Paul Gilber Lesson

Back in the day, what was your approach towards developing your picking hand?

The right hand picking stuff did not come naturally to me. I'd played for about seven or eight years and really had no significant picking technique; it was all a lot of hammer-ons and pull-offs. That changed, however, when I learned to use the metronome: slowing a repeating pattern down to such a speed where I could do it perfectly, then slowly speeding it up. It was really inspiring to see that work. I learned a real simple, six-note picking lick on one string [Fig. 1], and within a couple weeks, I could play it really fast. And the improvement was quick enough that it was exciting for me - just knowing that one day I could play it at this speed, the next day I could play it faster. I could feel it in my hands - the confidence and authority were building.

But the hardest thing about fast picking is to go from string to string, so for crossing over two strings I practiced this one [Fig. 2], which uses what I call "outside picking. " When you practice a lick that involves switching between two strings with alternate picking, which I do, you have a choice to either go down-up, where your pick works "outside" the strings, or up-down, which would be "inside." And really, when you do a full ascending/descending scale with alternate picking, you have no choice but to do both; they both occur. But if I'm doing just one little set pattern, I tend to use "outside" picking.

Paul tunes all six strings of his guitar down one whole step (low to high: D G C F A D); all pitches sound one whole step lower than written.

Fig. 1 Audio      Fig. 2 Audio

Of course, there's also the real crazy string-skipping ones [Fig. 3], and those also relate well to the outside picking. Outside picking really makes string-skipping a million times easier because you don't have to worry about accidentally hitting the strings that are between the skips.

Fig. 3 Audio

I noticed you occasionally use a string-skipping approach with pentatonic shapes.

For the string-skipping pentatonic stuff, the one I use all the time is pretty easy to visualize because it sort of relates to an Am7 shape, but it's played three-notes-per-string [Fig. 4]. I'm just beginning on the low C (15th fret, 5th string), and then messing around up high with a tapped slide. These things can be done only when you№re sitting down and your chin is about six inches from the neck [laughs]. If you№re standing up doing the "Sid Vicious" pose, it№s a little tough.

Fig. 4 Audio

Do you have any chromatic exercises that you practiced to work on synchronization between your right and left hands?

Most chromatic things I do are little in-between things; I see "chromatics" as sort of a little "step ladder" into a note you want to hit, like in this bluesy lick I stole [Fig. 5]. To me, if I'm going to do an exercise, I want it to be as fruitful as possible. So if at the end of the day the exercise can be musical, it№s an added bonus.

Fig. 5 Audio

There's something I call the "Ace Frehley" scale that uses chromatics [Fig. 6A]. It's pentatonic, but it's got the "blue note" (b5th) and the major 7th in there. When I first figured out solos, I learned a lot of Kiss stuff. Now I use that all the time, but I incorporate it into licks like this [Fig. 6B].

Fig. 6b Audio

For me, learning classical things has always been motivating for learning new techniques. You can hear it on some of the Racer X stuff and on "Gilberto Concerto" [from Paul's Flying Dog solo album]. And this [Fig. 7] is similar to the end part in "B.R.O." It's a really sick lick. It's all straight minor arpeggios in three sets of ascending sextuplets, but I use open strings to give my left hand time to get up to the 12th fret to do two notes on the G string, then I do my full string-skipping pattern.

Fig. 7 Audio