Machine Gun licks

[Down_With_Sco]

Anyone able to figure out the sweep style lick Trey does in many Antelop peaks? It's like a triplet but with a sweep and hammer-on together.


8:20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV5cpyyA1V0


6:58
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRvG9zjyrog

I've managed to play a simpler way of that but I think it's my pinky that is the weak link.

[Lephty]

Yeah I have never been totally sure about this lick.  I also think he uses virtually the same technique in Lizards, where he does that big build-up that sort of bubbles up underneath Page's piano solo.  Here's what I think it is:



The first line is what I think the lick ACTUALLY is, the 2nd line is how I often actually PLAY it because (as you mention) the pinky workout is a little too much (note in the first line there's the extra little pull-off/hammer-on with the pinky). I think Trey sometimes falls back on the easier version as well.  Also note he moves it around more in Antelope than is shown here in the tab--the tab just shows the technique. 

Also FYI I did a video on Lizards a while back where I show the technique.  It's here (that specific part of the tune comes a little past the 13 minute mark):
http://youtu.be/RU24vuj6fSk

[Down_With_Sco]

Thanks for the reply, that Lizards video will help for sure learning that lick, I'd say you break it down pretty well. Maybe I'll learn lizards while I'm at it.

[Jkendrick]

Paul, so is it a similar riff to the triplets at the end of David Bowie? Seems, especially in the second example, to add that extra note. Also, obviously,  it's (Lizards riff) a minor triad instead of a major triad (Bowie).

[Down_With_Sco]

The end of David Bowie is actually easier than this lick imo because the David Bowie coda lick is a straight ahead triplet.

[Jkendrick]

What's this riff? I apologize,  I don't have a guitar to mess around with it. Is it still triplet feel?

[Down_With_Sco]

see original post.

[Jkendrick]

see original post.

[Lephty]

Yeah the Bowie lick is easier IMO, although maybe a bit faster.  Not a "triplet" technically, but groups of three like this:



Actually kind of like Knopfler's arpeggios at the end of Sultans Of Swing (on crack). 

[Jkendrick]

I have no doubt Trey copped that Bowie riff from Sultans.  How is it not a triplet? It's three notes for every quarter beat, right?

[Heady Jam Fan]

I have no doubt Trey copped that Bowie riff from Sultans.  How is it not a triplet? It's three notes for every quarter beat, right?

Triplets are evenly spaced

[Buffered]

I have no doubt Trey copped that Bowie riff from Sultans.  How is it not a triplet? It's three notes for every quarter beat, right?

It is a triplet. 1 E & 2 E & etc

[Lephty]

We're definitely hitting wonk-level semantic differences here, but I don't think those licks are true triplets--as HJF says, triplets are evenly spaced, but in this lick the 3rd note of each group is longer.  It's a "group of 3" but not technically a "triplet."

Check it out--I plugged it into my notation software, and you can hear how it plays back.  In this MP3 the lick plays twice, the first time as written in my tab above (two 16ths and an 8th), and the second time it plays back in triplets. To my ears the first one sounds closer to what you hear in the song.

http://backoffice.i5fusion.com/media/86084da1-61f7-44c9-96ff-ced1a251dae1/Bowie-Lick.mp3

[Jkendrick]

Huh, yeah maybe. The first one does sound closer to my ears as well, but the second one sounds *better* to me and is more what I strive for when playing these licks.

[Lephty]

Yeah I do kind of agree with you there.  Playing "true" triplets is actually kind of difficult (esp. when you're in 4/4), and it takes practice to really get it right.