Nick Johnston -playing Yngwie licks 'wrong' and sounding so cool

Playing Technique
#1

Hi, I did a search here for Nick Johnston and didn’t find a mention of him on the forum so thought I would. I just started listening to him recently and apart from the amazing melodies I find his technique fascinating. I saw him mention in an interview that he tried to learn Yngwie licks but couldn’t get the picking working so ended up using hybrid picking (pick and finger) to execute them. A fantastic example is the descending run he does at about 4 min 15 in this track (if you slow the video down you can see him do one very strategic finger pick on the high e when the lick starts moving to the b string to avoid a tricky string change) and in the pedal-note lick right after it he does some string skipping that would be really tough without the ‘extra pick’ of his middle fingers on the pedal note.

It makes me wonder sometimes am I forcing myself to make certain licks work using pick only when maybe there’s an easier path via hybrid picking. I know from the CTC interview that Marshall Harrison does some amazing things with hybrid but his playing in general didn’t grab me the way Nicks does.

Most of the playing Nick does is pretty tasteful but he can definitely melt faces when he wants to… hard to see in this video but I think many of the really fast parts are hybrid picked, obviously combined with legato playing.

No pun intended but I think his hybrid of different styles is really refreshing.

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#2

This is some seriously tasty playing. Don’t have any input on the hybrid picking thing, but thanks so much for posting this, never heard of this guy.

#3

Welcome! I got his latest album recently and can’t stop listening to it.

For a more close up view of his techinque he posts a lot of practice vids on Facebook and Youtube, for example:

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#4

Actually, If Yngwie could play those days “wrong” like Nick does, it would be much more pleasant …

When see him and hear Nick play, I don’t feel he actually can’t play his licks. It’s just a guess, but maybe it is just about the chunking licks Nick does. It depends on which licks exactly, but lot of licks Yngwie does begins on the beat of tempo, and follow the beat on every string pick, like single strings licks, ascending or descending. Nick is more like putting a lick in space. He respects the tempo, but do not sound like "putting as notes as the tempo beats. I don’t know if I’m clear :confused:

#5

Yeah, Nick definitely has a loose feel I would say, in a good way. What I find so interesting is how he’s combined the use of hybrid picking to deal with tricky string changes. With the descending fours lick he does in the first video I linked to above I find it much easier to shift the entire pattern for the last 2 sets of 4 notes to the b string (with a quick position jump) rather than the way he does it across 2 strings with the addition of a strategic hybrid picked note. For me it’s easier to deal with one consistent chunk for each 4 notes rather than having to change technique in the middle of a run but I guess that’s sign of how internalized the hybrid picking stuff is for him that it’s not a big effort to switch :slight_smile:

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#6

hybrid can really solve a lot of problems if you get good at it and also know how to get a good tone out of your nails. I bite my nails so my hybrid stuff always sounds kinda weak. I’ve also seen some full-fingerstyle players get a strong enough sound that it sounds like a pick…so then they have five picks on their right hand, and ‘string switching’ is just a non issue:

A guitarist I really like is named Thomas Griggs and is pretty much all hybrid and he plays some really whacky stuff. I transcribed one of this instagram clips and turned it into a soundslice file:

I often wonder if, at a level of mastery, how different the tone/timbre of different approaches really are. For example, some very difficult passage and elite players with different right approaches that can all execute it at the same tempo, what the sonic result would be. Some of the bluegrass runs with very clean economy picking rather than pure alternate, the yngwie stuff with hybrid picking, tumeni notes all fingerstyle but with a strong attack, electric guitar. just something I wonder about!

edit to add: another monster hybrid player, Isaac Negrene:

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#7

Hey those are some really cool examples, going to study your soundslice and try to woodshed some of that, thanks for posting!

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#8

you’re welcome! thomas is the man, we’ve become sort of internet friends. He checked out the transcription and gave it his thumbs up so it should be ‘right.’ he also gives skype lessons.

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#9

Nothing to add here, save that Nick’s one of my favorite “new” guitarists, largely because he’s so damned tasteful. Incredible musician.

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#10

You’re right, Nick is amazing! He doesn’t use that much gain, but everything is so clear and articulate.

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#11

Wow, didn’t know him. Great playing, great tunes.

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#12

Just found this video with nice shots of Nick’s RH. Among other things he demonstrates some solid USX and Gilbert-like licks:

Who wants to help me transcribe this song? :slight_smile:

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#13

There is a version of tabs online, have you checked it? Amazing song, I’m a fan of Nick in general.

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#14

You can actually buy tabs directly from Mr Johnston in his webshop. Only $25 for a digital download of tabs for the entire new record. I bought the remarkably human tabs a while back and they were generally pretty good.

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#15

Story of my research career :joy:

I’ll check them out thanks! (But sometimes it’s quicker for me to just listen + look at people’s fingers :smiley: )

PS: I also realised he plays the Gilbert Lick with hybrid! Totally cool as I also like to do it occasionally (especially if there’s a string skip):

-------5------
-5-6-8---8-6-5-
 D U D m D U....
#16

Dp the tabs have picking-direction or fingering indications?

#17

The RH tab has neither, but I don’t think it’s important either.

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