Chords for Billy Sheehan's Secret Trick

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[G] Most everything I know didn't come from me sitting down and practicing.
[D] I was playing [E] live in bands all the time.
Later [Gb] on,
I remember doing my first couple clinics and I'd be playing and somebody would say,
so where's your thumb on your left hand?
And I would go,
there!
It's right there apparently.
I didn't consciously do it.
I bring that up because I didn't consciously try to _ _ create
a three-finger technique.
I was trying to [G] play music
and I needed more fingers to play the music I needed to play. _ _
The natural motion of your fingers seems to be that direction.
You're nervous [E] about something.
Generally, it will be that direction.
So it made sense that [E] _ now, _ why three instead of four?
Three seemed to be the same size.
Those are all the same size.
This one [A] sticks up a little bit.
_ But in fact, when I flatten out my hand
and bend my fingers, I can kind of get them flat so that they're flat against the strings there.
[A]
But basically, _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Now, that's 3's.
1 of the, 1 of the, 1 of the, 1 of the.
Now, I'm also trying to get 4 out of this.
_ _ [Gb] _ _
_ _ _ I'm getting 4 with 3.
So just like a drummer had to play 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.
One lands on a different finger each time.
So I go 1, 2, 3, 4,
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, [Em] 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.
Repeat, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1.
[Eb] So I'll try to accent the one by accenting a different finger each time to get that group of four.
[D] _ _
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_ [B] Try and get four out of three.
It allows you three fingers to pick with, which means_ _ _
[Gb] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ [D] So you [F] can generally get a fast grouping.
And my fingers aren't really moving fast at all.
Now a lot of notes are going by_
_ _ _ _ _ But in fact, my fingers aren't moving fast.
They're just a coordinate.
I'm just going_
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_ [D] _ _ _ _ One secret trick that when I first realized it, I thought I could never tell anybody this,
because everybody's going to figure out, and I'm going to be out of a gig for sure. _
[G] And for years I didn't think I should tell anybody, but then again, [D] because I stole everything, I [G] might as well.
So I finally [E] decided to reveal the secret trick.
_ And the secret trick is_
Boy, it got quiet in here.
_ _ _ Is I'm playing on the pickup.
_ [B] _
And the string is in the way.
_ [G] The pickup doesn't move.
I've got the pickup encased [Ab] in epoxy, [A] locked down in there.
[D] _
_ So what happens is my fingers _ _ always [A] hit the string at the same spot, because they never go any farther than that.
They drag over, and it hits on the same _ _ spot every time.
[C] _ _ _
So it gets a real consistent _ sound.
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[D] It helps speed it right along.
Don't ever think that you are less of a player, or that you have not accomplished something,
because you're not using whatever physical techniques you see from some other player.
They're completely unrelated.
It really has to do with their note choice and music more than anything else.
And sometimes [F] we lose our way.
We get [Gm] lost in this technique thing.
[F] We're thinking, oh, I'm going to play this.
And then we're thinking, well, my hand's got to [G] be_
And there's no [D] music going on.
[Eb] We've lost the music thing.
So [Ab] that's why I mentioned at the [E] beginning of this that it did actually come from [Gm] wanting to play music first.
[F] And wanting to get [D] those notes out, and wanting to get that sound or those tones out.
[G] That's what drove it.
If your goal is just to have amazing technique, you'll probably never get it.
But if your goal is just to be an artist and a player, [E] and make some incredible music,
your technique will follow suit.
It'll follow you around like a little wagon dragging behind you.
It'll occasionally catch up to you.
And I really think that's the way it works.
And I like to preach about that a lot too, because I do think a lot of guys get lost in this technique thing.
And they've got to play, and they've got to have three fingers, and they've got to be able to slap,
and they've got to do the upstroke on their thumb, slapping.
It's okay.
If your music is working, it's working. _ _ _ _
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