Single-string-licks for practice

Playing Technique
#1

Hey there,

I’m looking for “famous” single-string-licks for picking hand training. I just joined a Deep purple/rainbow/whitesnake-tribute-band and noticed I have some trouble with the rapid single-string-stuff blackmore does in the Highway star and Burn solos. That stuff is rather easy but fast and takes a bit of picking hand endurance. I also just recognized, that my left-hand and synchronization need some improvement.
I think that kind of stuff might be good exercises for what MAB calls potential picking speed and synchronization, so I will practice some more single string licks.
So I’m looking for similar stuff.

These two are what I’m talking about:

  1. Highway Star
  1. Burn

These two came to my mind:
Wasted Years - Iron Maiden
Thunderstruck - AC/DC

Can you think of other ones, good sounding, maybe well known?
Of course you can practice all kinds of repeating patterns and shift them through the positions, but I think it’s more fun to have some variety.

Thomas

1 Like
#2

Oh man, thanks! This thread made me to remember one song of the band that I had to listen to a looong time ago. Now it brings nice memories :slight_smile: :+1:

Also, this is a “harmony line” or whatever it should be called. (Is there a name for these kinds of passages where two guitars (or instruments in general) play the harmony of the same melody?)
Incidentally, I was just looking for a passage of this type to transcribe today. Thanks to you, I found it :sunglasses:

To be fair, originally this passage sounds quite legato-y. I guess they don’t pick many notes here (if any). But nobody forbids you to pick every note and use it for your own needs :wink:
On top of that, I only assume it’s single string stuff because it seems to be based around open string. I may be wrong here :roll_eyes: I haven’t played it yet.

Also, I’m not sure if it’s famous enough… :sweat: (Just kidding :wink: I’m rather confident it’s not your primary requirement.)

Edit:
Oh, one more tune. My favourite Rammstein song has a short passage similar to the one I already posted. In this case, I guess the fretted notes are picked even in the recording. Again, it’s up to you how to use it :wink:

Previous comments about assuming this to be a single string passage go for this suggestion as well :wink:

2 Likes
#3

Ugh, my bad :pensive: I checked some live footage and that Bloodbound passage is apparently played on two strings. However, It’s not that difficult to play it on single string. This is how I would play it in order to fit into your thread/request :wink:

blood%20bound%20jp
blood%20bound%20jp791×442 70 KB

Edit: you can also play it all on the first string :point_up:

#4

The main guitar line for “Wasted Years” by Iron Maiden would work great.

2 Likes
#5

Thank you all, that Hammerfall thing is nice.
It’s Quote a challenger for Synchronisation i guess.
I also thought of Wasted Years, although I think the repeating 8th notes make Synchronization a bit easier.
Still searching for some triplet stuff, although of course one can always come up with something original.
At the Moment the Thunderstruck-Intro is driving me mad. Especially the 4-0-7-0 5-0-8-0 part. I usually play that left hand only, but when I pick every note the left hand goes nuts.

Tom

1 Like
#6

when looking at these it may help to group your fingers. Like on the thunder struck thing use fingers 1 and 4 for 4 and 7 as well as moving up for 5 and 8. this is very similar to eddie van halen although he would use legatto for the most part. you may find the burn stuff is very pentatonic esq in its fingerings so dont go hog wild on using all finger combos just use the typical 1 and 3 and 1 and 4 stuff that pentatonic fingerings typically use. Just my two sense or cents.

1 Like
#7

Yes, I do that already.
My problem with that one is, that when “fretting 8th-notes”, as in every second note is not fretted, it seems to throw off my TA-ka-ta-ka chunking for the right hand to a TA-ka-TA-ka. It feels more like picking 8th notes at double-speed. It’s more a mind-challenge, so it’s good to practice that kind of stuff for me as it trains the right hand, synchronization and some new way of rhythmic grouping.

#8

Update:
practice helps, at least for the mind-thing. Practiced the thundersturk 4-7/5-8-thing for a while and got it up to 145 bpm. It just had to click.

Now I still have to get the Highway-star/burn stuff up to speed and endurance. I’m afraid this is not just a “click”-thing :wink:

Tom

1 Like