MELODIC MUSE by Andy Timmons
HYBRID VEHICLE, PART 1
Andy Timmons shares some of the inner workings of “On Your Way Sweet Soul,” which is a tune he wrote and recorded for Theme from a Perfect World. The song is based on a relatively simple melodic riff that he performs with hybrid picking, a technique wherein flatpicking is combined with fingerpicking.
HYBRID VEHICLE, PART 1
Andy Timmons shares some of the inner workings of “On Your Way Sweet Soul,” which is a tune he wrote and recorded for Theme from a Perfect World. The song is based on a relatively simple melodic riff that he performs with hybrid picking, a technique wherein flatpicking is combined with fingerpicking.
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MusicTranscript
00:00Hey everybody, Andy Timmons here and welcome back to Melodic Muse, my column for Guitar World.
00:22Today we're going to look at my tune, On Your Way, Sweet Soul, from the Theme from a Perfect
00:26World CD by the Andy Timmons band, and it's a pretty simple melodic tune, and what I was
00:31recognizing in the way I played the melody, it wasn't just all pick, I'm using pick and
00:36fingers, sometimes called hybrid picking, so we're going to delve into how I play this
00:42melody and see what the beauty can be with hybrid picking.
00:56As we get into playing this verse of On Your Way, Sweet Soul, first we do need to know
01:22the chord, progressional chords, it's all E major, it's very simple, an E major 7, to
01:29another C sharp minor 9, and then an A major, with a bit of a sharp 11 sound, so the melodic
01:44content that I'll be employing is all pretty much E major pentatonic with a little bit of
01:49just E major scale.
01:52In this bit of the solo now, again we're talking about the use of the pick, but also the use
01:56of the fingers.
01:57And so, obviously with the pick or the plexum you're getting a very specific sound, but
02:03there's a lot of variance you can get with dynamics.
02:08The same thing goes when you also use the flesh, the finger.
02:21So when I'm doing any kind of hybrid picking type thing, I am basically using my pick and
02:28then using my middle finger.
02:35So maybe just come up first with a quick scale.
02:43I'm picking the first on the G-string, just to get comfortable.
02:50But listen to some of the overtone you can get by just using the flesh and just how I'm
02:57kind of picking up underneath it.
02:59Of course, look no further than Mark Knopfler and Jeff Beck for great examples of guys that
03:04used, with Jeff later in his career of course exclusively, almost exclusively using his fingers,
03:09and then Mark Knopfler as well.
03:14So this first phrase, I was thinking about that E major position here.
03:23Now I'm using the pick on the G-string to pick the note B.
03:30And then bending up from the F-sharp to the G-sharp.
03:37And it's just giving that note a real dynamic pop.
03:40I'm kind of slapping.
03:43Not quite slapping like a bass.
03:46Just picking up underneath it and kind of snapping the string.
03:51I'm getting a lot of harmonic if I hit it just right.
03:58And there again, now I rise up to a different position.
04:05Up to that 11th fret on the G-string, bending up a whole step to that G-sharp.
04:15It's a real sweet note over that E major.
04:18It's the third of the chord.
04:23And then...
04:28And that phrase there is interesting because I'm going back down to the other position, bending up.
04:34And then there's a little...
04:40It's a hammer, then a note out of nowhere.
04:43Pull off.
04:44Then I'm just hammering the note E on the G-string.
04:49And then pulling it off to C-sharp because they're on the C-sharp chord now.
04:53Then hammering and bending again.
04:58So a lot of information without any right hand.
05:02And then going down to the note B on the G-string.
05:08And using the middle index finger again.
05:13Instead of using the pick...
05:15I wanted to get that flesh on there.
05:19And that...
05:24So we're on the A major now.
05:30So I'm leaning.
05:36All that melody is heading down to...
05:39Getting to that C-sharp.
05:41And I'm always going to be at some point of that bar hitting that third of that chord.
05:49In this note...
05:52That's that sharp 11.
05:54So it's just really nice melodic content.
06:00But also, you know...
06:02Starting with that middle finger.
06:10This is all pick.
06:13And then a little hybrid.
06:15It's E major pentatonic.
06:19So just a pick, hammer, then the middle finger.
06:25And then a nice little resolution there.
06:28Up here in this position.
06:30Seventh fret.
06:32So with my middle finger, I've got the pinky on the note E.
06:36On that ninth fret.
06:37And then the G-sharp A.
06:40Using the pick on the right hand and just using my index finger.
06:42Yeah.
06:43Yeah.
06:44Yeah.
06:45Yeah.
06:46Another little hybrid.
06:47Yeah.
06:48Yeah.
06:54Yeah.
06:55Yeah.
06:56Yeah.
06:57So as you can see, when you're playing simple melodic phrases, it's really handy to have
07:14a really wide palette of tones available to make each note as special as you can, because
07:19a lot of times it's going to be a note that sits there and breathes the bit. So by having
07:24the pick and the different sound of the flesh, you can really, really broaden that palette.