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Paul Gilbert | INTERVIEW

Published 4 years ago on February 9, 2020

By Guitar Interactive Magazine

Paul is the eternal student of guitar playing and music in general. So even now, after three decades in the music business, he continues to develop his unique style of playing each year. Sam Bell Paul Gilbert Tech Session

In this issue's Guitar Interactive Tech Session, Sam Bell deep dives into the sometimes intense, sometimes blues-filled, but always technically difficult guitar stylings of Mr Paul Gilbert

Those of you who have been following my work here at LickLibrary and Guitar Interactive Magazine will know that I am a massive fan of Paul Gilbert's playing. Paul is the eternal student of guitar playing and music in general. So even now, after three decades in the music business, he continues to develop his unique style of playing each year. When Jonathan (editor of Gi) approached me to put together a Tech Session in the style of Paul Gilbert, I jumped at the chance, and I wanted to find some of the fundamental ideas that we can hear in Paul's music in the last 10 years. He has gone in a totally new direction of Blues/Fusion from his original hair metal/stadium rock days with Racer X and Mr Big. However, his technique and the way he visualises the fretboard hasn't changed, he has a method, and it works no matter what style he is playing

For this Tech Session, I wanted to base the example on his material from his solo albums Silence Followed by a Deafening Roar' and Fuzz Universe'. I strongly feel these albums capture the widest angle picture of Paul's influences and style. There are Classic Hard Rock inspired riffs, Funky Rhythms, Bluesy Phrasing and of course the Mind Melting Fast Passages that Paul started his long career with! As this is a Tech Session and Paul has some amazing technique, I am going to concentrate on 16th note and 16th note Triplet based examples. There is a melody/harmony section; however, please don't confuse this tech session as an example of how to write instrumental guitar music! Melody is important. Having said this, Paul's world-class playing is always melodic and interesting, no matter how fast or slow. His use of Rhythm within his faster phrases really sets him apart from all the other Shedders


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