Marty Friedman "Valley of eternity" guitar lesson (part 2)

This second part of our Marty solo deals with some exotic licks. The following segment has an effective pre-bend, as well as "exoticly" played legato pattern.

Let us look more in depth into the pre-bend. Marty is the unquestionable master of this technique, and he has made it a trademark of his exotic guitar style. However, his way of dealing with pre-bends differs from the regular way, here is how to do them:

• Bend the string up to the right pitch without striking the pick
• Strike the string
• Then, release (fast as hell!)
• Still quite fast, bend the string back up to pitch

Practice it like this:

This next segment has an artificial harmonic ( fret 21 B string) followed by a sixteenth note legato pattern.

How do you play artifical harmonics?

• First, have a look at the picture below, you should hold the pick very close to the edge. This enables the side of the thumb to mute the string right after the pick stroke, that is how the harmonic is produced (a pointy pick facilitates).
• Secondly, try hitting the string at different places to see where the harmonics can be found (you will find loads of them!). In this example the seventh fret of the g-string (note D) is played.

Once you are familiar with the technique, you should try to remember exactly where the harmonic(s) was found (perhaps one cm from the middle pickup) for the spicific note you are targeting.

If you still can't get the right sound - I have made a detailed video tutorial about harmonics, see here.

Time for a true "China lick", impress your international friends with this one! Listen to it many times to get the rhythm right:

The ending lick is a standard pentatonic build up:

Good luck!

/Kristofer