As a rhythm player, Herbert uses many
harmonic inversions, harmonized power
chords, and extended chords such as 9s and
13s, often playing them with muted chugging,
triplets, and the reverse gallop. For
this lesson, however, I want to focus on his
lead guitar talents. Of all the guitarists I’ve
worked with, I think Herbert uses the widest
variety of scales in his leads. His choices of
exotic scales such as Hungarian minor give
his leads flair and distinction.
Let’s look at some lines inspired by the
lead from the All That Remains song
“Become the Catalyst.” In this solo, Herbert
rips through some lines using the E
Hungarian minor scale and chromatic passing
tones. The Hungarian minor scale is
identical to the harmonic minor scale,
except we sharp the 4th degree. The E Hungarian
minor scale consists of E, F#, G, A#,
B, C, D#, E. Check out the diagrams in
Fig. 1 to hear the sound of this scale. Those
of you that have dabbled in blues know the
#4, or b5 is the blues tritone note. Kinda
cool…a little blues flavor in a metal solo.
Now play through the lead in Ex. 1. The
phrasing is pretty straightforward—triplets for
the most part. It’s the note choices that are
really unique. Once you get these runs and
stretches under your fingers, you can download
and play with the bass and drum track for
this solo at RockHouseMethod.com. Happy
shredding! g
John McCarthy is the creator of the Rock
House Method.