician and style of music.
Joni Mitchell has employed a wide variety of unusual tunings in her songs, as have Stephen Stills and Ry Cooder and many other contemporary musicians operating primarily in styles of music outside of blues, such as pop, rock and folk.
This edition of In Deep will focus on open G tuning and how it is used in blues slide-guitar playing.
This video is bonus content related to the May 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.
Be sure to check out my brand-new website, andyaledort.com, which has all of the latest gig info, gear, lesson (private and Skype), session availability and more!
Last month, I presented some techniques, chord forms and licks that are commonly used for playing slide in open G tuning, which is sometimes referred to as “Spanish tuning” or “happy tuning.”
This month, I’d like to offer a further investigation into the musical possibilities that open G tuning offers for slide playing.
All of the licks and riffs will work great whether you are playing them on a resonator, acoustic or electric guitar, and whether you prefer a glass, metal or ceramic slide.
These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the June 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.
Over the past two columns, we covered many of the common chord forms and licks used when playing slide guitar in open G tuning (low to high, D G D G B D).
In addition to open G, one of the most commonly used open tunings for slide is open D, tuned, low to high, D A D Fs A D. Open E, another very popular slide tuning, is structured, or voiced, the same as open D, except all strings are tuned one whole step higher (low to high, E B E Gs B E), so all the scale and arpeggio shapes are the same.
Derek Trucks is that rare example of a guitarist who plays everything in open E, whether he is using a slide or not. The Duane Allman favored open E for almost all of his slide work, the lone exceptions being “Dreams” and “Mountain Jam,” for which he played slide in standard tuning, which was the tuning he used for all his non-slide playing.
If you have gone through all of the examples illustrated in these past two In Deep columns, you should have a strong grasp of how the licks in an open G tuning “fall” on the fretboard. Now we will transpose those licks to open D tuning.
These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the July 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.
Students have often asked how I go about building creative, interesting rhythm parts when playing over a repeating one- or two-chord vamp.
As touring guitarist for Great Southern, the group formed by Allman Brothers Band founding guitarist Dickey Betts, I’m required to lay down musical rhythm parts behind extended solos on songs like “Blue Sky” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” and it’s a challenge to craft supportive rhythm parts that will both enhance the power of the soloing instrument while also locking in with the rhythm section to drive the groove along.
This month I’d like to address this worthwhile topic.
These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the August 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.
Often when jamming, guitarists are required to play rhythm accompaniment for long stretches of time over repeating chord progressions or vamps. This can be tedious and monotonous for the player (as well as the listener), but it doesn’t have to be.
By broadening your rhythm guitar chops in creative and inventive ways, you can play rhythm guitar with as much freedom as you play a solo. The challenge is to come up with guitar parts that are not only rhythmically solid but also melodically interesting.
Which brings us to the subject of this month’s lesson. In my last column, I demonstrated how to utilize modal structures to connect chord voicings up and down the fretboard. I started with an interesting-sounding, unresolved chord, Am13add4, built from stacked fourths—each successive chord tone being a fourth higher than the previous note—as they occur in the A Dorian mode (A B C D E F# G).
These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the September 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.
One of the most commonly addressed topics with my students is how one goes about connecting scale positions while playing an improvised solo. Many guitarists learn licks that are played on certain strings in specific areas of the fretboard.
As great as these licks may be, connecting them into a unified solo statement remains, for many players, a mystery, or at least a challenge. In this lesson, I’ll demonstrate how to use chromatic passing tones to connect scale positions up and down the fretboard and how to introduce some unusual and unexpected melodic twists and turns.
Last month, our focus was on how to build rhythm patterns over a static, unchanging harmonic environment, such as Am or Am7. Using the A Dorian mode (A B C D E F# G) as our basis, we formed chord voicings built from stacked fourths and moved up and down the fretboard, all the while remaining diatonic to (within the scale structure of) A Dorian.
These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the October 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.
When jamming, guitarists are always challenged by the task of creating interesting, evolving rhythm parts behind a soloist.
In my experiences, I have found the study of modal chord patterns and structures to be tremendously useful in this regard and endlessly interesting.
I recently devoted a few columns to the study of building chord shapes, or “grips,” and patterns from modal structures, focusing on two of the most widely used minor modes, Dorian and Aeolian. This month, I’d like to turn your attention to one of the major modes, Mixolydian.
The Mixolydian mode is spelled: 1(root) 2 3 4 5 6 f7. It is essentially a major scale with the seventh degree lowered, or “flatted.”
These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the November 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.
In the last few columns, we looked at ways to build chord shapes, or “grips,” from the Dorian and Aeolian modes (Aeolian is also known as the natural minor scale), which are two of the most widely used minor modes for soloing in rock, blues, and jazz.
Last month, we turned our attention to the equally popular and useful Mixolydian mode, which is intervallically spelled 1(root) 2 3 4 5 6 f7. This is the mode that includes the dominant-seven chord tones 1, 3, 5 and f7 and gives us chords like E7, A7 and D7, as well as chords that include “upper-structure tension tones,” or “tensions,” namely the ninth, 11th and 13th.
I encourage all guitarists to attain as complete an understanding of the Mixolydian mode as possible, as this will help in broadening one’s understanding of music theory and the fretboard, as well as reap countless options that can be applied to both soloing and rhythm guitar playing.
These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the December 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.
This past July 16, 2014, the world lost one of the greatest and most influential guitarists ever: Johnny Winter.
Born in Beaumont, Texas, on February 23, 1944, Winter, who was born with albinism, stood out not only for this unusual fact but, more importantly, because of his virtuoso, high-octane, one-of-a-kind guitar playing and his wild, banshee-like vocal prowess.
Johnny’s screams of “Rock and Roll!!!” are now regarded as essential to the fabric of blues and rock as Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” double-stops and Albert King’s stinging, emotive string bending.
In this edition of In Deep, we’ll examine just one of the many facets of Johnny’s blues guitar mastery: fingerpicked country-style blues applied to the electric guitar.
In this video from the vast Guitar World archives, Andy Aledort shows you how to play "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," a track from Led Zeppelin's debut 1969 album.
An acoustic masterpiece, this song features a bittersweet circular chord progression presented as ringing, fingerpicked arpeggios. Particularly noteworthy is the way Jimmy Page spins numerous subtle melodic variations on the theme throughout the song (check out the one at 3:40 in the original recording), sweetening the aural pot with dramatic dynamic contrasts.
This might be one of the most perfectly recorded and mixed acoustic guitar tracks ever. Notice how, in the song’s intro, the “dry” (up-front and un-effected) acoustic guitar is in the left channel while the right channel is mostly “wet,” saturated in cavernous reverb.
A true original, the late, great virtuoso guitarist Duane Allman led the Allman Brothers Band into rock history with his ferocious, deeply expressive and trailblazing guitar work.
Rounder Records offers ample testimony to the beauty as well as the breadth of Duane’s recorded work in the new, beautifully compiled box set Skydog: The Duane Allman Retrospective. In this edition of In Deep, we will examine some of the key elements of Duane’s signature style as a lead guitarist.
One of the best examples of the genius of Duane Allman can be found on the timeless, classic live album, At Fillmore East (1971), which captures the Allman Brothers Band live in concert at the peak of their powers.
Duane’s razor-sharp articulation and masterful touch abound, starting with the slide guitar tour de force “Statesboro Blues,” through the smoldering slow blues “Stormy Monday” and continuing through the fiery, aggressive solos performed on “Whipping Post,” “You Don’t Love Me” and other great tracks.
Duane’s rich, warm tone was achieved via his main ax, a 1958 tobacco sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard, played through Marshall “Plexi” 50- and 100-watt heads, usually running two 4x12 Marshall bottoms. For additional distortion, he very occasionally used a Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face, usually in the studio.
A key to Duane’s virtuosity was the fact that, like Jimi Hendrix, he had extensive experience as a session guitarist, working closely alongside R&B greats like Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and King Curtis. Through his studio work, Duane had developed a great sense of rhythm as well as a keen understanding of economy, in terms of phrasing.
This understanding resulted in improvised solos that remained cohesive and conversational no matter how long they stretched out or how far they roamed from the original starting point. For this column, let’s use two of Duane’s signature songs, “Stormy Monday” and “Whipping Post,” as our points of focus.
“Stormy Monday,” written and originally recorded by blues great T-Bone Walker, is played in the key of G. For soloing, Duane relied primarily on a few standard “bluesapproved” scales. FIGURE 1 illustrates a scale most guitar players are well familiar with, G minor pentatonic (G Bf C D F), as played in third position. FIGURE 2 illustrates the G blues scale, which is the same as G minor pentatonic but additionally includes the flatted fifth (f5), Df.
Most blues players move alternately between minor and major pentatonic scales based on the same root note. Eric Clapton and B.B. King are two great examples of guitarists whose solos are almost always based on a combination of these two scales. FIGURE 3 illustrates the G major pentatonic scale (G A B D E) in an extended pattern that diagonally traverses the fretboard from third to 12th positions.
Duane often used a soloing device that can be traced to B.B. King, one of his biggest influences. King’s signature soloing approach combines the notes of minor and major pentatonic scales in a very specific fretboard pattern, or “shape.” The pattern, known as “B.B.’s box,” is illustrated in FIGURE 4.
This small handful of notes can be ordered and phrased in nearly an infinite number of ways, resulting in many great blues licks. FIGURES 5–8 offer four different ways in which Duane would use this shape as a jumping off point to improvised solo ideas.
PART ONE OF THREE
Now let’s focus on soloing over a 12-bar slow blues form along the lines of “Stormy Monday” and in the style of Duane Allman, as illustrated in FIGURE 9.
I begin in bars 1 and 2 with a melodic idea based on G major pentatonic, but in bar 3, I morph into G minor pentatonic by overbending the second, A, up and step and a half to the fourth, C. At the end of bar 4 into bar 5, I apply the overbending technique to E, the sixth, bending that note all the way up to the G root note, repeating the melodic motif into bar 6.
When performing these bends, line up additional fingers behind the fretting finger—for example, reinforcing the ring finger with the middle finger or both the middle and index—to help it push the string. Doing so will give you better pitch control and stability when bending. The same is true for bend vibratos.
Throughout the remainder of the example, I limit my movement to the eighth and 10th positions to demonstrate that a great amount of melodic invention can be found without moving up and down the fretboard. The intent here is to create lines that are expressive and vocal-like while also evoking a bit of the Duane-like focused intensity.
For his “Whipping Post” solo, Duane drew primarily from the A Dorian mode (A B C D E Fs G), two fretboard patterns of which are shown in FIGURES 10 and 11. Both patterns are very useful for soloing, so you’ll want to memorize them thoroughly.
FIGURE 12 offers an eight-bar solo along the lines of Duane’s “Whipping Post” solo. The song is played in 12/8 meter, which affords a lot of room for rhythmic creativity, and Duane made the most of the opportunity every time he played it. I begin this solo with a wholestep bend from the A root up to the second, B, followed by subtle movement down through the notes of the A Dorian mode.
In bar 2, I play a quick repeated hammer/pull phrase that emphasizes two notes of a G major triad (G and B) before moving into a line based on A minor pentatonic (A C D E G).
Bar 5 offers a unique rhythmic superimposition that Duane used often. Another classic Duane-ism is illustrated in bar 7, as quick pulloffs on the top three strings alternate back and forth in an ascending-and-descending manner.
Try using your index and ring fingers to execute this phrase as well as your index and middle fingers and index and pinkie, or a combination of any of these. The aim should be, as always, clarity in execution.
