Nice article on playing like Alex.

[hunter]

I had not seen this before and thought maybe others might find it interesting too.

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[CygnusX-1Bk2]

Nice. All of this information is very solid. My only real issue is the second transcription for Jacob's Ladder. This song is about alternating even and odd time signatures. It should be an alternating pattern like the first transcription. So to write it as 13/8, while it can be written this way, a more correct "spelling" would be to alternate 6/8 and 7/8. In addition the position of where to play is made unnecessarily difficult by adding the 9th fret into what I refer to as the "rain drop" pattern. If one plays those notes on higher strings in the 4th fret then the fret hand can remain in the same position covering a 4 fret spread instead of having to slide up the neck 2 frets. When moving the pattern to F# simply slide down 2 frets and start the pattern on the low E string at the 2nd fret (F#). On bass this pattern moves up to F# at the 9th fret, doubled in the same octave as the guitar. One of the many very cool things about this song.

 

Nice post!

[the masked drummer]

QUOTE (CygnusX-1Bk2 @ Apr 4 2012, 02:52 PM)

Nice. All of this information is very solid. My only real issue is the second transcription for Jacob's Ladder. This song is about alternating even and odd time signatures. It should be an alternating pattern like the first transcription. So to write it as 13/8, while it can be written this way, a more correct "spelling" would be to alternate 6/8 and 7/8. In addition the position of where to play is made unnecessarily difficult by adding the 9th fret into what I refer to as the "rain drop" pattern. If one plays those notes on higher strings in the 4th fret then the fret hand can remain in the same position covering a 4 fret spread instead of having to slide up the neck 2 frets. When moving the pattern to F# simply slide down 2 frets and start the pattern on the low E string at the 2nd fret (F#). On bass this pattern moves up to F# at the 9th fret, doubled in the same octave as the guitar. One of the many very cool things about this song. Nice post!

It would be more helpful if I were a kid trying to learn Jacob's ladder, to be written as the two alternating signatures. The way it was I just had to get it drilled into my head from listening 1,000 times to the mono tape deck amplified thru some crappy speakers, in my case. Put in plain English, a larger numerator which adds two or more measures of differing signatures captures how many beats before it repeats, but does not describe the subdivisions within that number of beats. A musician would have to listen to it and see where the divisions are and play accordingly anyway. So, to me, the 13/8 time Cyg is talking about is good for economy on the part of the transcriber but incomplete to the musician. For instance, if a band handed a drummer a chart that had a 23/8 time section, like a king crimson tune, there's no way the said drummer would be able to play along with it without having heard how the pieces fit together. If you had a chart that spelled all that out, you could be more accurate of a time keeper on a dry run without ever hearing it.

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

Trying to count to 13 is more difficult than counting to 6 then counting to 7. That and when dealing with odd time signatures one needs to be able to recognize where the feel/pulse changes and how to "turn around" at those points. One of the first articles I ever read in my first Modern Drummer Magazines from the early 80's was an interview with Paul Wertico who talked about long Indian style measures of 21, 23, 28 and so on. Essentially he talked about breaking down those long times into groups of 2s and 3s. This makes complete sense when thinking of simple and compound meter, which is exactly the same thing. Let's think about Hyperspace. Instead of your standard 7/8 that pattern can be broken down into two groups of 2 followed by a group of 3 which can be counted as 1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3. Economizing time signatures is ok when it has it's place and there are different philosophies about this but generally 12 is the highest numerator you will see, and that is usually reserved for a 4 triplet feel a la a doubled 6/8. Now the 6/8 in Jacob's Ladder is not that feel because of the alternating with 7/8 which is the dominant rhythmic feel of that section so the 6/8 ultimately becomes a "broken" 7/8 with the final 8th note dropped. This is how I understand the feel of that section personally.

[Perchance to Dream]

Very cool article. Thanks for posting!

 

You can really see the influence that Pete Townshend had on Alex Lifeson as he was well known for playing around with a lot of open strings.

 

[Maverick]

I saw this article in the GP magazine. It may have even been delivered to me, rather than me standing in Books-A-Million like an idiot reading through the whole thing.

 

Lifeson was a huge influence on me as a young guitarist. I had the first Rush Anthology song book, and in it were most of the chord references made in the article - the sus2 and sus4 chords, the open string chords, and the top string triads.

 

It is interesting that F#7add11 is called The Hemisphere Chord much the same way as E7#9 is referred to as The Hendrix Chord.

 

I agree with Cygnus about writing Ex. 14b out as 6/8 and 7/8. Even know when I play that pattern, I can't help but count it out like that. I can't imagine counting the whole thing out to 13. And the tab is wrong. You should never go to the 9th fret on the D string. There is a very easy pattern to play, and to shifts down to the F# very nicely as well.

[HowItIs]

Thank you! I've been trying and have learned a few of his tricks. Replicating them is a whole 'nother matter, though!