Joe Satriani - Always With You Pt.5 (5th & 6th B Major Sections) - Guitar Lesson

Surfing with the Alien

1987 3:22

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About Always With You Pt.5 (5th & 6th B Major Sections)

The 5th and 6th B Major sections of "Always With Me, Always With You" sit deep in one of Joe Satriani's most beloved ballads, and they demand a level of melodic phrasing control that separates casual players from committed ones. The whole piece is tuned down to B Standard, which gives the guitar a heavier, darker resonance than standard E tuning, so your picking attack needs to stay clean and deliberate to avoid muddiness. These sections lean hard on legato and smooth position shifts across the neck in B major, meaning your fretting hand has to stay relaxed even as the phrases stretch wide. The tempo is unhurried, but that slowness is deceptive: every note is exposed, and any hesitation in a bend or vibrato is immediately obvious. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop each section slowed down so you can lock in the phrasing before bringing it back up to speed. This is Instrumental Rock at its most lyrical, where tone and feel matter as much as technique.

• The piece is played in B Standard tuning, dropping all strings down by a major third from standard E, which adds warmth and sustain to the melodic lines.
• These sections centre on smooth legato phrasing in B major, requiring careful attention to vibrato and bend accuracy since the slow tempo leaves every note exposed.
• Practise each positional shift in isolation using the Practice Toolbar before connecting the full phrase, as the wide melodic leaps are where timing most easily falls apart.