4/2/2018 Surfing With The Alien lesson | Joe Satriani Universe

SURFING WITH THE ALIEN LESSON

By Saturax  Posted November 11, 2014  In Lesson

You want to play the legendary song « Sur ng With The Alien »? Challenge
accepted!
We start up with the cover, which is obviously an example of possible
interpretation and is serving the lesson. The cover is based on the Satch playing
but you have to keep your interpretation and your improvisation style, that’s the
challenge…
Then we have the video lesson where everything is played without any playback
and with slowded down parts, a little novelty is the bars numbers we put in the
video which gave the ability to follow the tablature, that you can download at the
bottom as Guitar Pro & PDF les.

CONTENTS
The cover

Video lesson & explanations

1 – Ri
2 – Theme
3 – Solo
4 – 2nd theme
5 – End solo
https://www.joesatrianiuniverse.com/lesson/surfing-with-the-alien-lesson/ 1/9
4/2/2018 Surfing With The Alien lesson | Joe Satriani Universe

The tablature

THE COVER

The cover plays an important role because the video lesson is based on it. Some
parts of « Sur ng With The Alien » are  faithful to the original and other
ones are changed a little bit or improvised.
It also gives an idea of what it looks like when you’ve worked enough! After that,
you can can play this song exaclty how you want it to be, it’s the most important
issue…

VIDEO LESSON & EXPLANATIONS

https://www.joesatrianiuniverse.com/lesson/surfing-with-the-alien-lesson/ 2/9
4/2/2018 Surfing With The Alien lesson | Joe Satriani Universe

Watch the lesson and keep an eye on the tablature to see the ngerings.

1 | RIFF
The trick for making the ri sounds great is to understand where are the dynamic
accents  and the  ghost notes. The downward attacks are extremly important
because they are emphasizes the accents.
The rhythm guitar pattern is a kind of spicy Blues ri , this sort of ri implies this
special manner that the bluesmen have to attack donwnwards the strings, you
have to feel it when you play that ri .

2 | THEME
Playing a theme that inspired generations of guitar players… That’s the dream!

Take a quick look at the Gp5 tab , it is full of in exions, bends or vibratos, and
the slides are an important part of the playing. No panic we’re going slowly, bars
by bars…
About the left hand it’s possible to attack almost every note downwards as Joe
does, it makes the theme having more personality.
On the B part of the theme, sarting at the 27 bar, you can observ that I play
something a little bit di erent that what is written on the tab, that’s because I play
some open strings. The idea is to play an open string just after the melody note
by doing a pull-o , no pick attack, and the last thing is to slighlty bend the
melody note. That’s really the thing that make the di erence when you play it so
take care of that!
The theme layout is AABB, and the second B is played at the upper octave, you
have to apply the same open string idea than for the previous B for make it sound.
Between the two B you have a great example of the famous “Satch scream”, call it
as you want to, to summarise brie y it’s about playing an harmonic with your right
thumb when you attack the string and the tremolo bar does the rest of the e ect,
I will release in january 2015 a special video where I will taught you that technic in
greater detail.

https://www.joesatrianiuniverse.com/lesson/surfing-with-the-alien-lesson/ 3/9
4/2/2018 Surfing With The Alien lesson | Joe Satriani Universe

Please note that I didn’t made a Gp5 tab for doing something beautiful, we
obviously can’t make music with Guitar Pro but it’s a useful visual support that
shows  what you have to play, so if you think that it’s ugly when you press the
space bar you’re right, stop it and play it on guitar. And for those who  still think
that’s ugly hum…

3 | SOLO
Here comes the funny part!

I will begin by telling you about some Musical Theory, they are a lot of
modulations in several keys, rst in C#- where Joe plays Phrygian, then he
modulates in D#- and plays Phrygian dominant this time (the V degree of the
minor melodic scale harmonisation) then he goes to F- where he plays Phrygian
dominant and we’re back again in G. Here Joe just shows up the modal approach
he have adopted.
He just took the G minor natural scale, added the bluenote and he de ned notes
from this scale as keys, to make a long story short  he started with C# (the
augmented fourth, or the G’s bluenote) and then he incrased the key  tone by
♭ ♭
tone, so next we have D# (it’s rather Eb, the VI of G) then F ( VII of G) and a tone
upper is G again.
Why has Satch chosen to play Phrygian or Phrigian dominant? It is just a matter of
personal taste, the song is  getting more and more complex  as the key
progression carries on, the intensity incrases and we naturally come back the
most naturally and in the same dynamic to the starting point, what a masterpiece!

That was for the theoric part, now let’s go back on the most important part which
is how to play that?

C# / Bars 43 – 50 : Video link

Here we have a very speci c trick that sounds straightaway like Satch. It consists in
tapping with the edge of the pick, to sum up it’s a kind of tapping with no nger
but with the pick.
The pick keep on tapping on the 22th fret meanwhile the left is descending the
scale on the E string, for the last position the pick goes down to the 21th fret for
playing the same note that the left hand plays one octave down.
About the legato improvisation that follows, the tapping part I proposed is an
exemple but they are thousand possibilites, you just have to respect the fact that
there is a starting note, an ending note and a downward motion, and then you can
do whatever you want to do. The last important thing is the ow, he has to be
regular from the begining to the end of the phrase.
https://www.joesatrianiuniverse.com/lesson/surfing-with-the-alien-lesson/ 4/9
4/2/2018 Surfing With The Alien lesson | Joe Satriani Universe

D#- / Bars 51 – 58 : Video link

Here it’s not very complicated, you just have to play the melody I wrote (beware of
the ghost-notes) and to nish you have to do and huge slide the higher you can
and bend the higher you can too, that’s not very academic but it still works.

F- / Bars 59 – 66 : Video link

That’s the part of the song that looks the most like a bunch of bullshit on the
original songbook, the guy who wrote this obviously didn’t care  about the
ngering, seriously it’s worth to take a look because it’s a good example of
impossible-to-play-if-you’re-not-an-alien thing that you might encounter into
songbooks and drives you crazy.

On the technic side, you have at the bar 59 some notes which are lied and some
that just don’t.
For the lied note, the 5th, 6th and 7th in the bar, you can make it easier by playing
the 5th and the 6th with two downwards attacks, then it’s a pattern that repeats.
You have the same thing at the bar 61 where you have the 3th, 4th and 5th notes in
the bar that are attacked, the 3th  and the 4th  can be attacked both downwards
and the next note of course upwards. This last pattern is used a lot by Allen
Collins from Lynyrd Skynyrd in his legendary song « Freebird ».

G / Mesures 67 – 70 : Video link

Freedom! After this hard time spent on the darkside of the Harmony we’re coming
back on our feets by resolving on G, and that’s how the solo ends.
At this moment, In order to calm down the situation and play softer notes, I grab
the pick in my hand and play the notes with my ngers. It’s just a personal
choice, sometimes I play the notes (still with my ngers) harder and make the
tremolo crunching, That’s a stylish e ect that I love, try it now!

4 | 2ND THEME

https://www.joesatrianiuniverse.com/lesson/surfing-with-the-alien-lesson/ 5/9
4/2/2018 Surfing With The Alien lesson | Joe Satriani Universe

The second theme is almost the same than the rst one except for some details,
some parts are allowed  to contain some improvisation, like  for the bars 85-86
where the most important rule is phrasing on the G pentatonic scale and ending
up with the same bend, or at the bars 97-98 where we shall  imagine di erent
phrases on the E pentatonic scale that will lead to the nal note B.
An important thing that Joe does everytime for making the di erence between the
two themes is the direction of his “  Satch’s scream ”, for the rst theme it was
descending and here it’s rising, for that you just have to change that the direction
tremolo takes, instead of pull up the bar and then make it lower, rst you have to
start down and rising it up, easy as pie!

5 | END SOLO
« Sur ng With The Alien » is today a reference in the electric guitar world,
including the rst and the second solos.
This time it’s not about crazy modulations anoymore, we keep playing in G scales
uppon the main ri and there we go!

Bars 106 – 113 : Video link

…And we start this solo after the dive bombing that reminds us a battleshit take-
o , the Silver Surfer gushs out as hell and the Satch’s ngers do the same! Once
again we can hear the Blues in uence of Joe Satriani in the composition, the
pattern is based on a I-IV-I chords changes, it looks like the begining of a Blues
changes and make us feel the Major/minor duality the Blues surfs on.

You have to stretch your left hand ngers right at the begining, it get worst at the
bar 110 when your index got to be at the 3rd bar meanwhile your little nger got
to reach the 8th  bar. Again there’s no secret, you have to work very slow if you
want it to play it proper at the right tempo, so don’t hurry up, take your time and
play the notes distinctively. I recomand a clean sound for that. In order to ending
this part of the solo you have to note that the bars 110-111 can be improvised, on
the G dorian scale. In the video lesson I showed you in detail two patterns that Joe
Satriani uses most of the time and I developped a little bit in the tab. For example
you can play 3 times the rst one et 2 times the other one, or 4 times one and 1
for the other, and vice versa… do whatever you want!

Bars 114 – 121 : Video link

https://www.joesatrianiuniverse.com/lesson/surfing-with-the-alien-lesson/ 6/9
4/2/2018 Surfing With The Alien lesson | Joe Satriani Universe

A oyd tremolo (Floyd Rose original or Floyd from Ibanez) is really necessary to
have enough amplitude for the very characteristic crunch e ect at the bars 114-
121 and 150-157, if you use a classic tremolo the e et will be reduced. But if you
don’t have a Floyd tremolo it’s alright, we totally can play this part without this
e ect, it’s just a bonus.

Bars 122 – 129 : Video link

It’s a very di cult part to transcribe if you consider the huge part of
time  interpretation that Satch has when he plays it, but I think it’s the closest
thing I can write, then the way you play it will make the di erence so listen to Joe,
that’s all I can taught you!

Bars 130 – 137 : Video link

The hardest thing in this part is the small slide at the bars 132-133, you have to do
a small barre with the ring nger and then we have to hear the two notes, that’s
not that easy.
At the end, at the bars 136-137 the idea is to descending the G pentatonic scale
to go to the lowest G note, I made a proposition in thevideo, and once again you
can do whatever you want, be creative!

Bars 138 – 141 : Video link

You shall need stamina and determination if you want to play properly this part!

The challenge is that the position changes have to be as quick as possible, this his
obviously harder when the string you are playing on changes, keep on practicing
and you will get it.

Bars 142 – 149 : Video link

It gets harder here, in particular at the bars 145-146: huge slide on the lowest E
string at the end of the bar 145 and you nish by a G pentatonic rising scale.
Satriani usually rise this scale by doing triplets and attacking in alternante picking
every single note.
For those who are very lazy persons when it’s about fast picking (as I am), I can
propose you this pattern, it consists in attacking twice downwards in order to
reduce your right hand e ort . We alternate 3 pick attacks and 1 pull-o . The not-
so-easy-part in there is the rhythm precision.

Bars 150 – 157 : Video link

https://www.joesatrianiuniverse.com/lesson/surfing-with-the-alien-lesson/ 7/9
4/2/2018 Surfing With The Alien lesson | Joe Satriani Universe

This is a carbon copy of the bars 114-121, except for the end of the phrase you
have to do a dive bombing, that means that you have to heavily lower your
tremolo and the note pitch will decrease. Once again the e et will be better with a
oyd than a classic tremolo.

Bars 158 – 167 : Video link

On the CD, « Sur ng With The Alien » ends in fade out. Played live, Satch ends this
song by using the main ri . The little more thing added is the bend you have to do
with your ring nger barre, at the bars 159, 161 and 163, but nothing that can’t be
overcome.
You may  asking me « why have you written in 3/4 and not 4/4 at the end? » the
answer is that transcribes the best  what the rhythm section has to do, I could
wrote the same thing in 4/4 bars and the would play the same, but with the 3/4
bars it is abundantly clear.

Enjoy the tab, you can ask me your questions if you have some and post your
your work posted in the comments! Keep on rockin’!

Saturax.

THE TABLATURE
Guitar Pro Tab PDF Tab

https://www.joesatrianiuniverse.com/lesson/surfing-with-the-alien-lesson/ 8/9
4/2/2018 Surfing With The Alien lesson | Joe Satriani Universe

0 Comments Joe Satriani Universe 

1 Login

Sort by Best
 Recommend ⤤ Share

Start the discussion…

LOG IN WITH
OR SIGN UP WITH DISQUS ?

Name

Be the first to comment.

ALSO ON JOE SATRIANI UNIVERSE

JS2400 JS2000
1 comment • 3 years ago 1 comment • 3 years ago
Angel Macas — como puedo comprarla me Saturax — For me, that's just one of the best
puede ayudar alguien? color they've ever made on the Ibanez JS line,
the gold of the “Champagne Gold” is

On Peregrine Wings from Shockwave Ask Your Questions

Supernova full song preview 1 comment • 3 years ago
5 comments • 3 years ago Keefer — Are there any plans to release
Bruno — The great explosion starts, thank some of the non-vinyl work in vinyl form?
Mr.Joseph!

✉ Subscribe d Add Disqus to your siteAdd DisqusAdd 🔒 Privacy

https://www.joesatrianiuniverse.com/lesson/surfing-with-the-alien-lesson/ 9/9