Andy James is a relatively unknown player from the UK which looks about to change.He’s a killer player with a lot of talent and technique as well as his work with Sacred Mother Tongue (his band project) his solo albums and work with Lick Library have all been notable for their intense guitar wizardry.

In this case he’s not teaching (in this case) anything as “shred” or “fusion” as the Rusty Cooley or Derryl Gabel approaches to pentatonics but plays with a more traditional rocker’s perspective which makes this video a favourite of mine (n.b There are two other fantastic DVD’s covering Pentatonics in the Lick Library catalogue that I hope to pick up soon by Alex Machakek and Jamie Humphries -- here and here respectively).

While he does cover a wide variety of approaches here from the most basic Wylde  style repeating licks up to a few 3 NPS variations I would have to say that this video fulfills a niche. There aren’t as many purely technical approaches as either of the Rusty/Derryl videos mentioned above but to be fair I feel its aimed at slightly less advanced/more rock-oriented players and as such is actually more accessible for basic/intermediate players. There’s a wide variety of popular rock techniques covered here from Legato, to String Skipping and from Sweeping to Tapping so the technical approaches are very concise and you know what? There’s nothing whatsoever wrong with being a Rock guitarist! Drawing on his Zakk Wylde influence particularly I felt that this was a great video for those who wanted some pentatonic licks with pure attitude, rather than the perhaps too technical approaches of other players.

My only real criticism is that while each example is played and explained clearly there might not be as much theoretical material here as you would find in other videos on the subject. Bereft of the harmonic background this essentially falls back into a “Licks” DVD and it could have easily been so much more -- even sticking within the “Metal” paradigm then a section on the popular Japanese/Indian pentatonics (without addressing the less useful Modal Pentatonics/Pentatonic Substitutions) would have added a much-needed lift to a familiar tonality.

Rating:

2 Comments

1. Posted by Andy James – Metal Soloing Techniques Volume 1- Shred Reviews on 05 December 09 at 8:22pm

   [...] (See also Extreme Tapping Licks and Extreme Pentatonic Licks) [...]

2. Posted by Andy James – Metal Edge Extreme Metal Arpeggios - Shred Reviews | Reviews of instructional guitar material on 21 February 10 at 4:26pm

   [...] latest in the “Metal Edge” series from Lick Library (see also Extreme Tapping, Extreme Pentatonics, Metal Soloing Techniques volume one) Extreme Metal Arpeggios covers a wide range of approaches to [...]