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Jeff's Lesson Notes

"Play with my funky mutha"

 

This lesson looks at Nuno.  I've always enjoyed Nuno's playing.  It's an eclectic mix of VH, Funk, Malmsteen, with a pinch of Jazz, all bended together with Nuno's own go to riffing, and fills.

I'll talk you through some of Nuno's techniques on the video lesson, and of course I'll explain the lesson example song track to you..  This lesson will, as always be very detailed and designed to help any skill level play within this style in some way.

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Lesson

There are many Nuno "go to" things that I added to this lesson.  I kept the lesson track fairly middle of the road skill level wise.  Some of it is easy and some of it isn't.  Since we have such a wide skill level range in our audience here at JFRocks I try to be fair and include both simple and more complex parts to the lesson example tracks.

What ever your skill level there are a few things to understand about this guitar style.  The most important of which is that it's a mix of many different things.  Jazz, Blues, VH style stuff, Funk style things, and of course Malmsteen style arpeggios as well.  One of Nuno's biggest influences (I once read) was Brian May of Queen.  This influence can be heard in the song writing and also in the sound sometimes.  Brian May is an excellent influence to have, and we'll be covering him on a later date here in Beyond VH as he is also one of my influences.

For now some basic arpeggio shapes are laid out below for your edification.  There are many ways to play certain things, I've tried to lay this out in a form that Nuno (might) use.  Emphasis on the word might.  I've intentionally altered some things to suit a more "Lesson" oriented need.  I reserve the right to make those sorts of judgment calls.

Arpeggios

Arpeggio forms (basic) in "A" for example purposes

Some of what you hear when you listen to arpeggios are / chords.  What I mean is there might be an "A" arpeggio being done but it starts on the 3rd, so it would be an A/C# arpeggio technically.  Nuno often starts his arpeggios on either the 3rd or 5th.  This is not an absolute but it is very common to see this happen.  I started most of mine on the lesson example track on the 3rds.

E__________9__|_______5_9__|________9_____________
B_______10____|____________|_____10___10__________
G_____9_______|__6_9_______|___9_________9________
D__11_________|____________|_______________11_____
A_____________|____________|__________________12__
E_____________|____________|______________________

Arpeggio forms (for sweeps) in "A" for example purposes

There are many different ways to sweep pick.  Some players find doing chord shapes of arpeggios easier than scale shapes.  Which ever you are the two arpeggio shapes below are very common shapes for Nuno to sweep.  (NOTE:  These are NOT the ONLY ones he uses but these are the best ones for lesson purposes.)

Also note that he sometimes like to end them with a trill.  This is a classic move that can be heard in the intro to "Mutha don't wanna go to school today", except it's in "E" and up in the 12th position there instead of the "A" 5th position that I have it below as our first arpeggio example.

E______5-9-5__|________5-9-5__|_________________________________________
B____5_______|_______________|________10______________________10-14-10_
G__6_________|___6_9_________|______9_______________________9_________
D____________|_______________|____7_______>>or with ending trill>>___7____________
A____________|_______________|__7______________________ 7______________
E____________|_______________|_________________________________________

Arpeggio forms (for tapping) in "A" for example purposes

Nuno also does a lot of tapped arpeggio patterns.  Such as in the the solo to "Get the Funk out" which I kind of modeled the first solo in my example track after.  This technique is used similarly to the way that VH uses his random tap sequences, except with Nuno these aren't random, they're very planned and I might add, VERY COOL!!  Nuno is a very creative guy and his solos are usually very melodic and symphonic.

Basically this technique involves tapping different arpeggios of the chord you're on.  For example if we're on an "A" chord the arpeggio would be, A, C#, E.  Well Nuno might tap an A, C#, E arpeggio then quickly move to a C#, E, A arpeggio, then an E, A, C# etc. etc.  They're mixed up arpeggios that follow the chord pattern.  See example below and the video of course.

Example arpeggio pattern tapped riff or solo section, over an "A" chord

E______________________________(17)-9-12-9_________
B____________________(17)-10-14____________10______
G___________(18)-9-14______________________________
D__(19)-11-14_______________________________________
A_________________________________________________
E_________________________________________________

Scale of the day to make note of

"Harmonic minor" = Minor scale with a Major 7th

"A" Harmonic minor = A, B, C, D, E, F, G#

E______________________________4_5___________
B__________________________5_6_______________
G____________________4_5_7___________________
D______________6_7_9_________________________
A________5_7_8_______________________________
E__5_7_8_____________________________________

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