The Randy Rhoads Mr Crowley pentatonic lick

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.

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

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.

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?

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

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

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

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.

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

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!

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

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:

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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.

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!

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.

Interesting that you play it that @Coalface71, I just tried that and for sure its effective and easier to transition to the next run as you said.

I’m trying to go back and relearn a different Randy Rhoads song every week, now I’ve spent some time ‘preparing my vessel’ as Vai says, i feel like I’ve got the technique now to play Randy’s amazing solos if I try hard enough.

I’ve done Believer (the live version from Tribute) and Mr Crowley actually took me 2 or 3 weeks as there’s some tricky parts, it’s pretty much a showcase of all Randy’s different types of lick.

I always struggle most with his fast slurring licks up and down the top string like in Mr Crowley in the 2nd solo going down.
I guess it’s because my fingers are so conditioned to play scales that it feels strange to break the rules like that. Anyway I pretty much got it after a lot of time.

Next I was thinking Over The Mountain or maybe I Don’t Know.
Crazy Train I know off by heart anyway as we used to play it in my old band.

So many good songs to choose from !

Is it for 100% sure that he’s picking all the notes for this lick?

In the live Tribute version he’s not picking them all but the album version and the video above posted by @Tcb37 he does pick them all.

I guess even guitar gods get lazy sometimes :smiley:

Next question @gabrielthorn does he pick the start of the 2nd solo or use pull-offs?

e: --17 13------17 13------17 13------17 13----
B: -----------15-----------15-----------15-----------15

I think it’s the same story, he’s picking it on the album and in the youtube video but using pull-offs on Tribute.

For me it looks like he’s doing a pull-off after the first note on the 6s lick too. I’ll take a better look when I arrive home.

The second solo is 100% with pull-offs. On the album it’s also pull-offs.

I also checked the actual tempo with a metronome and it’s around 108 bpm, should be easy to play at that speed.

Levi Clay does a great play through with tabs of the second solo:

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