The Guitar Techniques of Joe Satriani, Oct. 10, 2013, Centre In The Square

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I could probably write a book about Joe Satriani and his guitar playing,  When I found out he was coming to CITS  www.centreinthesquare.com, I pulled out two songs of his to teach my students.  One of his most popular, Satch Boogie and the melodic ballad  Always With Me, Always With You.

Satriani has an incredible loyal following and after going through the songs note by note, I think I know why now.  Great playing – yes!  But when we looked at the details we saw his tight compositional techniques.

Joe doesn’t waste a lot of notes and we all know he can shred.  But he waits and puts those notes where they need to be.

In Always With Me, Always With You:  (have a listen on Youtube)

1. It isn’t until bar 57 where Joe lets use with a flurry of notes and by waiting he creates tension.  When he finally delivers it, it is only for three bars or so until he returns to quarter notes, half notes and playing very melodically.

2. Satriani the composer has to release at some point and he does this near the end with a syncopated tapping technique.  That is, his tapping accents are on the second sixteenth note, rather than the first.

3. Speaking of offbeats.  How does Joe play such a melodic line without it sounding too simple?  Easy.. well not so easy actually.  Though he is playing longer tones,  his phrasing is on different beats.  Such as, he starts the melody on beat three.  When he replays the melody, he starts it on beat two.  We have an exercise for learning how to do that on KW Guitar Tip #14 – just scroll down and you will eventually see it.

Next post I will find some details to analyse in Satch Boogie.  Until then don’t forget to click to follow us and click to win free tickets at  www.facebook.com/BobsGuitarService

Stephen Zurakowsky

Artistic Director