Hybrid Hijinks

LESSONS

108

Soloing Seminar

The Astonishing
Pick/Pluck Practices
of Dave Martone
BY CHRIS BUONO
STYLE. ITS A HOT COMMODITY THESE DAYS. FLIP ON ANY MEDIA TALK

boxand you hear myriad commercials telling you how to achieve, project, and protect it. Stroll through any mall, look around, and theres
usually enough style on display for everybody to purchase some amount
of it. In the guitar world, identity is everything, but its much harder to
obtain. Thats why when a guy like Dave Martone appears, heads turn.
Martones sound emanates with unusual grace, aggression, and
conviction. It is, for lack of a sufficiently sophisticated term, shred,
but while its plenty explosive, it doesnt blow things up in clumsy
ways. Martone likes to disintegrate musical frameworks strategically, like a demolitions expert reducing an empty Vegas casino to
dust via brilliantly timed sequences of small explosions. Athletic
technique, literate compositional chops, white-hot distorted tones
(with garnishes of crystalline clean), and wide intervallic leaps are
all hallmarks of Martones crisp and confident guitar style. Listening to Martone is funyou sense the danger, but know that
somehow, like the hero in an action movie, hes gonna make it to
the end of the song alive.
While it may be too early to say if this makes Martone the next box
office sensation of instrumental guitar, one thing is certain: The Canadian guitar virtuoso has the confidences of some other instrumental

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 8 G U I TA R P L AY E R

P H OTO : C L AU D E _ D E F R E S N E

G U I TA R P L AY E R D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 8

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LESSONS Soloing Seminar

Villa-Lobos etude, fret a simple open-position Em chord and take a spin through Ex. 1.
Now, instead of plucking the notes classicalstyle, employ the indicated hybrid pattern
that uses the pick and middle (m) and ring
(a) fingers. (The ring finger is only used to
pluck the first string.) It makes the rippling
E minor texture a breeze to play without saying goodbye to your pick.
The thing to recognize here is that this
hybrid picking pattern, like most, can be
applied to other harmonies, such the
Fdim7/E chord in Ex. 2. Once youve got the
pattern dialed, Martone suggests looping
it while shifting the fretted notes down the
neck in half-steps la Etude #1, leaving the
sixth and first strings open. As you
progress with this approach, try using a
palm-mute on the strings, adds Martone.
Thatll be helpful later, because when you
start doing this stuff with some gain, things
can get a little out of control.

heroes. Just check out the guest artist list

on Clean, his debut release for Magna Carta.
It features Greg Howe, Jennifer Batten, Billy
Sheehan, and Joe Satriani.
The cornerstone of the Martone sound
is a hyper-evolved approach to a timehonored Nashville technique that, Zakk
Wylde aside, few guns-a-blazin rock guitarists have explored. Were talking about
hybrid pickingthe practice of making
zippy single-note runs easy to play by
sounding them with a pick and one or two
plucking fingers. (The fingers come in especially handy during string skips.) The
interesting thing about Martones incredible pick/pluck style is that hes able to look
back to his youth and pinpoint the very day
when, in one fleeting moment, he found
the seed from which it would grow. That
seed was a simple classical guitar etude.

T H E H E C TO R FAC TO R
When I was learning to play guitar I studied some etudes from Hector Villa-Lobos,
says Martone. There was some string
jumping in Etude #1 that I thought was
interesting, and it sparked the idea behind
a lot of the technique I use today.
To experience moves from this inspiring

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

So now Im going to take this technique
and put it inside something we all love and
hatethe pentatonic scale, says Martone.
Employing Ex. 3s Em pentatonic fingering
(which starts on D, the b7), Martone loops

Ex. 1

 = 68

Em

4
 

4


  


 

 

        
m

T
A
B

0
2

0
2

0
2

0
2

2
0

= pick with downstroke, m = pluck with middle, a = pluck with ring

Ex. 2

 = 90

Ex. 3

Fdim7/E

 4             


 4 

       
m

T
A
B

12
0

110

10
11

12
12

10

12

10

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 8 G U I TA R P L AY E R

12
12

10
11

12

E minor
pentatonic scale
IX

= root

SCRUNCHED
HARMONICS
Log on to guitarplayertv.com to watch video
of this lesson interview, and you may notice
a red, fluffy hair tie around the neck of Dave
Martones guitar somewhere near the nut.
Its a soft, elastic scrunchy the guitarist uses
to keep open strings muted and more under
control. Sure, employing some sort of mechanism to dampen the strings is nothing
newMichael Angelo Batio, Jennifer Batten,
Regi Wooten, and George Van Eps are among
several guitarists known for the practice. But
its the other way Martone uses his scrunchy
thats innovative. Placed directly over the
5th, 7th, or 12th frets (or at other harmonic
nodes), the scrunchy applies just enough pressure to hold harmonics almost as well as a
finger laid across the strings would. This
allows Martone to pluck or strum harmonics
without using his fretting hand. The ingenious discovery transforms a ten-cent hair tie
into a harmonic capo that can be used to engineer sophisticated licks that featuring huge
intervallic leaps between sparkly harmonics
and fretted notes. Clever. CB

LESSONS Soloing Seminar

Ex. 4a to show you one of his go-to hybrid

patterns. Two notes are picked, another is

plucked (usually by the middle finger), and
the rest are slurred (hammered or pulled).
Moves like this are a key ingredient in the
buttery smoothness you hear in Martones
sextuplet-based runs, such as Ex. 4b, where
the same motif is applied to the rest of the
E minor pentatonic scale with an accent
applied to each plucked note. To get more
intervallicthat is, to create larger melodic
leapsMartone shifts the plucked notes
up a string [Ex. 4c]. As with many examples

of my playing. I cant believe such a small little part of a song made such an impact.

in this lesson, this lick gains a more dimensional sound if you accent the plucked notes
as indicated in the notation and lay back
on the picked and slurred passages.
The hybrid approach is a great way to
breathe new life into scales, says Martone.
It also allows you to play patterns, such as
those weve just gone over, fast. As Martone
tears through these last two examples at
NASCAR-approved speeds, you begin to sense
the great depth of power hybrid picking has
given his lead playing. I cant believe that
Villa-Lobos idea became such an integral part

BIGGER LEAPS
In Ex. 5 youll find a three-note-per-string C#
natural minor scale. In Ex. 6, Martone once
again zips up the scale using his Villa-Lobosinspired hybrid pattern. With the string skip,
the interval spanning the lowest and highest notes in each sextuplet is a major ninth.
I make this contorted face when I play this
that makes it look as though its painful to
play, but its not, confesses Martone. There
is a bit of a stretching involved, but that
helps achieve that more intervallic sound
Im going for. As Martone glides through
this hypnotic phrase, he applies a subtle
vibrato to each embedded plucked note. It
gives the already unique-sounding line an
eerie, crying quality.

Ex. 4a
Freely

TEACHING
WITH
TITANS
Ever wonder what it
would be like to give a
guitar lesson alongside
one of your heroes?
Dave Martone found
out when he was chosen by Workshoplive.com to host a series
of video seminars with the modern day
guitar hero, Joe Satriani. My main role was
to organize all of the content, says Martone of the show, called Satch Zone. I
wanted the topics to include legato,
whammy-bar madness, those cool Power
Cosmic arpeggiosin other words, any and
every approach that pops into peoples
heads when they think of Joe Satriani.
Leading a seminar with someone of
Satchs stature is a daunting task, considering Satriani is a master guitar sensei in
his own right. (His former students range
from Kirk Hammett to Alex Skolnick.) Luckily, Martone had years to prep for the
challenge, having taught for the famed
National Guitar Workshop (creators of
Workshoplive) for nearly a decade. There,
he sharpened his claws teaching and trading licks with such luminaries as Yngwie
Malmsteen, Greg Howe, Marty Friedman,
Jennifer Batten, and even Satchs former
pupil, Steve Vai. To get into the zone, click
to workshoplive.com/satchzone. CB

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D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 8 G U I TA R P L AY E R

Em



       


m

ARPEGGIO WORK ZONES

T
A
B

10

12

12

12

10

Martones hybrid approach not only services

scale-based melodic ideas, but it also works
with arpeggios. Centered in the key of A major,

12

Ex. 4b

 = 60-144 Em

6
6

    
4



 4                

6
6




m

T
A
B

10 12

12

12 10 12

10 12

simile

12

9 12

12 10 12

etc.

12

12 9 12

9 12

12

12 9 12

Ex. 4c

Ex. 5


6




   C natural minor
4



 4               

6

 = 50-155

Em

IX

6
T
A
B

12
10 12

Ex. 6

12 10 12

10 12

12

12

12
12 10 12

9 12

12 9 12

9 12

12 9 12

6

6





  4

 





 4       

6

 = 50-135

C m

T
A
B

13
9 12

12 9 12

9 12

14

14

13
12 9 12

9 13

13 9 13

9 13

13 9 13

LESSONS Soloing Seminar

Ex. 7a

 1      

 4 

Bm7

Evenly

T
A
B

5
4 7

7 4 7

Ex. 7b

Amaj7


 1



 4  

Evenly

T
A
B

4
2 6

6 2 6

chords inside the scale than thinking of the

scale itself. Thinking in terms of chords can
really open up the sound of your lines.

here are Martones three main seventh chord

qualitiesmajor seventh, minor seventh, and
dominant seventh [Examples 7a-7c]. He attacks
them with the same hybrid-picked six-note
assault we saw in previous examples. Each
arpeggio purposely omits the 5. (For example, Bm7, the IIm7 in the key of A, has no
F#). Not only does this nicely format the
arpeggios into Martones hybrid picking
modus operandi, it also enables the arpeggios fretting-hand fingering shape stay the
same when moved down to the next string
set (second, third, and fourth strings), and
only requires the highest note be lowered a
fret when the pattern is shifted down to the
remaining two string sets (third, fourth, and
fifth strings, etc.). This fingering uniformity
allows Martone to easily combine and superimpose the mini-arps into one glorious lick
[Ex. 8].
Setting up my arpeggios like this lets
me easily play in a given key using a series
of chords I call work zones, says Martone.
These days Im more thinking about the

Ex. 7c

THE GRINDER
Martones hybrid picking mojo goes well
beyond a mere lick-making mechanism. It
serves him well in what may be his strongest
attribute: composition. For starters, check
out Ex. 9, the intro to Nail Grinder (off
Clean). Featuring a clever use of dropped-D
tuning, the riff opens with chromatically
descending fourths that flow right into
minor sevenths, octaves, and finally to
fifthsall in one position, thanks to the
Villa-Lobos-style string skips. With an
emphasis on the piezo signal coming out of
Martones Parker Fly guitar (for boosted
articulation), this cherry riff is not nearly
as complex to play as it soundseven at
tempo!provided the hybrid picking
approach is employed smartly. From bar 3
onward, the remainder of the riff is a quirky
play on the D blues scale (D, F, G, Ab, A, C).

Ex. 8


 1     

 4 

6

 = 50-115

E7

Evenly

(E7)

(Bm)

(Amaj7)

(Dmaj7)


6



 4
       


4


      
6
6
6

etc.

T
A
B

10
9 13

13 9 13

T
A
B

7
7 10

10 7 10

7 11

7
11 7 11

7 11

11 7 11

7 11

11 7 11

Ex. 9

 = 160
*Dropped-D tuning

4 
      
    

      
   
  

4
      

 
   


   
       


  

10 9 8 7 10 9
8 7
1

palm mute
throughout

T
A
B

10

etc.

10

* 6 =D

10

10

10

10

12 10 12 15 12 10 12
12 10 12 15 12 10 12 0

    
    
      
        



   
    

       





5

T
A
B

12

12

114

10

10

12

12

17 18 17 15
18 17 15 0

17

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 8 G U I TA R P L AY E R

12

12

10

10

12

12

15

15

12

12

10

10

12

12

13

13

13

13

17

17

13

13

11

11

11

11

15

15

11

11

Soloing Seminar LESSONS

H A I R -T I E H A R M O N I C S
To close out this lesson with style, we shift
gears to explore an innovative way to play
harmonics via licks taken from the song
Moron Face (also off Clean). Instead of
lightly placing a fretting-hand finger over a
given fret to play the harmonics, Martone
takes his picking-hand index finger and
places it over the strings (first at the 9th
fret, as indicated in Ex. 10) and uses his
fretting hand to play ghost-hammered
legato lines. Because the finger resting over
the fret activating the harmonics remains
stationary, the notes being hammered are
at varying distances, inciting a mosh pit of
disjunct intervals.
When you get these concepts under your
belt take a deep breath, eat a hearty breakfast, and then try incorporating Martone-style
hybrid hijinks and scrunched harmonies
within the same riff. Theres a lot going on
in these licks, reflects Martone, but it all
comes together from my studying of those
Villa-Lobos pieces as a kid. g

Ex. 10

SNAP, CRACKLE, PIEZO!

Though Martones main Parker Fly Deluxe is a stock, off-the-rack model, its the way Martone utilizes the guitars dual pickup systems that is a bit atypical. To give his lead tone an extra snappy
attack, Martone employs the acoustic properties of the Flys piezo pickup while hes unleashing
the fury of his scorching lead tone (courtesy of a Vox Valvetronix VTX amplifier). A custom Y-cable
sends both signals into a Radial Big Shot PZ-DI pedal that, by way of a pair of stomp switches, lets
Martone blend or switch between the magnetic and piezo systems. From there, Martones
magnetic signal travels to the Valvetronix, while his piezo signal is compressed (to add more spank,
less spike) by a Visual Sound Route 66 pedal placed alongside a DigiTech DigiVerb pedal in the
Big Shots built-in effects loop. The pedals balanced output delivers the processed piezo signal to
the board and monitor desk. CB



  


  






    
    
  4 



 
4





 = 95-155

(F )

**

T
A
B

***

4
5 4

5 4

*Lightly place picking-hand index finger over 9th fret.

6 4

6 7

**Lightly place picking-hand index finger over 11th fret.

3 4

***Lightly place
picking-hand index
finger over 9th fret.


    

 
 


  











  




 

3

T
A
B

 

****

2 3

5 3

2
5

3 2

5
2

****Lightly angle picking-hand index finger from 9th

to 8th fret, from low E to A strings.

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