The Pulse #16 - Sony Merger, Dream Theater, Shred Lick

	In this issue @ Introduction @ What's New on IBreathe @ Essential Listening: Dream Theater @ Eric's Shred 101-Lick @ Sizzling Hot Forum Topics


	Introduction Hello all, and welcome to issue #16 of 'The Pulse'. Doesn't the Sony/Bertelsmann merger seem like just another sign that the music recording industry empire is crumbling? - I don't wanna know how many employees will find themselves without a job in the next few months - I know that tons of A&R people, who are responsible for 'finding' new talent were let go already... this can only be a short sighted strategy... cut expenses where 'expendable' and put all the money onto the already thriving horses ... to be continued ... You might have already heard about the EricV PC Fund that we initiated 2 days ago. You can read all about it here: http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2536 Happy reading, Guni

New Articles on IbreatheMusic
The Workout... Part 1 by Eric Vandenberg There have been quite a few requests about an example workout. So here is Part I of an mini-series about that. I'll show you the workout I used to use a few years ago, and how to personalise it for yourself. Continue

Here Comes the Sun by Peter Simms I put together a very easy Chord Melody arrangement of the Beatles tune "Here Comes the Sun". It's for beginning to intermediate students. Think about which fingers to use to play your notes. Common sense will guide you ... Continue

Improvising with Exotic Scales - Part 1 by Jorge Fernando Maldonado Exotic scales can be used to create interesting sounds and emulate some pretty interesting ethnic type of lines. Here are a few ideas on how to start exploring the vast field of exotic scales ... Continue

Bending Steel by Eric Vandenberg Based on lot of discussions and requests in the forums, I decided to elaborate a bit on bendings and vibrato, incl. pics and soundfiles. My buddy Thorsten was nice enough to provide some soundfiles as well. Remember my article about tone? Continue

Sight Reading by Steve Carter Because of the complexity of the fretboard, learning to sight-read on the guitar requires a disciplined approach. In this article I'll discuss the approach that worked well for me and has worked well for many of my students. Continue


	Essential Listening: Dream Theater Dream Theater – Images and Words This, to me, is not only my favorite DT-album, but one of my favorite guitar-albums. Remember, only my opinion… Anyway, the album has some great songs (like 'Surrounded', which still gives me goosebumps, the beautiful ballad 'Another Day' or the 'hit' 'Pull Me Under') Also, the playing is amazing… 'Metropolis Part 1' shows the overabundance of talent these guys possessed even back then, 'Take The Time' goes through lots of different time signatures and changes and has some awesome guitar-keyboard unisono lines. Which brings us to the guitar-work… John Petrucci did an outstanding job on this album. Not only did he display a very unique style and lots of chops, he also payed homage to some of his influences… inbetween you'll think 'Gee, this guy must have listened to Vai / SRV / Morse etc.' All that without ripping anyone off, but combining all these influences into his own style. His playing ranges from neck-breaking ('metropolis', 'Under A Glass Moon') to emotional ('Another Day') and very melodic ('Surrounded') And it's not only the lead-guitar work… John also came up with some very inventive rhythm guitar parts for this album, and there's a plethora of cool guitar sounds to be found. I am not a big fan of progressive rock, just never got too much into it (although I really like DT and the Dregs… the latter influenced DT quite a bit), but this one I listened to thousands of times. A great, very versatile and mature album by a band, which back then, still was pretty much unknown… and I think they managed to display both a high level of musician-ship AND some great songwriting. This CD is available at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000002JPA/guitar4u


	Eric's Shred 101 Descending E Maj Scale, harmonized in thirds Everyone who has been listening to bands like Iron Maiden or Judas Priest knows this kinda lick... descending a scale while adding open strings, and harmonizing it in thirds. The difference here is that we are using a major scale (most of the time, the bands mentioned above used minor scales). And with a major scale, it sounds pretty cool, too. It's a neat picking exercise for the right hand. So try this with different scales, and hopefully you have another player around so you can play it in harmony...


	Sizzling Hot Forum Topics We need Eric back!!!! http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2536 Knowing everything theory related http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2462 jason becker and marty friedman http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1922 Harmolodic Chords http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2459 tabs vs. sight-reading http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2481


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