The Musician Store Arena - the chops and licks

[JayKeeley]

OK anyone who plays an instrument has done it. And anyone who doesn't play might have noticed someone else do it. What am I talking about...?

The in-store riffs! You know, you go in to check out a new guitar / bass / keyboard /drumset and you ask to give it a play, so they plug you in, you're loud, and you know everyone in the store can hear your playing.

So what are your favourite riffs to play (cover riffs, not your own) without choking and looking like a fool!?

Mine are:

1 - Eye of the Beholder (the whole intro piece)
2 - Orion (the main riff, with extra chug added to the overdrive)
3 - Back in the Village (because the intro sounds more complex than it really is, heh)
4 - Satch Boogie (every guitarist needs to know some Satriani)
5 - Holy Wars (just because the intro and main riff is coolasfuk)

 

[Black Winter Day]

every time i play a guitar in front of people, it is always either "tornado of souls", "stairway to heaven" or any one of john petrucci's solos

 

[NAD]

Megadeth - Five Magicks (you know, that awesome opening bass thing)
Primus - To Defy the Laws of Tradition (crowd favorite)
Metallica - Anesthesia (obviously)

When I pick up a guitar, which isn't too often, it's always the first 3 minutes of Master of Puppets.

 

[JayKeeley]

When I pick up a guitar, which isn't too often, it's always the first 3 minutes of Master of Puppets.

That's cool, considering you're primarily a bass player. Is the bass line the same as the guitar riff - particularly where the song picks up after the first few seconds?

MoP is actually a lot harder than it sounds (to play it perfectly cleanly), but when you nail it, it sounds excellent. So does "Blackened" but that is really difficult (the main intro riff after the backwards fade-in melody obviously).

 

[NAD]

I've always thought myself a relatively competent rhythm guitar player, provided everything stays on the bottom 4 strings. :Spin:

Bass is typical Burton-esque play half the roots / let the riff breathe for the intro. Kinda locks in with the kick drum and then follows the guitar line when the band starts in with that first real riff before the main riff.

Note: I give the album Master of Puppets a lot of grief, but the title track is one of my favorite songs of all time.

 

[JayKeeley]

Note: I give the album Master of Puppets a lot of grief

Really? Other than Leper Messiah (which bores me, and for some reason they've brought that back into their current set lists), it's a near-perfect album to me, although I admit I like it less than RtL or AJfA.

Still can't get over how good AJfA sounds with the bass back in. Now it's going to be weird going back to the regular version.

 

[NAD]

I burned a CD of the bass-included version of AJFA but haven't really listened to it yet.

Leper Messiah and The Song That Should Not Be are just weak to me. The rest, yes, damn near perfect. I prefer Ride the Lightning over any other Metallica.

 

[Erik]

and for some reason they've brought that back into their current set lists

It's fairly slow and easier than, say, Damage Inc. -- meaning they can still play it reasonably well.

 

[Nate The Great]

I almost always stay away from recorded stuff. I'll usually play something off the top of my head. For some reason I don't like to play other peoples stuff when I'm trying out a guitar or amp.