Yngwie Malmsteen Lesson

What are some of the things you remember practicing that really focused on developing your right hand?

Here’s the funny thing: I never did the "practicing" thing. I just sort of played. If I could play something legato [Fig. 1A, I’d want to be able to play exactly the same thing with the right hand [Fig. 1B], completely coordinated and clean.

Fig. 1a Audio Fig. 1b Audio

I also remember that at some point, I got kind of bored with guitar players that played things like this [Fig. 2A], so I thought up different variations, like this [Fig. 2B]. It’s kind of a long stretch with your hand, but it’s all on one string. You can also do something like this [Fig. 2C]; the possibilities are endless.

Fig. 2a Audio Fig. 2b Audio Fig. 2c Audio

But I don’t think that I had any particular practice approach. Sometimes I’d play through scales, and then I’d do the arpeggios afterward, different string-skipping and all that stuff. But I never really had a particular thing–one or two different warmups or anything like that. It was just "playing," really. I know it’s stupid, but it’s true [laughs].

You must’ve "just played" a lot.

Yeah. I improvised all the time.

You mean, for instance, the arpeggios [Fig. 3A]? That’s a trademark, two-octave A minor arpeggio. And you can actually add the minor 3rd, C (20th fret, 1st string), by tapping with your right hand [Fig. 3B]. I do something crazy like that on "Playing with Fire" from Alchemy.

Fig. 3a Audio Fig. 3b Audio

Yeah, I might play a G#dim7 arpeggio to give it that harmonic minor sound. It all depends on what effect you want. You can start off on G# or B, and it can go up like this, for instance [Fig. 4]. The diminished arpeggio is very dramatic.

Fig. 4 Audio

Like Bach? You can do a pedal on the E string like this [Figs. 5A-B],

Fig. 5a Audio Fig. 5b Audio

but there are a lot of different things you can do using that approach [Fig. 5C]

Fig. 5c Audio

And then, to finish it off, you can plug in a harmonic minor run [Fig. 6]. That stuff is all over Alchemy,actually.

Fig. 6 Audio