Ninja Sex Party - Danny Don't You Know (Chorus)

Here's a more obscure track which I'm sure none of you have heard. 

There's a few guitars going on the chorus of this track, but we're going to focus on the lead today.

I have a few of these lessons still ready to roll in the older format, so over the next few weeks you're going to get a combo of my video explanation lessons, and these video+write up ones.

TAB is attached. Drop any questions down below!

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Overview:

The guitar actually doubles the vocal melody which is a sort of unusual thing, but it sounds very cool in the context of this song. 

There's one phrase throughout this which repeats 3 times. With each repetition, the first half remains the exact same but the second half has subtle rhythmic variations to it. This is to help the guitar follow the nuances of the vocal melody some. After the three repetitions, the guitar plays a fun sliding lick to end it off.

Tech Talk:

This section is in the key of E major scale played pretty high on the neck, in the 14th position. I use the finger 1 on fret 14, 2 on 16, and 3 on 17. But you could also use finger 1 on fret 14, 3 on 16, and 4 on 17. The latter way is more of a technically correct approach, but I do the former because it's so cramped up on the high frets that my fingers appreciate the extra room. Also I'm a bit of a punk by breaking the rules. I suggest you go with whatever feels comfortable.

For the 4 consecutive notes on the 17th fret at the start of each phrase, my picking goes D U D U (D - down, U - up). For the rest of the phrases, I mostly stick to just straight downstrokes.

The last phrase is my favourite bit. Basically, you start on the 17th fret 2nd string using any finger and then you begin alternating picking with sliding. So you'll do a pickstroke, and then slide downwards. Another pickstroke, and then slide downwards. These motions happen in an 8th note rhythm. This is a great exercise to get used to coordinating your 2 hands. At the end, you bend & release the 14th fret, pulloff to 12 and hit the 13th fret 3rd string.

Pro Tips:

Listen carefully to the phrasing. What I mean by that is the timing, expression, and ways in which I play the notes. You can play the part perfectly but still feel like there's a little something missing. That's because the vibrato adds a lot. Also, some of the notes are a little bit behind the beat, meaning that the timing drags its feet a bit, which is a very cool musical effect.

Also, I think we used a lot of effects on this part, the perfect recipe to create a vibe. We had a bunch of pedals laid out on the floor and were experimenting with swapping them out. If I remember it right, we settled on a subtle envelope filter and a delay pedal both placed in front of the amp.