Ten Cool Guitar Tricks Videos - by Drew Lowe

Drew Lowe of Rose Morris shows you 10 cool guitar tricks you can do on a electric guitar. Filmed at the Rose Morris, Denmark Street Shop in 2007. Drew runs through a range of tricks you can learn: - including string skipping, the garggle, artificial pinched harmoncs as well as some funky rhythm guitar.

To watch the videos simply click on the videos below. (Transcription of dialogue also included).

Have fun!

Tip1 - String skipping arpeggio lick

Hi there, my name is Drew Lowe from Rose Morris and I'm going to show you a alto string skipping arpeggio lick I was just doing.

Lets break it down first very slow - starting with the C note with your first finger - the D note and then the Flat 5 which is the E flat. Then up to the E on the B string. So it's like this. There are alternates between E note and also the A note... so together.

Ok, so we just gone show you the picking part with my right hand. I'll play really slow then I will speed up. It is also a good idea to tap your foot with this to get a good kind of metronome going.

Tip 2 - Artificial Harmonics Effect

I'm just gonna show you how to play some pinched or artificial harmonics. These are really good for solos, maybe ending solos, capturing affrays and sticking the harmonic on at the end.

I'm just gonna show you a few things, just make up a few phrases and see if we can stick some harmonics on at the end. So, here we go.

The trick to this is finding certain points on the fret and just hitting the string with your right hand, between the thumb and the pick. The idea is that once you've hit the string with the pick you imediately hit it with the thumb afterwards, so you get this kind of sound to it (demo). So, that's an open harmonic. So depending on where you hit it on the guitars you're going to get certain harmonics from the strong.

Now also hitting certain points in the fret with your left hand you get more harmonics again. So, for example the 9th fret on the G string. Certain points are stronger than others. And we also got one on the 5th fret... 7th fret... Basically, pretty much, most of the guitar at certain points their not as strong - but once you hit them, they sound great!

Tip3 - Double Harmonic Trem Drop

This is called a 'Double Harmonic Trem Drop'.
It's hitting two pinched harmonics at the same time and then dropping the trem. It's a kind of in and out phase and so it sounds like one is going off, one is coming back down. This can sound really interesting. (Demo) Listen. Hear that again.

 

Tip 4 - Garggle Trem Drop Part 1

The next idea is to reverse the tremolo arm behind you and so it sounds like gaggling. So we take a note for instance, let's take a C note (demo)

And again, it gives this kind of Middle Eastern kind of feel, so we do it... (demo)

 

Tip5 - Droppping the bar down - Low E trick also with pinched harmonics

The next thing is dropping the bar down the low E trick. I think Jimi Hendrix was the first to do this kind of thing where you just take it down with it.

Because of the Floyd Rose you bring it back up and it will stay in tune which is always good. This can also work on other strings such as the G.

You can always use this effect using pinched harmonics; as used by people like Joe Satriani who'd do it the other way.

 

Tip 6 - Garggle Effect Part 2 - Lifting Strings - a trem/ vibration effect

This effect is called the garggle. You put the trem behind just like that, hit a note and vibrate. This also works for the kind of harmonic minor vibe such as this scale here. (demo)

 

Tip 7 - Horse Effect - Weird Harmonic / Floyd Rose bar Lifting

The next effect we can do is to lift the bar again, but finding some really strange harmonics. The sounds you can find are in the third and second fret and you can get some really great noises like 'horse effects'. If I get this right it should sound good (demo). Anyway that's the sound you get. It gives you that horse effect and I think people like Steve Vai have used it for intros of songs.

 

Tip 8 - Whammy Hammer - whammy bar and solos trick

The next thing is actually incorporated into another technique. You could be playing a song or a solo and hitting some notes (demo). You can use the whammy bar to create like a hammering on effect like this (demo).

So that uses the whammy bar instead to create the effect and it's a nice different effect you can use.

 

Tip 9 - Octave Tapping

Here I'm going to show you some octave tapping (demo) What we're doing is taking a major pattern here, in the key of A. Starting on G. That's the first line and exactly the same on the next string.

Then put your first finger on the second fret and the forth finger on the fifth fret (Exactly the same). And back to the original starting position, which is the third fret and the fifth fret. It does it in pairs. Two of one, two of one and then two of the other one (demo).

 

Tip 10 - Funky Licks

Ok, so playing the guitar is not always about speed. Sometimes we have to get a bit groovy with it so I'm gonna show you some sort of funky lick ideas. Alright, here we go (demo)

So, on the left hand part of this - we're going to use the A major chord, and we're gonna take the little finger off, A7 chord, then put the extension on.

What we're doing is just accenting the G note.

Then we're gonna stick in the C note. But all together gives you that funky kind of thing. Instead of being a boring on the C sharp. Then you can alternate between either or. So, the full chord... and the seventh... (demo). The trick is really just trying to get a vibe, just really relaxed vibe, on the accents.

END