Randy Rhoads was one such player.

Joining forces with singer Ozzy

Osbourne in 1979, Rhoads burst onto the metal scene like a bolt from the
blue.
He was blessed with dazzling chops and an innate comprehension of music
theory, and his style had a perfect blend of flash and melodic structure.
Flowing legato sections segued to impossibly fast, palm-muted picking
passages; incendiary trills and daring chromatic maneuvers coexisted
with classically influenced melodiesall of which were derived from a
seemingly inexhaustible supply of scales and arpeggios and laid out
across an ever-shifting rhythmic landscape.
What's more, Rhoads was so precise that he could seamlessly double-track
anything he played, for maximum sonic density.
Sadly, only three recordings/Blizzard of Ozz, Diary of a Madman, /and
/Tribute/captured Rhoads' genius before a tragic airplane crash, in
1982, cut his life short. But the musicianship that lies within those
grooves is as stunning and inspirational today as it was then.
*Sequences and Scales*
Rhoads would often sprinkle a solo with a flurry of pentatonic pull-offs
such as those in *FIGURE 1*. Built from the A minor pentatonic scale
(A-C-D-E-G), this lick is inspired both by the opening moments of the
first solo in "Mr. Crowley" and by the fill just before the last verse
of "I Don't Know." It's interesting to note that while Rhoads possessed
the facility to rip through lines such as these using alternate picking,
he often chose a legato approach for a smoother, more flowing outcome.
*FIGURE 2* features a three-notes-per-string legato scale run inspired
by the solos in "Crazy Train," "Suicide Solution," and "Mr. Crowley."
This line zips up the A natural minor scale (A-B-C-D-E-F-G) in a
blinding flash of hammer-ons. Make sure you hammer firmly onto every
second and third note, striving for equal volume of the pick attacks.
*Blues Licks and Mixed Scales*
Rhoads was fond of the blues scale (1-b3-4- b5-5-b7), and often milked
its flatted 5th for all it was worth. For example, notice the emphasis
on the Bb in *FIGURE 3A*, an E blues (E-G-A-Bb- B-D) lick inspired by
the opening phrases of the "I Don't Know" solo. Rhoads often mixed
blues-scale licks with diatonic scales, and modes such as Aeolian
(natural minor), Phrygian (1-b2-b3-4-5-b6-b7), and harmonic minor
(1-2-b3-4-5-b6-7).
Reminiscent of the "Crazy Train" solo, *FIGURE 3B* offers a composite of
F# Aeolian (F#-G#-A-B-C#-D-E) and F# blues (F#-A-B-C-C#-E).
*Chromaticism*
Chromaticism is another hallmark of Rhoads's soloing style. His
chromatic techniques ran the gamut from the simple use of /tension
tones/ (notes that lie outside of pentatonic and diatonic scales) all
the way to full-blown chromatically modulating passages such as the ones
found in *FIGURES 4A-B*.

*FIGURE 4A* is similar to a move Rhoads used in "S.A.T.O.," where a

minor-3rd hammer-on is moved down in half steps. Notice that the lick
starts on two solid chord tones (G and E, the b3rd and root), then
chromatically targets two resolving tones (D and B, the b7th and 5th).
*FIGURE 4B* features one of Rhoads' pet motifs: a descending fournote
slice of a scale patternin this case, F-E-D-C of the D minor scale
(D-E-F-G- A-Bb-C). Ascending chromatically, the palm-muted quadruplets
hit sonic fruition with an Ab-G-F sequence over the Fm chord.
*FIGURE 5* features another of the guitarist's favorite chromatic ploys,
this one involving major and minor triads, along with partial 7th-chord
arpeggios, moving along the top two strings.
In this example, an A minor triad (A-C-E) moves up in half steps, then
segues to the upper portion of an Am7 arpeggio (A-C-E-G), which also
ascends chromatically. *FIGURE 6* breaks the bounds of chromaticism with
a pick-tapped trill that ascends in pitch via a gradual bend executed
with the fret hand's 4th finger. Notice that, again, the example begins
and ends on solid chord tones (G# and B [/3rd and 5th/], and B and D
[/5th and b7th/]).
*Tapping and Trills*
Unlike many of his peers in the early Eighties, Rhoads avoided jumping
on Eddie Van Halen's tapping bandwagon. When he did choose to tap,
though, the results were stunning, as the sequence in *FIGURE 7*
reveals. In the style of the breathtaking climax of the "Flying High
Again" solo, the example follows a double-tap/pull-off/hammer-on
sequence constructed from triads that outline the changes. Some of the
most dazzling Randy Rhoads moments are often mistaken for tapped
excursions.
One such passage is the open string-pull-off extravaganza that occurs
midway though his solo in the live version of "Suicide Solution," where
he dispatches a sizzling array of triads and partials along the 1st
[*FIGURE 8*] and 2nd strings.
Rhoads also had a penchant for classically influenced trills (two notes
played in rapid alternation). He would use them to outline the chord
tones of specific changes, as seen in *FIGURE 9*, where the notes of an
Fb7 arpeggio (F-Ab-Cb-D) are alternated with notes a half step below.
*The Solo*
The solo [*FIGURE 10*] is a 15-bar rocker in the style of songs like "I
Don't Know," "Flying High Again" and "Crazy Train." The first half
(measures 1-8) sits firmly in the key of F# minor, riding a
i-bVI-bVII-i-bIII-iv-Vsus-V progression (F#m-D-E-F#m-A-Bm-C#7sus4-C#).
Measures 9-12 serve as a bridge, with modulating I-vi cadences (D-Bm and
E-C#m) in the temporary keys of D and E major. Measure 13 signals a
march back up (bVI- bVII-v-i; D-E-C#m-F#m) to the resolving i-bVII-i
(F#m-E-F#m) chordal riff.
The solo opens, in typical Rhoadsian fashion, with a head-turning
pinch-harmonic bend. To execute this two-octave harmonic, attack the G
string aggressively with the side of your pick, simultaneously brushing
the string with the side of your pick hand's thumb; the ideal position
for this contact is right above the rear edge of the neck pickup.

Next comes a pull-off flurry made up of F# blues and F# Aeolian scales,

followed by a tremolo-picked E major pentatonic (E-F#-G#- B-C#) climb.
(Tremolo picking, in which notes are picked as rapidly and continuously
as possible, was another Rhoads staple). An F# minor pentatonic
(F#-A-B-C#-E) wrap-up (measure 4) mirrors the opening lick.
In measure 5, a short melodic passage capped with a quick trill nods to
"Crazy Train," then segues to a brief Rhoads motif (see *FIGURE 4B*).
Instead of moving chromatically, as expected, the motif spills into a
three-notes-per-string B Dorian (B-C#-D-E-F#-G-F#) run (see *FIGURE 2*).
C# Phrygian dominant (C#-D-E#-F#-G#-A-B; fifth mode of F# harmonic
minor) provides the melodic framework for the chromatically enhanced
legato phrasing of bars 7-8.
The fireworks in measures 9-10 are inspired by the open-string pull-off
concepts described in *FIGURE 8*. Accenting the first and fourth note in
each sextuplet should give you the propulsion needed for this rapid
passage. A six-note patterndown five scale steps, then up onelies at
the heart of the E major pentatonic phrase in measure 11. Visualize the
pattern before putting the entire phrase together. In measure 12 a C#m7
arpeggio is laid out almost entirely on the G string; keep your eye on
the 9th fret in order to hit it precisely.
The trills come fast and furious in the next measure. Targeting the
notes of a D major triad (D-F#-A) will guide you through this
quarter-note-triplet passage. Finally, a relatively simple run up the E
major pentatonic scale and a pair of dyads (F#/C# and E/B) provide a
logical and musical conclusion to the solo. Now that we've gone through
the solo bit by bit, look back over it and take note of its the rhythmic
diversityyet another characteristic of Rhoads' brilliant soloing work.