The Randy Rhoads Mr Crowley pentatonic lick

Playing Technique
#1

“How the Mr Crowley 6 note pentatonic lick helped me rediscover pick slanting/escaping.”

There is a lick in the Mr Crowley solo that had me beat all those years ago when I was a teenage headbanger.

This is the 6 note lick:

e : --13 10 ----10---------
B :-- -------- 13 ----13 10 (× 4)

It took me a long time to be able to play it consistently. It’s hard because of the multiple string switches.

I tried a lot of different approaches back then, I rememet that clearly, alternate picking, economy picking and sweeping.

Sweeping seemed to be the best way but I couldn’t make it sound the same as Randy. It was clear that he was using alternate picking.

The breakthrough came by accident. It was pick slanting that made it happen for me and I just stumbled across it. Of course when it did happen it took me a while to work out what made it happen and why and I had never heard of pick slanting back then (1990). Because of that, for a while I built it into my playing, and it worked great, I was suddenly “good” at playing lead guitar. Although it was not something I focused on because no one in the guitar magazines was mentioning pick slanting or escaping. I just sort of started doing it naturally everywhere after playing the Mr Crowley lick so many times.

Unfortunately, the year after I pretty much forgot all I had learned about this, as grunge came and playing fast took a back seat to playing with feeling.

Furthermore I put my guitar away for a number of years and this slanting/escape technique never came back to me when I picked it up again, really until I watched Troy’s videos on Youtube. Even then I didn’t twig that I was doing this year’s ago, it was a long time ago.

But when I started applying it, it came back and especially when I once again sat down to tackle the Mr Crowley solo, I played that lick a few times using alternate picking and again couldn’t do it very well, so I applied the pick slanting technique and it came flooding back.

Very cool and a good lick to practice two way pick slanting on I think.

Thanks Troy and of course thanks Randy !

3 Likes
#2

Are you playing it like this?

Crowely Pents
Crowely Pents925×380 17 KB

#3

Yes correct but on the 3rd note of the sequence, the downstroke to go from C back up to D, I’m slanting the pick upwards (DSX) slightly.

1 Like
#4

Right. It’s all DWPS except that one note. I was recently experimenting with this

Crowley UWPS
Crowley UWPS936×253 10 KB

My natural inclination has always been towards DWPS but in some ways I find this easier.

#5

I’ll try that later see how it feels thanks.

I always use DWPS(USX) as well and slant up on the downstrokes (DSX) when I need to but also seemed to naturally start using USX on ascending runs with sweeping on the downstrokes from one string to the next.

#6

For some reason when I play it UWPS I clear the outside string change without having to alter my pick angle. DWPS(USX) still feels more natural to me due to the years I’ve played that way but I dunno. Ultimately I feel that perhaps I can get it more fluid starting on an upstroke.
Was working on those pentatonic lines recently and this one, as well as the descending line that follows are great study/practice pieces

#7

Interesting.

The pentatonic descending and ascending runs in bars 2 and 3 of the main solo, which are of course extensions of the 6 note lick, were also big ‘aha’ moments for me.

I play them slanting the pick both ways when needed and I can watch myself doing it without consciously doing it. So yeh they are great exercises to apply slanting amd escaping to and I pretty much use them every time I play to gauge how well I can play that day.

#8

What escape motions and joint motions are you using when you do this?

#9

I’m definitely rotating my wrist to achieve the escape motion. I’ll try and get a video if you’re really interested I might be doing it all wrong but it seems to work for me.

#10

You’re probably doing it right if it works! A video would be cool to see. I’m curious to what you mean by “rotating the wrist”, you mean like a combined forearm rotation + wrist deviation?

#11

Yeh I guess it’s more like a slight forearm rotation I’ll try get a video later.

#12

I never got this clean enough for my liking until I played it like:

e : --13 10 ----------------
B :-- -------- 13 -15-13 10

#13

Haha I’ve been there as well bro.

My fallback method of coping with a tricky lick like this was always to modify the fingering or add more hammer ons and pull offs. I used to do that a lot.

But now I always try and force myself to play it like the original. Rediscovering pick slanting/escaping has transformed my attitude.

You realise that these guys like Randy Rhoads and Paul Gilbert are super talented but they’re only human and it is possible to do what they do if you’ve got the time to put in. But also there’s always a workaround like you said if you haven’t got hours to spend on one lick.

#14

Here’s Randy doing it. (Think I linked it right!)

#15

After viewing the video in slo-mo I would conclude that he does appear to be picking all the notes using two-way pick slanting! Great playing!

#16

I do think theres some definite pick slanting going on though.
Classic video thanks @Tcb37

#17

the production director should be in prison for the closeups of every other band member during the first half of Randy’s guitar solo :rofl:

3 Likes
#18

That’s true @LuckyMojo, it’s always so irritating when that happens, or when the camera is on the bass player for the whole damn guitar solo, that seems to happen a lot too.

However this particular director I can forgive, as he did capture Rudy Sarzo’s cum face as Randy hits the harmonic at the end of the solo.

#19

Never knew this song solo was in sextuplets or 24th notes. Cool, I may give this a try when I’m ready. Hope u can get great at this yourself!

#20

Hi Mates.

First post after being here almost a year. The first solo had always done similar, reorginising the notes for years, until doing some work with pick slanting after joining CTC.

The lick being discussed, I still prefer to play mainly on the high E stretching F-D-C and only switching to the A note on the B - string, still with DWPS/USX. Not that I can’t play the lick in the regular box position as tabbed here, but it sets up better (me anyway) for that slurring run down the B string that follows.

Randy - such a phenomenal player.

Hope everyone is well.

Chris.