by Tom Hess
If you have ever had a conversation about the all time most important guitar players, you know all the common names the get mentioned…Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, etc. However, there is one guitarist that you may not have considered, who, in my belief is one of the MOST influential and underrated guitarists of all time: Yngwie Malmsteen. That said, once you are able to understand exactly why he is so under-appreciated, you will become a much better guitarist yourself. A lot of guitarists would say that this is a controversial claim, responding with statements like:
· Yngwie has not sold as many records as other guitar players.
· Yngwie plays too fast and doesn’t know how to play emotionally with good melody.
· Yngwie has not done anything new with his music since his early days in the 80’s.
Before I go more into detail, I’d like to point out that the first claim above is a total misnomer; the amount of records someone sells has little to nothing to do with their influence on the guitar playing world (in comparison with other factors). On top of that, the other two claims are entirely incorrect, and you’ll find out why by reading the information in this article.
It is not necessarily important that you read this article and become a ‘fan’ of Yngwie; instead it IS important that you understand that there is a hidden guitar lesson to be found when you learn why Yngwie is so influential to the guitar playing community. By understanding this, you will gain new perspective on many new musical ideas that will give you the insight needed to become highly expressive as a guitar player.
The following is a small list of innovative musical ideas that Yngwie Malmsteen has brought to the table in the guitar playing community that most guitarists do not give him his due respect for:
Expressive Vibrato Technique: As far as I am concerned, Yngwie has debatably the best vibrato technique of any electric guitarist ever! That said, there are a lot of naysayers who pass over this aspect of Yngwie’s guitar playing entirely. These people focus on his ability to play fast, and disregard his vibrato altogether claiming that Yngwie’s style “lacks emotion”. Comparisons are often made to Yngwie where it is claimed that other guitarists can say more with one note than he can say with an entire solo section. However, the truth is just the opposite. If you want to hear the proof of this, simply listen to the first song on Yngwie’s album “Rising Force” and compare the sound and expressive quality of it to any other guitar players who are commonly compared to Yngwie.
As you are doing this, observe how Yngwie uses great detail in his vibrato by utilizing subtle nuances of the technique (through balance, changing speed, using wide and narrow depth, precision of timing, etc.) to generate highly expressive musical emotion with just one note. Compare this to most other guitarists who rarely consider the subtleties of vibrato technique and cannot truly understand the difference between everyday vibrato and virtuoso vibrato.
Watch this guitar lesson about how to expressively play vibrato technique on guitar.
What can you do with this information?
When it comes to playing guitar with nice phrasing and interesting melodies, your vibrato technique is what will stand out the most. I encourage you to
take note of the subtle elements mentioned above to analyze your own vibrato technique. To start with, see how big of a variety of musical expressions you
can create by playing only one note and apply vibrato to it. If you are unable to utilize vibrato to create a variety of emotions in your guitar playing,
you have a lot of work to do!
Music Composing Skills: Yngwie has brought a lot to the rock guitar community through his ability to write music that utilizes intelligent and innovative use of the foundational songwriting principles. It is true that these principles have been used for hundreds of years prior to his music; however, no one had utilized them in quite the same manner as him outside of ‘some’ jazz musicians and modern classical composers.
What can you do with this information?
The truth is, a lot of the compositional techniques used by Yngwie in his music can be translated to fit into any musical style.
Improvising: Similar to great jazz musicians, Yngwie has mastered the ability to improvise great guitar melodies and ideas. Although he does not commonly improvise over harmonies consisting of complex jazz chord progressions, Yngwie’s ability to create intense emotion by maximizing the expressive effect of each chord is unmatched. This is much more complex than merely understanding “which note goes over which chord”. When you truly master improvisation (as Yngwie Malmsteen has), you will know the feeling and emotion that will come with the notes that are played over each chord… ‘before’ the chord is even played. This way you can adapt your playing in the moment to create whatever emotion you wish to express.
Additionally, Yngwie frequently improvises newer versions of his old guitar solos on a consistent basis (…and with great precision). Most guitar players simply re-play their old material in the exact same manner every time they go on stage.
What can you do with this information?
No matter what musical genre you like most, knowing how to hear the emotions that will be created in your improvisation before the chord is played is a
crucial skill to develop if you want to become an expressive guitar player.
Integration Of Lead Guitar Techniques: It is well accepted by guitarists that Yngwie is a very accomplished technical guitar player and the fact is most people write him off as simply being a “shredder”. However, in reality he is not merely ‘another’ shred guitarist but rather THE guitarist who raised the bar for virtuosity in lead guitar playing to an entirely new level. This point alone is enough to place Yngwie into the category of all time best…
Historically speaking, most guitar techniques are available to guitarists for a long time before someone takes the opportunity to truly master them ALL. Consider things such as sweep picking for arpeggios, various picking styles used to play speed licks, tapping, complex rhythm guitar plus the ability to integrate these and other techniques together in a highly musical manner. How long were all of these ideas around before guitarists finally began to master them and use them in a technical AND musical manner? Answer: A very long time! In fact, most of these techniques took guitar players several decades to learn and master. Although there had been guitar players who used some of these techniques and ideas in their music, Yngwie was the first to truly master them ALL to a level that surpassed that of any guitarist prior to him.
Yngwie truly led the way by mastering such an expansive arsenal of lead guitar playing techniques. Yet, this goes unnoticed by those who compare his musical influence to other guitarists and musicians. Many guitarists often throw all of the techniques that Yngwie perfected into the generic category of “guitar technique” to be counted as a single entity (when it is not like this at all).
What can you do with this information?
Regardless of whether or not you listen to Yngwie’s music, you can learn a lot by observing how he combines together various guitar techniques. It is important that you are able to connect various techniques together in music regardless of the genre you specialize in. That said, most guitar players practice their techniques separate from each other, and do not learn how to integrate them together. To understand more about how to integrate guitar techniques together, watch this video about how to get good results from guitar practice.
What is the action that you should take right now?
1. Take the time to listen to Yngwie’s songs (even if you do not particularly care for his guitar playing style). If you already like his music, grab any of his albums and go through the steps below.
2. Listen for all of the nuances described throughout this article that combine together to make Yngwie such a special guitarist. If you are uncertain how some of the guitar playing or songwriting concepts described in this article work, find an experienced guitar teacher who can show you more about these ideas so that you can identify how Yngwie uses them and master them for yourself.
3. Look into your own guitar playing to identify your level of mastery for the elements discussed in this article. Regardless of your guitar playing style (even if it is totally different than that of Yngwie Malmsteen), it is still important for you to achieve a high level of mastery for the abovementioned elements as they relate to your own style. Track your progress toward achieving mastery in these areas and do what it takes to improve in the weaker areas of your guitar playing.
My purpose for writing this article is not necessarily to get you into Yngwie’s music, but instead to give you the opportunity to grow as a guitarist by
getting you to listen to music from an alternative perspective that you likely have not explored. If you analyze the ideas in this article, study Yngwie’s
music and still decide that you do not enjoy his playing, that is fine. However, by developing the ability to identify the subtleties in his music as I
have mentioned throughout this article, you will be able to take away much more value from the guitar players you do enjoy listening to. This will help you
to become a better guitarist in a much shorter period of time.
Learn how to incorporate a Neo Classical guitar playing style into your licks so you can play like Yngwie.
