Scary Lick for the Lynch Mob

[EricV]

Wow, what a title, huh ?
Well, many of you already guessed it, I´m talking about George Lynch ( former guitarist of Dokken and Lynch Mob, one of his trademark songs being "Mr. Scary" ).
Last week, I have been listening to a bunch of his stuff. Haven´t done so in a while. I used to listen to him a lot a few years ago, and I really liked his style and playing. I would consider him one of my influences ( and some of you know by now that the list of people I consider influences pretty much is endless ).
Well, without much ado, here is a lick I once heard him do... I like the "scary character" of it, and it´s a cool lick to work on... kinda like the Twilight Zone-melody for the next century...

Here ya go...


Eric

[The Bash]

Cool Lick,
I was just wondering how you'd finger that.
If I were asked to play it on the spot I think it's easier to use the first finger on the Bb (2 string) then again on the E (1 string).
But, as an lefthand Ex. I find using the 2nd finger for the E (1string) works well as it makes you use all the fingers. I can't play it nearly as well (yet) that way.

[EricV]

Well, about the fingering... although it might seem to be less economical, I actually do fret the Bb and the E with my first finger... so I constantly move the finger between those two strings and change the fret on top of that.
It might seem more economical to fret the E with the middle finger, but I am used of doing stuff like that with the index finger.

Another example:


This, to me, is a rather typical sequencial run, moving the PG-lick / pattern up on the neck in the key of E min.
Now everything is easy to figure out here: the index finger plays the lowest note of each segment ( each sixtuplet )... first, F# on the D-string and the B on the G-string.
We´re moving up to the next pattern, and again: 1st finger plays G on the D-String and C on the G-string etc.

Now, when we get to the last group of sixtuplets, we have a change: the starting note is at the 10th fret, D-string, and the note on the G-string is located at the 11th fret.
Logically, you´d probably play that one with the middle finger ( cuz that is what our regular "one finger per fret" rule might imply ).
But I´d play that F# at the 11th fret with my index finger too. Might seem less economical, to me it´s easier that way.
And I saw both Paul and Thorsten Koehne handle it that way too.

How would you approach this ?
Eric

[The Bash]

Yea, I'd do the exact same as yourself.
What you said made perfect sense. I'm not sure if I ever thought about it (on the surface level at least) that way. But I'm just used to doing those kinna things that way.
To me it kinna flows better. I know it's more motion and Flows is probably a state of mind but It makes me actually feel more flowing

[EricV]

Well, yeah, I never thought of details like that neither, but I was forced to rethink and analyze many of them when I started teaching. Students often asked me about those.
Also, at the GIT I saw many different approaches to playing, so had to think about those and try them to pick the one that was best for me.
Or I am just weird...
Eric