L

INTERMEDIATE
E

S METAL GURU RUSTY COOLEY

S Single-Note Brutality
O
N It’s hard to make a lone note sound brutal and per-bar riff like Ex. 2, which is also from “I
S crushing in its effect on the listener. Strike that Thanitos.” Honestly, analyzing rhythms is not
same note repeatedly, though, and—with the my strong suit. That’s because rather than
right tone and a steady attack—that note, like time signatures, I prefer to think in rhythmic
a jackhammer, has a penetrating effect in a pulses. What I mean by this is that instead of
short amount of time. Listen to your average counting the numbers one through five for
jackhammer, and its repeating pulses might every four sixteenth-notes as the time signa-
sound to you like sixteenth-notes—fast, steady, ture suggests, I focus on the riff’s phrasing. I
and punishing to the core, but a bit tiresome on count each bar’s 20 pulses like this: one-two-
the ears. Things get a lot more interesting three, one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-
when you throw in an additional note in a clever three, one-two, one-two, one-two-three-four.
way. As you’ll see when you get more familiar with
Ex. 1, a single-note riff from “I Thanitos” this lick (which, by the way, I also play down a
(which will appear on my band Outworld’s fourth on the recorded version), that pattern of
soon-to-be-released debut), features only two counting corresponds closely with the riff’s
different notes per bar, and the rhythm—not melodic contour. —As told to Jude Gold g
unlike some jackhammers—is straight-up
one-e-and-a sixteenth-notes all the way
through. But the pattern of alternation
between the two pitches (the rhythm that
repeats in each bar) is what, I think, gives the
HUH?
riff its moxie. It’s written for 6-string here, but if The term single-note riff can be mis-
you really want to give the lick muscle, play it leading to newbies because its name
down a string—that is, down a fourth in implies a lick that has only one note. If
pitch—as I do on my 7-string. that were the case, then the riffs of
This approach is also a blast in odd meters. Yngwie Malmsteen, Buckethead, Al
Add a note and add one beat per measure, Di Meola, Django Reinhardt, and
and you might come up with a 5/4 three-notes- other black-belt single-noters would
be bonehead simple to play. “Single
note” means only one note is
sounded at a time—even if the riff is
EX. 1 crammed with a zillion pitches and
Mercilessly passes by at light speed.
 = 116
0:28

4 
4                  ()     

































                    
palm mute 6 etc.

T  
A 3 3 3 33 33 2 2 2 22 22 1 1 1 11 11 2 2 2 22 22
B
EX. 2 11 11 1 11 11 11 11 1 11 11 11 11 1 11 11 11 11 1 11 11 11
Brutally
 = 116
1:12

5
4  






























             
             
etc.

T  
A
B 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 1

O C T O B E R 2 0 0 5 G U I TA R P L AY E R P H O TO : B O B B Y W I L L I A M S O N