How do you cop Yngwie's phrasing in his solos?

Playing Technique
#1

Every time I attempt to play Yngwie solos I find it very, very difficult to cop his phrasing. Some parts are OK but when he lets rip his phrasing is extremely free and it doesn’t really look like he is worrying about the beat too much. It’s very hard to try and replicate this to some extent. I know it would be a big task to get it dead on accurate, but how would one go about kind of getting it to sound ok?

I can’t post the tabs here (I know that’s now much help :frowning: ) - Ultimate-Guitar’s tabs aren’t that accurate so I bought some digital tabs. The solo for Hold On has some very tricky phrasing. Some of his solos from the Alcatrazz days are pretty difficult too.

I remember @Troy had him playing a solo for Now Your Ships Are Burned years ago on his old Youtube channel, although the video has been long taken down. Maybe he can offer some of his wisdom.

Any help is appreciated.

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#2

This is a really interesting question that I’ve been thinking about for some time. It’s not just Yngwie, a lot of fast lines don’t seem to have much regard for the beat and I never know how to approach learning them.

For example, at the start of the I am a viking solo, there are two bars of pretty much sextuplets, except two notes are missing. The rhythm somehow works out and I have no idea how. And that’s definitely one of the less weird examples.

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#3

Found the video!!!

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#4

Yes @Sorc. In Eddie Van Halen and Akira Takasaki solos the phrasing is crazy sometimes and I can’t seem to get it kind of sounding right.

The solo to I Am A Viking is impossible for me to play. Because the tempo of the song is so slow Yngwie is just blazing and using his ear to hear when the changes occur and he’s just going for it and not worrying about the drums.

#5

LMFAO!!! That shreds

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#6

I wonder if @Troy realizes how damn good of a player his is.

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#7

Indeed! We’re all waiting for his first solo album \m/

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