Dimebag Darrell Quotes

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

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.

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

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.

Sweep picking is when the right hand sweeps down and up the strings in succession. But when you do sweep picking, one note rings into the next, and it sounds almost like you're playing a chord, and that's exactly what you don't want.

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

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

I did play a lot of fingerstyle when I first started playing. I could never really find the right combination of flatpick or fingerpick, so playing fingerstyle is really the easiest way - though it's quite strenuous on the fingertips.

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.

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

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.

What happens is people go, 'I want to play the guitar,' and the first thing they do is hit Google: 'How can I play this?' and the next thing you know, you've learned all these tricks, but you've never learned how to play rhythm guitar with a groove.

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.

Early on in my career, I was really into the volume pedal techniques that somebody like Steve Howe or Alex Lifeson would use.

I am a self-taught guitarist. I just try to piece together passages that have some melodic value!

I just want to be a better guitar player, really.

I have no guitar technique.

I've got my own style on the guitar, sure, and I play rhythm in a certain way, and I use certain inflections. People have said that to me, and I understand it.

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

The easiest place to get a natural harmonic on any string is at the 12th fret. All you do is lightly rest one of your left-hand fingers on a string directly above that fret and then pick it.

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