Chords for Paul Gilbert - Guitar secrets

_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ [E] _ All right, thank you for watching today.
This is Paul Gilbert, and today I want to introduce you
to a neck diagram that I made.
This is really similar to what I use a lot when I'm trying to
memorize new shapes on the guitar.
A lot of times I'll print out some neck paper, and I'll write
out [D] whatever shape it is.
A really simple example would be a D chord.
It kind of looks like a
triangle.
I mean, every guitar player knows a D chord, so you're familiar with that [Gb] triangular
shape.
But if you're trying to learn something a little trickier, it helps to be able to study it
visually to memorize it so you know where to put your fingers.
So today I want to show you a couple
things that [Ab] the neck paper, or in this case the neck diagram, will help you with.
I want to show
you first of all a simple string skipping arpeggio, [D] and that one is going to be_
I'm going to do one
in the key of A minor.
It's going to look like this.
We're going to have an A on the D string
there.
That represents where you put your finger.
Then we're going to put the third there, the fifth
there.
We're not going to use the B string, and we're going to go up here to the A and the C.
So I don't know, that sort of looks like a_
maybe it's a rhombus, but it doesn't matter what it looks
like.
You just have to memorize that shape.
[Am] Here are the notes, _
[G] _ _ [Am] and you can use a lot of hammer-on
and pull-off techniques because it's two notes per string, _ _ and you have that one on the bottom. _
_ _ _ _ _ I'm not picking every note.
I'm using the fact that it's two notes per string to do hammer-ons,
only picking the first note, hammer-on, hammering on the second, and when I descend, doing the
opposite, picking the first note and pulling [C] off.
That makes it much easier, you know, if you have
to pick everything, you've got to [Bb] jump over that B string each time, but if you do hammer-ons and
[Am] pull-offs, it makes the picking a whole lot easier, and I think it makes the sound of it smoother as well. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ So that's actually_
I just wanted to show you that quickly so I can show you something
which I think is very cool, and sort of an unusual coincidence.
If you take this whole shape
[B] and transpose it up into the key of C minor, let's see what that looks like.
[Cm] Okay, so here is
exactly the same lick in C minor.
[C] _ _ _ [A] Now, the reason I put it up here is one day I decided I wanted to
explore the entire neck and find every single place I could possibly [E] bend a cool note in the
key of A.
You know, A blues, that kind of, you know, most people when they're playing A blues, they bend here
[G] _
or they bend here, or maybe they bend_
_ [Am] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A]
But I wanted [C] to know, I thought bending is important.
It's one of the most_
_ things that really brings out emotion and character out of the guitar, so I don't want to
be limited to that position.
I want to be able to bend everywhere, and as I was searching for the
places to bend, I realized that in the key of A, this C minor triad lick, if you bend each string,
_ [Eb] _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ [F] those all sound really good in the key of A.
It's just a coincidence.
There's [G] no
really music theory here.
[Ab] It's just a happy accident of fingering.
[F] Now, if you don't bend them,
it would be a horrible_
It's not going to_
It's going to sound kind of out of tune and not too good.
And each one, you also have to know how far to bend.
[B] The first one is a half-step bend
_ [Am] to fit in the key of A.
[A] _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] The next one is also kind of a half-step bend, or even less, like_
[Db] It's just like a quarter bend, even.
_ [G] _
_ _ _ _ [C] So, [G] the next one is a whole step.
_ _ _ _ It's good practice,
because you have to use your pinky on that one.
_ _ [Eb] Then we get another half bend, [D] _ another [Am] half,
or even less.
_ [Em] So, I love the sound of this, [E] especially if you skip around.
Maybe do this
note and this note as octaves, [Eb] like_
_ [D] Then maybe this one and this one, so it'd be [G] like_ _
_ And then go back to your typical ones in fifth position, _ _
_ _ [Eb] _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
and I love the sound of that.
I want
to be able to bend everywhere. _ _ _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ [Bb] _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ [Gm] So, please explore the neck and find as many places as possible where
you can bend.
Sometimes it's even cool to pick a purposefully bad note, a note that you know
does not fit in the scale, and bend it [E] until it does.
For example, maybe one of the worst notes
you could pick in the key of A [Bb] would be B-flat.
That one's_
That one, in a [Eb] blues kind of sound,
is going to be really ugly.
So, don't stay on it long.
Just immediately bend it, you [A] know_
_ _ [C] _ _ [D] _
And it'll give you this maniacal bend that really, in [Gb] context, sounds amazing, because you have to
just bend it like crazy in order to get it up to a place where it's going [Eb] to sound good. _
And even though, you know, it ends up sounding like you meant to do that, which you did, of course.
And that's it.
Keep on bending those strings.
You need calluses in order to bend strings.
That was
one of the best pieces of advice that my uncle Jimmy ever gave me.
He said, you need calluses
on your left hand, you need to mute with your palm, and you need to practice
all the time.
So, I tried to follow those three rules, [E] and bending _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [Am]
is one of the most important.
And of course, this is also [Cm] useful as _
_ _ _ [Gm] a rip and arpeggio lick.
So, you've got two licks
for the price of one.