I'm one of those people that likes looking at tablatures just because it gives me an idea of how difficult the song is, although it also gives me an idea of how to play the song. I look through Joe's SWTA tab book, and I notice a lot of patterns.

First of all, his technique is based on legato. He doesn't really seem to have an even balance between picking and legato, but leans towards the latter. I've found that I can duplicate a few of his riffs and songs just by hammering all my left-hand fingers on the fretboard in a systematic way, then pulling them off, and doing the same thing on a different position on the fretboard (if you get what I'm saying).

For example, this; and you hammer all these notes. See how when you do it, you hammer your fingers on and then pull them right back off?

-5-7-9-7-5-

Then you shift to a different position...

4-5-7-5-4

Basically doing the same thing. Then there are a few bits where he picks the string below then goes back up and does the same thing again...

^-h-h-p-p-v-^-h-h-p
4-5-7-5-4----4-5-7-5
------------7----------

And of course, he finds ways to jump between strings in a rather smooth fashion (legato all of this except for the starting notes on each string). You look through these, and you see how he's doing this in a way that makes him run up and down the scale without doing too much tonal skipping.

--------------------------------------------------------------------7-8-10-8-7
-----------------------------------------------------------5-7-8----------------
-4-5-7-5-4---------------------------------------4-5-7------------------------
-------------7-5-4-5-7-5-4---------------4-5-7-------------------------------
--------------------------------7-6-4-6-7--------------------------------------

I notice from watching him do his tapping, he keeps his fingers fixed in certain positions. Think of systematic trills (of course, when you go to read tabs, they'll be broken down into absurdly weird timings).

---2(9)---4(9)----4(7)---2(6)---3(9)---3(12)

You also notice that he makes great use of repetition? Think of the riff after the second jet fly-by in SWTA; he's repeating the same few notes over and over with slight alternations, and he does the same thing in MPHGT after the second set of hammering sweeps.

That, and the most obvious stuff... the whammy bar.

Don't think I'm dissing Joe, I think he's excellent, I think I've just found a few patterns in the way he plays his music that could probably help to make his music more playable, and I think this is still a bit of an oversimplification. And believe me, I can't play Joe!!

Any of you find things like this? Any tips or tricks?

Nope...No tricks just Practise

if you play satch music you'll find all those patterns soon, then, all your playing will be ''kindasatch'' playing thts not good man...i know it well :D

It's just a study of his playing, it doesn't mean he's copying him.

if you know how satch plays you'll start to copy him, to use his resources it's unavoidable....at least for me :D

Yeah that's essentially what I was getting at, cuz I think sometimes we look at what professional guitarists do and it seems so incredibly far beyond us, like they're gods or something, though when you think about it, they do what anyone else can do; they've just had a lot more practice.

And yes, admittedly, I sound a lot like Satch, which I'm fine with, because my only goal right now is to learn the music I want to learn (which includes a lot of things, really). From there I can develop "my own thing," because "my own thing" will consist of what I like to play and listen to.

My reason for starting this is just for technical insights. I admit, I get a real kick out of just looking at tablatures and trying to analyze what exactly is going on. The more I look, the more I notice that it's just that these artists have had a lot of practice (an awful lot too!!).

So I guess the discussion I want to get going is, what is it that you notice Joe does a lot? Do you see a pattern he uses to construct his melodies, anything specific you notice about how he uses the whammy bar, etc.? Basically, painting a picture of what his technique looks like.