Yngwie Malmsteen Quotes

Basically, I use hammer-ons and pull-offs.

I never use pull-offs because I don't like the sort of 'meow' sound they make with the string being deflected sideways.

To make harmonics scream, I first dump my Floyd Rose real quick, hit a harmonic with my left hand while the string is still flapping, and then use the bar to pull it up to the pitch I wanna hit.

A guitar is so tactile, and when you're playing bends - and bending notes is a big part of my style - there are so many notes within the note you're bending from and the note you're bending up to.

My original interests and intentions in guitar playing were primarily created on quality of tone, for instance, the way the instrument could be made to echo or simulate the human voice.

I'm not good enough to be playin' much acoustic guitar onstage. Man, you gotta get so right; I mean, the tones, the feel, the sound. Plus, acoustic blues guitar is just that much harder on the fingers.

To play sweep arpeggios correctly, you have to mute each note with the left hand immediately after picking it.

I always get frustrated when I hear someone talking about sweep arpeggios. Though there are plenty of licks and examples out there, no one has ever really broken down the mechanics of the technique. As a result, guitarists have had to figure them out by trial and error.

I learned sweep picking from a variety of sources. One was a Frank Gambale instructional video, but he executes his sweeps a little differently.

I can do the old hand vibrato just fine, but I like attacking the strings.

I approach playing acoustic guitar more of as a percussive instrument. It's fragile. I don't have a lot of finesse when it comes to my guitar playing.

I noticed a lot of guitar players neglected the rhythm part of rhythm guitar and decided I would try to focus in that. As my skill and knowledge of the instrument grew, I found lead started to come naturally. Sometimes I play guitar like a frustrated drummer. Ha ha!

It's a magical thing, the guitar. It allows you to be the whole band in one, to play rhythm and melody, sing over the top. And as an instrument for solos, you can bend notes, draw emotional content out of tiny movements, vibratos and tonal things which even a piano can't do.

I have no formal guitar training whatsoever, so it's been fun learning sweep-picking techniques. Working on these types of licks has thrown a whole new collection of tricks into the mix.

I am trying to build the biggest callus possible on my first finger so I can do one-finger bends and vibrato like B.B. King.

When you start running out of things to do on a guitar, you have to find other ways of making music with your instrument.

Play the pentatonic blues scale, just for fret- and pick-hand dexterity and to mesh them both together.

Whenever I feel my chops are slacking, I'll play some wide-stretch trilling exercises and take them up and down the neck as well as across it.

I discovered early on that I was more of a strummer than a picker.

Using string bends instead of just playing regular, unbent notes can definitely help give certain riffs a cooler, heavier edge.

I consider descending chromatic lines and arpeggiated chords basic skills learned by any student of the guitar.

Certainly, as a guitarist, I was aware of descending chromatic lines and arpeggios long before 1968.

Some of my favorite harmonics are located between frets. There are two really cool ones between the 2nd and 3rd frets that I use a lot.

There's more to playing the guitar than being able to split your legs.

I do a very poor man's pedal steel on the Stratocaster.