Gate Govan gets othe i ‘groove withthe gid : func rythm itor F i u Theron tne oes eng tele ve an \. os j Steen : s i Ea TOWER O Tre Guthrie Govan pays tribute to the tightest band on the planet by pairs teyen te jamming in every guitarist’s favourite key... | ‘sah he woe fore we get started Ti ike to so space is really ata premium and every note sr cle reader to ch out has to he placed ih ste and precision 10 Keep train ton Come a corse some recordings by the the groove sounding tight without geting righty Tower of Power Cluttered. The @€CD band, i contrast, Features ‘Whether you're a devotee of ‘bass and drums onl, so there's alot more hat soulful funk vibe ora Breathing space on the acing track, and | frecly acai that the ‘wouldn't last more than wo Seconds in the iscover an inspiring demonstration oF just how cOmText 0 fower of Power track ('d have well group of musicians cam work together, each to loses c fora star player doing what's best fr the However, the general feel of the hacking cack fs putting self-indulgence before fe! IF needed that the whole can be greater than the sam of ts pans. ‘dn the CD demo I've concocted a title groove inspired by tis fine upstanding band and only guide provided a numberof ideas which you can mix the e900 track find match to come up with your own guitar par I's worth pointing out that the ral Tower of Ifyou give the demo tane a quick spa, you'll Power comprises a comprehensive line-up of notice that is based on a four-bar loop, with a player (neoding that Iendary horn steion®, _recuring igure joining the end ofeach Toop to earths = be ond band member tho specialises in an altogether different style of music, youl Proof indeed, finly authentic and the idea of the guitar partis (0 show a selection of common funk approaches which you could apply to any groove in cls vein Fxperiment, as always, ad let your ears be yourthe start ofthe next (the passage starting with the Jead-in bar of the rranserption and ending on at 2 of bar 1, with that second stab on E7, is the fst example of the aforementioned igure) This part offers a litle stability and consisteney to he groove, while the sections in between are a litle more vague and open to Interpretation, For these in-berween sections, Your harmonic reference-poitt Is an E7 chard, which you could tackle with an E Mixolydian mode: RRS INTE: cof Gh A B OOD Fora grit, less anny’ effec, ry using the Em blues scale 4 sow a BOD Asis so often the case with music descended fram the blues, dhe ruth les somewhere beseen the ‘eo, and youl hear a mixture of minor and major thirds on the demo. Rhythmically, there is an underlying sbeteenth-note feel throughout the ‘tack, so your picking hand should be moving constantly to mark this: if you count “ie+2, 2e43, 3e4a, cea! foreach ber, your hand should be moving downwards on the numbers and the ands, with upstrokes forthe vowels in between This am invaluable aid to Keeping time; in audition, It enables you to feel he syncopation in the music. other words, if you want 10 ‘omphasise the Funkiness of the grvove, uy to accent more of the points inthe bar where your picking hand is moving upwards. IF ital gets @ Dit messy, revert to emphasising the more )bvious-sounding downstrokes for a more ‘solid sound all the while, that constantly moving i rand has been keeping time lke your very own macyetan Prod uthrie’s estCD gear Te CD ison sera th my oe Type sp ons eredpran eg tg ote a Ts ‘ene troughs Mahal MPO wth he Cran ame Woh Gan bass Mid Ted Pras v7 7 3 4 6 6 The Bas Sh eet 1 Diological metronome! ‘eaving said all cht, there are couple of points on the track (bars 13 and 17) where 1 ‘could’ resis rowing in some 32nd notes for a {ouch of the Sister Sledge vite; tis should be used sparingly, if at all, but if you're curious about how its done, the key Isto relax your “wrist, send it into a “quivering kind of motion, and aim forthe next normal 16th note. Inbar 13, for Instance, your goal isc land on beat 3 with a nice positive downstroke, and if you aim to gee that in ime then the snare-ol-like flury of dead notes leading up to it should (witha bit of practice) take care of itself. Note that you're covering fewer strings per pickstroke when you're loin these 32nd-note passages, that way your hand doesn’t have 19 work as hard and the dynamics seem to come out litle more eventy ‘Have fun jamming with the CD, bite that Dottom lip uit it bleeds, and I lave you with 3 Dit of philosophy - TOP's curren guitarist, JefT ‘amelie, describing his role i the band. “My number one thinking s to be the glue Dbetween (drummer) Dave Garibaldi and (bassist) Rocco Presta. Those guys play so tight that ve hasially got tobe the thread between them, so | tay w pick up on some sort of rhythm patter that Jocks with them.” an dere pitch, and hey ae normaly exceed by picking seg with our ght le and further listening Chechen ay of te Tove of Foner ck aaoque tate parr foe rin cleselanes frown verhythm guitar | ‘tower of power style | = | apt gp fe teil bit 46 | se s wy 4 | A z + a Seu sa — = — rl ‘ i sot ie a an en er er ey er ‘guitar technieques | december 2000 | wwwntesmusiccomee ww Lpbet nti taf we Hoe te (iar kee ate — a wow sw e” ft) ae AES SESEESESSSES = We | secembcr 2000 | aumartecnntanes exrhythm guitar tower of power style Inlassociation\with es 4 wow mus wet Hwee