Far Beyond the Sun lick

Playing Technique
#1

Hi everyone,

I’m working on improving my technique and I decided to learn my first Yngwie lick from an actual song, which is the first fast lick from Far Beyond the Sun that comes right after the intro. I assume a lot of you know this one already.

There are a lot of lessons on Youtube for it but I did not find any that explain which pick stroke methods to use. Most seem to use mostly strict alternate picking apart from the first three notes.

Before I decide to move on with this approach and to avoid frustration, I figured I’d be proactive and check how Yngwie played it, and how some of you might approach it. Did Yngwie play it with strict alternate or a mix of alternate/economy/legato? I assume it’s a mix, and if it is, could someone walk me through it?

For years I tried to play songs with strict alternate picking with not so good results, and I find I’m still tempted do to so. Even if I know better with all the info on this site and all over Youtube, but my brain can’t let go. If it’s alternate picking throughout so be it, if it’s not I want to avoid the frustration and wasted time if possible.

Thanks!

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#2

Most of the transcriptions have it played as a 3 note per string pattern with picking and pull-offs which seems like something Yngwie would do in theory, but after trying Chris Brooks’ fingering I get the more liquid effect that you hear on Yngwie’s Rising Force album. Let me see if I can find it.

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#3

Funny that I was working through that same lick a couple of hours ago. Unfortunately I’m in the same boat as you.

#4

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The difference in phrasing is that on the album those runs are played at a higher tempo than the rest of the song, as triplets (if you think in 4/4) whereas the live versions keep the tempo, faster runs (more like a 16th note feel) and the appearance of more space left at the end. (Which is why sometimes people transcribe the album as alternating bars of 4 and 3 for that section).

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#5

This is Yngwie’s standard diagonal threes and fours shape and likely correct.

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#6

Thanks everyone, this is precisely what I was looking for! Awesome. I think this will set the tone for me for future learning objectives - approaching things systematically instead of using a brute force approach.

Would any of you have any suggestions for another Yngwie lick/song to dive into next? Troy, maybe another example where he uses standard diagonal threes and fours shape?

#7

If you like the diagonal shape, here’s a whole lesson on them:

https://troygrady.com/seminars/volcano/chapter-8-the-sword/

Downward pickslanting and pulloffs may be old hat to a lot of people by now, but to me examples like this one sound about as cool as anything you can do with picking:

https://troygrady.com/seminars/volcano/clips/alternate-picking-little-savage-sword/

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#8

And it sure sounds better than the Wolf Marshall pattern in the book (and every guitar pro tab since!).

#9

I use a 3nps pattern
13-12-13-9 up (then pulloffs)
13-11-9 down-up - pulloff
12-10-9 down-up - pulloff
11-10-8 down-up - pulloff
11-10-8-7 down-up-down-up

This follows the “laws” troy outlines for “Malmsteen” picking.

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#10

You probably just mis-typed 12-13-12-9 (and moved the whole thing down one fret to sound right in standard tuning). It’s the same as the shape from the old Wolf Marshall transcription and perpetuated online through places like Ultimate Guitar. The picking is YJM-consistent. It’s just not where he plays the notes in this case.

#11

That’s really interesting. I’m working on the other picking pattern too. It’s a lot tougher for me to play it up to speed.

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#13

What is your picking? Looks like we learnt a similar pattern. After slowing down the original version it does seem like more notes are picked than I originally anticipated

#14

Where did you get this tab ?

#15

When I first went through CTC volcano, I had the run as per below for DWPS pure alternate picking (not saying I think Yngwie playes it this way just applies DWPS concept)

13-14-13-10 (legato or d u d u)
14-12-10-9 (d u d u)
11-10 (d u)
12-11-9-7 (d u d u)
11-9-8 (d u d)

Probably not the easiest, but at the time I got it quite slick. Now I just do this with 2WPS
13-14-13-10 up (legato)
14-12-10 ( d u d)
13-11-10 (u d u)
12-11-9 ( d u d)
12-11-9-8 ( u d u d)

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#16

Is there a prize for the 1st person to post a video playing all the above permutations at song tempo? :wink:

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#18

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From the video it is clear that there is a shift on the second string, not the third string.

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#19

I’ve been working on transcribing the whole thing - about 1/2 done so far:

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#20

There are sections in this track where you gotta just wing it :smiley:

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#22

Ive been getting back into guitar only to find out some of the apps can now give such clarity when slowing down the tempo. Ive been trying to figure out a similar style solo fill lick in the song icarus dream sweet at 3:54. This is the fingering i came up with always use index middle ring fingers

uwps if picking every note.

Eb 15 14 12 11 > d u d u > r,m,i,i
Bb 13 12 10 > u d u > r,m,i
Gb 12 11 9 8 > u d u d > r,m,i,i
Db 10 9 7 > u d u > r,m,i
Ab 10 9 7 6 > u d u d > r,m,i,i
Eb 8 7 5 3 2 > u d u d u > r,m,i,i,i

the full economy picked version of the path ive laid out for this lick is the fastest i can do it. i havent found another way to speed it up. the next step would be swybrid probably. but i have to slant upward to really get it flowing fast that way the u d u d, that last down is the reason you need uwps so the pick wont get stuck beneath the strings by dwps.

and the cool thing about this method is you can change up the steps and make it major and play the scale fast also like this

Eb tuning

Eb 16,14,12,11 > d,u,d,u > p,m,i,i
Bb 14,12,10 > u,d,u > p,m,i
Gb 13,11,9,8 > u,d,u,d > p,m,i,i
Db 11,9,7 > u,d,u > p,m,i
Ab 11,9,7,6 > u,d,u,d > p,m,i,i
Eb 9,7,5,4,2 > u,d,u,d,u > p,m,i,i,i

And! open Eb major chord XD then the yngwie 5 string sweep chord then the dun dun dun thing haha you get it.

most likely it could be ascended with downward pickslanting so maybe we should work on that economized scale pathway next. :stuck_out_tongue:

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#23

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Should sound like the first lick but without the last note I like to add, marked it as a ghost note in the tab.

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