OK, I worked most of this stuff out because I listen to the two albums far
too much! They're my personal two favorite albums of all time and they've
helped me through so much...I've always wanted to be able to play and
write guitar music like that. So, I decided, what am I waiting for, learn
now! I worked out a few things that can really help your songs have
that great sound, so I thought I'd share them with you :)
The Set Up:
I use a Marshall amp, with a nice warm clean sound (I find everything on full
except treble at 12 o'clock good and a neck pickup, mine's a single coil,
but I imagine a Humbucker would sound good too), and various pedals such as
a Digitech Delay, Marshall Supervibe Chorus Pedal (a great, cheap alternative
to the Dunlop Uni-Vibe), and a Boss V-Wah. I know the Dunlop Wah is what
most people have, but I find the Boss V-Wah to be far superior, even if it
does lack the tag "classic".
For a "Machete" style solo, I slap on the wah and a bit of delay through a
nice, distorted channel.
The Chords:
There are a few chords that seem to turn up on at least half of the songs on
the two albums.
There are three major ones, which are:
e----7----7----5-----------------------------------------
B----0----0----0-----------------------------------------
G----5----7----5-----------------------------------------
D----7----5----3-----------------------------------------
A----0----0----0-----------------------------------------
E--------------------------------------------------------
These seem to crop up in countless songs such as "Ghost: Part 1 & 2",
"Machete" and "Way To Heaven" to mention three. They are picked in different
patterns, although the high e-string is normally left out on Colma. Don't
ask why, I don't know. A pattern I came up with that demonstrates how easy
it is to make an 'Electric Tears' style riff is:
e----------7-------
B------------0-----
G------5-------5---
D----7---7-------7-
A--0---------------
E------------------
This works quite nicely and is actually one of the reasons I decided to
write this - so I could show it off (lol)!
Other chords that seem to fit quite well are:
e-----------------3----1-
B--1----1----1----2----1-
G--2----0----2----0----2-
D--2----2----3----0----3-
A--0----3----0----2----3-
E-----------------3----1-
A good example of how the whole lot fit together is the "Way To Heaven"
riff, which appears to be the full thing. The chords will always be in the
same order, but Buckethead mixes and matches which chords to drop and which
ones he leaves in. So, some chords in the order are missed out but the rest
are played in the order of "Way To Heaven". Sorry, if this seems confusing,
what I'm trying to say is, see "Way To Heaven" as the blueprint, the full
thing, then cut parts of it out to make new riffs.
"The Way To Heaven" riff, with thanks to Martin Wong.
---------7----------------7----------------7----------------7-----------
-------0---0------------0---0------------0---0------------0---0---------
-----5-------5--------5-------5--------7-------7--------7-------7-------
---7-----------7----7-----------7----5-----------5----5-----------5-----
-0----------------0----------------0----------------0-------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------5----------------5----------------0----------------------------
-------0---0------------0---0------------1---1--------------------------
-----5-------5--------5-------5--------2-------2--------0------0--------
---3-----------3----3-----------3----2-----------2----2------0-------2--
-0----------------0----------------0----------------3------2-------3----
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope that was clear!
The Lead Technique:
For the solos, there are two distinct styles... on Electric Tears, there
is little if no string bending. This can be hard as most of us are used to
using string bending as a great expressive way to play guitar. However,
Buckethead uses timing and clever use of legato-style but slow picking to
make his solos as expressive as the instrument can be. Also, all the
acoustic guitars on the album have been finger-picked, which is a difficult
skill for people used to a plectrum, such as me. Again, this shows
Buckethead's awesome diversity in style and skill.
For Colma, my advice is this: slap on the wah and a slight delay, don't
get over enthusiastic with the speed and just let your soul pour out through
the guitar. I really don't know how to explain how to play these solos, you
have to been in the right mood and just be able to let your feelings flow
through the guitar. My time spent studying songs such as "For The Love of
God", or "Whispering A Prayer" by Steve Vai helped a lot playing these
songs, and I'd advise everyone to at least listen to the songs once to get
an idea of what I'm on about. An important skill is to be able to go from
emotional, slow guitar, to shred guitar to tapping to slow, emotional guitar
again without it sounding out of place, and those two songs are an ideal
demonstration of what I'm on about. Buckethead speaking, "Machete" is also a
good demo.
Other Stuff:
On Colma, Buckethead used drum loops and Bill Laswell contributed some
bass to give some songs a little extra meat. Something I really wanna try is
getting a drummer and bassist round some time when my parents are out and
jamming songs in a Colma style, just to see how it works...if anyone trys
this, please e-mail me, as I'm really interested to know how it goes.
That's all folks, hope it helped!
~Doug