I guess it's just my hands, however when you come to the hammed on arpegio part of the song, I can't strech like that and play it. so I hammed on the first 2 notes, and I tape the third. I works for me.... I was curious how other people do it.

the 2nd thing.... on Engines of creation... i think it's a keyboard playing that in the background. on a keyboard it's much easier to play............

i shrudder to think if he actually kept on playing the lick while shifing..... though you do see him do that on G3 with yngwie during the g3 jam.....

i think joe did it himself and not with a keyboard. agreed, that it's easier playin it on a keyboard, but joe CAN play it himself. if he could play the Power Cosmic 87, then this must be a piece of cake.

and about the MPHDT, you method i think must've took u some time to get used to! it's kinda difficult yto play it your way. everyone else plays it with one had i guess. that's how Joe played, and i guess that's how everyone else plays it!

It's just the hand strech is too big for my small hands. So when you can't do something one way, you figure out how to do it one way or the other.

btw, I have scene tabs of power cosmic, I've just never heard the old one. I know the one of course on EOC

I have quite small hands but have just about got the arpeggios sorted out. I think it just takes practice practice practice so you stretches develop but also you roll your hand as well so you don't hold the first finger once the first note is played.

I totally agree with what you are saying, and I know it is sort of like sweeping for a wide interval arpeggio. However, I think it comes down to it whether or not you can pull it out on the fly. And for me personally, instead of using my hand to damp, etc.... I just tap it on instead of the stretch...

Thanks for the advice though.

Hm, where is do you put your thumb when you try to stretch for these kind of wicked scaling?

just do one hell of alot of streching before you attemp them,,
i do that quite alot and now ive managed to get a stretch (playable) going from the 5th fret to the 12th using hammer ons and pull offs, and thats only with the hands of a 14 year old.. ..

once you can get that MPGT will be alot easier

~D~

Hey, I do put my thumb smack in the middle of the neck, ala classical tech, and some times I do take the whole sitting position that classical guitarists use. As far as being 14 or not, it's cool that you have a lot of range, however in general I don't stretch more than 5-10...and when you are younger you have more flexibility, at my age which ain't that old [28] it get more difficult. I was playing with the Rock discipline for John petrucci, and I can not do some of the stretches that he does. Though I'm practicing:) In the end of the day though, why would you want to pull off 12-5, just tap.

Nobody i have ever met or spoke to can do John Petrucci's stretches. They are monster.

As for MPHGT. I dont see why you need to stretch. After you have played the note you want, you take the finger away anyway. Its like sweeping without a pick so you dont need to stretch

I will try that, and thanks for the confidence boosting note about JP's stretches....

Hey, does anyone have any videos demonstrating how to build up the strength, speed and accuracy of these large interval arpeggios? :hunger:

Youd be surprised how far your hand can stretch when you relax.. this is why most begginers struggle to do large stretches not because their hands are small but because they aint finding it comfortable... attempt it in a years tiem after a year of complexing stretching excercises u will do it perfectly

You could try just going up and down all 3 shapes for 5min each at a time before bed every night.

You will notice an improvement after as little as a week. Then you just have to worry about timing the Solo which is by far the hardest part

Yeah, once you get the basics down, you improve really fast with it. or at least I did. I put it off for so long, deeming it impossible, but once I actually I did pretty good.

Befroe you try any of the stretches in the song (expecially the D arpeggio), you should learn how to stretch your fingers normally...practice doing 1-3-5 patterns and so forth.

Try Tears in the Rain, it's a stretch at first, but I found it was a good way to help stretch my fingers, and now the MPHGT comes quite naturally :)

-Rich-

Try surfing with the aliens intro riff ! :) good stretch there for a 12 bar

Nah, it's not as stretchy as Tears in the Rain ;)

-Rich-

/\/\

oh yes,.....the first chord is KILLER!!!!!

yeah but after playin it a while it actuallybecomes a piece of cake

any cake imotocons??
no i cant be arsed to look

~D~

just google image 'cake' 8ut the results could 8e strange :P

-Rich-

Hmm I do play Tears in the rain and I do not find the strech so difficult. Of course I couldn't do it in the beginning I tried to learn it but I do not consider it impossible...
After all this is why I learn other people songs, to get a nice broad technique of playing... :)

i have small hands...so it'll always be tough for me!!!!

I didnt find it a stretch .. tears in the rain referring to now. Duno why!?

One of the backing chords for AWMAWY has a bitch stretch, never play it though.

both those stretches are not difficult, the key thing about both of them is that you hold you hand in place when you play those, on MPHGT you tap. so that adds difficulty to it all.

and in tears in the rain, the chord after the intro.... that is the messed up one.

If you come to play this track live it is a good idea to learn the backing track so you can do a couple of bars of it before the lead kicks in just like Satriani does. It is a bit of a stretch but the key is having your thumb in correct position and angling your hand and wrist to maximise comfort. The difficulty i used to find was getting the chord fingered again whilst playing but it comes with time. Please do try it as it will bring alive your playing of this song :D

As for Surfin' hat off to anyone that plays is as per the tab books for the C 7th chord it is a 3rd to 8th fret stretch the way i play it is C5 3rd and 5th fret of A and D string then C6 3rd and 7th fret A and D string then C7 3rd fret A and 3rd fret G string ... I am sure there is a youtube video of Satriani giving a lesson on this and if you watch carefully that is how he plays it but live it the old stretch he does!

PM Fernando, cant remember his username, but he nailed it a while back and he had a video to show. hes the only one i have seen who had it spot on. (No offence)

I should have a video of it up shortly - I was creating a lesson for my students on how to work your way up to doing an arp like that.

Ok, so the first time i heard this song, i was shattered to pieces by the speed and instantly wanted to play it...then totaly forgot about it.

When i read this post and was inspired to learn it so i just sat down, turned my metronome on and played as slow as i could go with the metronome. One week later practicing it 1-2 hours daily, i finally could play it, very close in speed and exact in accuracy.

So here's a tip: listen to what everyone said about starting slow, but go SUPER slow. once you have that speed down turn up the metronome one speed. do this process over and over and over and over....you get the point....until you hit around 176 on the metronome (thats the songs speed).

Well, there my advice. good lukc and practice :rock2:

Satch mutes the strings with his right hand to prevent string noise, so theres no need to stretch to far, just lift off your finger(s) after playing the notes.