It's a monster solo (Nuno Bettencourt) DWPS or TWPS?

Playing Technique
#1

Hi everyone !

I’m currently trying to play the fast repeated lick in the “It’s a monster” solo from Nuno Bettencourt.

Does anyone knows if this lick is strictly downward (as Troy assumes he is essentially a downward pickslanter, which sounds true) and needs puff-offs somewhere ? Or if there is any TWPS in there.

I tried to play it strictly Downward, and according to what I ear when I slow down the recording, It is not correct. It seems to be Down-Up-Down on the D string, then five notes, which are all picked to my ears before going down and the D string to play 6 notes and so on …

There is a video of him playing this lick, but when He shows the slow down exemple, we clearly see that he plays all the notes. It should probably be correct (cause he’s the player who created it of course !) but if it’s like Yngwies video tape, where the slow version is not the same as the original ones, It could be intersting to hear what you guys think about that. :slight_smile:

Hope to read you soon !

1 Like
#2

I would bet he’s throwing in a pull-off or a hammer-on from nowhere at some point. Nuno’s hammers and pulls are so good you would swear he’s picking every note. There’s a part in the Play With Me solo from the Extreme Live in Boston concert where he’s got his right hand completely away from the guitar and it still sounds like every note is picked.

5 Likes
#3

Thank you Ian ! I would have bet so ! His playing is so blazing that it sounds like every note picked. But as I tried to play with pull-offs, It seemed to be way easier to play, especially at that speed.

It’s interesting to notice that Nuno shows wrong examples of theses licks ( to keep his secret ?). Mechanics he certainly found on his own, after a huge amount of work, probably as Yngwie did. Anyway, he totally deserves what he mastered.

Thank you again Ian :slight_smile:

#4

Yeah I haven’t been able to pin his playing down. It’s fast and hard to see exactly what he does when he plays fast as he tends not to pick the same way slow.

#5

Nuno definitely looks like a DWPS to me, almost has a Friedman like grip.

1 Like
#6

Kinda of. It’s hard to see here if he’s using 2wps though. It kind of looks like he is but I can’t tell.

#7

Let’s assume this is purely DWPS: Related to what I feel when I try to play it the most effortlessly I can at this range of speed, It involves at least one hammer-on on the D string if not two.

If I ever try to pick the tree notes on the D string, then It becomes really awkward to jump across the G string and then play on the E string.

What’s clear to me, is that no matter you end on a dowstroke or upstroke on the D string, the only thing you need is time. Time to reach the E string as effortlessly as possible.
At the beginning of the lick, Nuno seems to mechanically repeat the same pattern all over the trick: 4 strokes in alternate picking. What comes next ? at least one hammer-on if not two, which seems even easier to repeat, especially because he probably plays the same number of notes on the E strings, then pull-off, back to the G, four notes in alternate picking, two hammers-on, and so on.

I really think this is the whay he achieves so incredibly this lick. The thing that struck me is that I could never guess there would contains so much hammers-on and pull-offs. And this illusion is very probably due to the fast four repeated strokes on each string, giving this blistering power to the solo.

But. This is only the way I figured it out. What do you guys think ? Maybe am I not clear on which notes are played ? I just didn’t transcribed by lazyness, though I guess the overall thing is decodable, as I did myself by slowing it down.

1 Like
#8

Hi ,

For me it’s all alternate picking.
You can see an (I think) accurate tab here : http://www.sixstringrecess.com/lessons/2014/9/4/its-a-monster-lick

And how he plays it here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oHDpw4aTtc

He’s a monter:slight_smile:
He is so accurate, incredible.

2 Likes
#9

All alt pickiywouod make it an UWPS lick, right?

I bet @tommo could fly through this no problem.

1 Like
#10

Hi Mimi,

Yes I saw the video where he is playing it both in fast and slow version. I thought the slow version was not at all the way he play it at original speed.

But seeing what you sent, I was wrong. :frowning: I was trying to do it the way I expected it would be. I must start it all again. :sweat:

One question is: Is it TWPS or UWPS ?

I started and practiced guitar using UWPS, but after discovering CTC, I totally left UWPS for DWPS. Maybe it is time to bring us back together with my good old technique ^^’ After all, It’s an opened door to an even bigger range.

#11

Man it is an honour to be mentioned in a Nuno thread, thanks! :smiley:

I dunno if I can live up to these expectations, but you made me want to check out this solo, I hadn’t heard it before! Even if I could play it though, no way I could come close to the awesomeness of Nuno’s phrasing!

2 Likes
#12

Based on the tableture provided it’s a 2wps lick. Yet another artist who’s licks i thought I could learn eventually that I now find I can’t learn at the moment due to my dwps :confused:

#13

If you look at the second video that Mimi posted Nuno is DWPSing the entire lick and swiping from the D string to the B string. At 11:42 I think you can hear one of the swipes doesn’t get quite muted.

#14

Here’s me taking a quick stab at it with DWPS and swiping. I’m not playing the exact lick, just a 1-2-4 fingering descending. Please forgive the crappy quality and low sound, it’s my first time trying to record on my phone and it’s too late at night to plug in to my amp.

1 Like
#15

Are you sure he is sweeping ?

#16

Not sweeping, swiping. You glide the pick over the string without playing it. In this lick after finishing the last note on the D string with a downstroke you continue the downward motion and the pick should glide over muted G and B strings then do an upstroke on the B string. There are a few segments in the Pickslanting Primer pack that go over the technique. Basically it’s a variation of Gilbert 6s with an extra string hop.

1 Like
#17

Does Nuno pick every single note in that lick? I’m not convinced he’s picking every note on the top strings.

1 Like
#18

@Troy Any idea on how Nuno achieves this lick ? :slight_smile:

#19

Some mix of alternate and legato I assume but I haven’t looked at it. There are several live clips for anyone who wants to look at the hand motions more closely. Some like the pro shot Boston show appear heavily overdubbed though.

More generally, this is basically three note per string scale playing. It’s probably one of the most exhaustively discussed topics we’ve done. Anyone who wants to play lines like this has plenty of options to choose from, and mimicking whatever NB is doing is probably not super necessary.

#20

Thanks for reply Troy.

I’ve noticed that it could be done in several ways. The goal for me was to understand exactly which mechanics NB could use and try to play his licks the same way. Just for fun ^^