Blog Layout

10 Commandments of Playing Guitar in the Style of Pantera's Dimebag Darrell, Part 1

Commandment 1: Honor Thy Van Halen

... and ZZ Top, Kiss, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Ted Nugent, Pat Travers, early Metallica (Kill ‘em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets) and Randy Rhoads. Van Halen’s impact on Dimebag’s playing is unmistakable. The “vibe” of early Van Halen is by far the most recognizable influence in Dimebag’s playing. From the grooving rhythms played like leads of their own, to the tone, to the phrasing in his lead playing, Dimebag took the inspiration of Edward Van Halen and forged his own identity.


Pieces such as “Eruption” and “Spanish Fly” were favorites of Dimebag, who would play them in his unaccompanied guitar solos back in Pantera’s early club days. Dime has been noted as being Texas’ “Van Halen clone,” the local hotshot who could play all of the most impressive licks of his hero. Further, the brotherly bond of the Van Halen brothers (Eddie on guitar and Alex on drums) was mirrored in Pantera (Vinnie on drums and Dime on guitar).


Van Halen’s impact is further felt as the words “Van Halen” were actually Dimebag’s last words spoken before he was tragically murdered. “Van Halen” was something Dime would say to his brother Vinnie before a live performance to inspire them both to play a fun, lively, rocking show. Also, Dime was actually buried with the guitar that inspired him most—Eddie Van Halen’s yellow and black striped guitar featured on the back cover of Van Halen II. To truly understand Dimebag’s playing, it is crucial to absorb the “Van Halen” feel, as well as the techniques and attention to tone that were such a part of the early Van Halen experience.


Commandment 2: Thou Shalt Use the Major 3rd

Always wearing his Van Halen influence on his sleeve, Dimebag was never one to shy away from using the interval of a major 3rd in his heavy playing. Shunned by most “metal” players, the major 3rd was an essential tool in Dime’s bag of tricks. When playing in E (minor), the major third is G#, which adds a unique feel to riffs and licks that also utilize the minor 3rd (G).



Theoretically, this major 3rd lends lines a Mixolydian quality, though it essentially gives a bluesy type of sound and adds tension/dissonance to minor key tonalities (For more information, check out Guitar Strength Volume 1: Mastering the Modes.) EXAMPLE 1 is a Dimebag-inspired riff using this major 3rd in a minor key.



Notice also how Dime gets extra mileage out of the interval by using it in a pattern that also makes use of the flat 9 (F in E minor). EXAMPLE 2 is another Dimebag-inspired riff using the same intervals. (For another riff using the major 3rd, which was clearly an influence on Dimebag, check out the end of “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” by Black Sabbath.)

The major 3rd was not just essential to Dimebag’s riffs, it was also extensively used in his lead playing. EXAMPLE 3 is an E minor fingering of the “Dimebag Scale,” a minor pentatonic scale with the addition of a flat 5, major 6th (omitted on the A string and used only on the B string, 14th fret for ease of fingering), and major 3rd.

The major 3rd was not just essential to Dimebag’s riffs, it was also extensively used in his lead playing. EXAMPLE 3 is an E minor fingering of the “Dimebag Scale,” a minor pentatonic scale with the addition of a flat 5, major 6th (omitted on the A string and used only on the B string, 14th fret for ease of fingering), and major 3rd.

When attempting to conjure the influence of Dimebag in your own playing, experimentation with the integration of this major 3rd into more “standard” minor phrases is highly encouraged. Don’t be afraid of sounding “happy”; play the note like you mean it and you’ll be amazed at its versatility and its ability to make your playing substantially more interesting.


Commandment #3: Embrace Symmetry

Another Van Halen-inspired technique employed by Dimebag was the use of symmetrical fingerings. This technique is extremely easy to learn but requires taste and skill for successful implementation. To perform this technique, simply devise a fingering shape on one string and apply it across all six. EXAMPLE 5 is a Van Halen-esque lick, based on a root, major 3rd, 5th shape in E, continuing down to the A string and resolving on a B string bend from D to E (and back down to D for some minor 7th tension).

Clearly inspirational to Dime, EXAMPLE 6 is a variation in the same (12th) position, this time using the minor 3rd (G), 5th (B), and a slide to and from the flat 6th (C). This expanded symmetrical shape still uses a simple 1-2-4 fret hand fingering across all six strings, yet the pinky slide gives it some extra range and movement.

Further examples of simple, yet effective symmetrical patterns used by Dimebag can be seen in EXAMPLES 7 and 8. EXAMPLE 7 is another shape, this time using the major 7 (Eb in E), the root (E), and the minor 3rd (G) as its basis. In this case, the pattern is an ascending climb combining both picking and legato phrasing, again using the 1-2-4 fingering.

In EXAMPLE 8, which is based on one of Dimebag’s favorite patterns, the shape uses a 4-3-1 fingering in a descending sequence on the top three strings. This shape in this position is a throwback to the playing of Pat Travers, and can be quite effective when playing over rhythms in A minor and E minor.

Feel free to transpose it into other keys and use it often, just as Dime did. It is important to notice that though Dimebag possessed astounding picking technique, he tended to favor executing most of his lines in a legato fashion (another homage to Mr. Edward Van Halen). Dimebag’s love of legato gave his lines a fluid, lively quality, and his powerful left hand technique was extremely important when effectively implementing these symmetrical patterns into his lead licks.


Commandment 4: Give Chords New Found Power

Never content with “standard” guitar techniques, Dimebag was an avid user of the “other” power chords. Instead of relying on normal root-5th and root-4th (inverted 5th) power chords (though he was an obvious master when it came to using them), Dimebag would often come up with and use alternative dyads (two-note chords) in place of standard power chords. These chords were usually major or minor thirds stacked on top of the root. EXAMPLE 9 is the two basic versions of these chords with 6th and 5th string roots. The first is the “major 3rd” variation and the second is the “minor 3rd” version.

EXAMPLE 10 is a figure using the minor 3rd power chord. Notice how the chords act to add texture and movement to the riff, as they work well when used in the same riff as the more pedestrian root-5th power chords. The chords also add a nice tension, as they are not as “homogenous” and “neutered” sounding as the standard root-5th chords. Also, when used with a rocking distorted tone, these chords have an extremely powerful sonic fingerprint with their unique overtones.

These overtones are, in fact, what makes these chords so special and useful. With usual major or minor chords and triads, playing them with distortion often results in a cluttered, un-musical noise. There is just too much information present to allow sonorous, musical sounds when using the standard major or minor chord shapes. However, by just playing the root and 3rd, a vibrant, tense, rich sound is created, really putting the “power” in power chord. Experiment often with substituting these root-3rd power chords for standard root-5th chords in your riffs. Also, try varying your usage of major and minor 3rds, as often times the “wrong” (out of key) 3rd will sound most interesting in a riff. EXAMPLE 11 is a Dimebag inspired riff using these harmonically “wrong” power chords.

Commandment 5: Know your Nodes

No discussion of Dimebag would be complete without mentioning his penchant for playing with harmonics. Dimebag’s playing was peppered with any and every type of harmonics: natural, artificial, tapped, etc. Playing with an overtone-rich, distorted sound, harmonics (whether naturally or artificially produced) are an integral component in the beast of electric guitar. Harmonics can occur almost anywhere and can be produced by a myriad of means, and can occur many times as an accidental consequence of playing with a loud, distorted sound.


Dimebag, however, excelled at controlling the beast, and was able to skillfully use harmonics as one of the most expressive elements in his playing. To understand how Dime would use harmonics, we’ll first look at the naturally occurring harmonic nodes that occur across the fretboard. EXAMPLE 12 is a basic depiction of the most common, “easy” harmonics that occur when a fret hand finger is used to lightly touch a plucked string (without actually pushing it down and fretting it) and produce a harmonic.

EXAMPLE 13 shows some more difficult to produce harmonics along the same string, many of which were used extensively by Dime.

Dime was never content to just play the harmonics, though, as he would often use a variety of techniques to produce and manipulate them. The most famous of these techniques was Dime’s signature “harmonic scream” technique. The basic maneuver is depicted in EXAMPLE 14.

To perform this technique as Dimebag would, a floating tremolo bridge (able to bend a note below and above) is necessary (preferably a locking Floyd Rose or its equivalent). First, get the string moving by “plucking” it with a silent fret hand pull-off while simultaneously dumping/depressing the bar and bending the tremolo down. As the open string is lowered in pitch and its tension is reduced, lightly tap the selected harmonic node with the fret hand “bird”/middle finger. Next, after the harmonic has been sounded, slowly return the bar to pitch, pull it up higher, and apply vibrato with the whammy bar. Note that the actual time the open/dumped string rings is only a fraction of a second, it is only sounded so as to allow the string movement enough to produce the fret hand “tapped” harmonic.


Also note the importance of fret hand muting, being sure to use the fret hand thumb (wrapped over the top of the neck) and fret hand fingers to mute any unwanted noise from the unused strings. Experiment with different harmonic nodes, as some will be easier to execute and some will sound more interesting than others. While Dimebag was also quite adept at using Zakk Wylde/John Sykes/George Lynch/Billy F. Gibbons-style “pings” (artificial harmonics, A.K.A. pick harmonics) he was especially adept at using multiple, combined harmonics as a way to spice up his rhythm playing. EXAMPLE 15 shows this technique at play.

Notice first that Dime loved using “in-between” harmonics, those that had a particularly shrieking/squealing sound. Also notice that in combining two or more harmonics, an extremely cool set of screaming, dissonant overtones is created. Try any and all combinations of harmonics on various string sets and at various node points, and also experiment with manipulating the combinations with your whammy bar and/or effects pedals. EXAMPLE 16 is several available combinations.

The possibilities are endless. Check out Part 2!

Scott Marano has dedicated his life to the study of the guitar, honing his chops at the Berklee College of Music under the tutelage of Jon Finn and Joe Stump and working as an accomplished guitarist, performer, songwriter and in-demand instructor. In 2007, Scott developed the Guitar Strength program to inspire and provide accelerated education to guitarists of all ages and in all styles through state-of-the-art private guitar lessons in his home state of Rhode Island and globally via Skype. Visit Scott and learn more at www.GuitarStrength.com.

Three Scary, Rut-Busting Licks Inspired by George Lynch

October 31, 2024
Since the early Eighties, soulful shred sensei Lynch—"Mr. Scary"—has challenged the boundaries of his abilities, constantly evolved with the times and kept his playing fresh. While Lynch’s adventurous style is difficult to emulate, bust out of a rut and get some harmonically fresh and physically engaging “Scary”-ness in your playing with these “Mr. Scary”-inspired licks. SCARY LICK 1 is an E diminished 7 (E, G, Bb, Db) symmetrical string skipping tap pattern on the G and high E strings. The diminished7 arpeggio pattern (R, b3, b5, bb7) can be visualized on the guitar as notes occurring every three frets from the root on the same string (For example, an open E string root would use the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 18th and 21st frets in a repeating single string E dim7 arpeggio). Since G is a note in E dim7, and G and E are both open strings, symmetrical fretting works across both strings and all the way up the fretboard. The pattern in the lick on both the E and G strings is frets 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 (on the high E). Tap the 18th fret with your pick hand middle finger and fret the 9th-12th-15th stretch with index-middle-pinky, respectively (the 21st fret is slid into with a slide of the tapping finger with the note still ringing after the initial tap at the 18th). SCARY LICK 1A is the lick in 4/4 time with an “accelerator” shift to sextuplets from sixteenths (6s from 4s) on beat 3. SCARY LICK 1B is the pattern looped evenly in ¾ time (also try looping it indefinitely over 4/4 time for a trippy off-center effect). Check out how this lick grabs your attention yet blends seamlessly in an E Dorian/blues context (as it has the E and G from Em, the Db/C# from E Dorian, and the Bb from E blues). 

Five Ways to Put the Pedal to the Neo-Classical Metal

October 31, 2024
These days, “Neo-classical” gets a bad rap from many players, but in its prime, the neo-classical movement inspired an era of innovation and accelerated evolution in the world of guitar.  Spearheaded by Yngwie Malmsteen and Randy Rhoads, inspired by Uli Jon Roth and Ritchie Blackmore (and Bach, Mozart, Paganini, etc.) and taken to its heights by Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, Tony MacAlpine and the other early Shrapnel Records artists, the neo-classical period in modern rock guitar was a time of previously unimaginable technical progress and harmonic inventiveness. Why? Because it was fun to play and sounded cool! One of the coolest components of the neo-classical sound, which will work in all musical styles, is the use of pedal points (AKA pedal tones: repeating, static notes. Think the first half of the “Crazy Train” riff or the Halloween theme). And since no discussion of neo-classical musical theory would be complete without some Italian terminology, the following examples in E harmonic minor (E, F#, G, A, B, C, D#) use pedal points in ostinato-type phrasing, with a repeating musical pattern. Getting fluent with this type of phrasing can add a thematic element to your playing and help you create attention-grabbing passages that will bring your improvisations to new musical heights. EXAMPLE 1 uses the E note at the 12th fret on the high E string as its pedal tone, and the ostinato is the “12-11-12." The first note of each 16th note group changes with every beat. Use your index finger for all of the changing notes except use your middle finger for the A (10th fret) on the B string.

Seven Ways to Nail Down Slash's Greasy, Slithery Style

October 31, 2024
His playing is like a drink, a drink known as the New Jersey Turnpike, a drink that can be made only at the end of the night—from the spillover from the bartender’s bar mat and the squeezings of a bar rag. Slash is like a sponge that has soaked up the most intoxicating ingredients of the best music since the dawn of electric-guitar-based rock and roll, and wrung out a grimy, adventurous and uniquely tasty concoction that never ceases to inspire. He is the reason I play guitar, my musical messiah. As Axl Rose said in 1988 during Guns N’ Roses’ timeless performance captured on Live at the Ritz, “In a world he that he did not create, but he will go though as if it was his own making: half man, half beast … I’m not sure what it is, but whatever it is, it’s weird and it’s pissed off and it calls itself Slash.” Slash is a guitar player’s guitar player, drawing deeply and effortlessly sharing secrets learned from greats such as Jeff Beck, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Billy Gibbons, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Ron Wood, Michael Schenker, George Lynch, Edward Van Halen, Dave Mustaine, James Hetfield and countless others. While many of Slash’s signature licks and moves are hard to pin down, one thing that can be easily integrated into any guitarist’s vocabulary is his use of slurs. Slash’s playing is obviously built around his uncanny knack for melody, yet that melodicism is seasoned with a greasy, gritty quality that exudes his individuality and makes his melodies all the more memorable (see "Estranged"). On a purely mechanical level, the means for Slash’s achieving the fluidity to allow his individuality and style to shine through come from his use of slurs in his phrasing: hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides.  As another benefit of these techniques, Slash is able to assert his personality by using these slurs to bend the beat to his will, “bobbing and weaving” as he feels. EXAMPLE 1 is a Slash-inspired lick based around the 5th position Am pentatonic scale, with the addition of the 2nd/9th from the Am scale (the seventh fret of the high E string). Notice the rhythmic change in feel from triplets to quintuplets in the first bar and the various rhythmic feels in the second bar (“gallop," “reverse gallop," triplet and quintuplet). A deeper look inside the lick will show Slash’s use of typical blues/rock licks such as those found in beats 1 and 2 of the second bar, which become more effective when surrounded by semi-diatonic slurs. Fingered as Slash would, note also the return to the middle-finger note on the high E (seventh fret) after the ring-finger note on the B (eighth fret) throughout the line.

Journey to the Core of Zakk Wylde’s Pentatonic Shred

October 31, 2024
With the release of Ozzy Osbourne’s No Rest for the Wicked in 1988, a sound was unleashed on the world that changed the lexicon of rock guitar and redefined the meaning of “Guitar God." Plucked from anonymity in Jackson, New Jersey, at age 20, Zakk Wylde (formerly Jeff Wielandt) forged a new path of style, personality and tone that continues to grow and evolve to this day. Zakk Wylde is an amalgam of his influences, performed with his own personal "Jersey fury." Zakk was (and is) a bull in a china shop with a guitar in its hands, with an appetite to devour and regurgitate licks and tricks learned from masters such as Randy Rhoads, Tony Iommi, Eddie Van Halen, Al Di Meola, Jimi Hendrix and (especially) John Sykes and Frank Marino. Add to that a massive, unique tone achieved with a minimal amount of carefully selected, effective tools and it’s easy to see how so many guitarists respect and admire him, and how no generation of guitarists that has followed him has not been influenced and inspired in one way or another by his contributions to the vocabulary of modern guitar (the prevalence of heavily vibrato'ed pinch harmonics on the low strings, for example—usually the third, fifth or sixth fret of the lowest string—is almost a cliché in today’s modern metal, but you didn't hear them a lot before the song “Crazy Babies” was released). Other than tone, huge riffs and sheer style, Zakk’s major contribution to the guitar world was his use of pentatonic scales in previously unheard of ways. When Zakk first came on to the scene in the late Eighties, three-note-per-string scales and sweep picking were the norm, and only (then) underground players like Eric Johnson were using creative manipulation of pentatonic scales to define their individual niche. Zakk had his own take on the pentatonic scale that helped him forge his own style that has continued to develop over his long career, yet at the core of that style/take on performing that scale, there are a few simple patterns that define the fundamentals on upon which the whole of the “Zakk style” is built. Boiled down to its most basic form, the Zakk Wylde-style of executing fast pentatonic licks can be found in EXAMPLE 1A, 1B and 1C .  Using an A minor pentatonic scale (A, C, D, E, G), EXAMPLE 1A is the simplest dilution of Zakk’s trademark licks, simply running a two-notes-on-two-strings pattern fretted with the ring and index fingers. Be careful not to barre the 17th fret to cover both strings. Instead, “walk” the index finger from string to string when necessary. The lick will be much cleaner and more articulate for it, and with sufficiently aggressive pick attack (You can really dig in since it’s always a downstroke when you switch strings), you’ll be ready to channel the Wylde in you in no time! EXAMPLE 1B manipulates the pattern to work as sextuplets (six per beat. Say: “O-zzY-O-zzY-Os-Bourne”), and example 1C changes it slightly more into a syncopated pattern.

Symmetrical phrasing tips that will help you shred across the entire fretboard

October 31, 2024
Get your fingers up to speed with licks in the style of Van Halen, George Lynch, Dimebag and more

The Ins and Outs of Supersonic Alternate Picking

October 31, 2024
New students are always coming to me asking, “How do I improve my sloppy, inaccurate, clumsy and slow picking technique?” More often than not, the first thing I notice about their playing is that they employ an unpolished technique that lacks the discipline of a steady, consistent and controlled use of strict alternate picking. What I find with these students, especially those who were previously self-taught, is that their technique is a haphazard (yet sometimes logical) combination of alternate, economy and awkward sweep picking. While being skilled at economy picking and sweep picking is essential in every guitarist’s bag of tricks, I find that these students are not performing these techniques deliberately, but instead as an accidental consequence of dealing with the tricky nature of crossing from string to string when dealing with 1-per or 3-note-per-string style phrasing patterns. The “tricky” bit that seems to trip these students up comes when specific mechanical movements come into play, specifically those found when crossing from a lower-pitched string with a downstroke to a higher-pitched string with an upstroke (“outside” picking), and when crossing from a higher-pitched string with a downstroke to a lower-pitched string with an upstroke (“inside” picking). The following examples are exercises and licks I have found will clean up any guitarist’s picking technique and give them the control and accuracy to greatly improve their ability to achieve the speed and fluidity they desire. Though there are exceptions to this rule, for the sake of these exercises, make sure the alternating pick strokes are accomplished with firm, yet relaxed grip of the pick and a rotation of the pick hand wrist similar to that of turning a key in a door.  EXAMPLE 1A shows “outside” picking at its most basic. After picking down on the B string, you’ll swing back around, to the outside of the high E string, and strike the string with an upstroke, swinging back around the outside of the B string and striking it with a downstroke, etc. EXAMPLE1B is the opposite, “inside” picking, going down on the high E and coming back up inside the E and B with an upstroke on the B.

Rip Up the Fretboard with Three-Note-Per-String Pentatonics

October 31, 2024
As guitar players' tastes and abilities evolve, and they begin to gravitate toward an appreciation for, and desire to learn, more technically demanding music, the pentatonic scale often gets a bad rap. It's often considered cliché and not as impressive as three-note-per string (3NPS) diatonic scales.  But if you love loud, distorted guitar, somewhere early on in your development as a player you were turned on to the minor pentatonic “box” shape, such as the Am pentatonic in EXAMPLE 1A, and its adjacent shape, the C major (A minor’s relative major) “box” in EXAMPLE 1B . Mindful of the redundant notes shared between the shapes, EXAMPLE1C combines the two boxes into one 3NPS scale. Unfortunately, while this 3NPS fingering immediately opens up a myriad of technical possibilities for re-harmonizing any already perfected diatonic run, there can sometimes be a problem with repeated “double” notes as you cross from string to string.

Paul Gilbert-Style, Sequenced String-Skipping Arpeggios

October 31, 2024
One of the especially cool things about a guitar is the fact that there are almost always at least a few ways to play the same notes. This fact allows (and forces) us guitarists to explore the different possibilities available through experimentation with alternate fingerings, picking strategies and phrasing. Often, while there are many ways to play the exact same notes, there is usually a “magic” fingering and picking pattern that allows for the easiest and most effective execution of the phrase. As an advocate of this “following the path of least resistance”-type of efficiency, guitar guru Paul Gilbert has come up with a great deal of influential ideas, but one of his most useful and technically streamlined is that of string skipping arpeggios. With this technique, instead of playing the common “finger-rolled barre” or similarly inefficient sweep picked arpeggio shape depicted in EXAMPLE1a , you would move the B string note to its equivalent on the G string and switch to alternate picking instead of sweep picking ( EXAMPLES1b and 1c ).  EXAMPLES2a-c and 3a-c show the major and minor flat 5 shapes, respectively.

Guitar Strength: A Guide to Shape-Shifting, Part 2

October 31, 2024
In the last installment of Guitar Strength, I showed you how to take a simple two-string fretboard shape and move it across three octaves in order to create long, fluid lines that traverse a wide range. This time around, I’ll demonstrate how to take the technique to the next level by combining “neighboring” shapes.  Example 1 , based in A Harmonic Minor (A,B,C,D,E,F,G#), takes two consecutive six-note scale shapes and repeats them over three octaves. After ascending through three octaves with the first two shapes, the lick continues into a third shape, which creates a new set of shapes (the third and the second) for the descent through the pattern. Note how adding the second shape helps smooth the intervallic transition from octave to octave and allows for a more fluid physical shift from position to position (since the 2nd shape is always in essentially the same position as the next octave of the first shape going up and the third shape coming down). As a bonus, sequencing the scale in this fashion has a very “wave-like” melodic flow relative to the beat and is also kick-ass practice for mastering the transitions between “inside” and “outside” picking (More on that here).

Guitar Strength: A Guide to Shape-Shifting, Part 2

October 31, 2024
In the last installment of Guitar Strength, I showed you how to take a simple two-string fretboard shape and move it across three octaves in order to create long, fluid lines that traverse a wide range.  This time around, I’ll demonstrate how to take the technique to the next level by combining “neighboring” shapes. Example 1 , based in A Harmonic Minor (A,B,C,D,E,F,G#), takes two consecutive six-note scale shapes and repeats them over three octaves. After ascending through three octaves with the first two shapes, the lick continues into a third shape, which creates a new set of shapes (the third and the second) for the descent through the pattern. Note how adding the second shape helps smooth the intervallic transition from octave to octave and allows for a more fluid physical shift from position to position (since the 2nd shape is always in essentially the same position as the next octave of the first shape going up and the third shape coming down). As a bonus, sequencing the scale in this fashion has a very “wave-like” melodic flow relative to the beat and is also kick-ass practice for mastering the transitions between “inside” and “outside” picking (More on that here).
More Posts
Share by: