Slash’s Style

This week on “In the Style of…” we’re looking at Slash from bands such as: Guns’n'Roses and Velvet Revolver. Recently, Slash (real name “Saul Hudson”), has been involved in his own solo project too (the album is just called “Slash” if you wanted to look for it…).

I wanted to show Slash’s approach to melodic soloing, as well as some faster stuff. Slash generally plays (or at least, writes solos) by ear and it’s possibly because of this that he uses a lot of chord tones in his solos (i.e. nots taken directly from the chords). This might also be why he uses a lot of string bends when he plays (so he’s literally bending the notes- by ear- to the pitch he wants).

This is true of our example, where the first note is a “B” on the 12th fret of the B string, which you then bend up to a chord tone (a “C”, the minor third) over the A minor chord. This kind of technique can be very useful when improvising because you can just bend almost any starting note until it’s at the pitch you want (plus, it sounds kinda cool!). The note is then bent back to a “B” (the major third) over the G chord.

Over the next chord is a blues-influenced lick in which you bend the 14th fret of the G string (an A note) up two frets (so that it sounds as a B), then you play the 15th fret on the B string and hold both notes. Then, you let go of the 15th fret and bend the G string back down. Slash’s playing seems to be very influenced by the blues and blues guitar playing techniques, and this lick is an example of something that he might use to create tension (neither note is a chord tone over the C!), which is then released by returning to an A (14th fret on the G string) as the A chord approaches.

The solo then continues by using the A minor pentatonic scale at the 12th fret (12th position)- Slash typically uses pentatonic scales and their shapes as a starting point and then embellishes the basic shapes with modal inflections (basically, he’s adding notes to the pentatonic to create different scales). Two of his favourite scales to create from the pentatonic shape are the Aeolian (or natural minor), and Dorian modes.

There is a good example of this in bar 6, where there is a descending line containing the 2nd (which is not in the pentatonic), followed by a stereotypical blues lick in bar 7 using a C minor pentatonic shape (with an added major third to fit the C chord). Slash sometimes uses different pentatonic shapes than you might expect over chords to imply more complex scales using familiar shapes- something called “pentatonic substitution”.

Following all this melodic playing, things step up a gear. Even when Slash is playing quickly (shredding?), he sticks to his melodic guns. Here I’ve used the same, repeating lick over the chord changes (bars 9 and 10), which is a technique that he uses to great effect in many of his solos (Slither and the fast solo in Sweet Child of Mine are just two examples). Of course, I end this lick with a bend on the high E string!

The repeat endings are based on the A minor pentatonic scale at the 12th fret (again), but here I’ve added the 14th fret E string (an F#, the major 6th) which implies the A Dorian mode. There is also a healthy dose of legato playing throughout- check out the triplets in the last line (bars 12 and 14, beat 2), and the similar figures in bar 6 (beats 1 and 2) which should be played with hammer-ons and pull-offs.

I hope this has given you some ideas.
Rob.

July 25, 2011 at 2:39 pm | In the Style of... | No comments