MASTER CLASSKILLER CASCADES JOHNNY HILAND Demos the Art of Hot Country Open-String Riffs WHEN LES PAUL MET JOHNNY HILAND AND WITNESSED firsthand the Nashville virtuoso's singular brand ‘ofblazing hot country shred, the eer statesman of electric guitar asked the young cowboy, “Boy, what are you thinking about when you play?" Hiland answered, “Well, I guess I'm thinking about fishing next weekend. What about you?” Not tobe outdone, Paul saw Hiland’s nonchalance and raised him a shor ofthe ribald, replying, “Well, I tend to think of my wife's sister” Despite the none-too-serious nature of this ‘exchange, it got Hiland wondering: What do I think about when I'm playing guitar? “I realized,” shares Filan, “that being legally blind, 'm always wying to play it safe—at least in the sense of trying to remain in positon whenever possible—so I don't have to make long jumps up and down the neck Ymalways thinking about convenient ways toleave myself prepared for the next lick, Im lke a pool player trying to st himself up for the next shot.” Indeed, despite the fact his signature-model aul Reed Smith (a flame-topped beauty that ‘makes Hiland beam lke a proud father) has extra- large dot ret markers on its neck (which, being solid maple, seems a throwback to the custom Fender Telecasters Hiland was known for playing during the first years of his career), Hiland’s visual impaiement does affect his ability to leap up the neck and consistently land on the correct fret. “That's where open strings come in,” says Hiland. “They act asa convenient way to connect licks and phrases as I move across the fretboard, And it hardly matters what key you're playing in—there's always atleast one or two open pitches that will work as notes within licks and melodies. Most ofall, ove how accessible open-string licks are when you're burning super-fast country stuff. ‘They're great for adding a new color to your solos—for example ifyou have two solos in the same song, throw some cascades and other open- string stuff into the second one to give it a different sound from the fist. Open-string riffs give you such a unique tone, whether you're play~ ing lean or with distortion, rock or country.” ‘Whether Hiland is bustin’ out twangy hot-rod- ded hillbilly riffs at the lower Broadway honky tonks in Nashville or rocking out with Sammy GUITAR PLAYER ociosER 2005 OSGams LESsoNs Hagar (as he has on more than one occasion) ‘out on the West Coast, whether he’s leading ‘aclnicat a guitar school or taking an extended solo at a guitar festival, whether he's doing, session work with Hank Williams II and his personal hero Ricky Skaggs or tracking in Steve Vai's Hollywood studio (where Hiland recorded his eponymous full-length Favored Nations debut), the guitarist almost abways incorporates the lively jangle of open strings into his playing. ‘I all starts with scales,” says Hiland. “I used to sitin my room for hours practicing ll the different ways you can play a single scale. For instance take the G major scalo—this is the typical fingering most people are taught [x 4]. But flatpickers and bluegrass players G moj seale MASTER CLASS ‘would probably injec some open strings and pull-offs by playing it this way [Ex.2].” ‘To really get the cascading, harp sound, though, Hiland “opens things up” one step further. “Play the scale starting inthe sixth position and descend using pull-offs and ‘open strings soit really rings,” says Hiland, demonstrating with & 3. To give the scalea flowing, piano-with-the-sustain-pedal- ‘engaged sound, he lets the notes overlap in time and ring for as long as possible. And notice the use of hybrid picking—Hiland often plucks the open strings with the nail of his middle finger [m]. “Other scales are easy to play this way, too. Try C major [Ee.4] or take our G major scale and lower each F#to F and you have G Mixolydian [Ex 5] Whatever you play, the open strings will give ita whole new vibe.” A CASE OF THE BENDS Open-strings, insists Hiland, sound awe- some within single-note licks no matter what style you play. “Even with heavy distortion, they sound smokin’, because sometimes the ‘overtones get picked up, and you hear this really cool harmonic thing happening,” says Hiland. “Eventually, you'll want to throw in, some bends to get that pedal steel sounc.” Indeed, bent notes and open strings com- plement each other within the same lick the same way aces and kings complement each ‘other within a full house—very nicely. Hiland illustrates this fact with Ex.6, which, in CLAWS! What in the world are Johnny Hiland, Brent Mason, and other vile ‘wang:bangers doing hanging out in beauty salons? “Wel, toreally blaze when you're playing hybrid-style pck-and-fingers licks, youneed some ‘serious nals on your middle and rng fingers," says Hlland. Like other ‘hybrid pickers, he regulary has acrylic nae sppliod and manicured tothe fingers in question." used to use plain of d-k-yourselfpress-on nails, ‘but they often break—which ean really mess you up f you're inthe mid- dle of solo. Acrylic nals, though, are extremely tough. The only bumn- meri that f ike me, you lke todo tapped licks, you won't be able to ‘tap with your middle or ring finger, because the nall gets inthe way— ‘you'll have to shift your pick solt's held between the thumb and middle finger and tap with yourindex.” —6LESSONS == MASTER CLASS the second bar, features a sweet sounding oblique bend between the third and second strings. "My fist major influence was Ricky Skaggs, ‘who I saw perform when I was just ten years ‘ld, growing up in Maine,” says Hiland, "Now, ‘of course, Ricky used a B-bender, and there was nowhere in Maine to find a B-bender guitar, so I'd get out every Skaggs record and just sit around my room for hours matching notes. I didn’t actually understand the whole concept behind B-benders until later, $0 I devised ways to play all Ricky's string-bending licks on a standard guitar, just by trying to figure how he was getting ‘that sound. It really helped me earn to bend strings around.” “One reason love the pek-and: fingers ny style you ean ay your palm onthe brldge to control how much the open sing ing, which lows youre keep things realy sae whan you's burning fat of Iyegate and arp-tke if youre playing slow. Pus the hubs spprouch rally lets you play fes—even when you playing rock stuft"—Johany Hind major scale aa deson 67 —— HUH? ca Avatnakot platen gtr playing (bt ano pertermed tn 6atrng lecteur by everyone trom Carance We to Angus Young), an oblique tend occurs when a bent ote seunde at the same time 2 stationary (anbent} nee founds on another sing ‘swore eouw ‘urtan pLaver ocroger 2006 @?Gam LESSONS UPWARD SPIRAL ‘After reminding us to continually pursue scalar cascades in as many different keys as possible (“Try a D7-type scale [tx 71"), Hiland proceeds to share some of his most agressive cascade kung fa yet. amples @ and 9 present upward avalanches of triplets, and each sounds like water raging backwards up a jagged waterfall “These are great licks for opening solos with,” says Hiland, “Notice that while the picking pattern is down-down middle, I don't sweep-pick the fist two notes of every triplet ghe sereee MASTER CLASS as one might expect—I pick the notes sep- arately with «wo individual pick downstrokes, because that keeps the triplets even, Sweep- pick “em, and you may lose that perfectly even banjo-roll sound we're after. “Once you get the picking down, these licks become quite accessible, and you'll find they're easy to grab onto and throw into your solos. Then, you'll find other ways of play- ing them. Instead of triplets, rhythmically reconfigure the down-down-middle pattern using even eighth-notes (Ex. 1]. And find ways to put interesting tags on the end of 9B ocro9ce 2008 euTAR PLAYER your cascades [Examples 11 and i.” A LOOK AHEAD It’s worth remembering that open-string riffs don’t strictly have to be knuckle-busting, hhead-cutting show-off maneuvers—they can hhave a slow, lyrical side too, as Hiland demon- strates with Ex 13. An easy, flowing A minor riffthat employs two open strings, this pas- sage may (in some incarnation or another) appear on Hiland’s next solo album. It may sound wholly different by thar point because, like many great guitarists, HilandLESSONS == MASTER CLASS is constantly evolving his style. In fact, his bandmates say some mornings he shows up in the hotel lobby looking completely spent— not because he partied the night before, but because he came straight back to his room after the gig and practiced all night. “I sil play sixto eight hours aday,” says Hiland. “When you're on Steve Vai's label, you're not gonna sit at home playing cards “And it’s really not about how much you practice, but how well you practice. I've really Become good at developing ago practice regimen, and even ifyou have a nine-to- and can only practice one hour a day, you can make a lot of progress. The key is not playing everything you already know for that hour, but breaking it up into useful segments. Do ten minutes of warm-up followed by 30 ‘minutes just jam—pop on a record and play along or do whatever itis you enjoy. People say to me, ‘C'mon, what are you realy going to learn in half an hour?" Trust me, you can learn a lot. You'll be surprised by how just a few minutes can open your mind to so many new things.” with your wife, you're gonna be on that gui and tech- ‘ar. I mean, listen to Vai play and tll me you don’t need to practice! I'm not going to slack just because I have a record deal minutes of practicing new scale niques. Then, take ten minutes to see if you ‘can incorporate the new stulf into the stuff you already know. Finally, for the last cen Amal?) am? Amienai7) THE ULTIMATE HOTEL ROOM RIG? Mounted toa Pedaltrain pedalboard and powered by ‘Voodoo Labs Pedal Power and Visual Sound 1 Spot power supplies, Johnny Hilane's stompboxes include (in order of signa chan appearance TU-2 Chromati Tuner, Visual Sound Route 66 and Jokyl & Hyde overdrives, a Boss 00-20Giga Delay, reducer, aVieual Sound 20 Liguid Chorus & Echo, an Option § Destination Rotation, and Tech 2 Killer Wail wah pedal. Hiland profrs Elie srings gauged 003.042, and uses Fender amps (ypically'65 win Reverb relssues)— though, forthe purposes ofthis Interview, the Marshall MS2 Mini halfstack into which he's plugged here more than sufficed. U6 ‘an ISP Decimator n