Classic

Classical music has always been a great source of inspiration for me. And over the years there have been many rock guitar players who incorporated classical influences in their own music, Yngwie being the undisputed capo di capi off course.

More often than not guitar players who want to mix in some classical sounding stuff with their own compositions tend to limit themselves to arpeggiated chords. Now there’s nothing wrong with that (just listen to Ricthie Blackmore’s tour the force on tracks like “Burn” or “Kill the King”), but I like to stay away from that approach if I can. I Rather just play a melody that is already classical sounding by itself.

In this example I’ve written down a four bar sixteenth note fret-burner (very) loosely based on Rondo Alla Turca by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Warm up first and then start slowly. It might be quite a lot for your muscle memory to take in, but if you can play this at a formidable speed it’s sure to turn some heads in your local music store. This ain’t no “Enter Sandman” if you catch my drift. Having said that, speed is just a by product of playing accurate, so make sure you’ve got the coordination between your right and your left hand down and you can play the piece at a steady tempo before you attempt to speed things up.