Joe Satriani - Surfing With The Alien - Guitar Lesson

About Surfing With The Alien

Few instrumental rock tracks demand as much from a lead guitarist right out of the gate as this one. Joe Satriani built the title track of his 1987 breakthrough around a relentless, driving riff in E minor that sits at a steady 120 BPM, tight enough to expose any sloppiness in your picking hand. The signature melody is played with a fluid combination of legato runs and precise picking, so you will need to decide early on where you hammer on and pull off versus where you pick each note cleanly. The whammy bar work and wide vibrato that colour the lead lines are central to the feel, not decoration, so if your guitar has a tremolo system, get it set up and learn to use it with control. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the main theme at a reduced speed and lock in the left-hand position shifts before bringing it back up to tempo. E Standard tuning means no retuning required, but the Instrumental Rock vocabulary here, particularly the modal phrasing over that minor tonality, is what will keep you busy for a long time.

• The main riff and melody are rooted in E minor, making modal scale patterns, particularly Dorian and natural minor, the essential vocabulary to have under your fingers.
• Legato technique, specifically long hammer-on and pull-off runs with minimal picking, is central to replicating Satriani's fluid lead tone throughout the track.
• Whammy bar dips and wide finger vibrato are built into the signature melody lines, so a guitar with a functioning tremolo system will get you much closer to the recorded sound.