Bradley Hall's Guitar School

Super Cool Licks From Jason Becker's "Altitudes"

Added 2023-10-19 22:20:09 +0000 UTC

Hey everyone! So this week's lesson focuses on Jason Becker's legendary song "Altitudes", one of the most beautiful solo guitar pieces ever written in my opinion. Jason wasn't only a master technician, but also a sick composer, and there's a tonne you can learn from his work.

I've picked out 2 sections from the song that I think everyone will be able to learn something from. The first is the awesome harmonised tapping/sweeping part which feature some super cool chord changes and unusual shapes that should be fresh for most of you.

The second part is the famous sweep arpeggio section! Even though it seems scary at first, the shapes and fingerings are incredibly straightforward (but sound insanely cool!).

In the video lesson I break-down what's going on harmonically in these sections, as well as some tips on how best to approach them from a technical perspective (fingerings and picking strategy etc).

In addition, I've also provided several variations on the backing track (including a slowed down version for the less advanced players here), as well as versions with either the tapping or sweeping included so you can jam along with the other half of the arrangement!

Hope you guys have fun with this - I'm confident that there's something in this lesson for everyone to enjoy! Also, please let me know if there's any other songs/solos you'd like to see broken down like this.

Good luck and don't forget to share your progress with everyone in the Discord server!

0:00 Playthrough
1:04 Intro
3:16 Bars 1-4
8:37 Bars 5-8
12:54 Bars 9-12
16:05 Bars 13-16
19:25 Tapping bit
22:53 Sweeping section (bars 1-4)
27:33 Sweeping section (bars 5-8)
30:34 Sweeping section (bars 9-12)